== In praise of *UN-GO*

Describing what makes UN-GO special is hard, but I'm going to take a
shot at it anyways to add to my two brief [[earlier Fall2011Brief]]
[[attempts Fall2011Retrospective]].

On the surface, *UN-GO* is a show about a detective solving mysteries
with the help of his magical assistant. There are many ways that this
could go wrong, but *UN-GO* avoids them all; it does essentially
everything right. In the process the show is not so much about the
mysteries as about everything that is going on around them, about the
characters and the overall situation and the background. The recurring
characters and the ongoing situation are both interesting enough to
support this. Everything is interesting and multifaceted, and the show
is not afraid to use a light, indirect touch to illuminate things.
Above all, I felt that the show was plain *smart*; it was intelligently
written and presented intelligent, multifaceted situations.

(One disclaimer: this is not a puzzle show. The mysteries are not
necessarily intricately constructed and while the show does often
foreshadow the solution, it doesn't always give the audience enough
clues for us to come up with all of the answers ahead of time.)

Part of the pleasure of *UN-GO* is that it is not direct in the same
way that many other shows are. For example, there are some unpleasant
and creepy people in *UN-GO* but the show is by and large devoid of
the stereotypical ways of showing this; instead it lets these people
talk (and has some of their actions come to light) and then leaves us
to draw our own conclusions about them. I've read a description that
calls it a mature show, and I agree with the label; it's a low key,
grown up show for adults that's appealing in a more subtle way than the
usual anime fare.

To [[repeat myself Fall2011Brief]]: note that *UN-GO* is not necessarily
a show to watch if you want to see actual justice happen. The setting
has a quietly totalitarian government that is a strong believer in
'realpolitik' and quite often the government covers up the actual
crimes with politically expedient false explanations and thus lets the
real perpetrators go. This isn't presented as a good thing but at the
same time the whole system doesn't wind up going down in flames; any
successes that the protagonist scores against the system are limited.

(Also, as mentioned the show contains some supernatural elements.)

After seeing the ending of the show, I'm now not certain that I want
a second season. The show ends at a very good point but it is a pivot
point; a good second season to have to be very different than the first
season.

(Explaining this requires both semi-spoilers and a separate entry.)

On a side note I feel that *UN-GO* exactly the sort of unusual but very
good show that justifies [[noitaminA NoitaminaSurprise]]. It's not
commercial in the conventional sense and I suspect that it wouldn't have
been made but for the existence of the noitaminA block.

Liked: very much. I feel that this is an excellent show. \\
Rewatch: possibly (I'm not strong on rewatches, but this is a good
candidate to get more from on a second viewing).

Other reviews or commentary: [[chaostangent
http://chaostangent.com/2012/01/un-go/]], [[The Cart Driver
http://thecartdriver.com/top-10-anime-of-2011/]], [[GAR GAR
Stegosaurus
http://gargarstegosaurus.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/terrorism-censorship-and-the-kitchen-sink-in-un-g/]],
[[metanorn http://metanorn.net/2012/01/un-go-series-review]].
Reviews may contain spoilers.