S-Cry-ed

Alternate Titles: S.Cry.Ed

Original Japanese Release Date: 2001

Episode Length/Run-time: 26 Episodes

Summary:

Due to a strange environmental phenomena an area of Japan has broken off from the mainland and during this humans are given the ability to use Alter, a power which allows them to combine metal alloys to their skin and use magic like powers.  The area in which this phenomena occurred is known as “The Lost Ground.”  Kazuma is one such native alter user and lives as a mercenary in The Lost Ground.  One day a group known as HOLY is dispatched to collect native alter users and Kazuma must defend his freedom against them.

Review:

Shown on Toonami a bit this anime is likely one which many people are familiar with. What’s nice about this anime is it actually has some kind of plot, unlike many anime that are being put out today.  Don’t be fooled by it seemingly have themes of uprisings, oppression, and liberation.  Those are there, but they’re really not too flushed out or not as much as you want them to be.

The first problem are the characters.  They’re either unlovable.  Or they’re just silly, for example a character who fight with watermelons.  Beyond that the characters get out of hand to almost a Dragon Ball Z scale where they just get overpowered and just go around fighting and blowing things up.  This goes with as the series shifts from the oppression to just combat and the rivalries, loosing a lot of the plot along the way.

So while the plot is interesting there are a lot of other things that drag it down making it just average, which isn’t as good as it could be.

[starrater]