Jonathan Fall - the youngest member of an accomplished naval family, but not the brightest lighthouse on the coast - gets hired by a mysterious crime organisation to captain a cruise ship, which serves as a cover for various nefarious acitivities. Kind, naive, and completely ignorant of what is going on around him, Jonathan is the ideal fall guy, should something happen. This is the rather elaborate premise for an animated series filled with a simply stupendous amount of gore, a staggering body count, and other sorts of normally R-rated material. And it is exactly these elements that prevent the show from being more than just mildly entertaining. The frequent cruelty feels mostly unnecessary and pointless, its sole raison d'etre being to shock its viewers. The semi-explicit sex suffers from the same problem. "But what about the story, the characters, and the jokes?", you may ask. Well, the former is actually quite intriguing and filled with cool ideas and sub-plots. The characters, however, are unlikeable throughout, clichéd, and not very interesting either. The humor often revolves around violence and is absurdist in style, similar to Futurama or The Simpsons. In contrast to those two series, though, Captain Fall is neither particularly witty nor in any way insightful. The animation is simple but satisfying, the voice-acting does the job, but not more than that. The overall result is reminiscent of an 80's low-budget action thriller. However, it really lacks in emotional depth, and while I was watching it, I was actually wishing for something less heartless.
