WebAnimation An over-ambitious disappointment
Like many others, I was initially exited when I saw the art for Epithet Erased. But that excitement quickly turned into confusion, and then disbelief when I watched the first episode. At this point, it's obvious what my major gripe with EE is. The "animation".
I'm not going to pull my punches when I say this: Epithet Erased looks really poor. The energetic and lively designs of the characters contrasts so badly with the puppet animation the creators were ok with using. It's embarrassing to watch. I've seen some reviews of EE compliment it's animation, describing it as, "Taking the best advantage of little". Some have even said the animation is better this way because the low quality compliments the humor. If you ask me, that's rubbish. If EE was animated traditionally, like in the short Animation Bump sequences we see throughout, no one would say that stiff key-framing would look better.
I am aware of the budget restraints. Epithet Erased didn't have as much financial support as something like Meta Runner. But if a show doesn't have enough resources to reach the basic criteria for an animated show, than maybe it shouldn't have been made in the first place. Why not make EE a webcomic? Or at least stylize the visuals to disguise the key framing to a degree? Better yet, why not wait till you actually have what you need to make the thing like smg4 did? But instead, we got a rushed looking, clearly low budget show that would have racked up a much larger following if it was done right.
I wish I could say EE was good. I really wanted it to be. I also know some will shame me for passing judgement on EE without even talking about what happens in the show. My response to that is, "there's no point". EE's story and characters are completely fine. However, how you present your show to the audience is the most important part of any visual media. If you get it wrong, you break the show. Many poorly written works still have a following because they look nice. But EE wears it quality for all to see. Saying EE's animation is fine means significantly lowering your standards to accept it. I refuse to do that.
If you like EE, that's fine by me. But with the quality of western animation already decreasing, I do not believe Epithet Erased should be accepted, or replicated.
WebAnimation Enjoyable fun
Epithet Erased is a good time. The characters are likeable and engaging, the story is fun, the jokes are good, and while the animation is pretty limited, it doesn't really detract from the entertainment value, because while it might have been nice to have more than a few minutes of bespoke animation in the series, it doesn't actually need it to be good entertainment - as proven by the pivot to audiobooks, which produced a really good audiobook - because the writing and voice acting add a lot.
If you checked out because the animation wasn't up to the level of something like No Evil, I mean, that's your call, but I think you're missing out on, if nothing else, a few hours of good entertainment.