Ranked #558

Infinite Ryvius

Infinite Ryvius is essentially "Lord of the Flies" on a spaceship, although with students old enough to be in high school (surprise, surprise). Once the students are stranded without their teachers, in various hostile situations, the anime becomes a microcosm for the problem of governance. We have the authoritarians, we have the democrats, and everyone in-between. Most striking for me, about this series, was the slow descent from happy-go-lucky "let's try our best at being space heroes" to chaos, mob-rule, and abuse of power. Having gone to teachers college, I'd hazard that many students would do well to watch this anime, just to gain an understanding of the different political systems that countries choose to adopt (often for reasons mirrored in this series).

For me, what made the characters interesting wasn't so much their innate personalities, but the way they handled the situations around them. Ultimately that is what defines the cast in this series. After all, many people find their true colours emerge in life-or-death situations, and I took a strange pleasure in seeing everyone change, stay the same, or reveal their true selves as everything began to crumble. While some of you might think about boys running amok doing all sorts of bad things, the instance that disturbed me the most involved perpetrators from my own gender. There are no groups in this anime that can easily be seen as victims or oppressors... everyone loses their grip a bit. We are all human, and there are no monsters to blame everything on.

The production, though nothing earth-shaking, adequately supports the story and characters, such that I never felt myself cringing due to quality issues. Certainly we're not taking about a Miyazaki film here, but we spend so much time listening to dialogue that it never grated on me.

Infinite Ryvius is a look at the politics of a confused society under threat. Any student of history or politics would do well to watch this title. For those non-politically inclined, you might find yourselves drawn in by the character drama, thinking a lot about the world you live in, and that's always a good thing, hmm? What would you do in the same situation? I think I'd probably cry, but then, that's why I watch anime instead of actually piloting space ships. ^_~ read more

Story:
The story of Infinite Ryvius is developed well. The plot is fairly basic, a bunch of kids attending a space academy are involved in an accident and get stranded on a space vessel with no adults. However, they do a good job though at developing the story by showing all the ordeals and troubles that the kids go up against and more importantly how they affect each character's state of mind individually. A lot of drama and emotions are involved, there's a good fill of action, and even a nice touch of romance is brought into the mix. So overall, it's a pretty entertaining story to follow. There's just a couple of things that might confuse you in the series as the story unfolds since a lot of it isn't explained thoroughly, but that just means you have to pay attention a bit more.

Art:
Obviously, due to Infinite Ryvius's air date, the art isn't exactly top notch. One thing I'd like to point out that I guess falls under the art category too though is that I was a little displeased with the mecha design, the mecha itself just looked kinda blah, unlike most mecha series where you have a really badass looking robot. That's one of my few complaints on the series. Other than that, I can't really complain too much about the animation due to its time.

Sound:
I found the music fairly impressive. The OP and ED, especially the OP, had a really nice vibe and feel to them that complimented the show well. The background music was pretty good and would always intensify the situation, but luckily you do get that in most series. Same goes for the sound effects. I liked how at the middle of the episode, where it shows the title of the show and where I guess commercials would usually be, they made these cool music mixes, kinda reminding me of Samurai Champloo.

Character:
If only the characters designs were a tad better and more special, this would've gotten a 10. The cast of characters is vast, and each is highlighted somewhere throughout the series pretty well. They all encounter a variety of obstacles, and they display and give insight to so many contrasting emotions as the characters develope greatly. Obviously, some are focused on more than others, but to paint the brilliant picture that was painted with so many characters and in just 26 simple episodes, Infinite Ryvius is pretty remarkable in that aspect. All of the characters have a very 'real' feel too, if that makes any sense.

Enjoyment:
The enjoyment level of this series I would think probably varies from person to person, and what expectations you have going into it. I went into it simply with the desire to watch a decent space drama since I haven't seen much of the genre, and I got what I wanted, in fact I'm now looking into more similar series. But if you're going into this series thinking you're gonna get some awesome mecha action like Gundam, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. There is action involved, but it is certainly not the main focus. With that said, I feel Infinite Ryvius is a very enjoyable watch because of a lot of the stuff I have already mentioned. The bombardment of emotions, the series of unfortunate events that these kids have to deal with with practically no break, the betrayals, the violence between people, the desperate desire for survival, the new forming love relations, as well as the severing relations, and so on. read more