Flag

I first heard about flag more than a decade ago at the time of writing this and I put it on my plan to watch and summarily forgot about it. While part of me regrets that decision, another part wonders if I would have truly appreciated it as much as I did when I watched it now. Flag is definitely not an anime for everyone, even beyond the 'just give it a chance' mantra. I feel like this anime was very much made for specific type of people and if you are not them then it is unlikely that you will enjoy Flag as much ... as I have. I will try to explain what about Flag made me fall in love with it and what audiences are probably most likely to enjoy it in the hopes that my review will cut straight to the heart of the matter in helping you decide whether you should watch it or not. If you are a fan of history, war journalism, documentaries, photography, milsims, geopolitics, and found footage, you might enjoy Flag.

History has been one of my main intrigues throughout life, and by the time I was in college I almost considered majoring in it as I was taking several classes each semester despite being a premed. As such, I had spent countless hours glued to a screen watching documentaries or reading books written by historians or witnesses to historical events. the creators of Flag must also have done this because the direction of scenes and content of the animation is a perfect homage to the documentaries made by war journalists and historians. I wouldn't call it an imitation or anything with a negative connotation because the level of detail and obvious extent they went to in order to create this anime shows just how thoroughly they researched and understood the subject matter of their story. The country, conflict, peoples, and stakes may have been entirely original and fictitious but it is genuinely mind blowing how much Flag, an anime made in 2006, mirrors documentaries about the 2003 invasion of Iraq made in the 2010s and 2020s. It shows how well they understood the medium, how well they understood conflict, and how well they understood the nature of those who capture and preserve these stories to immortalize them as history.

Flag's most unique aspect is their bold decision to create what is almost like a 'found footage' film, with our only perspective coming from the photos, recordings, and stock footage edited together by our narrator and 2nd main character, Keiichi Akagi. If you can fully place yourself within the suspension of disbelief, pretend that this is not an anime, this is not a tv show, but this is a real documentary being played out before you, then Flag is really something incredible. As an amateur photographer it unexplainably caused me to smile whenever I would recognize various settings or camera functions being toggled as if I were watching this unfold through the viewfinder on my camera. How creative or original an idea is does not necessarily mean it is a good one, and maybe that's the case for Flag given how obscure it is, but I don't think in this case it is a discredit to the creators. They made anime feel like such a 1:1 recreation of real life that people didn't like it or people got bored of it because of the same reasons they get bored or dislike the 'live action' counterparts of real historical documentaries. When people think of a military themed game, most will probably think of something fast paced and void of realism like call of duty, whereas people who want a true milsim experience and play things like arma or others know that for every 30 seconds of combat there were 30 minutes of prepwork that went into making it possible. Obviously this is the case for real conflict too. Engagements are often short and over in a matter of minutes, your individual perspective is almost never fully aware of the whole picture, there is an element of powerlessness as you cannot realistically do anything to alter whether or not the ordinance coming your way hits you, and that for most of the time people are sitting around training or relaxing or planning or carrying out obscene amounts of maintenance hours to make the most simplest things youd take for granted function.

Flag, despite technically being a mecha anime, is nothing like most other works in this genre. I wouldn't call other mecha 'pro war', but the way things like gundam or macross depict war as being bad is an entirely different language than Flag. Like, 'genocide is wrong' but btw here are these cool mechs with guns. Flag is unmistakably anti war but in a far more profound way, like it could only be more impactful if this wasnt anime and they were real people suffering on the screen. But in a way they are, because Flag so heavily mirrors reality that I'm not sure if its a case of art copying life or vice versa. 'Peacekeeping force' having to carry out policing duties in a dictatorship nation on the verge of sectarian religious violence and civil war, searching for a specific item under dubious intelligence which is supposed to justify the entire military action in the first place? Where have I heard this one before... But seriously, I am semi-positive that large parts of this anime are a reference to Iraq, with influences from other conflicts sprinkled in when it makes sense as well. Because this is a serious subject matter, there is little in the way of war porn and big mech fan service. The first scene with them being operational is haunting, it was exactly how I've heard drone operators describe the guilt they feel safely erasing a truck full of people with the squeeze of a button from behind a monitor. Flag does its best to make you care for the plight of its fictional people, as constrained by the medium as it is, and I think it did it effectively enough where you feel emotion when someone holds back tears from the camera during a farewell or as a terminally ill woman stoically faces her mortality despite the state of the world around her. They had to walk a thin tightrope between focusing on the larger picture so we the viewer can understand and with focusing on the characters to make us care, and though not everyone is super deep I think if you have empathy you can care about someone you've known for a brief 13 episodes without needing their whole life story. Also to Flag's credit, this work doesn't just shake its fist and say 'war = bad' as if it is some novel concept. They are trying to grapple with the fact that to end war requires battle, to prevent violence requires force. It is something the UN has struggled with, when real life genocides were happening in Rwanda and in the Balkans and the international community took too long to react because they could not bridge the gap between believing that war is bad and acting on the belief that war is bad.

Flag was a real treat to watch, and I am glad I rediscovered this hidden gem at a point in my life where I could uncork a story and let it breathe before finishing it. No distractions, no impatient waiting for a fight, no hype-withdrawal to make me lose interest. It is a slow burn but doesn't leave you with some spectacular firework finale, because it was the aroma it created throughout the entire duration that you were meant to enjoy. If you are a nerd belonging to any of the groups of people I described earlier, there is a good chance you will enjoy Flag too

Novel execution for an anime, but baffling premise.

Flag is probably most well known for presenting its entire narrative through first person POV shots, mostly through found footage by the two journalist protagonists' cameras or cameras placed conveniently on war machines. It's certainly an irable approach and contributes meaningfully to the theme of journalistic importance, but this limitation can find itself in tricky corners.

The main narrative point of this story is for main character Shirasu to document a UN special forces team to recover a symbolic flag that she had previously taken a photo of. While the world-building may have been more appreciated in ... other contexts, the overt usage of decked-out killing machines, elaborately militarized religious cults, and clandestine operations to cover up the entire mission by the UN over a single flag becomes straight comedy near the end. Sorry, a cool photo of a flag does not simply quell a civil war.

While the documenting of soldiers as human via photojournalism is an interesting idea, the naivety of Shirasu (despite her being a lauded international journalist in a country engulfed in civil war) coupled with a reluctance to really deep dive into the corruption of Western military institutions, i.e. the UN, slowly devolves into a whitewashing of Middle Eastern neo-colonialism. Presenting soldiers as honorable people who failed to prevent the genocide in Rwanda and looking to redeem themselves doesn't mesh well with POV shots of them obliterating landscapes with mecha machine guns.

The animation isn't bad, but the CG robots are out of place aesthetically and narratively. Shirazu's voice actress sounds as out of place as the situations Shirazu herself is in 90% of the time (why are you in the middle of a firefight, girl?). The ending is a confusing neoliberal mess. But points for trying something new.

This anime had a good concept but terrible execution. I wanted to review it for a long time so here it is. There's spoilers in this review BUT you'll be warned beforehand and you'll be glad I spoiled it for you LOL! This anime was so misleading and bad that I just had to review it for you to save you pain and time.




Basicly there's some kind of war going on in some kind of 3rd-world country and some kind of war journalists (I think they are Japanese but that doesn't matter) go to this country to get pictures because that's their job or as ... they like to say, their ''ion'' or whatever.

So the entire show is told through a camera lense, which was artsy and original at first. It's a very detailed digital view but gets old after a while and serves less & less symbolic purpose as the show goes on. The main character girl who is holding the camera takes pictures throughout the show and we see these nice pictures. They are portrayed as nice pictures, which they are, but none of them are really meaningful. Beleive me I'm a photographer, filmmaker and cinematographer. Only a few parts of the show are shot normally (not through a camera).

The story is this girl war journalist got a lucky shot on the country's flag the moment a back-lit girl was praying and her silouhette could be seen through the flag. Suddenly this picture became the people's symbol for peace, or morality, and the flag became a symbol for.... hope i guess, for the war to stop.... Anyways some terrorists stole it and now a special U.N. team is assembled to retrieve the stolen flag. The girl who took the picture is recruited onto this team to document the mission(s).

What's supposed to make this U.N. team I mentioned earlier 'special' is a giant robot vehicle thing they have as part of their main arsenal. It transforms into a humanoid mode and a car-ish mode. The movements it makes sound more like a little toy than a war machine. Also it's only weapon is a machine gun, Big Whoop! At least give it a laser gun sheesh.... At least it sort-of looks cool.

You'll notice something wrong right away: the war-torn country is too clean. Even the destroyed parts of town are clean and lack any grim detail. The characters, whom most of which are either jounalists who put their necks out into dangerous situations, or soldiers who put their necks out into dangerous situations, are not dirty at all. This anime about the horrors of war, is just not graphic in any way. The only graphic part about this anime is the lack of vibrant colors, but even the washed-out colors that are present are solid and clear.

The graphic quality isn't only lacking in the art style, it's also lacking in the plot and narrative. You won't see much violence. (SPOILERS) The most violence you'll see (for 4 episodes) are one guy getting shot in the arm and bad guys getting shot in the desert with the desert sand getting kicked up to block our view. Then the soldiers return from the mission stone-cold and melancholy to show how terrible war is. Seriously, you'll see 1 blood stain after 4 episodes. I am dumb-founded that an anime like FLAG, which is supposed to be about the horrors of war, actually censors violence, and then follows-up with scenes like the soldiers moping around as if we just saw something truely horrifying that will scar the grey matter of our brains forever and give us post traumatic stress syndrome. There are comedy anime with more blood and violence than FLAG.... This is just unacceptable. Also the show usually prefers to show the aftermath of skirmishes instead of the battles themselves because the main focus is the poorly-implied conflict going on in the characters' minimaly-present souls.

Another thing disappointing is the intelligence of this so-called super secret team of soldiers. (SPOILERS) This is one of those spoilers that you'll be glad i spoiled for you: In one scene the team (I'll just call them ''the team'' from here on) thinks they know where the terrorists are hiding. They go in an unarmed helicopter to check out this fortress in a twisting valley. They stay at a safe distance and send out a small scout drone. It flies over there and discovers heavy anti-air defenses. So what does this super secret team do? Head back to base? Report this intelligence to command? Call in reinforcements? No. They fly this unarmed, non-armored helicopter straight into the hostile airspace. Guess what happens next? They get shot at and the pilot is hit in the arm and only Then do they retreat!

I could not Believe what I just saw! And nobody acknowledged this as a stupid move! Bunch'a idiots. It was at this point that FLAG lost all credibility and I stopped giving it chances (many chances were spent in vain....)

This show also tries to portray war journalists just as brave and valiant as a front-line soldier, which can be true sometimes, but this show fails to do even that. (SPOILERS) Maybe if they showed the main character being shot at or help an injured person or something, but she is never in danger. One scene shows the main character go to a building where a fellow war journalist was killed in an explosion. Her friend war journalist puts a flower in a cup next to the dead guy's camera and has a big monologue about how war journalists are to be respected and are very courageous and all that. Well sure but, could we at least see the explosion so we have some kind of remorse for the guy? We never even see this guy, therefor I don't care about him much.

(SPOILERS) Action scenes (of which there are very, very few) have no music whatsoever and like I mentioned, you'll only see 1 blood stain. I know I didn't see even a single dead terrorist! And you will only see (in the first 4 episodes) one far away terrorist as seen from night vision in only one shot. It's like the show can't wait to get these parts over with and get back to the boring-as-hell parts.

Another thing that REALLY bothers me is this girl was recruited to document the missions of this team, but guess what? (SPOILERS) They don't allow her to go with them on their missions because it's too dangerous! WHAT THE HELL?? The show makes itself redundant right from the get-go! So she stays at the base taking pictures of the scenery, I am not joking about this at all. She takes pictures of the sourounding mountians and wildlife while waiting for the team to return. You have got to be kidding me. All sense of risk, danger and excitement is swiftly extinguished right from the beginning.



So that's my review. FLAG was a good concept but they were afraid to show violence in a show about violence, they were unable to show intelligent characters in a show about intelligent characters, and they were unable to show graphic images in a graphic show.

If anything, FLAG should have been the bloodiest, most disturbing & grotesque anime ever created! Documentaries on the history channel are vastly more entertaining than FLAG. FLAG makes war boring (not to say war is supposed to be exciting in a good way, but you get my point)

This show fails to execute everything it sets out to do. I don't even know what country they were in and I don't care so they obviously failed to set the up the plot in such a way that I'd be interested. This only reviews the first disc (Good God there's more!?).

I give this anime a score of 1.5/10.




If you want to see a piece of film that best portrays the horrors of war (which FLAG tries to do) I reccomend Apocalypse Now. This film captures the essence of the Vietnam war (don't ask me how I know lol).

Or if you want to see anime with great character conflict (which FLAG tries to do) then watch Elfen Lied, or Higurashi (aka When They Cry).


I can sort of see why people would give this anime high-ish reviews; because of what it tries to do and tries to be. There is no show like it. It's one of a kind. Granted, it is a unique show and in a good way (theoretically). Unfortunately in my strong opinion which I will state as fact, it fails and somebody should remake it properly. It has potential, but that's about all it's got and did not deliver for me. I tend to be very critical so if you have second thoughts about my review, go ahead and give it a chance. Many people are happy with FLAG and you might be one of those people.