7 episodes in, Rideback has so far been a very enjoyable experience. There’s many reasons for this, but I want to talk about one in particular: unpredictability. As someone who has not read the manga (and is not planning to in the near future), I have very little idea about where the story is headed, and that’s a quality I admire a lot.

I think it has to do with how difficult it is to peg Rideback in any sort of genre. It has a lot of elements people might associate with anime, associations that can be both positive and negative, but it never feels bound by them. Is it a political story? Is it about a girl’s new lease on life? Is it about the use of robot-like machinery in war and in daily life? It’s all of this and none of this, and the result is that I am unable to get a feel for what will happen to Ogata Rin.

The story is not entirely unpredictable. I do not expect them to break Rin’s legs, for example, as they put so much effort into showing her talents. However, everything else is up in the air, doing a grand jeté.