I was super excited when The Reflection was announced. A blend between American superhero comics and Japanese anime? Sounds fantastic, right? Well the answer is… Complicated. The Reflection features a very detailed world with an interesting backstory and an amazing number of possibilities. The art is very different from what we are used to seeing, but is quite nice to look at, sometimes The comic style of it makes some of the scenes that require motion to be fairly hit-or-miss, unfortunately. The characters, both heroes and villains, are interesting, and the mysteries of the world give a great hook.

The first episode gives us some background on what happened to the world, why people have superpowers, and hints at something much larger going on behind the scenes. The majority of the episode, however, is taken up by a fight between two heroes and a group of baddies. And I must say, I don’t think I have ever watched a superhero show that bored me as much as this one did. It has so much going for it, but the pacing of the fights felt so slow, everything felt so toned down and monotone, like they were afraid to take risks.

I had super high hopes for this series, but if the first episode is anything to go by, it might end up being a massive flop. To improve the show, they really need to up the pacing and give the action scenes some spunk, so the thrill of the story and the mysteries of the world can flow into every episode more easily.

The Reflection airs on Saturdays, and is available on Crunchyroll.