"Scryed" (2001) TV series 2001-

Director:

Goro Taniguchi

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

4 July 2001 (Japan)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Plot:

22 years ago, a bizarre uprising occurred in Japan's Yokohama region, destroying civilization, killing many...

Plot Keywords:

Anime

Cast

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)

Series Directed by
Goro Taniguchi		(unknown episodes)

Series Produced by
Keisuke Iwata	....	executive producer (unknown episodes)
Shinichirô Kobayashi	....	executive producer (unknown episodes)
Hisanori Kunisaki	....	executive producer (unknown episodes)

Series Original Music by
Yasuaki Ide		(unknown episodes)
Mikio Sakai		(unknown episodes)
Hideyuki 'Daichi' Suzuki		(unknown episodes)

Series Art Direction by
Iku Suzuki		(unknown episodes)

Series Art Department
Masamitsu Hidaka	....	storyboard artist (unknown episodes)
Reiko Iwasawa	....	color designer (unknown episodes)
Mitsuko Kase	....	storyboard artist (unknown episodes)
Masaki Kitamura	....	storyboard artist (unknown episodes)
Rion Kujo	....	storyboard artist (unknown episodes)
Fuyu Kuroki	....	storyboard artist (unknown episodes)
Shinji Takamatsu	....	storyboard artist (unknown episodes)
Goro Taniguchi	....	storyboard artist (unknown episodes)
Sumio Watanabe	....	storyboard artist (unknown episodes)
Kazuo Yamazaki	....	storyboard artist (unknown episodes)
Takeshi Yoshimoto	....	storyboard artist: opening/ending credits (unknown episodes)
Naoyuki Yoshinaga	....	storyboard artist (unknown episodes)

Series Sound Department
Yasuo Uragami	....	sound director (unknown episodes)

Series Animation Department
Seiichi Hashimoto	....	mechanical animation director (unknown episodes)
Hisashi Hirai	....	animation director: opening and ending credits / character design/animation director / ... (unknown episodes)
Kôji Itô	....	mechanical animation director (unknown episodes)
Eiji Nakata	....	mechanical animation director (unknown episodes)
Seiichi Nakatani	....	mechanical animation director (unknown episodes)
Iwao Teraoka	....	mechanical animation director (unknown episodes)
Yôichi Ueda	....	mechanical animation director (unknown episodes)
Masahiro Yamane	....	animation director: opening and ending credits / chief mechanical animation director / ... (unknown episodes)

Series Music Department
Mikio Sakai	....	music arranger: "Drastic my Soul" (unknown episodes)

Series Other crew
Tetsuya Fujita	....	translator (unknown episodes)
Shintaro Itoga	....	unit director (unknown episodes)
Noriyuki Jinguji	....	visual concept (unknown episodes)
Hiroto Kato	....	unit director (unknown episodes)
Toru Kitahata	....	unit director (unknown episodes)
Rion Kujo	....	unit director (unknown episodes)
Daiki Nishimura	....	unit director (unknown episodes)
Kouji Ogata	....	guest alter design (unknown episodes)
Hirokazu Yamada	....	unit director (unknown episodes)
Takeshi Yoshimoto	....	chief unit director (unknown episodes)
Akira Yoshimura	....	unit director (unknown episodes)

Production Companies

• Bandai Visual Company
• Sunrise
• TV Tokyo
• Yomiko Advertising

Distributors

• Bandai Entertainment (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Cartoon Network (2005) (USA) (TV)
• Madman Entertainment (2005) (Australia) (DVD)
• TV Tokyo (2001) (Japan) (TV)

Special Effects

• Matrix

Other Companies

• APU Studio  recording studio
• Audio Planning U  sound production
• Bigbody  title design
• Jay Film Company  editing cooperation
• Q-Tec  video editing
• Winds  editing

Also Known As:

"s-CRY-ed" - Japan (alternative transliteration), USA (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

25 min (26 episodes)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:PG (some episodes) | Australia:M (some episodes) | South Korea:12 | Canada:G (Quebec) (VHS/DVD rating) | New Zealand:M (some episodes) | New Zealand:PG (some episodes)

Company:

Bandai Visual Company

Quotes:

[repeated line]
Biff Kun:HAMMER!

Soundtrack:

Reckless Fire

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.