Animesou.com » s-CRY-ed Vol. 1: The Lost Ground

s-CRY-ed Vol. 1: The Lost Ground

» written by Dark Wind [Discuss]

Synopsis
Twenty-two years ago, a cataclysmic earthquake destroyed the Kanegawa region of Japan and threw the country into choas. The damagaed region was abandoned and labeled the ‘Muraji Special Economic District,’ more commonly known as the Lost Ground. After the earthquake, the Lost Ground became home to a rising number of Alter Users, those with the psychic ability to change matter and create Alters (think summons, like from Final Fantasy) with unique powers. Two percent of anyone born on the Lost Ground obtain these powers for some unknown reason. To keep the Lost Ground under control, the special police force HOLD was created. Within it is an anti-Alter unit, HOLY, which was formed to combate the renegade Native Alters in the Lost Ground.

None of this really matters to Kazuma, a Native Alter who uses his powerful alter, Shell Bullet, in his search for money and thrills. But when Kazuma runs into the oppressive HOLY, he is forced into fighting for the freedom and safety of those he cares about. Unfortunately, a powerful Alter user in HOLY’s group, Ryuho, is just to much for Kazuma to handle…

Review
And with that very long synopsis, the review! Right. Anyway, I’d been anticipating this show for quite a long time, since it had finished airing in Japan, in fact. It sounded like a new era DBZ-style show but shortened with to 26 episodes and does not spend it’s time on useless power levels and long stares. And that does hold true. So far, the show has almost no filler and is filled with stylish fights aplenty including some interesting alter powers. Kazuma is an interesting hero, trying to act tough but merely coming off as a helpful guy. It’s Ryuho who is more interesting. He has a dark, messed up past, he’s changed in the 7 years he’s been seperated from his love interest (oh, who by the way, has come back to the Lost Ground), and doesn’t really want to do anything with anybody. He’s got a big chip on his shoulder. The characters, despite what other reviews may tell you, do in fact get a good bit of character development, in these 5 episodes anyway. You learn quite a bit about each characters past and idiosyncrasies, and I have to tell you, some of these Alter users are funny.

Anyway, the story is interesting, the characters fun, and there are no useless filler episodes. Another plus is the rather nicely choreographed fights and the dialogue doesn’t grate on the nerves. Good stuff.

The Breakdown
Let’s see. The story, characters, animation, and so forth are in excellent shape. On the other hand, the music isn’t great, there are one to many characters (and some are rather bland and useless) and the story moves a bit to fast in this first volume. With that in mind, you make the choice. What do I recommend? If you have some spare cash lying around, use it to buy this and give it a try, but it’s not an absolute must-own.

» The Pros

Love the animation. The character designs aren't too much my thing, but I love the animations. The fights are actually animated well, flow smoothly, and best of all, are exciting to watch. The story, so far, is rather interesting and it holds some mysteries that has me rather intrigued. The characters are really cool, funny, suave, etc etc. They each have their own personality, style, and habits that make each of them worthwhile characters.

» The Cons

To big of a cast, for one. While I love all the characters that have been introduced so far, I can see things getting very confusing down the road and that focus on specific individuals will be lost in lieu of new alter powers to show off. Also, the music is rather sub-par. In fact, I didn't really notice it during the show, which means it's not that great when I don't make a note of it. Also, the story requires a bit of setup, as you can tell from my already long synopsis. And that didn't even reveal any spoilers! So one might go into a first viewing a bit confused without reading the DVD summary on the back or something similar.

» Animation

Pretty good, especially a show for it's ilk. Fighting animes rarely look this good, and are especially this rarely animated. In other shows, fights usually consist of a punch or two or some still shots of two characters battling it out. In this, the fights are choreographed, the move fluidly, and they are animated fully. No stops or freeze frames, which is a great plus. Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of the character designs. They are bland and rather odd looking. But that only knocks it down a bit.

» Sound

This may change as I watch further volumes, but I didn't even notice the music in the show. I didn't take note of how good, or how bad it was, meaning it was merely average. but the sound effects are perfectly fine, with punches sounding like punches and so on and so forth. A wait and see (or hear, I guess) is in store.

» Story

Well, it's fairly original in some respects, especially relating to bits about the Lost Ground but in another sense, it rips straight from stuff like X-Men where each person has powers and one side is oppressed yadda yadda yadda. But it's all well and good, and the show does throw a good amount of surprised and twists. Plus, there is no filler so far, and that's always good.

» Recommend

8.2	If you like fighting animes, buy this. If you like fighting animes but hated generic stuff like DBZ, then this might be up your alley. It's interesting, fun to watch, and most importantly, it's slick and cool. :)

» Other Information

Language: English/Japanese with English Subtitles

Extras: Textless Opening, Textless Ending, Lost Ground Express, Design Gallery

Package: Rather cool, with Kazuma in a near-fighting like stance ready to use his Shell Bullet and Ryuho in the background ready to summon his Alter, Zetsuei. It's a nice glossy cover, but nothing to special.