Infinite Ryvius (A)
Mar. 28th, 2004 03:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thistlechaserI think I've set a new personal record for finishing a series. In just over two days, I finished all 26 Infinite Ryvius eps. Be warned: If you start watching this series, you'll want to watch them just as quickly! :)
Infinite Ryvius was different than any other series I've watched so far. While there was plenty of plot and characterization, the fascinating thing about this series was the window it gave us on peoples' reactions, how the mind works under unending stress, and what happens when "society" breaks down. It was very much like Lord of the Flies, though had slight differences (I suspect because the anime was about people from the Japanese society instead of British/Western).
There were quite a few main characters, but a pair of brothers got the most screentime. The younger one was the more confident of the two (as well as being dark and brooding), and the older one was the opposite.
I can't talk about the plot much without spoiling it, so let me just say that if you're interested in seeing what motivates people, how they interact, how they react to fear and stress, then you'll like this series. On top of that, I really enjoyed seeing how power shifts within a large group of people, and how different sorts of people react to having it or losing it.
If those types of things aren't your cup of tea, there's a big sci-fi angle as well. Spaceships, fights (both fistfights and space-battle scale fights), ...other space stuff..., and a strange girl in pink who appears now and then.
If you're interested, you can BT it from here: Infinite Ryvius 1-26(complete)[www.animes.tk]. And seriously: If you've not seen it yet, you really should! I enjoyed it a lot.
Small note: The download is all 26 eps, and it's a mixed bag. Most of the eps were high quality, but two were lower (including the first one). One of the fansubbing groups didn't do a good job (lots of typos/spelling mistakes), but they only handled a few eps. One group spelled "Ryvius" as "revise my ass", in an oh-so-funny show of third-grade humor. The majority of the eps were good though.
The ending really surprised me for two reasons:
1) I can't believe most everyone lived. Most anime I've seen is usually so much darker! People die for little reason... and there was so much reason in this series for people to be killed, but it rarely happened. Very surprising, and not to sound morbid, I was a little disappointed by it. Seems like it would have been more realistic for most of the people to die. (I think their food lasted too long, too. In the beginning it said there was food for 1,000 people for one month. They had 400-500 people on board and there were two times it said "one month later..." plus all the normal passing time... So.)
2) I'm highly surprised that in the end (last ep) people went back onto the ship. Even if it's for the good of humanity, even if their families pressured the heck out of them, to get back onto a ship you almost died on? To go out into space on it when the officials abandoned you there before? Doesn't seem totally believable to me...
There was one other bit in the series that I didn't think was reasonable, and it's related to a point I mentioned above. A couple of times there were mobs of people going after one or two people. The mob just learned that those one or two people were part of a team that wanted to kill them, and yet the mob didn't kill those people? Like when Blue and company were going to leave the people on the ship behind, then the mob cornered individuals from Blue's group. I strongly believe that mob mentality would have made those folks kill the cornered people from Blue's group.
On a related note, I think there should have been rape going on on the ship, too. These are teenagers, after all. Locked alone, way outnumbering the women (who stupidly tended to wear really short skirts), no adults around, and for most of the time no "laws" as well.
It's odd, this is the first time I've encountered an anime series where the realism falls down like this... I still liked it a lot, but I wish they would have touched upon those issues.
Oh! One last thing. I loved Heiger/Heigar (the really smart guy, they spelled his name both ways). I loved his subtle play for power and it's interesting (though not surprising) how it blew up in his face. That made me wonder about something though: Did any of these people face any criminal charges? I mean, Heiger tried to kill a hundred or so people! Did they just wave that off? (I guess so, since he ended up back on the ship...)
Infinite Ryvius was different than any other series I've watched so far. While there was plenty of plot and characterization, the fascinating thing about this series was the window it gave us on peoples' reactions, how the mind works under unending stress, and what happens when "society" breaks down. It was very much like Lord of the Flies, though had slight differences (I suspect because the anime was about people from the Japanese society instead of British/Western).
There were quite a few main characters, but a pair of brothers got the most screentime. The younger one was the more confident of the two (as well as being dark and brooding), and the older one was the opposite.
I can't talk about the plot much without spoiling it, so let me just say that if you're interested in seeing what motivates people, how they interact, how they react to fear and stress, then you'll like this series. On top of that, I really enjoyed seeing how power shifts within a large group of people, and how different sorts of people react to having it or losing it.
If those types of things aren't your cup of tea, there's a big sci-fi angle as well. Spaceships, fights (both fistfights and space-battle scale fights), ...other space stuff..., and a strange girl in pink who appears now and then.
If you're interested, you can BT it from here: Infinite Ryvius 1-26(complete)[www.animes.tk]. And seriously: If you've not seen it yet, you really should! I enjoyed it a lot.
Small note: The download is all 26 eps, and it's a mixed bag. Most of the eps were high quality, but two were lower (including the first one). One of the fansubbing groups didn't do a good job (lots of typos/spelling mistakes), but they only handled a few eps. One group spelled "Ryvius" as "revise my ass", in an oh-so-funny show of third-grade humor. The majority of the eps were good though.
The ending really surprised me for two reasons:
1) I can't believe most everyone lived. Most anime I've seen is usually so much darker! People die for little reason... and there was so much reason in this series for people to be killed, but it rarely happened. Very surprising, and not to sound morbid, I was a little disappointed by it. Seems like it would have been more realistic for most of the people to die. (I think their food lasted too long, too. In the beginning it said there was food for 1,000 people for one month. They had 400-500 people on board and there were two times it said "one month later..." plus all the normal passing time... So.)
2) I'm highly surprised that in the end (last ep) people went back onto the ship. Even if it's for the good of humanity, even if their families pressured the heck out of them, to get back onto a ship you almost died on? To go out into space on it when the officials abandoned you there before? Doesn't seem totally believable to me...
There was one other bit in the series that I didn't think was reasonable, and it's related to a point I mentioned above. A couple of times there were mobs of people going after one or two people. The mob just learned that those one or two people were part of a team that wanted to kill them, and yet the mob didn't kill those people? Like when Blue and company were going to leave the people on the ship behind, then the mob cornered individuals from Blue's group. I strongly believe that mob mentality would have made those folks kill the cornered people from Blue's group.
On a related note, I think there should have been rape going on on the ship, too. These are teenagers, after all. Locked alone, way outnumbering the women (who stupidly tended to wear really short skirts), no adults around, and for most of the time no "laws" as well.
It's odd, this is the first time I've encountered an anime series where the realism falls down like this... I still liked it a lot, but I wish they would have touched upon those issues.
Oh! One last thing. I loved Heiger/Heigar (the really smart guy, they spelled his name both ways). I loved his subtle play for power and it's interesting (though not surprising) how it blew up in his face. That made me wonder about something though: Did any of these people face any criminal charges? I mean, Heiger tried to kill a hundred or so people! Did they just wave that off? (I guess so, since he ended up back on the ship...)
