Alien Nine (2001– ) User Reviews

It might end abruptly but it still a great OVA

[senseihEnRY · 8/10 · 8 February 2012]

Alien Nine is an OVA based on seinen manga by Hitoshi Tomizawa (Battle Royale II: Blitz Royale, 2003) with the same title. Animated by J.C. Staff (Azumanga Daioh, Shakugan no Shana, Bakuman), produced by Genco (Elfen Lied), directed by Jiro Fujimoto and Yasuhiro Irie (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

The story set not so far in future where human and aliens live together. Unlike E.T. or Predator or The Thing, these Aliens are more like mindless animal. Because most of them are not too harmful (more on the annoying side), each school made a team to capture these aliens that coming to school. These team equipped with tranquilizer gun, roller blade, net, and of course, a guardian alien on their head. Our main character, Yuri Ootani is a quite girl, easily scared, and easily cry on nearly every event. Together with her other team member, Kumi Kawamura, and Kasumi Tomine, they must work together to get rid the aliens from their school although, it's not as easy as it look.

I like the story because it focus on how Yuri try to do her duty despite her fear toward the aliens. How Yuri try to develop herself, to overcome her fear, to get along with Kumi and Kasumi which are stronger than her, and to properly fulfilled her duty are portrayed in realistic way. It's not easy and sometimes it's harsh and brutal.

The animation is superb although it's obvious because it's an OVA, very detail and very fluid. The character design is especially unique (because it follows Hitoshi Tomizawa's unique drawing style).

The cast are great. Juri Ihata as Yuri is incredibly awesome. Her voice acting really reflect Yuri's emotion in awesome way. I rarely like the English dub but the English localization team did a great job on this OVA.

The music by Kuniaki Haishima is very catchy and cheerful, it might not perfectly fit the nature of the series but it still great.

The only downside is the story ends abruptly. It's not surprising because it only cover half of the first 3 volumes of the manga (there are 4 volumes). There are still no news of continuation or reboot of this series, so for now you must read the manga to know the rest of the story.

verdict, it's a great OVA with strong story, great animation, music, and voice cast. As long as you can forgive the ending, i'm sure you can have a good watch with this one.

Just to flimsy

[blackmamba99971 · 3/10 · 28 February 2017]

Although alien manga does have its perks now, and again I found this one to be less specific of a series because of each of the characters nature. First there is yuri. A small girl picked by her classmates to be one of the alien officers to keep her school peaceful by chasing down, and incarcerating different aliens that infiltrate her school. Not only is she a complete wimp in the most major degree but possibly the worst coward of all time. I couldn't watch her for the life of me... I tried.

Second was Kumi. Through out the story her friend Kumi was for the lack of a better word a distilled friend to Yuri. Both got along well but every time Yuri had to battle she had to rely on Kumi to get her out of fighting, which put a terrible toll on Kumi's sanity. And last was Kasumi the bold one of the bunch. She could fight, and loved her job doing it. Only to get abducted in the end by another alien named Yellow knife who uses mind control in order to feed.

The entire story was too convoluted to make any sense, and showing us teachers who seemed very dubious to say the least made me think that just by recruiting children to stave off some sort of alien invasion meant that the entire faculty was involved. That the lives of their female gladiators were nothing more than tools. I failed to see the logic of it especially listening to Yuri cry and bawl in every episode all because she never wanted to be some fighter. How cowardly can she be? I've seen my share of anime over the past twenty years, and this one depressed me beyond words. I hated Yuri's character to the bone, and I loathed the fact that the story used pre-adolescent kids to do the job. Yet to be fair there are other stories that involve such themes but at least when they do that the characters decide to kick butt or die trying. Alien 9 only showed Yuri wanting to die just to get out of her job or in such a way that the alien that sits on top of her head would just say... Would someone please get this girl away from me? She is driving me crazy with her incessant bawling, and really is a coward.

Why would an alien put up with such a useless person like that for four episodes? Not a very convincing plot or story to make it believable. No kid with an imagination would react they way she did. Not even in the real world.

Utterly horrifying

[chrismulcheater · 9/10 · 17 January 2024]

It's short and ends abruptly due to being canceled mid-way, but it is gripping and truly one of a kind. The characters aren't super fleshed out, but they have enough meat to them that the end carries a lot of weight.

The animation is gorgeous. The creature designs are a bit lackluster, but the big bad "Yellow Knife" is imposing and disgusting, fitting his role in the story as an existential nightmare. I would also buy plushies of the Borgs if they made them.

My only complaint is the ending, which seems to be a common critique of this show. It ends on a bleak cliffhanger. This is because the animated adaptation ends somewhere in the middle of the manga, and was canceled before it could wrap itself up. I find this very unfortunate, as I think I'd watch a good 100 episodes of whatever brand of crazy this is.

Despite being unfinished, Alien Nine is a hidden gem of anime psychological horror. If you like mind-bendy anime like Evangelion or Madoka Magica, I can't recommend this OVA enough. It's beautiful and disgusting.