> I opened this with an open mind, but it felt dead and AI immediately to me.

Episode 1 is. He's getting better at this. By episode 3, the characters have come alive and the scenery is really good.

Neural Viz had really good consistency and really good scripts, also importantly knew to write the story around the limitations in what AI could do, including using non-human characters to avoid that uncanny valley that I immediately see in the Kono Express video. Truly a master at his craft, it's a shame he hung it up!