Alien Nine
Total Episodes: 4
Genre(s): Horror, Psychological, Science-fiction.
Year Published: 2001
Studio: J.C. Staff
US Distribution: Central Park Media
Overview
Usually, when writing one of these reviews, I'll begin with some pointless introductory spiel to set the scene. After watching
Alien Nine, however, my inclination for scene-setting seems to have taken a knock. As has my inclination towards forming first impressions, reflecting upon an anime once it's finished, and kawaii presentation in general.
Alien Nine is wrong. How wrong, exactly, even I'm not entirely sure yet.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the most whiny main character since
Evangelion's Shinji. Yuri Otani [left] is an
incredibly wimpy 6th grader, and to her utmost dismay, she's just been elected as her class's 'Alien Fighter'; this makes her one of three members of a special unit of roller-skating girls - Kumi Kawamura and Kasumi Tomine [right] being the other two - whose job it is to capture the extra-terrestrial life forms that frequently find their way into her school. To aid the girls in their valiant struggle, each is equipped with a living, symbiotic helmet, which offers excellent protection against attacks in exchange for feeding off their host a little.
That's the basic idea. I'm reliably informed that the OVA series represents but a segment of the graphic novels, and having not discovered them, I can't really add anything to my outline. But I'd advise you not to begin picturing a cute series along the lines of
Tokyo Mew Mew or
Pretty Cure. Suffice to say - It's not like that, exactly.
Presentation
Without a doubt, the character designs were the first aspect of the presentation to really impact upon me. Having now watched the entire OVA, I agree with a majority of people that
Alien Nine wouldn't have produced the same effect had the designs been done differently. The implemented character style is distinct, and decidedly
[love/hate]. I love. Others may hate. There's not really much more I can say on this matter.
While the suitability of the artwork may be entirely debatable, the effectiveness and consistency of the animation is less so. Granted, I was viewing the series as 350MB .ogm episodes, but I feel fairly confident in saying that the animation is at the very least, commendable, and probably deserving of higher praise. But I'll take into consideration the fact that some will disapprove of the animation by virtue of the design, and leave it at that.
The generic opening aside [I'm sure it was meant the to lull the viewer into a false sense of security], the sound was suitably and impressively unorthodox and distorted, contributing effectively during some of the more disturbing scenes, while the almost
Azumanga Daioh-esque wind pieces kept everything moving along nicely during the comparative 'filler' moments. I haven't heard the full version of the ending song yet, but I'll be downloading it as soon as I finish writing this, as I think it better reflected the nature of the series. All in all, the presentation went down well with yours truly.
Characters
Alien Nine has perhaps one of the smallest casts I've come across - Aside from the three main girls, the non-humans and the one-shot appearances, there aren't really any other characters bar Yuri's best friend, Miyu, and Megumi, the
[teacher/leader] of the Alien Party. Seeing as the series is so short, however, this isn’t really an issue, and those personalities that do feature are decent enough, even if the viewer isn't permitted much time to get to know them.
The girls themselves are, in my opinion, very successful heroines overall - At no point during the episodes did I ever feel the need to throttle Yuri for being so incredibly weak-spirited, despite my usual inclinations, for the simple reason that I can’t imagine a young girl faced with
[aggressive monsters/being licked by symbiotic helmets] would really react in any other way [Kasumi seemed as if she was almost constantly on prozac, so I guess she’s excused]. Kumi’s steely determination and ultimately kind nature probably made her my favourite of the trio, with Yuri a very close second. Kasumi brought back unwanted memories of Sakura from
Da Capo; hence she was tolerable, but little more than that.
As an aside, and since this question seems to be raised fairly frequently in
Alien Nine discussion by virtue of the protagonist's name - No, this is not intended to be a yuri series, although slight allusions are made within the episodes, and apparently also in the manga [more significantly in the latter].
Conclusion
This is easily the toughest anime review I've ever had to write. I absolutely
loved Alien Nine, but I'm not 100% sure why. The series was such a shock to me - I adored the presentation and two of the three heroines, the dark undertones could've been designed exclusively for my tastes, plus it has one of my all-time favourite scenes to date, an absolutely hideous moment during the ending, and incredible replay value, yet some element of common sense keeps trying to drag me from my surprised euphoria. It was a short, 4 episode OVA, which didn’t offer much insight into its setting, left a lot of questions unanswered, and which didn’t evidence the high-production values of some of my more recent viewings.
Why, then, did I love it so? Perhaps it was the fact that the series didn't seem to put a significant step wrong throughout? Perhaps the final moments of the last episode have impacted upon my mentality so deeply that I'm unable to provide a fair opinion on everything? Perhaps it was the effective contrasts between the summer vacation scenes and the school terms that won me over? Or perhaps it was the astonishment from watching something quite dissimilar to what I was expecting that's now affecting my judgment?
The conclusion I've reached is this - I will try and find the novels, I will read them to better understand the context in which the OVA is set, and then I'll decide upon a mark. At an
absolute minimum, this is getting an 8. I’d like to give it higher, of course, but I’m worried that it’d just be a defence mechanism undertaken by my still reeling brain.
Haibane Renmei a few days ago, and now this? Not clever, Fallen. Not clever.
Score: [8+/10]
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