REVIEW: ‘Adam by EVE: A Live in Animation’ Is Visually Interesting

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Adam by EVE: A Live in Animation is a live-action/anime hybrid experience streaming on Netflix. Aki is a high school student who has one friend in her life. That friend is Taki. These two awkward outsiders are inseparable. Till one day, Taki vanishes while the two are eating out. Now Aki searches for her missing friend as the world seems to get weirder and weirder.

When I started this one-hour experience all I knew about it was that it would deliver a mix of live-action and animation with a heavy emphasis on music. While it does utilize all the above elements, it sadly never manages to bring them all together in a cohesive fashion. Rather than this trio of creative mediums coming together to tell a story, it feels more like the live-action tale is being frequently interrupted by over-long music videos that blend the animation in with clips of the artist performing, along with sequences that go with the larger narrative, though rarely advance it.

With some of these musical segments coming in at upwards of seven minutes, Adam by EVE: A Live in Animation frequently feels weighed down by its multiple mediums. I can’t decide if all this music is included to try to get the video as close to an hour runtime as possible or if the creatives behind it were simply more interested in making the videos than the actual narrative, but the music’s inclusion rarely comes to benefit the overall production.

While the musical performances stop the narrative from ever feeling fully formed, they do provide some quality visual effects. From hand-drawn elements to a fully animated sequence, much of the animation presented during the segments are visually appealing in some unique ways. These animated moments easily form the most memorable moments of Adam by EVE: A Live in Animation.

However, as much of the musical sidetracking utilizes reused clips of Aki’s search for her lost friend as these interesting visual elements. This reusing of visual material becomes painful as clips are shown easily a dozen times with no apparent change in context or meaning. You just feel like the production team needed to fill this song and just kept copy/pasting the same clips over and over again.

The music itself is an enjoyable brand of Japanese pop. Fans of Jujutsu Kaisen will hear a familiar number as the show’s original opening music makes an appearance. The songs all deliver a solid amount of energy and I can see the potential for letting Adam by EVE: A Live in Animation run in the background while painting some time.

What little time that is actually devoted to the narrative does a fine job with what it has to work with. Aki’s distress over the loss of Taki is imparted to the viewer well, as is why the young woman has come to mean so much to her. There is little more than that to the story right up till the end, which attempts to provide a twist ending, though it becomes fairly obvious what is coming as the movie winds down.

When considering whether or not one should check out Adam by EVE: A Live in Animation you need to ask yourself what you are looking for. If you are looking for an interesting visual experience and don’t mind some lagging moments, there is something to check out here. If however, you are looking for a genuine narrative you are best served to go elsewhere.

Adam by EVE: A Live in Animation Is streaming now on Netflix.