s-CRY-ed
Sci-Fi, Adventure, and Action are a vicious combo for Anime. Many fans love this combination, especially when topped with a nice coating of Fantasy. Many titles made it big time with this arsenal, made anime history, and are icons to this day.
s-CRY-ed, also known as Scryed, is an Action, Sci-Fi, Adventure, Super Power, and Drama genre TV anime series. It is a 26 episode series that started airing on July 4th and went up until December 26th as a summer 2001 anime. It is produced by Yomiko Advertising, Licensed by Bandai Entertainment, Sentai Filmworks, and Discotek Media, and brought to life by Sunrise Studios.
It is an original anime adapted from the five-volume manga titled s.CRY.ed and the single volume Light Novel titled s.CRY.ed After. Additionally, two movies were released as Summaries, titled s.CRY.ed Alteration I: Tao in 2011 and s.CRY.ed Alteration II: Quan in 2012.
The series is rated PG-13 for Teenagers 13 years of age or older. The main team behind it is Producer Kouchiyama Takashi, Director and Storyboard Kujou Rion, Director and Storyboard Taniguchi Gorou, and Sound Director Urakami Yasuo.
The story is set in a world where a strange environmental phenomenon occurred 22 years ago in Kanazawa prefecture. This incident caused the very land to split apart and rise upwards, reaching unprecedented heights and bringing forth the secluded area called The Lost Ground.
In The Lost Ground dwells the protagonist Kazuma, a young mercenary on the lookout for any work he can come across to survive. His life in this harsh orthodox environment is in no way easy, so sustaining his life there is a daunting challenge. He is one of the limited numbers of gifted people with the Alter Ability.
This power allows him to plaster his right arm and torso with a metallic alloy. Kazuma eventually crosses paths with HOLY, an Order whose goal is to suppress and capture what they consider “Native Alter Users''. Here he meets one of the elite members of HOLY, named Ryuho, and this marks the beginning of an epic rivalry and an amazing action-packed adventure.
The story revolves around the Kanazawa Prefecture, where this peculiar unexplained geological and metaphysical phenomenon occurred. The incident was also followed by the release of a lot of energy there.
This resulted in two significant effects; the first one is that The Lost Ground split apart from the Mainland. The second one is that roughly 1% of the inhabitants of The Lost Ground obtained certain special abilities to manipulate matter in different ways. These select few are termed as Alter Capabilists, who possess Alter Abilities. In the event, an Alter Capabilist's ability manifests itself in the form of a separate entity, that separate entity is termed an Alter.
Politics is another central theme of this anime that adds to how interesting it is. The discrimination between people stems mainly from the Mainland who treats The Lost Grounds as a kind of developing nation. The city situated on The Lost Ground has running trade concessions and various help from the Mainland, but it is separated from the rest of The Lost Ground by a very high wall.
The people living outside The Wall are called Natives, whereas Alter users there are called Native Alters. The Lost Ground Admin has set up the organization of HOLD to combat the Lost Ground Native Alters. A special division within HOLD called HOLY consists of Native Alters who have banded together under the Admin to suppress other Native Alters hailing from the other side of the wall.
Basically, it's the special ability users pitched against each other. But even within the Admin section of The Lost Grounds, Alters are not accepted as equal citizens. The only exception is if they are members of HOLY.
The premise is interesting enough, with ample politics, socio-economic ramifications like the rich people living in the luxury of the city and the others are left in poor conditions, but as independent people outside the wall), organized government versus anarchy and of course dictatorship versus freedom.
It will reach a peak at around Episode 10, and it will not disappoint. On the way towards its conclusion, these great themes fall short and become inconsistent. Rest assured, though, the very last moment of the anime, the climax makes the whole series feel well worth the watch.
The characters of s-CRY-ed consist of many types, including the stereotypical and unique. Kazuma is the stereotypical rebel bad boy type with a golden heart. His Alter is the ability to harden his right arm with a metallic alloy, which allows him to smash through almost anything.
Initially, he is just a Native Alter living with his sweetheart, Kanami Yuta, while keeping his identity as an Alter in secret, as a Mercenary for hire. He then has the fateful encounter with Ryu Ryuhou, the wealthy spoiled scion of an influential industrial conglomerate. Despite the first impression, he is heaving around the emotional baggage from watching his mother die to a mysterious Alter Capabilist when he was just a child.
He is also a protagonist of the series, being the strong, silent, and lawful type. He is also handsome and has the stereotypical aloofness that makes him oblivious to the two girls who are so obviously in love with him. He is the most adept and gifted member of HOLY. He is charged with the vital task of suppressing Native Alters because it is made evident that only Alters can fight other Alters, and ordinary humans simply don't stand a chance.
Kazuma and Ryuhou start as enemies, but their relationship develops as the series progresses and their dynamic changes. This all happens in a very timely and natural manner. Sometimes Kazuma can be very one-dimensional with their rivalry, being very competitive, and wanting to always be victorious in their bouts, which can be slightly annoying. Comparatively, Ryuhou has a more mature approach to this.
Regardless their rivalry is something pivotal to the series, and it's just how they are and will not change. The remaining cast of supporting characters are very fleshed out, all of them in fact. The comic relief character Cougar Straight has an unexpected depth to him and is one of the best characters. Other notable characters include Scheris Adjani with an awesome Alter and the mainland Princess, who is both idealistic and unrealistic.
The remainder of the cast is relatively insignificant and is either very likable or hateable, but regardless they're not easily forgotten. Kazuma himself falls short in character development, but everyone else is pretty well done and makes a good cast of characters.
For a 2001 anime, it is typical to expect many reused frames, which is consistent for almost every episode. The artists did the transformation scenes well. They are drawn with an excellent artistic feel, flow, color, and creativity. The Alters of various characters are excellently done as well; seeing them, again and again, is not the least bit boring. Thus the Art and Animation of s-CRY-ed doesn't lack flair and is pretty good.
The soundtracks and music of the series scale from average to good. The Opening songs are “Reckless Fire" by Yasuaki Ide and “Drastic my Soul" by Mikio Sakai, featured in episode 26.
The Ending songs are "Drastic My Soul" by Mikio Sakai and "Tabidachi no Kane ga Naru" by Mikio Sakai for episode 26. The overall sound effects are all well done, and the voice acting is equally good. There is nothing exceptional nor horrible about the Sounds overall, so it’s decent at worst.
As a final verdict, s-CRY-ed is the kind of series most viewers will end up enjoying more than they expected to. It can be very predictable at times, and the characters all fit into common Anime stereotype personalities, which are downsides to it. Regardless, all the varieties, interactions, and plot-driven devices make the series very entertaining to watch.
There are plenty of great fights, cool Alters, philosophical aspects, iconic drama, rebounding angst, and touching love. The only shortcomings are the bad Art (at select times), lacking character development for the Protagonist, and the forced pushing of specific plot points to their conclusion. Overall, it's still an exciting and entertaining anime and is definitely recommended for fans of the genre and even anime fans in general!
