Jyu-Oh-Sei ep.1

April 14, 2006 | 15 Comments

Opening Theme: Deep in Your Heart by Domoto Koichi (11.1MB, for PSP/Quicktime)

This is the new successor to the Noitamina screen time. I have to say that the storyline is quite interesting. At the moment, the series looks like a combination of Lord of the Flies, Battle Royale, as well as some intergallactic mystery films such as Planet of the Apes. The first episode itself has enough mystery and conflict to make the viewers intriqued, at the very least. Unfortunately, I am not a big fan of the character design, which reminds me a lot of Escaflowne. In other words, expect long, unusual-shaped nose for some of the characters. The opening theme is also attrocious, in my opinion. It sounds a lot like a typical Japanese boy band song but this one is the worst type ones. The ending theme is passable but it's nothing exciting either. Anyway, I think this is a promising title but for the moment I'm only on a watch and see position.

Brief summary:

In A.D. 2436, humans have managed to achieve large-scaled migration into the Balkan Peninsula star system, 150 light years away from Earth. Tohr and Rai are twin brothers who live in a space colony called Yuno and dream of returning to Earth one day. Their dream, however, is shattered when one day they return to their home only to find their parents murdered. The brothers themselves got gassed by a group of military forces before being put into capsule and sent to a death penalty planet called Chimaera. Upon waking up, they find out that not only the planet is populated by many carnivorous vegetation, they are being hunted by a group of people. Inside his pocket, Tohr also find a smelly pouch and a light-saber kind of knife. After a chase, the leader of the hunters, Zagi, orders his man to back away so he can give the brothers a tour of the planet. He explains that in this planet, the year is divided into two. The first 181 days are scorching hot daytime while the other 181 days are very cold nightime which can go down to -40 degree.

He also tells the two brothers that there are some dangerous vegetation in the planet and the only way to get them away from you is to pull out the smelly pouch that Tohr found earlier. After they return to Zagi's colony, he explains that in Chimaera, men and women live seperately. In addition to this, there are four tribes living in this planet: Blanc, Night, Sun and Ochre. In order to escape this planet, one has to become a Jyu-Oh, which is the King that lords over all four tribes. After getting in trouble with the local due to Rai's petulant act, Tohr decides to run away with Rai but on his way, becomes frustrated by his brother's petulant attitude and almost killed him if it wasn't for the fact that he sees his own reflection in Rai's eyes. They then get confronted by a group of Ochre men and the ensuing fight causes the surrounding carnivour vegetation to react violently. The episode then ends with Tohr getting help from a mysterious figure, whose eyes for some reason looks familiar to Tohr.

Impression:

The series is intriguing and mysterious to say the least. It reminds me a bit of Battle Royale because of the way the two brothers got gassed by mysterious army forces and sent to an island, or rather a planet in this case. And just like the students in Battle Royale, the brothers were lightly armed. They only got a light-saber kind of knife and a pouch containing a smelly odour. The question is why did their parents got murdered and how did they end up getting sent to this hell of a planet. But at the moment, they have enough problems to occupy their minds. Just like any other human in a survival condition, some of their uglier personality start to surface. In Tohr's case, he seems to be willing to kill in order to achieve his aim of returning to Yuno. Ray, on the other hand, takes a pouty, petulant attitude which I think will either become a problem somewhere down the future or will end up killing him as Zagi suggested.

It's kind of interesting how the tribes/rings are seperated into colours, which I assume refer to the skin colours of its members. From here on, the story takes a Lord of the Flies kind of approach with one ring being territorial of its area and vice versa. Having said that, there seems to be one uniting force on top of these tribes and that is the Jyu-Oh in question. I guess you can say the One King to rule them all. The problem is, even if Tohr manages to become one, how will he be able to get himself out of this planet, which seems to be lacking technological advancement. Another mystery in this show involves the appearance of a figure who ended up saving Tohr from the mouth of the man-eater vegetation. I suspect, however, that this mystery will be resolved right away in the next few episodes. Overall, this is an intriguing series but I'll have to wait and see if I can adjust my expectation of the character design.

Ending Theme: 「手をつないで」- Te wo Tsunaide by Younha (ED coming soon)

The ending theme is a passable rock-ballad that after several repetition doesn't sound bad at all. And I suspect the long version is probably a lot better than the TV size version.

© memento 2003