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