Anime: Mugen no Ryvius

Ryvius is a blend of various different genres, such as adventure, drama, survival, sci-fi, mystery, political, and romance around a spaceship full of children getting stranded in space. Two things that are done very nicely is the atmosphere of fear, as well as the character interaction.
- You are constantly made to think that the hundreds of children that are stranded without adults in the middle of a weird cosmic phenomenon are in deep trouble. Also, you see them chatting, fighting, suffering, threatening, flirting for so long, you actually get to know them and care to see how they cope and if they survive their ordeal.
- Since the plot is very slow and tries to be as mysterious as possible, you are also made to think there is some weird shitin’ goin’ on here and you are glued to watch further. Some sort of political conspiracy or an alien mystery. Although the reward about the last part is rather disappointing, it still works as a magnet of interest.
- All of the elements in the series are quite mainstream and appealing to the majority of anime fans and that is basically the reason it was a show many were fond of when it aired. The variety of its multiple themes was also an easy way for each individual viewer to focus on the aspect he liked and not mind the rest that much.
- The elements are also NOT too serious. The show is fooling around half the time and this way it becomes easier accessible to more people who don’t fancy too much silliness or too heavy tragedy.

All the above can work both ways though. Although Ryvius is indeed specifically made to be half light and half heavy to be accessible for the masses, at the same time it is not refined to enter the high tier of quality anime. The story for example appears to be mysterious and complicating when down to it is just a mess of good ideas that are handled poorly. Some sort of political agendas and terrorists and aliens and mystical robots and whatever, all that are thrown amidst teen angst to mostly colorize the setting and not to provide immersion to it. The pacing is also painfully slow to the point the entire series could easily be zipped to half its duration. Several key events are also solved quite conveniently through mystical powers, dubbed unknown technology in the series. How the hell do a bunch of kids manage to constantly fend off the attacks of a super advanced alien race? That is not cool and mean very little for the target audience which are teenagers and prefer the cool factor over reasoning.

Speaking of cool, this anime does not look as one at all. Its production values are not great in any way other than the details on machinery. Animation for example is minimum, as there is a lot of frozen panels and even repeated footage. Characters are also drawn and shaded very simple too, while the special effects are cheesy. Action scenes are also unexacting to the most part, as they are short and without much choreography. Voice acting is just nice while the soundtrack, as atmospheric as it may sound to be, eventually has no memorable OST.

You could excuse all the above as an attempt for the show to be subtle rather than poser but in a medium that is almost entirely about entertainment this works against it. If a show is not extreme enough, all its merits are simply not memorable. An easy example of that is the name of the anime which is taken from the name of the mecha. Do you think it is important enough to remember the mecha? Maybe the way it fights? How about the characters? There are dozens of them and they are all acting in a simple way or their roles are too minor in the show. What motivation do you have for remembering them?

Down to it Ryvius is interesting and mostly memorable for its human drama. It is one of the few anime that deal with group mentality and how one can snap under the constant pressure of fear that leads to mass hysteria, as well as how propaganda can help to ease the fears even with false hope. It is also an almost mainstream teen story that shows how emotionally unstable teenagers are and how cruel and violent they can be to each other for no real reason. This is the only element of the show that is plausible, unlike the pseudo-serious story. The slow pacing is hit or miss if it works; it all depends on personal preferences.

Bottom line, I recommend this show to those who like survival stories and teen angst but not to those who want fast pace, good storytelling or great action.

SUGGESTION LIST
Light ones:
Mujin Wakusei Survive
Vifam 13
Ulysses 31
Galaxy Express 999

Heavy ones:
Lord of the Flies (western book / movie)
Battle Royale
Gantz

i only consider the story of anime in my reviews because i watch anime for entertainment & if story itself does not give me that than all other things like animation,music,voice etc does not matter to me.

i just watched this anime a few days ago after hearing so much about its so called critically acclaimed status & only one word comes to mind now to describe it:disappointment.the plot of the anime itself is its biggest weakness because you just can not mix childish behaviours displayed throughout the series with such a serious situation where survival depends entirely on your actions taken.many main characters display such irrational & inappropriate behaviour which can not be overlooked even if they are 15-16 years old.the main character is so weak that it can easily give shinji of neon genesis evangelion a complex in this area & that is really saying something about a character's weakness.another major character which is brother of main character is equally irritating.he is always on a collision course with his brother ready to beat the hell out of him but there is no reason given in the entire series for this extreme behaviour except for a few glimpses/scenes left totally for viewers imagination to make up any reason they seem suitable as per these scenes or in other words left viewers in total confusion.girls don't fare too well either.the main lead female character is so indecisive about which brother she love that after some time you don't even care.fight scenes are repetitive in nature & lack of good graphics doesn't help either.in fact i found the main negative character pursuing the ship ryvius the most interesting character even though he gets much less screen time than the crew of ryvius.

this anime in my opinion is average at its best.if you want a really serious space drama involving children classic MS gundam 0079 & its sequel zeta gundam are much better.

*Mugen no Ryvius* is, in a few words, *The lord of the flies* with different characters and set on a spaceship. A few hundred kids find themselves trapped in a space station, where they were studying to become astronauts, after what appears as a terrorist attack has killed most of the teachers. The station is going to blow up in a few hours and the few adults still alive sacrifice themselves to buy the students some time. The students manage to save themselves moving inside a strange spaceship nobody knows anything about, the *Ryvius*, and escaping with it.

It's the beginning of an aimless eight months long trip across the solar system, during which almost everything imaginable happens. As in *The lord of the flies*, once a community has been stripped of its social structure only the moral sense of every single person is left and all those different morals clash against each other, often violently. The creators of this anime manage to keep control of the many characters and the many threads of the plot admirably, guiding the whole tangled mess to a beautiful ending.

Animation
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Infinite Ryvius was created by Sunrise in 1999, so the animation obviously isn't on par with that anime that came out of the production house the day before yesterday. Even so, everything from the character design to the spaceships is visually appealing and satisfying. Inconsistencies are nowhere to be found, no episode is drawn any better or any worse than the others. This consistency -- which admittedly isn't unheard of, but still quite rare although it's to be expected from Sunrise -- create a strong foundation over which the anime as a whole stands firmly. It gives credibility and power to everything else, letting the focus stay on the story and the character development while still being beautiful and appealing. Too often the animation is overdone, stealing the focus away from the most important parts.

Scenes of great beauty and great emotive power are scattered all over the show, including the very last images. Action is relatively rare but unforgettable - more or less what we would expect from Macross' creators.

Sound
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The soundtrack is nothing to write home about, but it still does its job efficiently, although not in a spectacular way. I found the choice of the OP and ED particularly intelligent and appropriate, but some hip-hop tracks sometimes are strongly focused on for no good reason and they almost ruin the mood several times.

The Japanese dubbers are, as always, mostly very good; unfortunately the ones dubbing two of the main characters simply can't weep or cry in a convincing way - a couple of times they actually ruin the whole scene. I admit, though, that it happens so rarely that the experience as a whole doesn't suffer from it significantly.

Story
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The story is quite simple, it's a trip in a hostile environment in conditions of complete separation from the rest of humanity. Some people are interested in the destruction of the Ryvius, as it is made clear almost immediately, so during the anime we get some insight on the confrontation between a couple of factions on Earth, each one with its own agenda. This adds to the story an additional layer of complexity, which is meaningful and well managed by the anime creators, but the focus of Mugen no Ryvius are the characters and everything else is peripheral. For this reason, the story appears simply as a sequence of battles with quiet parts between them and most of the screentime is used to develop the characters.

Every main character -- and most of the secondary ones, actually -- has a personal story unfolding on the Ryvius, its roots usually being some specific event that happened before the beginning of the anime, outside of the spaceship. The main characters are many -- about 15 -- and their stories soon become all tangled together in a complex plot that overlaps the story, but the whole thing has the one and only purpose to support the character development and isn't interesting in and of itself.

Characters
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Although there's a protagonist, the anime repeatedly moves the focus from a character to another giving both a general view of the situation the *Ryvius*' inhabitants are in and delving into the details of each person's feelings and motivations.

Considering the big number of main characters in this anime, the sheer amount of character development is in itself a major achievement. Some become the exact opposite of their former selves, some others' characteristics are inflated and strengthened to an extreme. One could say it's the same kind of character development we see in *Evangelion*, an anime that certainly had some influence on this -- and many other -- anime, but *Ryvius*'s execution is somewhat more subtle, less surreal and **way** more realistic.

Even though between two episodes weeks or months can go by in a flash, the character development is gradual, with every little step of it justified by the events taking place around the main characters.

Several minor characters evolve to some extent, but their evolution lacks continuity, happening instead in bigger steps; the viewer is usually able to fill in with his own imagination, though.

The focus of all this is a confrontation between different morals and different ways of perceiving and coping with reality as a whole and the people around us. A big bunch of kids trying to organize themselves into some semblance of society -- and failing all the time -- to survive a few more days until the next planet and the next chance of being saved is a great way to understand the function of society and the consequences its sudden dissolution would have.

It goes more or less like this: the anime starts from the almost total absence of the concept of private property, everyone working together for the common good; several intermediate states of instability follow each other, meritocracy to tyranny to oligarchy; something similar to money and an economy are eventually born, to disastrous effects. Then it starts going downhill :) There's a lot I could talk about, but a review isn't the right place. I simply wish to invite anyone who will watch this show to pay attention to this part.

The choice of including some comedy in the form of a couple of funny characters has been a very intelligent one; those characters loose the tension, often almost palpable. The girl who searches for, and sometimes even runs after, missing pieces of her dino outfit, of all things, and the guy who seemingly can't find anything to wear except a pillow are exhilarating, maybe in virtue of the contrast with the usually gloomy mood.

Personal judgement
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*Ryvius* left a mark. Even if its roots in literature are evident, inside the now vast world of anime it's a beacon in the darkness, an example of originality and intelligence rarely met. As I keep writing reviews, I ask myself how many more times I'll be able to say the same for other anime.

Overall
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*Ryvius* is a must-see for any fan of good sci-fi who, like me, is pained by the sight of a whole genre watered down by unsightly, high-budgeted, dim-witted crap that focuses on photon cannons and spaceships. The focus of good sci-fi has always been **mankind**, no matter the author - from **Ray Bradbury** to **Kim Stanley Robinson**, they all talk **about humankind**. *Ryvius* follows the steps of the great authors of the genre it belongs to.

Even if the characters populating the *Ryvius* are more then enough, *Mugen no Ryvius* is, overall and as a whole, way over the artistic level of most anime ever produced and should be part of everyone's collection.

(Writers note: If you read this review, RATE this review. Authors thrive on feedback, whether it be a simple happy face, or an in-depth critique.)

Several hundred children and a handful of adults set out on the Liebe Delta for training. After a hefty amount of sabotage, all that is left of the original crew is 478 adolescent students. Out of the 478, only a dozen or so have any real training. Due to forces beyond their control, they are forced to abandon the Liebe Delta and flee for into the Ryvius, a mysterious spaceship hidden inside the Liebe Delta. But how long and how far can they run? The Ryvius may be able to protect them from their enemies, but what of the enemy within?

The opposite of love isn’t hate. It is apathy.

For the first 14 episodes of Infinite Ryvius, my feelings alternated between liking or hating different characters at different times. Sadly, by the time episode 15 rolled around, the emotional shifts between like and hate began to dissolve into apathy. Seriously though… I tried. I tried so hard to get emotionally involved in at least one of the plethora of characters that Infinite Ryvius throws into the melting pot. At the end of the day, the only character I actually cared for is Neeya, the goddamned spaceship. What a sad state of affairs this anime turned out to be.

The animation is passable for its time (Infinite Ryvius came out in the 1999/2000 season), but only just. Scenes tend to either move fluidly, often during the action scenes, or not at all, during some of the dramatic moments. Not a jarring contrast, but the creators could have done better. Oddly enough, side characters such as Neeya and Erina are the only characters given any kind of detail in their outfits, with the rest of the cast wearing standard or outright bland clothing. I found the faces to be another problem area, with not enough detail in the facial features. At least half a dozen characters, men and women alike, looked almost identical. Infinite Ryvius marks the first time I’ve seen an anime where the supporting characters are given more detail and emotion than the main characters.

The music of Ryvius is, for lack of a better word… bad. Just plain bad. The opening song was not only forgettable, but rather annoying. It’s just so damned bland and cliché, it hurts my ears. There may have been ending music, but I never heard it, since the geniuses who created Infinite Ryvius decided to put the “next episode” spoilers before the ending credits instead of after. Music that plays during the series is much worse. Nothing does more to dampen a dramatic mood than playing Japanese rap music. It isn’t that I’m not a fan of rap, mind you. The opening rap song to Samurai Champloo is one of my all time favorite opening themes. In Ryvius however, the rap music is jarringly out of place, detracting from the overall emotional experience. An emotional experience that wasn’t in very good shape to begin with. Unlike the music, the sound effects are just right, getting the job done without drawing attention to themselves.

The most frequent comment I made while watching Infinite Ryvius was unfortunately a derogatory one: “Are they really that stupid?” Nearly every character, at one time or another, does something either stupid, annoying, out of character, or all of the above. Every time a character became sympathetic, that emotion was ripped from my chest no more than 10 minutes later, when the character performed one of the above antics (or all of them). A brief list of characters, and any non-spoiler problems I may have had with them:

(Editors note: To keep this review from getting too long, I have included less than half of the individual character reviews. It should be known, however, that I have at least one grievance for each character in the series.)

Kouji Aiba: For those of us who didn’t get enough of Shinji in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Not only does he suffer from Shinji’s trademark self-doubt, loathing, and cowardice, but included in his vast repartee of annoying characteristics is, amazingly, the clichés of a harem anime lead! Just like in Love Hina, Aiba’s favorite past time seems to involve having his teeth repeatedly knocked out, usually by his younger brother.

Yuuki Aiba: Kouji’s younger brother. He suffers from a mysterious illness called “I hate the entire world and everyone in it for no particular reason”. His defining characteristic is to act like the cliché harem anime female lead, spending 90% of his screen time either screaming at Kouji, or kicking his ass. The other 10% is spent not listening to anything anyone has to say, regardless of how dire the situation is. If there’s rebelling to be done, by God Yuuki is going to do it, logic be damned!

Eirs Blue: Your typical high school bully who forcefully takes over the Ryvius. Main characteristics are a nasty glare, and repeatedly threatening Juli, or bashing her over the head with his gun.

Juli Bahana: Ah, my favorite character outside of Neeya, but for all the wrong reasons. She started out so interesting, as an up-and-coming trainee at the top of her class… and then the writers make her a masochist. That’s right. A guilt-ridden, self-hating masochist. I don’t know why, but for some reason the daft woman falls in love with Eirs Blue. Blue, who spends quite a bit of screen time beating her up or threatening her. I’m tempted to invoke the Stokholm syndrome defense, but it just doesn’t fit with the situation or the character. Juli spends the entire second half of Infinite Ryvius pining for Blue.

Luchson Hokujou: Easily the most annoying character in the series, and thus, one who is given far too much screen time. To see him is to hate him. To hear him is to hate him. To know he exists, even if it is only on an animation cell, is to hate him. He’s annoying, obnoxious, arrogant, and rude. He’s also the de-facto captain for many of the early episodes, meaning he gets lots of screen time. Why oh why couldn’t they have killed him off in the first episode?

Ikumi Oze: Kuoji, or Yuuki? Yuuki, or Kuoji? Kuoji, or Yuuki? Yuuki, or Kuoji? Kuoji, or Yuuki? Yuuki, or Kuoji? Kuoji, or Yuuki? Yuuki, or Kuoji? Kuoji, or Yuuki? Yuuki, or Kuoji? Kuoji, or Yuuki? Yuuki, or Kuoji? Kuoji, or Yuuki?…

How are we supposed to feel sympathy towards a character when they get exactly what they deserve? There are no innocent characters in Ryvius, save Pat, the little boy whose father died trying to save the Lieba Delta. Every time something bad would happen to a character, usually involving a bunch of faceless characters beating them up, I found myself thinking, “It’s about time!” Either that, or I failed to feel strongly one way or the other. An anime has fallen awfully far when the audience no longer feels empathy for the characters when something awful happens to them. Whenever a character in Ryvius is given a positive characteristic, it comes coupled with a negative one. I believe this was done to try to make them more realistic, when in reality it makes it that much more difficult to relate to and care about them.

The story is a simple one. The Ryvius is being chased by bad guys from different governments, while at the same time being destroyed from within by the treachery of mankind. The main problem with this is that the character development is not gradual. Characters often change in leaps and bounds. One character in particular (one of the main characters, no less) does a complete 180-degree turn in the span of 10 minutes. On top of all of that, many characters frequently ring false in their actions and their words, battling their God-given common sense to service the plot.

Infinite Ryvius is a mess of an anime, with lackluster fighting, poorly realized character development, and a soundtrack that is jarringly out of place. Ryvius tries very hard to develop the characters and make us care. That it fails is a tragedy, but at least it stepped up to the plate. I also must confess that the series kept me interested enough to finish the full 9 hours and 30 odd minutes in one sitting. I never connected with the characters, going so far as to laugh during what should have been the tearjerker scenes, but the story was intriguing enough to keep me watching. If only the series didn’t have so many things working against it, I might have ended up feeling more than just empty at its conclusion. What a pity.

Infinite Ryvius without a doubt conpetes for the best anime I have ever seen. Of any anime on the top 200 list or whatever, I don't think you will find any standing series that is much more enjoyable than this one, that's how good I think it is. There was so much I liked, I don't even know where to start, so I'll start from the very begining:

The opening of this series comes off as a bit slow, old style sounding music, but each time you watch it, it grows on you. Every episode they advance some course of events leading into the theme perfectly, you often can't help but watch it. And every time I did watch it, I saw something in there I hadn't noticed before. It has lots of extremely artistic moments, with huge statements behind them.

On to the series. The physics and state of the solar system in the (somewhat) distant future are perfectly believable. I believe this is absolutley vital to having an enjoyable series.

When I read other peoples reviews I was thinking the socaial statement this series makes would be revolving around a few people and give a limited statement (i.e. supposedly "pure" children are isolated and revert to evil as a result of human nature), like Lord of the Flies or something. It was nothing like that. Firstly, the cast involves over 500 people. As the course of events unfolds, you really do get a sense of the nature of society and not just the nature of humans.

The plot is awsome and was always throwing curveballs. There were a couple of times where I finished an episode with my mouth hanging wide open, and its not just the shock value, it was just that well made. The characters were vast and the course of events was extremly convincing. While there were over 500 abord the ship, it focused on the main ones, who were really moving the course of events that everyones fate was wrapped up in. This alone is a statement of leadership of mankind. But where it really succeeds in this area is the number and variety of characters that were closley followed. There were all kinds reflecting on our society closely; the dictor fallen from power, the reluctant and kind democratic leader, the strapping public figure, behind the scene leaders. Everything was worked in perfectly, and I came to LOVE the characters, and the conflicts between them were so enveloping I couldn't stop watching.

My favorite part though, is how it managed to play the viewer off himself. Watching this series makes you constantly switch between an attitude that everything is under controll to thinking that everyone, everywhere is totally screwed.

Sorry this review comes off as so vague, I really don't want to spoil anything for you. I'll go to the specfic categories for the rest of it.

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.
- Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. (1900-1965)

This quote can describe anarchism, a society where no authority can control people, which is the society that will be shown in Infinite Ryvius. Interesting, isn't it? Not many anime series are able to captivate the human emotions compared to Ryvius.

Synopsis:
A.D. 2197, a solar flare from the Sun created a solar storm known as Gedult. At those years, the 23rd Century, space travel is ordinary, as humanity expands to outer spaces. A.D.2225, Aiba Kouji, an optimistic 16 year-old highschool kid was selected as an astronaut in-training in the spaceship called Liebe Delta. With him, there's also his childhood friend, Housen Aoi, and his brother that he hated, Yuuki Kouji. His best friend, Oze Ikumi, paid his way so he can be with his..girlfriend?(Izumi Kozue). Things were going smooth, as Liebe Delta attempts to head back to Earth to drop off trainees, the crews were ambushed by a group of terrorists. Liebe Delta continues to descend into Gedult, Sere 3, where no spacecrafts can survive unless specially built. A mysterious girl in weird outfit showed up and said several things, including "I don't want to die,"...what would happen to them? The rest is up to you to watch and enjoy this great series.

Animation: 8/10
"Although this is dated in 1999, they could include at least a bit of CG, being scifi and all. That's what I thought of at first..but it's deeper beyond that. There's not a single frame that used CGs, then I realized something which I'll explain later on why. The animation is nothing too impressive to brag about. There are lots of characters..but only a few were focused on.

Sound: 9/10
As mentioned before, there are lots of character in Ryvius, but that doesn't deteriorate the quality of seiyuu. The seiyuu did a really great job in expressing human emotions. As far as the OST goes, Ryvius has 5 OSTs CDs, 3 being the bgm, eyecatches theme, OP and ED, one Vocal, and one Character Song. The OP, "dis-" by Mika Arisaka, is very catchy - Euro/R&B style. The OP itself shows several characters that will be focused on. The ED is quite catching as well. The OST consists of electro/hiphop/new age R&B, then there's electropera blending into it, to create the dramatic theme. The bgm is not in conflict with the theme at all. I got all the OSTs and it's now permanently stored inside my CD player until I can find another good OSTs.

Story:10/10[/b]
Three words: Oh. My. God.

This is a very intense anime about what happens when society breaks down. It is almost like the adaptation of the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a book about young boys being stuck on an island where nobody knows where they are. If you've read the novel, then this anime will be completely clear for you. If not, then pay attention to what the characters say or act.

There are lots of name-dropping and technical terms. However, this anime does NOT focus on scifi at all. You don't need to know what hershel or Sere is. You don't need to see all the special effects and 3D CGs to get to the main point of this anime. The main focus on this anime is the character development AND the society that they live in. The anime doesn't concern much about the outside world at all, it only emphasizes on the group of teenages on Liebe Delta.

There's not a single episode that I'd consider a filler. The producer did their work very well to ensure that every episode has a focus and goals to accomplish.

The ending is fulfilling, as each of the characters reach their own resolutions. However, the only question I have after watching Ryvius was "what triggered the conflict between the Kouji brothers?" I guess I was just too dense, hopefully the second time I watch this anime will answer this question for me.

Character: 10/10
Although there are at least 20 active characters that Infinite Ryvius focused on, I've never seen any anime like this ever, where all the characters developed very well. There are balances between main characters and secondary characters who is not really related to the story, but they're remarkable.

Keep in mind that the kids on Liebe Delta are just innocent teenages...or so you thought. They developed rapidly, and of course, as teenagers, they tend to be liberal, and this is what Ryvius has to offer. What would happen if they have to wander in space forever? Who would become leader? Do they need leadership? These are all kinds of questions that no other animes can compare.

Value: 9/10
This is not Evangelion where you have to do homeworks after watching the series entirely, or Furi Kuri where you were left confused with questions like "what the hell happened?" Infinite Ryvius is on my to-rewatch list, but I won't be re-watching it for quite a while. It's far beyond expectation, even though some might have to say otherwise. The second run might give me more insight about the series.

Enjoyment: 10/10
This is a must-see for beginners and experts. Watch this anime right now, or you'll regret not watching it. If you already watched it, but confused on what happened, watch it again, but pay more attention. Everything the characters said or acted lead to another huge plot revealed.