NieA under 7

I bought the entire NieA_7 series in one shot (DVD box-set) because I'm a fan of Serial Experiments Lain and Haibane Renmei, and NieA was made by some of the same creators. After all, I bought Haibane Renmei solely because it was by the same people who made Lain, and I was rewarded with a truly excellent anime. Last night I finished the first volume of NieA, and let me say that at this point my faith has been shaken.

Based on the first four episodes, I'm struck by the close similarity to another anime called FLCL (a.k.a. Furi Kuri or Fooly Cool y, depending on your personal level of anime fan-hood/elitism.) I believe both shows debuted in Japan in 2000, so I doubt that either one is an intentional rip-off of the other. On paper, the basic premises are almost identical; A young girl leads a relatively mundane life in a very quiet town. The one thing that prevents her life from being completely ho-hum is the fact that she lives with a free-spirited female alien (named NieA) who is usually a source of trouble to the girl. All I'd have to do is change the young girl to a young boy and I'd be describing FLCL. It's the same drill. Events are seemingly random, with only a loose sense of any plot. Wacky, zany and bizarre are apt adjectives for the episodes I've seen. The NieA character is annoying, and the lead character never fails to overreact to the alien's shenanigans. One problem is that they've made NieA -too- annoying. So far she's entirely one dimensional. Her single minded obsession with food invariably causes her to be a selfish, obnoxious pest. She isn't funny or cool, unlike FLCL's Haruko. I'm sure as I get further into the show there will be some character development and I'll see the characters in a different light. As it stands now, I wish the NieA character would just go away. I'm an easy going guy. For a character to get on my nerves to this degree in only four episodes indicates to me that something is wrong. I'll continue to watch NieA_7 only out of a stubborn sense of duty. Not enjoyment. I finish this series even it if it kills me. For now I hope I like Texhnolyze more than this.

Note to IMDb staff: Your automated "follow the rules" script for these submissions really needs some tweaking and bug-fixing. It wouldn't permit me to title this comment "FLCL Jr." because it considered that to be "shouting". It wouldn't let me use "F.L.C.L." either, because it regarded that as shouting as well. Finally, it wouldn't let me title it "Fooly Cool y Jr." either. No matter how I try to change it, it automatically changes Cool y to Coolly. In fact, I've had to put a space between the l and y just to tell you this.

It would seem that even when I'm not watching the show, NieA is still finding ways to annoy me. ~_^

"It's a strange thing to see, that moment when the extraordinary becomes ordinary,"-Mayuko

With this line we are introduced to our main character ,Mayuko, a poor student living in an apartment above a bathhouse in Enohana. Mayuko's life is hard, working several part-time jobs, studying for cram school, and having to deal with NieA the alien living in her closet. Some of us might think that having an alien in your house would be an extraordinary thing but its just another day in Enohana. In fact, Aliens are pretty dull compared to the man-eating plants, exploding UFOs, and the curry wars. From Mayuko's point of view it's all kind of nonsense, I mean who has time to worry about all that when your trying to figure out where your next meal is coming from? So its up to NieA to pull Mayuko out of her sense of apathy and teach her to appreciate the incredible world they live in.

From the outstanding animators and creators who brought you "Serial Experiments: Lain" NieA Under 7 is one of the most inventive and unique animes I've seen in quite a while. Every thing about this series screams quality: the characters are wonderful, the animation is beautiful and flawless, and the soundtrack is perfect. About the only thing that bothers me is the pacing which, like Lain, starts out slow but then jumps into hyperspeed near the end wrapping everything up in the last episode. Another problem is that it's only being released on DVD which can kind of put a dent in your pocket but in my opinion it was definitely worth it.

An ordinary cram school student moves into a flat which had an alien living as a roomate. NieA is an alien who doesn't have an antena spends the whole day not having any care in the world and loves to annoy Mayuko.

The anime does start off as some generic comedy but letter gets interesting goes very deep that you begin to feel suspense. Which also does have a very good message to convey.

It's definitely something different from what I am normally watching.

The dub is also very solid.

Pretty fun to watch overall.