Chua Tek Ming~*Anime Power*~ !LiVe FoR AnImE, aNiMe FoR LiFe!

Hmm… Apocalyptic world whereby aliens have invaded and devastated mankind. Check. A group of high school kids with special abilities hold the key to fend off these invading unknown aliens. Check. Sci-fi action. Check. Potential conspiracy twist and plot. Check. Harem. Uncheck. Wait. What? No harem? Oh what the heck. You can’t have all the anime series follow the same predictable pattern. Anyhow I’m still going to watch Qualidea Code for better or worse although I have a feeling that it might end up being the latter.

Episode 1
Many years ago, an unknown alien race called, uhm Unknown devastated the world. Young Ichiya Suzaku and Canaria Utara are one of the few miraculous survivors. Now in their teens, Ichiya like other kids his age has this power called World to fight against Unknown. Ichiya is a cold a bitter guy and doesn’t like amateurs and kids. But he respects adults for whom he believed to have saved their lives. He also believes he is all they need. Obnoxious, right? But what can we do? His past is scarred. This means he doesn’t like the idea of teamwork and often fights on his own. The duo meet up with others like them who are also head or subhead of a city like Hotaru Rindo and Maihime Tenkawa (subhead and head of Kanagawa respectively) and the Chigusa siblings Kasumi and Asuha (subhead and head of Chiba respectively). Ichiya and Canaria are of Tokyo. Ichiya and Kasumi hate each other’s guts and could have continued arguing had not the adults Gutoku Asanagi and Airi Yunami who are both regional management officers. They begin their ranking announcement and meeting. After the meeting, Unknown is detected attacking at Aqua Line. Everyone sorties. I’m not sure why Ichiya and Canaria arrived last since they flew and everybody else arrived by train. Unless they’re in the very part of town. Ichiya being the usual selfish jerk, tells Canaria to stay out of this so she powers him up with her singing. Ichiya is so damn good that he takes the targets of others, earning their ire. It gets worse when the students also start fighting over each other for targets. WTF?! You’re supposed to be fighting the enemy but instead jostling for more kills? This isn’t Call of Duty, am I right?! Apparently the more kills and scores you do, the higher your ranking and thus your compensation. Yeah. All about the money. Welcome to capitalism. I suppose this is a chance for Kasumi to ‘accidentally’ shoot Ichiya as friendly fire. With the enemy coming on too strong, Maihime decides to unleash her super power. This has everyone including Ichiya to run like hell out from her perimeter. Her big slash wipes out the enemy but too powerful that it destroys Aqua Line too. Oops. In the end, Gutoku admonishes all of them because he specifically told them not to destroy Aqua Line. Guess what? Hotaru and Kasumi conveniently blame Ichiya for this. Wanna fight? Gutoku screws all that and reprimands all of them.

Episode 2
Part of their punishment is to guard the engineering students while the repair Aqua Line and help them out as some of them are afraid they have spotted an unidentified Unknown (that’s like an unknown Unknown, right?). So they split themselves into 2 teams. Team A has Canaria, Maihime and Asuha. As you have guessed, Team B has those who constantly fight each other and hate each other’s guts. So while Team A is cheerful and motivational, Team B is gloomy and always arguing. During lunch break, Ichiya is being rude when Aoi Yaegaki serves him a hot towel. He doesn’t bother remembering names of those lower than him. This has Kasumi throw a hot towel in his face (I guess to give a reason to provoke) and before this reaches boiling point, Canaria calms them down. If you think Gutoku is being nice lending them swimsuits after that, well they have another task coming. As Aoi’s World can scan other people’s memories and transmit to others, they see a mysterious Unknown popping out of the waters and heading back down. No casualties have been reported. I’m sure it must be awkward seeing through a vision of a guy kissing!!! So the gang dive underwater to find the elusive mystery. Kasumi’s World is super hearing. He can figure out the layout of the underwater seabed with his ultrasonic hearing and resonance. He hears one approaching Asuha quick and fires a shot to take it out. In the end, it was never found and they remain suspicious if that was an Unknown because signals should have been picked up then. Asuha sheepishly thanks Kasumi but he becomes a big tease and wants her to repeat it many times, earning her wrath. So much about getting back into her good books. Meanwhile Gutoku and Airi discuss about the enemy being shot down and will be sent to HQ for examination. They fear their secret of the barrier’s layout might be known.

Episode 3
Medical officer, Mahiro Okuni hands in the list of students to be transferred internally to Gutoku and Airi. Airi is not pleased that she treats these students as objects although this transfer is to protect them as their valuable assets in sustaining their world. Okay, so she does make them sound like goods. Later they brief the usual about an unusual Unknown popping up. While Kousuke Hashibiro and his team were on patrol, this giant tower popped up in the middle of the sea. They codename it Leviathan. Their mission is to destroy it as the enemy’s goal is to occupy Umihotaru as a bridgehead. It seems Ichiya was supposed to be with Kousuke during the patrol but instead he was visiting an injured student who is on the transfer list. When Canaria returns home that night, Ichiya isn’t around and from the wide open window, she knew he had gone to fight the menace alone. Luckily Canaria, Kousuke and his team caught up and want to help out but Ichiya continues to be a selfish jerk thinking he can handle it all. But when they all continue to provide support and Canaria starts singing and even reminding him he is no longer alone, he relents and gives teamwork a chance. Everything is going great until Canaria collapses. And she is bleeding like hell! Time for Ichiya to remember what fear looks like. They get overwhelmed by the enemy and even worse, Leviathan is just the tip of the iceberg. You mean this enemy tower is just like a puny antenna for the bigger red durian below?! Knowing they have no chance of winning, they take refuge inside Umihotaru. Ichiya is desperately trying to seek help to save Canaria.

Episode 4
No use to start thinking how useless you are right now. This opens up for the Kanagawa and Chiba counterparts to tease him as they arrive in time to rescue all of them. After Canaria is wheeled into ICU, naturally Ichiya continues to feel down. Then he is summoned by Gutoku to explain why he acted by himself and defy his orders to form a team and take it out together. After a manly slap, Ichiya wants to take responsibility and finish this by himself. Oh, so is he going to rush out there by himself again? No. He has friends whom he needs their power to help. So now he realizes the importance of having friends? Ichiya takes the lead in studying the enemy and preparing tactics for all 3 cities to attack Leviathan which is occupying Umihotaru. While the Tokyo side provide air support and distraction, the Chiba side provides long range gun fire and the Kanagawa side supplying underwater tactics. Canaria wakes up in the hospital bed and once she hears Ichiya out in battle, she wants to go help him despite Aoi’s objection she needs to rest. Besides, she can’t fly there, right? Don’t worry. Kousuke and his team can do the job. By the time they arrive, Canaria’s singing powers up the fighting students. Leviathan takes a lot of damage so naturally it tries to run away. I’m not sure about Ichiya’s strategy to use Maihime’s powerful attack but her finishing move has something to do with E=MC². WTF?! Since when did Einstein’s theory has got some sh*t in this?! Everyone celebrates their victory as Ichiya brings Canaria back, taking this opportunity to apologize. So now he is a changed person and is going to appreciate the power of teamwork. Gutoku is shocked to learn Aoi has entered the no entry zone. Even more so when he learns Canaria has left the hospital. He desperately tries to get her back. Ichiya talks to Canaria he is asking for a demotion and thus making her the next Tokyo head. He will train and do his best to become number 1. Suddenly a huge rock crashes onto Canaria! WTF?! THIS IS NOT COMEDY, ISN’T IT???!!! No it’s not. Canaria, nooooo!!!

Episode 5
OMG! Canaria is really dead?! I know it’s impossible to survive that but I was hoping some absurd reason would have at least put her in coma in ICU. I guess they really killed off her character :’(. Apparently there are a few students who were also killed in this mysterious fashion. Airi and Gutoku have the Kanagawa and Chiba help out for the time being. Although Maihime is raring to go, Kasumi isn’t fond in particular as he views this as Ichiya’s problem so he should be cleaning this mess up. With Maihime as the interim of Tokyo, she barges into several departments to make some ‘fun’ changes. Yeah, it’s like she’s having fun. While she rallies and gives hope to Tokyo students, Kasumi is on the direct opposite. He badmouths Tokyo, saying there is no hope left and should just come to his city where they’ll protect them. Maihime then goes to visit Ichiya who is wasting away in his room. Of course she blows her top for his hypocrisy but he tells her off that Canaria might just be a number to her but she isn’t a number to him. True. But remember, they are fighting a war. No time to be sulking. When alone, Maihime lets loose her cheerful disposition and cries in Hotaru’s arms before putting back her happy mask on. Kasumi is less forgiving as he forces Ichiya to go do his duties. Meanwhile Aoi just finished her surgery of replacing her Code. Something fishy is going on when Okuni doesn’t want Airi to explain details to her. Something about a group of students including Aoi entered the no entry zone and she was the only one to come out alive. When Aoi accidentally touches Airi’s hands, she sees some horrifying visions. After Aoi is released, Hotaru approaches her to get any hints. Because Aoi’s group was the only one who approached Leviathan from the back. All the mystery murders seemed to come from the group who entered from the rear. Aoi isn’t sure if she should tell but decides she doesn’t know anything. Unknown attacks again and the usual fight and defend battle again. Could have been just another day’s fight if not suddenly the entire sky turning dark red. Freaking hordes of Unknowns dropping down. Apocalypse now?

Episode 6
Hotaru and Aoi are driving towards the no entry zone like crazy since Unknowns are attacking them. I believe the students’ Code serves as a homing device, the reason why certain Unknown types come crashing on them! Holy cow! It looks like those funny cartoon moments when the anvil drops on a character!!! Good news is that Ichiya has snapped out of his gloominess and fights the hordes. But bad news means he has snapped. Going crazy to just kill off the Unknowns recklessly. If there is nobody else to protect, he’ll just destroy everything! Nice reasoning there, mate. Airi for some unknown reasons rushes out into the battlefield and almost got killed. Had not Maihime and her force save her, she would’ve been dead. There’s some flashback about them being together. It is a reason Maihime wants higher authorities to survive. She lets Airi board the train to safety and lets her keep her timepiece. Why do I have a bad feeling about this? So more flashback when Maihime was young, her powerful World just came bursting out. There’s some theory about her special ability awakening from cold sleep but I don’t really understand. Nor do I care. Airi accompanied Maihime to her late grandpa’s house where she took over his coat and timepiece. She explains the normally peaceful dream she has about everyone and the reason she can’t leave this place is because of her promise to Hotaru. With more ‘anvils’ falling and the enemy overwhelming, Maihime orders everyone to retreat. What about her? She is going to play the heroine to buy everyone time. Man, doesn’t that sound like a death wish? As she beats the crap out of the enemy, she remembers about her promise with Hotaru to meet here again after the war because they were going to separate shelters. Maihime refuses to get onboard the train and continues to stop the enemies. Like, she’s really having a death wish now, right? Even more so as she is going to take on this new bunch of humanoid horde. I hope they didn’t postpone her death to the next episode.

Episode 7
Kasumi and Asuha are also racing towards Tokyo. Asuha rides like the wild chick and unknowingly the side car got detached leaving Kasumi behind. Hotaru remembers she got lost many years ago and was taken in by some secret service. She was trained to kill ruthlessly. Aoi and Hotaru stumble upon stranded Kasumi. Hotaru didn’t want to pick him up but kind Aoi did. Too bad he has to hop on while Hotaru is stepping on the accelerator. Nearly killed him. Don’t worry, she believes that won’t kill him. We hear more about Hotaru’s promise with Maihime. Because the latter honoured her promise by waiting for her for 10 years and was the one who brought Hotaru back to her senses. It is the reason why she follows Maihime wherever she goes. With the fight against Unknown wrapping up everywhere else, only Tokyo is left. Airi is trying to reactivate the barrier but it will take time. Maihime is still fighting the Unknowns. Oh, here comes the supposedly big boss. Hey… Doesn’t that look like… Kyuubey?! OMG! Anyway she realizes it isn’t the enemy that is getting stronger but herself getting weaker. Duh. She’s been fighting for who knows how long. Naturally Maihime is on the verge of defeat and succumbing to her fate when here comes Hotaru to rescue her in the nick of time. It seems Kasumi hatched a plan to support Hotaru to jump straight to Maihime. It’s faster that way. With Maihime safely in her arms, Hotaru can now unleash all anger at the Unknowns. Eat this! Everything looks set for victory. The barrier is about to be activated, the Unknowns retreating and Hotaru her final strike. Suddenly Maihime stops Hotaru from her job. Then she destroys her Code and lets a giant Unknown blimp smash into them. Can anyone survive that? I don’t know what Hotaru said in her final words to Kasumi but he sure looks shocked.

Episode 8
Everyone is sad hat Maihime and Hotaru are dead. There are lots more who are dead, injured or missing. Gutoku and Airi suggest Aoi take over Kanagawa’s management while Asuha temporarily handles Tokyo. Okuni suggests scaling down their battles and pulling their defence line back inland by abandoning the current one. She also wants Chigusa to be relocated inside but everyone including Chigusa herself objects. Although Gutoku reluctantly agrees with Okuni, he will decide the time for her relocation. Okuni personally tries to persuade Chigusa the perks of relocating and she can be closer to her family. However she turns her down. Ichiya confronts Kasumi and is mad about his announcement about scaling back battles. What else does Ichiya has to live for if he doesn’t fight to avenge Canaria? Kasumi doesn’t give a damn, Ichiya isn’t going to accept this. Later Kasumi and Aoi go around patrolling and since everyone is teasing them on a date, it is no surprise that Asuha is stalking them from the shadows. Okuni talks to Kasumi and again tries to persuade him to change his sister’s mind. But after learning Hotaru said something to him before her demise, she wants to discuss more in private tonight at a secret location. Don’t tell anybody. Not even Asuha. So here he is and instantly he knows he is set up since the coffee she served is drugged. There’s something mentioned about the world the kids see is fake and Okuni intends to erase that memory from him. He is attacked by… Invisible tentacles! He can’t see but at least he can hear. Okuni beats him up, damaging his eye, claiming they would be better off without obstacles like them. Fortunately, Kasumi didn’t come alone. Okuni couldn’t react in time as Chigusa freezes her. Kasumi finishes her off by breaking her frozen body into pieces. Chigusa isn’t satisfied and goes for overkill by burning every bit of her morsel. Wow. Kasumi may get his awaited sisterly love treatment but don’t make her mad. Taking off his bandage, Kasumi realizes something is wrong with his vision.

Episode 9
Rumours go around that Okuni got promoted to the inside. Although Kasumi is okay, he realizes the visions he has been seeing the world as are fake. He leaves it to Asuha to guard the area while he goes off to do more research. He tries to look up for more information but it is easy and not secured. He believes the ones he wants are locked away as standalone. Aha. A hidden wall filled with paper documents? Big words he finds… Adaptability coefficient and erosion rate… Asuha goes to talk to Ichiya who is still mopping around. When Unknowns attack again, Asuha and Aoi cannot agree on what to do. Ichiya returns to reorganize the team and do something good for once. When Ichiya goes down to the battlefield, an officer tries to prevent him from fighting. And then he got sniped! Ichiya is enraged and he knows only a person has such skills. He confronts Kasumi. One chance to explain. Would you believe it that he was protecting you? Nope. Time to kick ass. More Unknowns descend and attack. Asuha is having a hard time fighting off a couple of super Kyuubey types. She got her Code destroyed in the midst. When an Unknown intervenes Ichiya and Kasumi’s fight, Kasumi instead shoots at Ichiya and lets the Unknown go. This enrages Ichiya even more as the fight becomes a cat and mouse game. Ichiya is being mad and Kasumi is like talking nonsense. Ichiya is so mad in wanting to fight him that he doesn’t even care about the Unknown coming in. And I’m sure Kasumi meant literally is that because the worlds they see are very different. Kasumi then hums Canaria’s song. He doesn’t know how to sing it up until now. Ichiya is still in denial but becomes more confused when he hears Canaria’s voice singing it. Isn’t she supposed to be dead? He is brought to tears hearing her song as the Unknown who is Canaria hugs him. When his Code is broken, Ichiya could finally see the real Canaria in the flesh. Still cheery as always. Then he gets a glimpse of the real world for the first time: A decimated apocalyptic wasteland?

Episode 10
Asuha is rescued by Maihime and Hotaru. Along with Kasumi and Aoi, they are brought to Johannes. She is the Chigusa siblings’ mother. She is so spunky and lively it is as though she didn’t leave any of those genes to her children. Really. As the commander of this operation she explains what has been going on. Many years ago, children were kidnapped and raised by Unknown to fight against real humans. When the first war started 30 years ago, many adults put their children into cold sleep as emergency measure. However that was the Unknown’s plan to kidnap and then implant false memories into them. Therefore the Code embedded behind their neck was necessary to maintain a false world. Of course to the real humans, everything looked vague too so they had a hard time differentiating friend or foe and many perished. The no entry zone is the farthest of the barrier and if one crosses over, they would see the real world. That’s why the humans were trying to destroy it. Ichiya feels like a dick after hearing Canaria’s explanation. Not only he was fooled and failed to live up to his hero dream, how can he face Kasumi whom he can picture has that I-told-you-so smug on his face. Canaria remains positive that he can start anew and get along with everyone else. Johannes shows the ultimate cannon that will wipe out the entire area and destroy all Unknown. Yeah, they’ve put all their budget into it so it better work. Aoi is still hesitant because some like Airi and Gutoku have been really kind towards them. Johannes assures the kids don’t have to fight anymore and leave it to the adults. The alert sounds. Time to kick Unknown ass. Our usual heroes go into their action mode slaying the aliens. Ichiya repays his debt to Kasumi by saving his ass. They’re even now although they’re still the same throwing insults at each other. Oh yeah. All is fine in the world.

Episode 11
It’s like Airi and Gutoku are having their final liaisons together before the big decisive fight. But it seems they have their own plan as they take out their own comrades who are guarding the sleeping kids in the capsule. Johannes further explains that Unknown invaded Earth not to steal resources or territory but to alter their children so it would evolve into their kind. Something about Unknowns cannot reproduce on their own. However Aoi is still in doubt as she believes Airi and Gutoku are good guys who treated her well with love. She can’t just defect. She doesn’t want this truth. Johannes then orders the use of the cannon. It creates a huge damage but the remaining enemies counter attack. Johannes gets injured in the attack. Cue for mother and children to bond tightly in the infirmary before the kids heading off to finish unfinished business. Just when Maihime is going to lead her troops to fight head on, Kasumi and Asuha have another plan. They are going to strike the tower where Airi and Gutoku are. Kasumi calls Ichiya to convince that guy to join in. At first Ichiya has lost all reason to fight but when Kasumi tells him to take a good look at the girl he loves, he changes his mind. That should be a reason worth fighting. The general outline of the plan is to sneak into the tower via this lousy boat and then destroy the gate. Simple. As for how to destroy the gate, Kasumi hasn’t thought that far. Hey, he’s trying to keep things simple. Once inside the tower, they split into groups. Ichiya’s group is shocked to find a trail of bodies of Unknowns lying around. Did somebody beat them to it? They are then confronted by Gutoku who has been waiting for them. Noticed something? He still looks like the Gutoku they all know. That’s because Gutoku has always been a human from the start! Maihime and Hotaru head deep down to rescue the sleeping kids. They are confronted with a hideous Unknown fit enough to be a boss of Dark Souls.

Episode 12
Gutoku once encountered an Unknown looking a lot like a human (Airi). He got stabbed. Now he explains to the kids why he is working with the enemy all along. It’s not like he hate mankind or anything. Just that he saw a goddess. WTF?! What kind of excuse is that? So Airi is his God or something? At this point, Aoi can no longer be untrue to herself. She decides to defect to the other side. And she has no regrets about it. So while the girls chase her, the guys stay back and fight. If you’re wondering if Gutoku is just human, why is he displaying superhuman abilities? Well, Unknown tinkered with his body so he is part Unknown! That sentence feels so strange. When our young heroes are on the verge of losing, Canaria starts singing and this gives them hope to fight back. This means Asuha takes out Aoi via some wrestling chokehold and Aoi thrusting her sword into the Unknown. This makes her remember a long time ago she talked to Airi about her dream. It was to have her own child and die the way she wants. Once Aoi sees Airi’s timepiece on the ground, she knew what she had done but she has no regrets. She and Hotaru free the children. Gutoku senses Airi is dead and tells the guys to flee because this tower will now collapse without her as the administrator. He is going down with the ship. So everyone gets out and before you know it, the gate closes and all Unknowns in the world is gone. Rejoice mankind! For you have won! Gutoku did want to die with Airi in the collapsing tower but he sees a vision of her spirit asking him to take care of Aoi. If that’s her wish… So peace reign over the area and everyone is trying to rebuild their lives. Ichiya and co visit an unnamed grave dedicated to Airi.

“How Can Mirrors Be Real If Our Eyes Aren’t Real?”
Now that Unknowns are expelled from the world, what is there left to fight for? What the heck was Canaria’s final narration about learning more about their World? At this point does it really matter? Now the kids can go back and live their so called normal lives as normal humans but they can’t really because they’ve always been under the care of a certain kind pair of Unknowns but we don’t care anymore since the anime has pretty much ended on a cliché good-humans-triumph-over-everything.

Well, everything seems pretty cliché and predictable by the time it reaches halfway. And when they started killing off our young heroes one by one, something inside me felt that there was more than meets the eye. There must be a hidden plot twist somewhere. I mean, killing off one of the cutest main characters as early as episode 4? That’s insane, right? Something must be amiss. With Canaria’s ‘death’, Ichiya literally ‘died’ on the inside. Yeah, he is dead for the middle parts of the story. And when Maihime and Hotaru seemingly accepted their untimely ‘deaths’, I could actually guess what the entire twist was about. And hell yeah, I was right even before that revelation about the world they’re seeing being fake is greatly hinted or revealed. The biggest twist is supposed to be “You’re the bad guys all along”. Because of that, it took away some of the pleasures and fun in watching the series. It somewhat became boring then. I don’t know. Is it my fault? Well, at least it is a good thing because it shows that I am paying attention, right?

The characters feel unexciting and as monotonous as Kasumi’s slacker character. By the way, the Chigusa siblings are the more interesting ones compared to the rest of the main characters. Kasumi is like forever like in his sleepy mode. His looks feel like he has this “I wish I wasn’t here” sound. Despite looking like a lazy slacker, he feels like the main character because he has to do all the dirty jobs while the others weren’t around. Making him more amusing is his interaction with his sister. I wonder if this can also be called sibling love-cum-hate. It’s like they hate each other but they don’t because that is how they talk to each other. The way Asuha always spites him with sarcasm about his creepy attitude and Kasumi being reduced to a weakling, giving us an impression he may be a siscon or something and Asuha a tsundere with buranko complex.

Ichiya may look and start off looking like the main character but after Canaria got seemingly killed, he is reduced to a wreck. A lost soul sulking trying to make out the reason for the rest of his existence. He is the kind of character full of angst and would settle for throwing punches instead of diplomacy. It makes his whining annoying. Well, if they wanted a less than perfect main character whom everyone would love to dislike, they’ve done a good job. His butt heading with Kasumi is amusing too but only second to Kasumi-Asuha banter. Maybe that is why he needs happy go lucky Canaria around to calm him down and rationalize his thinking. Maihime’s childish and lively character balances up the otherwise gloomy group of characters (asides Canaria). Well, she has to. When her name is the name of an anime series where my first waifu came from, she’d better be. Then you have Hotaru who looks like a typical strict swordswoman but serves more of a potential yuri role for Maihime.

Finally, Aoi. I think she is the most annoying of the group. She doesn’t even have fighting capabilities and overall I see her as a whiny confused soul. I can’t really blame her. Imagine if you’re being raised by adults whom you think are your biological parents. Then when you reach your legal age of adulthood, suddenly somebody drops the bombshell that they are not your real parents. But these ‘parents’ of yours have been taking real good care of you ever since. So how not to feel confused? I understand her case but I don’t know. It doesn’t really do much good to her character in that sense. Then finally when she defected, it’s like she become totally useful and able. It’s like her dark side unleashed and we see a side that we never expect her to see. I am not sure if Aoi is alive in the end because despite seeing Gutoku picking her up and hinting they will continue living, where are they going to run then? Conveniently, their existence is thrown into mystery when we see a slab falling supposedly on them. So if we don’t really consider their deaths, this means Airi is the only main supporting character who died?! Wait! NOT MAMIKO NOTO GETTING KILLED OFF AGAIN???!!! WTF???!!!! I don’t want to see this true world anymore!!! I know there is this Okuni character too but she isn’t a memorable one so it doesn’t really mater…

In short, sure, all of the kids have their flaws and troubles and some like Ichiya and Maihime have their own back stories to give their character a little more depth. But in the end, the kind of problems they have are mostly their own personality that you want to tell them to get over themselves. In the end, they mainly stay true to themselves because Ichiya and Kasumi continue their sarcastic banter. Some things never change

As for the aliens known as Unknowns, I’m sure they’re being namely apt so that we don’t question what the heck they are or where they come from. All I know when they first appeared, I thought they came out from Kirby. Not because of their shape but rather their colour. Funny to see kids fighting against Kirby-coloured enemies. Even more mind boggling is how they steal kids to reproduce or more accurately to continue their species’ existence. Of all species in the universe (assuming there are other aliens out there), they had to pick us humans (for the sake of the plot). Don’t they know how weak humans are (assuming humans here are your average Joes like in the real world)? They are prone to diseases and illness and their bodies are so frail that once broken it cannot be recovered as good as before. And they want to evolve us to their own kind?

This is supposed to be an action sci-fi anime. Or so I think. Because the action parts feel as boring as the plot. They’re supposed to supplement it and in worst case scenarios supposed to be the relief from the dull story. Instead, the fights are nothing special and feel forced. Just because they have to fight the Unknowns, the fight scenes are necessary. I don’t think I even remember if each of the main characters has some sort of special skill that makes them stand out from the rest. Even so, they are just general. For instance, Kasumi’s sniping, Asuha’s gunning, Maihime and Hotaru’s sword slashing, Ichiya’s erm, magic and Canaria’s uhm, singing? As for the other students, I find it really odd for those who fight aerially. Because they have to ride ‘magic wands’ that look like broomsticks. I thought they had to go play Quidditch after that. If the anime wasn’t ‘funny’ enough for you, there is a short still picture segment at the end of each episode that depicts a chibi and comical comic of the characters doing random stuffs. All are illustrated by the series’ author, Maki Toyama.

I won’t say that the quality of the animation is totally bad. But I noticed that there is a drop in it during the later episodes. Sometimes I feel that there isn’t enough ‘animation’. What I mean is that you know how Japanese animation sometimes would like to show off their animation like their hair waving in the wind when even there is no wind. So in the case of this anime, I feel that the lack in such animation makes certain scenes look like still pictures. Sometimes it surprised me a bit to make me think that my computer has frozen or something.

The only redeeming factor is of course hearing Mamiko Noto as Airi. I know I’m bias but who cares at this point. When I realized the twist of her character that she is supposed to be on the alien’s side, it still proves that my unwarranted worries that they may try to kill her character off. And they did… Damn you! Why do you have to be so bias!!! The only other seiyuuu I recognized is Aoi Yuuki as Maihime and Mai Nakahara as Johannes. The rest of the other casts are Souma Saitou as Ichiya (Kain in Kyoukai No Rinne), Yui Ishikawa as Canaria (Mikasa in Shingeki No Kyojin), Yuuma Uchida as Kasumi (Yabuki in Gakusen Toshi Asterisk), Chika Anzai as Asuha (Chaika in Hitsugi No Chaika), Ayaka Fukuhara as Hotaru (Rin Shibuya in Idolmaster Cinderella Girls), Hiroaki Hirata as Gutoku (Sanji in One Piece) and Sora Amamiya as Aoi (Akame in Akame Ga Kill).

Despite having a few opening and ending themes, none of them resonated with me. I believe it isn’t the fact that they are all rock based which is quite fitting for what this series’ genre is. For the first 2/3 of the series, the opener is Brave Freak Out by Lisa followed by Axxxis which is also sung by the same singer. Claris does the first ending theme, Gravity while Garnidelia does the second one, Yakusoku -Promise Code-. For the third ending theme, Claris and Garnidelia combine unite and do a duet for Clever.

Overall, this isn’t entirely a bad anime per se. It’s badder because they killed off Mamiko Noto’s character and triggered my phobia last minute. Just kidding. But seriously. I know with all the criticisms that I have given, it is not as bad because at the end of it, I was still somewhat ‘entertained’. Maybe all this bad review about this anime all boils down to our own biasness and prejudice. That has become our Code in looking this anime in a negative light. Because I am very sure that compared to a person like me who has watched so many animes and have come to form my own (unrealistic) expectations and hope, to another person who is new to anime, there would definitely be very disparaging comments. So maybe this series is trying to subtly hint that for us veteran anime viewers, if we could take away all the preconceptions and prejudgments that have been blinding us for a long time, this series is actually a good one if not a decent one for what it is worth. Or maybe this is just straight up a bad anime that even the blind can see how bad it is from miles away.