Tokyo Underground
By: Akinobu URAKU
Genre: Action/Magic/Romance
Rating: PG Mild Violence
Length:26 Episodes
Year released: 2002
Reviewing: 26 Episodes
Overall Rating: 81.3%
"I'll protect you with everything I have, just to see that smile on your gace." - Rumina Asagi
Reviewer: Chibiwonton
Synopsis
Deep beneath the great city Tokyo hides a secret and completely different world of people and society. They call this place Tokyo Underground, a place filled with complete darkness. Ruri Sarasa from the underground desperately wants to see the world on the surface, so she escapes along with her protector, Chelsea Rourke. The moment they set their feet on the surface is the start of all the conflicts that are to be unfolded. They meet a tough high school punk, Rumina Asagi, and temporarily settles in his house for now. He and his friend Ginosuke Isuzu quickly learns about the superhuman powers that the underground people possesses, and also the superhuman powers that Rumina actually possess as a surface human! As more secrets are revealed, it happens that an underground organization named Company is after something that would change the whole world into disaster, and Ruri is the key to this whole trigger of events. With Rumina's promise to protect Ruri, he will have to stop the Company before it's too late.
Story/Plot: 8.5
Very orginal story, indeed. I loved their idea of superhuman powers and all the events happening to the underground world. The basic plot of this whole anime is actually a whole chase to save Ruri from Company, but it still doesn't lack the intensity brought in each episode. It's very disappointing when it gets further to the end because it has thrown so many things into the anime and the ending is so sudden and rushed. Some say that it's because they didn't have enough money to make the anime by the time it reaches the end, but I think that's just an excuse for the crappy ending. Afterall, this excellent series deserves way more than just 26 epsisodes, and I believe a lot more things can be thrown into the anime.
Characters: 8
Different characters for different superhuman powers. One would think that this would mean a chaos of characters, but Tokyo Underground managed to organize the characters quite well. I love it when a new character appears after a few episodes at a time, and most of them are very memorable too. The powers they have reflect their personality in a way too. There's also a wide range of characters too in such a short series. However, no matter how intriguing the characters may be, it's still impossible to develop all of them successfully over the span of only 26 episodes. Due to the poor ending of the series, many characters are still hovering in the air without a satisfactory explanation for their meaning in the series.
Art: 8
Gorgeous artwork and amazing graphics. The fight scenes are totally awesome and the designs of the character is spectacular. They put in a lot of details in the character's powers, which is the thing that makes this anime such a great selection. It's obvious that a lot of focus was concentrated in the appearance of this anime because just by watching the awesome fight scenes is enough to keep your eyes glued onto the screen.
Music: 8
Despite it's incredibly unique name, [iksi:d] is the main vocalist of the anime. Her voice is incredibly strong and powerful, probably one of the best female vocalist I've ever heard. She did two openings for the anime in total, and the beautiful ending is done by another one of my favorite artist, Akino Arai. Very nice contrast between the opening and ending of the series.
