𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐚 𝐑𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐚 𝐑𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭?

Video games are everything in Silica City. There are gamers who train every waking moment to get better in gaming, with Meta Runners being the top of the food chain. Meta Runners are people who sacrifice one of their arms for a prosthetic one, just to enhance their gaming skills.The story follows Tari, who woke up in said city one day. Tari is also a Meta Runner, but she has something unique going for her: she can warp into games. This interests TAS. Corp, who wants to experiment on her, but she narrowly escapes them with the help of Coconut Boy (Theo) and the others of MD-5, which is a group of people who want TAS. Corp down for each their own reason. Together with MD-5, Tari wants to make an end to the corrupt TAS. Corp and find out where she comes from.

𝐌𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞…

Character:
Meta Runner has tons of great characters, but my favorite has to be Masa Shimamoto, the cranky, anti-social edgelord and leader of MD-5. He's just a badass character, not to mention that his trauma and the drama around him are showcased in a great way. There are a lot of great characters and choosing a second favorite character is hard. I'd lean towards Lamar Williams for that though.Game:
My favorite game has to be Tempest, I really like the concept of a battle royale with magic spells. The fights of this arc are also really well-thought, you can consider me a fan. Honorable mentions to Pocket Gakusai, although it is a simple dating simulator, I feel like the impact it had on the story in season 2 made me like it a lot.

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐝𝐨 𝐈 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐞?

Meta Runner is a really awesome series made by GLITCH Productions, the same people who made Murder Drones and The Amazing Digital Circus, with this one being their first series. It is also fairly short, so if you have some time to burn, I really recommend watching this series. The animation in season 1 does look a bit weird, but this gets improved with a lot of remakes for the characters.What I liked in Meta Runner:1. The characters are just so good in this franchise, I really love them. It's not Tari, the main character, who steals the show, but rather the side characters/antagonists.The antagonists of this series are great, the female cast of this series is also solid, with some really lovable characters, such as Tari, Sofia and Belle. I can't put it to words how great the characters are in general, you'll have to watch it yourself, truly.2. The premise of the series is also pretty interesting. Meta Runner is a cyberpunk series, which by itself isn't really that unique, but the way they implement the game warping mechanic Tari has makes this series one of a kind.3. The games in the series themselves are also really interesting. From a battle royale game where you have to collect spellbooks to gain magical powers to a massive multiplayer game where you travel to several islands and fight against other people with your pirate ship, all of the games are really interesting and offer great moments themselves.4. The atmosphere of Silica City is visually very beautiful and a sight to behold. All the colorful billboards, modern technology, and the way they introduce us to this city was executed really well.What I think could've been handled better in general:1. The pacing is kind of inconsistent, which you can definitely notice at times, especially in season 1. For example, halfway through season 1 things went pretty slow, but the pacing quickly escalated as it approached the end. I wouldn’t say this really influences the enjoyability of the series, but sometimes I do wish more was said as in the dialogue.2. The series is not polished enough in my opinion. What I mean with this is that there are clearly some things I wished would've received more time to develop, like various scenes or backstories in general. I also feel like the ending is a bit rushed as well.More specific comments I'd like to make on Meta Runner:1. Season 1 and season 2 kind of share the same premise and are very similar to one another. I won't go into the specifics here, but take my word for this one, you'll definitely notice this yourself upon watching Meta Runner. Of course, there are a lot of things done differently, and by no means is season 2 a bad sequel to the first season. I think season 2 is my favorite season.2. Season 3 is a whole lot different compared to the former two seasons. Instead of focusing on like three games (being Coconut Jump Mania, Battle Blaze and Tempest in season 1, alongside Turbo Crash 9, Pocket Gakusai and Hidden Heroes in season 2), it specifically focuses on one game specifically: Skybreakers, a massive pirate-themed multiplayer game where you can sail through the open skies with your ship. And uh, some people don't really like the way they went all into this pirate-theme. I was kind of indifferent about this personally, but some clearly think differently about this.3. The main antagonist of season 3 is kind of... lame once you compare him to Lucks. All he does is sit around in his room and play around with his server and corporate Meta Runner arms, similar to something like a Discord mod. Lucks wasn't perfect by any means, but the way they handled him was great though. And don't get me started on Lucks' voice acting, that was insanely cinematic. The antagonist who I will not spoil his name of kinda pales in comparison, but I think that's exactly what they wanted to achieve: someone who tries to act fierce but isn't at all.
___________________________________My own experience with this series:I was a day 1 fan of Meta Runner, I remember really well seeing the teasers for it on SMG4's channel (for people who do not know who SMG4 is, it's the parent channel of GLITCH Productions, where Kevin and Luke used to make Mario 64 shitposts. They sadly fell off though (This video explains their downfall well imo) (not to mention that SMG4 has stopped making videos. Rest in peace, the channel which made part of several children's childhoods.)).When I saw Tari getting her own show, I was excited. I thought Tari was an alright character back at SMG4, where she is pretty shy and clumsy, much different than the Tari of Meta Runner. I was not someone who cared about the negatives a series had, as long as it was enjoyable. Meta Runner immediately became a beloved show for me.As I have rewatched this series twice afterwards, I have found some problems with the series (as discussed above), but the enjoyability of the show stood around the same.I haven't watched Murder Drones at all and only watched the first 3 episodes of The Amazing Digital Circus, but from what I've heard Meta Runner does not fail expectations compared to these two.It's a great and pretty short (around 6.5 hours watchtime) series, and my experience of recommending it to others shows.Recommendation rank: 8.5/10

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐚 𝐑𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫:

___________________________________Trailers for all three seasons (second and third video contains spoilers for season 1 and 2, duh)

___________________________________Best soundtrack in the series in my opinion:

___________________________________A few of my favorite moments in Meta Runner (Youtube clips):Team... give them hell. (Season 1)Angry shouty lady! (Season 2, Episode 4)Don't look at me like that. (Season 2, Episode 5)LOSS (Season 2, Episode 9) (you'll need some context (Season 2, Episode 2) to understand this one).