Review - Infinite Ryvius

I decided to do my first review on something I had a fresh watch of... in fact, I watched the whole series twice... in 5 days (FYI, very hard).

In general, I'm still debating how much I should tell about an anime in my reviews. I enjoy knowing nothing about an anime when I go into it, lol. But I know must people reading don't just wanna spend 7 hours watching a series to find out it wasn't something they liked. (Personally, I have enjoyed almost every series I have watched.)


So anyways, I'll give a plot rundown, then go into some specific aspects of the show.

Infinite Ryvius is the story of about 500 teenagers who get stuck on a spaceship... in space. Most of the adults are killed by a mysterious group. This causes the research ship (and training facility on-board) to plunge into a dangerous part of space known as the Gedult. The last of the Adults sacrifice their lives to save the students on board.

But that's only the first 2 episodes. From then on its changes in leaders to individual relationship problems. You wonder who will lead, and if they will make the right choices. You also follow many different individual characters as they try to figure out their place aboard the ship, along with their relationships with the other characters. Angry brothers, a dangerous past, selfish motives, choices of the past or future... all cause turmoil in the characters' lives. And you never find a character you agree with the whole time. everyone is so realistically portrayed.

Of course, there is some relief from the stress. There's the occasional comedy relief, and reoccurring characters such as Radan (Pillow Boy, who has nothing on but a pillow) and the girl always in the Dinosaur costume.

Prepare to have your emotions tweaked with and feel a strange sense of closeness to the characters. Because it is so realistic, it brings you into it. You feel the emotions of each character as the show goes on.

Now form the plot and characters, here's some other info.
=Sub vs Dub - I watched this anime in English (the main character has Lan from Megaman's voice). I did see about 5 min of it in Jap on YouTube. It's abotu the same, in my opinion. So whichever one you watch first, you are gonna prefer that one from then on (that's how it works, lol).

=Content - Okay, this is a pretty decent anime. Biggest problem is probably language, and even that's not too bad. It's got some Hells and some D*mns, and a few Bas****s. Nothing sexual. Not too violent (the only thing being the silhouette of a girl choking another girl). There's an outline of a girl in the theme song (explained at the end of the series) who appears naked, though has no features. The only other thing, is a small but plot significant mentioning of incest. My sister watched this show. It's fine. I would give it PG 13 because of language. (Oh, and I later remembered, there's 2 bits of fan service, where you get a quick view of a girl's panties... but it's not that bad. PANTSU!)

=Sound - Great soundtrack. I downloaded it right after I finished the show. Awesome opening, good ending. There are 2 main soundtracks, plus a remix album (called Soundtrack 3 for some reason, though the remixes aren't in the show). A lot of the tracks are quieter orchestrational pieces. But on contrast, there's a theme of Hip-Hop to the show. About 6 tracks have nice hip-hop beats.

=Specials - There are some bonus weird episodes on my DVD set (from Anime Legends). Some are weird storys of randomness and humor, and others are just general info from peopel like the voice actors. Weird.

=Adaptions - I recently purchased the Infinite Ryvius manga. It's two volumes, and not available to download online. It was 7.50 from rightstuf.com. It's the same story, but from the viepoint of Aoi (the main female character). Sadly, the content level is higher, as they had to put some TMI (too much information) in there... sigh... Still interesting.

Category: Emotional
Length: 26 Episodes - # Specials (Weird Bonuses on the DVD)
Japanese Title: Mugen No Ryvius
Year: 1999
Studio: Sunrise
Opening Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlg_uOqn0y4
Ending Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s4fB0rs9fc
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Ryvius
AnimeNewsNetwork: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=411
Become a fan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=718557665&v=feed&story_fbid=42036792665#/pages/Infinite-Ryvius/40769664354?ref=s

Download (Jap/EngSub): http://anime.thehylia.com/downloads/series/infinite-ryvius
OST (Soundtrack): http://anime.thehylia.com/downloads/series/infinite-ryvius
Stream (Jap/engSub): http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=791CCC46217C8994
Purchase on DVD ($21): http://kcdvd.com/InfiniteRyvius.html

In summary, I would recommend this anime to almost anyone. It's not on my top sharing list, which would include FMA, FLCL, Trigun and Scrapped Princess, but after you have seen a few, or even if you haven't, this one is worth your time.