Ranked #2511

Alien Nine

12 Year olds grow up so fast!

Sixth grade was cake in comparison to poor Yuri Otani, who is begruddingly voted into the Alien Party at the beginning of her school year. Being singled out, she's amongst three total students who are apart of a special 'team' of alien cowgirls that traverse campus grounds when an alien happens to appear.

The anime is adapted from the manga of the same name, so a lot of continuity issues may occur once the series gets rolling, but that is not the purpose of this review. Set in no particular time frame, alien nine starts off as a quirky science fiction meets daily life anime series for these twelve-year old alien hunters. It's not easy of course as most of the nasties in the series range from strange to monstrously dangerous!

However, the three girls including Yuri Otani , Kumi Kawamura and Kasumi Tomine are put under the tutelage of Megumi Hisakawa acting as coach , nurse and instructor to each of the girls and there borgs. The borgs are these froghead 'weapons' that attach themselves to the girls heads, taking the brunt of damage and capable of morphing there wings for flight, defense and even drill like throngs for attacking.

Alien Nine, the series, is paced rather well, and the girls are simply acting there age. As a fan, I was hooked by the first episode, Nine is a series that catches you off guard, it is strange to say the least --- why exactly are these parents of the children so happy about throwing there daughters into the dangers of fighting off several aliens at any given time?!

While i am no stranger to a poor storyline, Alien Nine doesn't consist of plot holes but really an introduction or animated short of the manga. The manga, is a bit more detailed, with 3 volumes and 30 chapters which is a lot more in depth to the characters and issues that they all go through as the time passes. I won't say that there is a sympathy for the girls but they really hold there own against the increased difficulty of every alien they mean to catch.

With a supporting cast, interesting story and decent enough beginning and exceptionally wonderful ending theme, Alien Nine is one of the most underwatched series of it's time. Namely, due to it's ending which is so abrupt and ingeniously styled into the ending theme, that one could miss it and move on. The manga, for the most part explains things perfectly but the anime series is to short and bitter sweet.

Alien Nine is equally bizarre and character focused. I believe that anyone taking a look will enjoy is multilayered plot but, if you are like me, I found 4 episodes to be WAY to short, especially if a conclusion wasn't set in stone.

For what it's worth, the animation is fluid, characters are golden and it's a short glimpse into all the coming of age shows people love so much. I know when I revisit my child-hood memories of the sixth grade, it didn't include days of skating around the campus with lacross nets and talking frog helmets, it was about friends and the connections you make with them. It's short and sweet, pick up the manga it's definately worth it. read more

At first glance, Alien 9 appears to be a cute little anime about chasing aliens on roller blades. Thinking this was the case, I bought it. I thought that they must have been exaggerating or in complete error when I saw the 13+ rating. Not. Despite its cheery and cutesy character design, this is a very dark and disturbing anime.

I should have known something was up when I kept getting bad feelings for no reason. Things happened in the anime that made zero sense, and yet I felt completely horrible while and after watching it. When I finished the series (4 30-minute episodes), I couldn't watch anime for the rest of the week. I felt dirty, like I had done something very wrong. Although the anime was violent and disturbing, it didn't seem enough to affect me for days. Then, I discovered that Alien 9 is riddled with symbolism - and some of it not so hidden. To call it dark would be an understatement. There are blatant sexual instances represented, expressions of deep and black pain, and perverted thought processes. I would never recommend this to anyone. I have a feeling that someone who has experienced firsthand some of the horrible things the symbolism depicts would pick up on the innuendoes instantly.

Last, but not least, there is some very light yuri (girl's love) tone in the anime - and it's more obvious in the manga.

All in all, Alien 9 is, in short, to be avoided like the plague.
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This was a very strange anime to me, which i what made me want to write a review. To be frank this anime to me was not that enjoyable but it does something that most anime don't. Alien Nine is full of symbolism providing an insight into the life of the average Japanese student.

It starts off really lame. But after forcing myself to watch it to the end i still didn't get the story. it was not until i found out the anime was all about symbolism that i finally began to understand the true meaning of the anime. (for u to find out)

If u do decide to take a swing at this anime i suggest u read the article from this site after: http://anime.mikomi.org/episode/914/Will.html
warning it contains spoilers
however it does explain all the symbolism and made me understand the story better. It changed the score from a 4 to a 6. keep in mind that im very strict with my anime. read more