For anyone who has been on the anime, Japanese animation, circuit for a while there is a constant debate whether it is better to watch it in subtitles or where the Japanese audio is removed and reread by English speaking actors, also known as dubbing. There is a case for both of them but there has always been a trend of losing something in the dubbing whether it is the acting quality or the emotion and emphases in the scenes. Coma introduces the audience to an abstract version of our world and uses it in unique and interesting ways, which is really hard to enjoy through the terrible English dub.

A man wakes up in his room after a terrible car crash to realize that there is something off about his home. He thinks it is the porous holes all over his room but he soon finds the world outside his apartment is twisted and fragmented. While trying to take in the gravity of the situation, he is almost dispatched by a creature made of melting decay before being saved by a ragtag team of soldiers. They inform him that this is a world shared by all who are in a coma, a world created of shared memories of people, places, and events. The man only remembers he was an architect and must find his way in this new world and discover what powers he may have hidden here.

I often sing the praises of first feature directors but Nikita Argunov did an absolutely brilliant job on Coma. As mainly a special effects artist, he creates this fantasy world in a gorgeous and intriguing way where the landscape can include multiple biomes as well as dozens of famous notable landmarks. While so many visual effects can feel overwhelming and become repetitive in the long run, there always feels like there is something new to find in each scene if you pay close attention.

What became distracting very quickly in the strange and fascinating world of top-notch special effects was the sub-par English acting in the dubbed version. While the original Russian dialogue comes off as very blunt and elegant for the material the dub sounds like young adult friends trying to be the first to dub a brand new anime before anyone else but they lack acting talent. With scenes that a just feel tonally wrong with how the voice actors are reading the lines, to just feeling like they are phoning it in, the English dub is just distracting and takes away from Coma as a whole.

For those looking for a fantasy world experience that feels new and fresh, Coma has a full serving of visuals that are very familiar but otherworldly in their construction. In a world where CGI has run rampant in the film industry, it is fun to see a visual effects artist really try for a world that could not have been made practically. I cannot what to see the next world that Nikita Argunov makes for us.

7 out of 10