Scryed (2001– )

22 years ago, a bizarre uprising occurred in Japan's Yokohama region, destroying civilization, killing many, and causing the area to break off from Japan's mainland. This region came to be ... See full summary »

Stars:

Steve Blum, Melissa Fahn, Barbara Goodson

Cast

Series cast summary:
Steve Blum	...	Kazuma (1 episode, 2001)
Melissa Fahn	...	Cammy (1 episode, 2001)
Barbara Goodson	...	Banka (1 episode, 2001)
Tony Oliver	...	Elian (1 episode, 2001)
Derek Stephen Prince	...	George Tatsunami (1 episode, 2001)
Michelle Ruff	...	Ayase Terada (1 episode, 2001)
Paul St. Peter	...	Biff (1 episode, 2001)
Doug Stone	...	Councilman (1 episode, 2001)
Julie Ann Taylor	...	Chuka #2 (1 episode, 2001)
Kirk Thornton	...	Hideki (1 episode, 2001)

Storyline

22 years ago, a bizarre uprising occurred in Japan's Yokohama region, destroying civilization, killing many, and causing the area to break off from Japan's mainland. This region came to be known as the "Lost Ground". Over the years, some of the citizens managed to erect a new city in a corner of the Lost Ground and surrounded it with a barrier to protect it from the impoverished inhabitants of the island's surrounding wasteland. However, another phenomenon began to show up in the Lost Ground: Alter, the ability to rearrange matter at the atomic level in certain ways. "Inners" who were born with Alter powers became known as Alter Users, and Alter Users who lived outside the city and misused their powers were branded "Natives". The police force known as HOLD was constructed to control Native Alter Users. A division of it called HOLY was later created and made up almost entirely of law-abiding Alter Users. Now, however, HOLD and HOLY's control over the Lost Ground has become increasingly...

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Plot Keywords:

anime

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

4 July 2001 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Sukuraido

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bandai Visual Company, Sunrise, TV Tokyo

Technical Specs

Runtime:

25 min 25 min (26 episodes)

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

Kazuma: Well, looks like we're even now.
Asuka Tachibana: Yeah, but you're crazy.

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Soundtracks

"All I Need Is Love"
Performed by Mikio Sakai
Lyrics by Mikio Sakai
Episode: {"Kinji Mujo" (2001) (ep. #1.14)}

User Reviews

Promising

Yeah, so I'm going to admit that this review is just a bit preliminary, considering I've seen... 2 episodes.

But, here goes.

The human race is separated into Inners and Outters. The Outters are normal human beings, but the Inners are certain people with super-human abilities, or "Alter Users". Basically, an Alter is what you'd think it is--like an "Alter Ego"; the Alter is something (different for every person) the user can call up to do his bidding. Which, of course, in anime, means that they're used for fighting spectacular battles.

But Alters aren't just terrible excuses to make this show a shounen title. Alter Users have what we would call ESP abilities... things fly around the room, things blow up, the user has superhero abilities, etc. etc. (Like "Straight Cougar", who can make things go faster, or Kazuma, who can land on a building without a parachute.)

The "Alter Users" were created with the "Lost Ground", a small part of Japan that broke off from the main island. A small percentage of the people born on this lost ground have the Alter abilities.

So, with all these Neo-generation punk kids walking around aimlessly with destructive powers, there inevitably has to be the huge, benevolent organization to control them all.

Enter HOLD.

(Or HOLY, if you will. The organization is called "HOLD" and the foot soldiers are called "HOLY". And they get spiffy uniforms, too.)

So anyway. To the review.

The animation is, at times, dull, flat, and cheap. For instance, a rather simple scene panning the passangers in an airplane. It looked kind of like how I would draw a scene--the little circle for the head and the little semi-circle for the body and hope to hell that no-one will notice that I did my art project at lunch. Oh, and a little smiley face and the two little eyes.

And Kazuma, when in his strange, "Black Motion Lines Freeze Frame Scary Face" mode, looks like he's trying to be punk/mad/intimidating (and looks rather silly) instead of his cute-as-a-button cream puff Lead Male appearance.

Other than that, the character designs and the over-all appearance of the show are just squeak in at above average. Not good, but not necessarily bad, either. I especially like the outfits on everyone. Very ultra-modern.

The music is another story, but it's not too distracting or weird. To try and describe it, I would have to say something like early 90's wanna-be rock, and/or early 90's wanna-be rock ballads. (Just picture "Gundam Wing" music.)

Again, not good, but not bad.

The story is good, intriguing, but it was really annoying that the first episode ended with Kazuma's cliffhanger and then starts all over again with some other character. The Mildly Annoying Female Lead, no less. Which was a disappointment, because the episode was entitled "Ryuhou" not "Mimori (Mildly Annoying Female Lead Backstory)".

So I waited for 20 minutes for there to be some resolution to what happened to Kazuma and... the episode ends with *another* Kazuma-related-cliff-hanger. Needless to say I felt rather jarred.

But, it is promising. The premise is something that I'd actually like to see resolved and the characters are interesting enough.

Thumbs up.