Scryed

Yeah, so I'm going to admit that this review is just a bit preliminary, considering I've seen... 2 episodes.

But, here goes.

The human race is separated into Inners and Outters. The Outters are normal human beings, but the Inners are certain people with super-human abilities, or "Alter Users". Basically, an Alter is what you'd think it is--like an "Alter Ego"; the Alter is something (different for every person) the user can call up to do his bidding. Which, of course, in anime, means that they're used for fighting spectacular battles.

But Alters aren't just terrible excuses to make this show a shounen title. Alter Users have what we would call ESP abilities... things fly around the room, things blow up, the user has superhero abilities, etc. etc. (Like "Straight Cougar", who can make things go faster, or Kazuma, who can land on a building without a parachute.)

The "Alter Users" were created with the "Lost Ground", a small part of Japan that broke off from the main island. A small percentage of the people born on this lost ground have the Alter abilities.

So, with all these Neo-generation punk kids walking around aimlessly with destructive powers, there inevitably has to be the huge, benevolent organization to control them all.

Enter HOLD.

(Or HOLY, if you will. The organization is called "HOLD" and the foot soldiers are called "HOLY". And they get spiffy uniforms, too.)

So anyway. To the review.

The animation is, at times, dull, flat, and cheap. For instance, a rather simple scene panning the passangers in an airplane. It looked kind of like how I would draw a scene--the little circle for the head and the little semi-circle for the body and hope to hell that no-one will notice that I did my art project at lunch. Oh, and a little smiley face and the two little eyes.

And Kazuma, when in his strange, "Black Motion Lines Freeze Frame Scary Face" mode, looks like he's trying to be punk/mad/intimidating (and looks rather silly) instead of his cute-as-a-button cream puff Lead Male appearance.

Other than that, the character designs and the over-all appearance of the show are just squeak in at above average. Not good, but not necessarily bad, either. I especially like the outfits on everyone. Very ultra-modern.

The music is another story, but it's not too distracting or weird. To try and describe it, I would have to say something like early 90's wanna-be rock, and/or early 90's wanna-be rock ballads. (Just picture "Gundam Wing" music.)

Again, not good, but not bad.

The story is good, intriguing, but it was really annoying that the first episode ended with Kazuma's cliffhanger and then starts all over again with some other character. The Mildly Annoying Female Lead, no less. Which was a disappointment, because the episode was entitled "Ryuhou" not "Mimori (Mildly Annoying Female Lead Backstory)".

So I waited for 20 minutes for there to be some resolution to what happened to Kazuma and... the episode ends with *another* Kazuma-related-cliff-hanger. Needless to say I felt rather jarred.

But, it is promising. The premise is something that I'd actually like to see resolved and the characters are interesting enough.

Thumbs up.

When I first started watching this series on Caroon Network's Adult Swim, I have to say that of all the sci-fi series types I liked and watched,this one proves to be the jack of all trades. I only watched a couple of episodes of this show,but I felt disappointed that I didn't get to see the rest of the series,I wanted to see the show once again,and that's when I got my chance. When I bought the complete box-set of this series on DVD,I really enjoyed it.The show was cool,and the characters in this series have incredible power,and cool abilities and techniques.My favorite characters in this series are Scheris,Straight Cougar,and Ryuho. What this series really explains that abilities are the most important things to have in life. We all have different abilities that we are all good at that,and they are the most important thing to have.Another thing that is cool about the show is Crispin Freeman playing the role of Straight Cougar. He does have a good voice for playing that role. So in closing,if you are looking for something cool to watch,then you have to see this one.And if you seen this show on Adult Swim. Then you have to buy this series,and you will see what I mean.

S.CRY.ED takes place in what could be the distant future, a world where a catastrophic event has shaken a section of the earth, giving select individuals from a certain generation the ability to use "alters," which is kind of a sort of magic, allowing them to transform objects and fight each other. (yes, you would think that they would find a good way to use these abilities, but no, all they do is fight each other.) There are two different types of alter users, "native alters" who live outside the walls of the city, simply trying to go on with their lives, and those alter users who are part of an organization known as HOLD, these alter users form an offshoot of HOLD called HOLY.

Kazuma is one such "Native Alter" with an amazingly strong alter. He works as a bounty hunter, until one day, HOLY comes, and everything changes.



The only thing I can really say about SCRYED, is that when everything is put together, what you basically get, is an OKAY anime. Nothing in the entire anime is really exceptional. The different Character designs are mostly rather unattractive, as are some of the characters themselves. Kazuma is your standard protagonist, strong and unpredictable, and always looking for a fight. Ryu, the strongest warrior from HOLY, is probably the coolest looking, but is still your standard antagonist.

The animation in this series is sometimes good, and sometimes rather bland. While none of the fights are what you would call jaw-dropping, since this IS an action anime, most of them come across as rather decent, if not rather silly.

The music switches between 80's punk rock, and some weird vocals that kind of sound like japanese hymns. Sometimes it fit, and sometimes it didn't. I did enjoy the opening theme though, and I always looked forward to watching it.

The last point I will bring up is the story, which started off simple enough, (I won't go into it, but it is pretty clear after watching just the first episode) but suddenly took a turn for the much more 'weird.' I don't really think the animators planned ahead, because after episode fifteen or so, the entire series is kind of a mess and by the end your just watching it to say you finished it, which is never good when your shelling out twenty bucks a dvd.

Overall, like I said before, this anime is just okay. Had the series continued to get better as it did from episodes 1-15, then this series probably would have gotten an A grade, but with the mess of the second half, the highest I can give this anime is C-.

While it does have some problems, like it didn't cut enough out -see episode 13 where some huge ambitions crash down and they ruin it with a cutscene of the catastrophe and 88 piece orchestra music, i mean, cut the episode 30 secs earlier to only see the guy realizing that everything he worked for come to pieces, that's enough. I really thought it lacked a lot of editing that went into more modern series, but the story was very original.

I found it amazing that they took the main character's antagonist and showed that he was actually a second protagonist by the end of the series. Along with the intrigue which is somewhat the main theme of the series, I can really feel the effort that went into the creation of the series. Also the music which varies quite a bit from big band style to electronica helps to contrast the clash of traditional values (which are Japanese) vs the newer values of the younger generation.

But i digress, the entire series is about blind ambition, the ambition of the mainland versus the ambition of people on the area of the lost ground, who basically are second class citizens of the mainland of japan. Scryed is a tragicomedy with its chief theme as ambition.

s-CRY-ed is one of those series that you're just not quite sure what to think of in the beginning. You are thrown into the middle of a world where you have no idea what's going on--and despite your instincts, you're really not sure who the bad guys and good guys are! For a long time, I only had the first 5 episodes available to me, but upon getting my hands on the entire series, I found that I couldn't quit watching. The story is intriguing, and the writers did it just right so that as one episode ends, you absolutely must watch the next episode to know what happens next, or to get that new twist in the plot.

If you like action and a thick story mixed with it, s-CRY-ed is definitely worth a look-see. It is one that will leave you on the edge of your seat, eagerly awaiting each episode. It also sticks to the story--there aren't any filler episodes that aren't attached directly to the storyline. Watch out, though--you could find that characters you like and dislike constantly switch places. That's what makes it so fun to watch. Check it out!