The animation was top notch and directing was easily a bar above a lot of episodes TBH (even utilizing some cool first-person views). But not only is the villain incredibly frightening (I loved a number of freeze frames show him charging at the screen and squeezing in a 1-frame deranged look) but I like how much of a spectacle it was.

Where Toys in the Attic (mutant fridge ep) was 'Alien' done to comedy, I thought this was basically a more graphic Batman TAS (and Pierrot felt like a mash-up of Penguin's look with Joker's complete off the hook antics). The Pierrot Le Fou episode was a helluva treat. It's NOT perfect (some weird pacing, some dated depictions), but if there was an anime series that could be adapted well (and if they put the best effort in) I'm not surprised this one came up as a priority - it's coded with so many real-life, cinematic, and musical influences it's hard not to be drawn into this future timeline they've made. I see this show is absolutely worth the hype, even after reading and seeing that hype for so many years. I am absolutely floored by how great the world design is, and I get lost in a lot of the background details (from how they adapt stereotypical 'cowboy settings' and add the sci-fi stuff).

It's a near perfect blend of cowboy and sci-fi genres with a nice anime spin for the goofy and surreal. I watched the anime roughly when it first started making rounds I definitely didn't appreciate it when I was younger, but my latest rewatch has me totally falling for it. I think a number of us are doing this since Netflix graciously added the series just ahead of their live-action version debut on November 19th.

Age of mythology ost