Coppelion

Coppelion is what I would describe as a beautiful anime gone straight to hell. I’m not referring to the artwork here because that’s glamorous. What originally started out as an alluring premise with promise turned into an abomination that becomes almost intolerable to watch thanks to its style and overall portrayal of the post-apocalyptic genre. This anime itself is an apocalyptic failure that illustrates just how not to adapt its manga. Not that the manga is any better but Coppelion comes to me as a show that should of never been resurrected.

The series itself is based off of the manga of the same name written ... by Tomonori Inoue. The term “Coppelion” refers to an unit of trained specialists with special abilities that tries to find survivors after a faithful event that happened in the year of 2016. Apparently, the city of Tokyo becomes a contamination like war zone as its people are faced to deal with a grim reality; that reality being the brisk on extinction as the a nearby nuclear plant undergoes meltdown. So now, it’s up to the Coppelion special task force to find survivors 20 years later. This definitely sets up a decent science fiction theme series with its beautiful visuals that truly illustrates the aftermath of the tragedy as well as its story. However, that story turned out to be a tragic breakdown.

The series has three main characters named Ibara Naruse, Aoi Fukasaku, and Taeko Nomura. These three girls seems to be humanity’s last hope. But what makes its setup odd is how these young girls are able to give hope to the people. That answer is simple: they all have immunity to the radiation that contaminated Tokyo. In fact, the girls are genetically engineered to be capable of surviving in such a harsh environment. But taking the word ‘capable’ to describe these girls is an overstatement here. While the trio is able to deal most of their assigned tasks, the majority of the responsibility falls into the hands of Ibara Naruse. She is portrayed as a natural leader with her confidence and her determination to help the people. Of course, she also possesses strength, agility, and intellect to carry out her tasks. Now the other question is: what about Aoi and Taeko? They also have a purpose right? In most cases, I would regrettably say no. Throughout the series, Aoi and Taeko plays the role of more like sidekicks. Taeko at one point even puts the team into jeopardy for her careless actions. What’s even worse though is Aoi, a character that is about as useful as a palm tree in the desert. She has literally no skills and often stands in the way. Her obnoxious and childish behavior also hinders the team as well as putting others during an assigned task at risk. During many instances, she seems to be scared for her own life despite trying to save others; how ironic. It seems like other needs to save her and turns out she’s probably even more human than the survivors.

The story itself originally sets itself well. There’s the apocalyptic background clearly illustrated by its landscape of desolation. It composes itself both inside and outside with the ruined cities and lack of civilization. The only people our main characters seemingly encounter are survivors in the beginning. These survivors obviously do not possess the same ability as Coppelion. Instead, they depend on them in order to make it out of Tokyo alive, or die trying. As for the story itself though, this show tries hard but doesn’t land anywhere. The first episode establishes the fact that there are survivors out there but at the same time, there is also danger. Even when they do find survivors, it's usually shown that they are at the edge of their lives. This is presented in many circumstances as this show tries to draw out an image to viewers’ minds - a world in which anyone can die. At many cases, the girls are able to save the survivors but this usually falls under Ibara’s shoulders. AGAIN, what a shocker. Almost every episode involves Ibara pulling out superhuman movements while drawing her handy pistol. Meanwhile, our other two girls sits on standby or providing little support. When Ibara succeeds, the girls plays the role of the cheerleaders. As for the survivors themselves, most of them seemingly only play a very minor role that falls under a weekly basis, to almost never seen or heard again. Some of these survivors also doesn’t seem to want to live for certain reasons as well. Later on though, the series does shift more into a progressing plot gear mode as the girls learns more about the world they are in as well as its past. Additionally, more dangerous antagonists are introduced who even has a past with the Coppelions or main characters themselves. There is also one other main supporting character named Haruto that gets introduced mid way into the series but his characterization is no better than the rest; as if they had any at all in the first place.

There are also some absurd standards that makes this show question viewers what they may be watching. The girls is one example as we see they don’t stand out as anything special. They are designed like high school girls that shows hardly any menacing features. Their designs matches those of a high school student with they way they are dressed. More awkward is the fact that they are dressed in little protective gear. Instead, they wear skirts so noticeably short that surprisingly can hide what’s underneath the whole time. The series’ mechanics also has holes that doesn’t seem to add up such as the way certain military vehicles are operated or genetic engineering revolving several Coppelions. Then, there’s some of the antagonists the girls faces throughout the series. The Coppelion special force are just composed of a three unit team but most of the time are capable of taking down a military group. Even when they do get a little support from others, their task is achieved through some form of Deus Ex machina. What makes it worse though is the fact that the survivors seemingly doesn’t want how the results of a mission turns out to be. In most cases, this means their lives are saved despite a desire to pass on to the next world. The show also makes the antagonists seem weak as in almost fictional story of face and heels. In the end, the heroes usually triumphs out of some sort of odd circumstance.

The artwork of this series can be described as ‘scenery porn’. Most of the landscape and backgrounds are majestically illustrated giving it a cutting edge magnificence. The desolate lands of Tokyo truly does look like something of an aftermath from an apocalyptic event. The lack of civilization as well the destruction of its structures are further evidence of this. The production studio Gohands (known more recently for its works including K and Mardock Scramble) can draw some similarity with its background designs. Furthermore, the lack of fan service eliminates distractions that sets upon a more serious mood for this series. It also incorporates the usage of effective camera angles combined with gusts of wind to illustrate that empty settling atmosphere of the apocalyptic Tokyo as in 2036. Unfortunately, there is some odd artwork involving how the characters appear on screen on various occasions through a technique of thick line style and palate. The purpose of this seems to be unknown but from my guess is probably to focus on the characters as its prominent feature rather than its breathtaking backgrounds.

Soundtrack wise, Coppelion is decent enough to live up to its expectations. Action scenes and cliffhangers are demonstrated with heart beating tones. There’s minimal comedy or fan service so most of the time, the show itself omits the usage of comedic OST but replaces them with a more solemn theme. The OP song “Angel” by angela (K, Valvrave the Liberator, Heroic Age) is catchy for its scientific-like tone of presentation. The ED song sung by her also gives off both a scientific mood with its tragedy-like style. Ibara’s VA (Haruka Tomatsu) gives off a confidence tone of voice while Aoi is a clear example of a girl in distress. Aoi represents the weakness of the team as well as the most human so her voice is often portrayed as helpless girl seeking for help despite wanting to help others.

Honestly, Coppelion is a show that I tried to desperately take a liking to but its construction of the story just doesn’t swing in the right way. The premise sets up itself well and is convincing enough especially for those into science fiction or fans of post tragic series. Past series like Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Shinsekai Yori, and Casshern Sins also demonstrated similar themes but had more character driven plots. However, Coppelion lacks most of that and instead puts its faith into saving survivors. The artwork did save the show quite a bit though but the story and overall execution is just tragic. I don’t mean tragic in a tear-jerking way but rather as an deterioration of a potential success. This show did not achieve success for me in any way. Instead, it was a bloody revolution.

Coppelion is an anime about these radiation immune Charlie's Angels who cry all the time and whatnot.

It's a melodramatic sci-fi story about these girls who won't die on radiation unlike all the other people in the world. These people are of course saints, and we get to see missions where our three radiation immune saints save people from radiation while crying. By three radiation immune saints saving people, I mean our main girl, Ibarawhatever, saving people while the other two watch. Alternatively watch and cry.

The character are pretty useless and stupid and for some reason there is three of them instead of one. ... There was a seemingly interesting settings; normal people getting saved by radiation immune people. The catch being that normal people don't think these immune people as people at all. People see them as dolls, basically. However, their actions on saving normal people would change normal people's views about radiation immune people == change for character development. Unfortunately situations like these get turned back to zero by our main girl who simply replies " I don't understand such complicated things." Then we move to an another scene about crying. Followed by the next mission. Leaving me wonder why the fuck. It's not deep, there is no message. She just literally says that I'm too fucking stupid to follow what you are saying about me being like human and I also have to cry since I haven't for a while.

This really could have been an interesting series if there was other things going on, the characters had some sort of brain function and there was a reason for all of this. A plot, some motives, a tiny bit of depth of some sort, but instead of this the creators decided to take a way which should be referred as "I have a emotion thingy." This is seriously more like some project which is still on the beta stage, only way to make it sell is to add 5 radiation immune and 5 normal bishies to the series and call it a reverse harem.

The post-apocalyptic genre has been quite popular due to new mediums pulling their spin. So very few manage to do the genre justice with how vast the genre generally has to go for it, and most writers don’t have the most competence to write out a competent narrative. Whether or not they are about a nuclear holocaust, zombie invasion, ecological disaster, divine judgment, or pandemic reasons, there are so many possibilities for story writers to come up with brilliant ideas for the genre with some great results and ones that are not so great. Our little anime Coppelion falls into this category that fails ... to provide a meaningful narrative and a dull melodramatic story that severely cripples it from being an intricate show during Japan’s nuclear fallout disaster into one that completely mocks it.

Most people are in unanimous agreement that the artwork is pretty spectacular. To which it is, backgrounds really do look fantastic and fit pretty well to the tone of the post-apocalyptic setting with the dense watercolor backdrop on the dead grass that inhabits the concrete buildings and roads. However, with that said, there’s still a problem with the consistency of the character art designs to the world’s art design. When you look at the characters, they look like they belong in your typical high-school anime with their sleek, clean looks and schoolgirl outfits. If they were to be taken seriously as consistent designs, I’d imagine them not being the glamorous, pretty girls they are if they lived in this environment for so long. Not only does it not fit very well in a post-apocalyptic setting because of its distracting nature, but it also doesn’t fit well with the show's tone. It would be like watching a movie set in the Middle Ages during the Black Plague era, and everyone else looked like they were. Animation does fair more than the consistent artwork, but these awful CGI techniques are used constantly throughout the vehicles and fight scenes.

Of course, this straightforward construction of the enormous points of the show’s problems is the writing. Following a 1st personal narrative from the eyes of the three girls, the show follows several plot arcs where we meet certain groups of people trying to survive out in the nuclear wasteland of Tokyo. However, if you’re expecting something that is a similar type of story to say Mushishi, you will be sorely disappointed with this. The characters we meet hardly get any deep characterization. The ones that do come across as lazy cliches that become predictable and unfortunately delve into bland melodrama that comes across as laughable than anything else.

What does kill the show overall comes from the erratic pacing that goes on. From left and right, characters crop up in many places, with each episode having agendas and personal vendettas toward others. With a show that is only 13 episodes, something like this could’ve worked in a much longer season. Because of this, the pacing regularly suffers immensely in hopes of moving things forward without putting a lot of the plot points into clarification to the audience. They might have trouble with what the main plot is supposed to be besides just three girls walking through point A to point B in a post-apocalyptic setting. In one episode, they are desperate to find this granny that they’ve been building upon a lot, and then in the next episode, the granny character is not spoken of ever again, and they move on into a new mission. Almost as if these events don’t feel connected whatsoever very well that cripples the world-building as a whole. When it finally does get to that specific point where you do see where the plot is trying to go, it doesn’t go anywhere. You almost can’t feel any emotional impact from the constant cliffhangers because there’s little development to the story and characters.

Very few characters make a considerable impression apart from the main characters, but they suffer bland stereotypical fates. Only Ibara Naruse seems to have a brain in her head, while the rest seem only to have screaming and whining as their only two reactions and become more like cheerleaders for Naruse most of the time. They even sometimes screw up certain things that almost jeopardize their whole operation, which begs how they even got the job of being these operatives in the first place. If anything, they come across as mere mindless pawns that don’t offer anything other than pure annoying schoolgirl service that isn’t charming or funny because of their out-of-place nature.

There are logical inconsistencies that can’t be taken with a grain of salt in some action scenes, such as breaking the laws of physics. In some action shows, viewers can ignore these problems because of their outlandish nature of defying physics just for convenience. Still, Coppelion is portraying itself as a realistic setting. You can’t just toss out these laws to see pretty action sequences because it will go against odds with the show’s naturalistic atmosphere,e and we won’t be able to take it seriously as we did in the beginning. Examples include: 1) People can survive a rocket launcher’s backblast from inside a building. 2) Someone can survive an anesthetic bullet from close range even though a bullet can still kill someone. 3) How can someone survive from a shell exploding next to them even at medium long-range? None of which are given any context whatsoever due to the hack directing.

The antagonists they face don’t come across as anything memorable with all of that aside. Not even the Ozu sisters, with their very eccentric personalities. The main antagonists’ reasons for trying to take over Coppelion aren’t given enough context, so we don’t even get enough out of them whether we are supposed to be sympathetic or hate them for their reasoning for doing the things they do. In reality, they don’t have much reason to respond other than that they are just evil people because they’re just cruel and whatever reasons the show had written for them felt muddled and contrived. Their archetypes are the typical big lousy government organization that wants to rule over the landscape to gain control over Tokyo, just like every other story like it.

I never thought I would say this, but Aoi would be the first character in an anime that Kana Hanazawa that I constantly couldn’t stand at all just from her voice alone. Usually, Hanazawa can pull off a good performance, even when her characters aren’t exactly likable. But with her character Aoi, there’s absolutely no positive outcome from the fact that the only tone of her voice that she seems to put into Aoi is high-pitched whining. The other cast members don’t stand out either, but they are listenable, unlike poor little Hanazawa. For the music aspect, for what few stand-out songs there are for the show itself, the opening and ending themes are okay songs that fit somewhat to Coppelion’s setting with lovely dark guitar tones in the OP by the band Angela.

Calling Coppelion an abject failure would be taking it lightly. It could’ve been a solid show to be experienced if there wasn’t the atrocious pacing, poorly developed characters, and horrible melodrama underneath it all, but we could’ve only hoped that it would be entertaining from a funny standpoint once it stops being funny and steps into a mind-numbing boring anime, the entertainment stops and the dull mediocrity sets in. I’d rather watch a show be entertainingly bad than be boring, and this managed to do both. To this, I must now let Coppelion sit on the throne as one of the most disappointing failures of the year, if there was ever a throne in the first place.

Grade: D

Coppelion can be summed up as disappointing.

This is because it has an alluring premise: a derelict city scarred by nuclear disaster, overrun by wilderness with a few human survivors scattered about. There's plenty interesting about a setting like this, and Go Hands does such a great job on the scenery porn that I am currently using a rotating cycle of background shots from the show as my wallpaper.

Unfortunately the characters who populate that setting are not interesting, nor is anything they do. The writing for this show is crap, plain and simple. Setting aside the issue of the Coppelion being teenage girls (standard anime ... conceit), the whole Coppelion project seems half-assed and directionless with no clear goals despite the apparently huge amount of time and money spent on developing these super humans. Ibara's unit stumbles blindly from one rescue to the next with no plan besides wandering the ruins of Tokyo with a magic Geiger counter that mysteriously led them to humans or sometimes to animals, as the plot required. Virtually every "mission" they acquire is something cobbled together at the moment, a response to some random survivor's plight. But I've watched shows with worse plots (or no real plot at all) and enjoyed them. What keeps that from happening here is a dearth of likable characters.

Let me start out by saying I liked the Coppelion girls at first. I liked Ibara's tough compassion and Aoi was adorable. Taeko didn't stand out much, but that ended up helping my opinion of her in the long run, since I came to greatly dislike both Ibara and Aoi by the end of the series. I found Ibara's compassion to be a very sympathetic trait in the beginning, when it was directed toward the truly pitiable and desperate, but it became grating as the series wore on and she indiscriminately bestowed compassion on even the most psychotic people she encountered. It just didn't sit right with me, it made her seem naive and a supremely bad judge of character. She is not a pacifist, she can't pull off the Jesus thing, so her compassion seems arbitrary and forced when it comes to sparing the lives of homicidal lunatics. Aoi is less a hypocrite and more useless baggage. Her shining moment of the series is running away from people who bullied her in school. I wish I was exaggerating here, but I'm not. To be sure the show tries to dress it up as something heroic, but Aoi is a hysterical coward to the very end. Taeko at the least shows some grit playing the mid wife, though most of it is skipped over in favor of Aoi and Ibara using non-lethal violence against homicidal lunatics.

And a word about these lunatics: even these characters are not satisfying because they are none of them committed to their goals. Virtually every antagonist except for the shadowy foreign waste disposal companies is redeemed by episode 13, and that whole subplot about the waste dumping was forgotten halfway through the season.

So nobody in this series is really interesting. They lack conviction. Not the antagonists or the protagonists. The people rescued either gratefully go along or die. I lost track of how many times a side character took off their mask dramatically and then had a tearful goodbye, I imagine their deaths were to make a point about being the only characters in the show with an ounce of conviction in their beliefs. And lord were there tears. Ibara's toughness is apparently only skin deep, because she cries almost every episode. She cries when a person she just met dies, she cries when a person she just met leaves the city, she cries because something vaguely sad was just told to her. Aoi is even more emotional, but on her it works and doesn't seem to conflict with any of her other traits. She's a hysterical coward, so crying over every little thing is practically her job description, it's honest of her.

The wishy-washy, directionless writing aside, the show is technically mediocre. The one redeeming factor is the art assets, which are fantastic. The animation is mediocre and the sound is poor. The music was forgettable, the main problem I had with the sound were the effects used for various weaponry, which were jarringly bad, and I'm nothing close to an expert on military weapons.

I wouldn't recommend this to anybody who's got better things to be doing. Backlog it for a particularly boring stretch of time off if you think I'm exaggerating.

Coppelion is an anime about a girl crying, more crying, getting kidnapped, even more crying and then later break down and do nothing.

Seriously! All is there to the anime is hearing some lame ass character whine and bitch about everything.

Besides having a girl who cry throughout the whole anime, the action scenes are all replaced by a single art showing either the characters getting punched in the face or jumping.

To sum it up, It's Shit.

Alright so I haven't read manga so I can't compare it . But Coppelion for me had a beautiful idea. The main characters were girls which were saving people around the world. What was the problem? They weren't human. I really enjoyed watching how their characters were growing. This anime showed me beautiful power of friendship and also that it is possible to do anything if you want to. I'm not a big fan of this genre but Coppelion really made me cry.

Ok, so another anime has ended, somehow I get the feeling that the writer of this anime's manga version, Tomonori Inoue seems to be a clairvoyant, though the Fukushima nuclear disaster did happen 3 years since the writer conceptualize the possibility of where the scenarios were similar, except of course in his version the nuke contamination was widespread that it covers the so called old capital, while the one that happen in Fukushima Prefecture was only limited in its area. But, anyways, I still give this anime a benefit of a doubt, surly there is something in this anime that basically annoys me, so leave ... it to them Japanese to think of something possible and make a lot fancy, co'z frankly this anime has a lot of fancy in it. So I hereby present my ratings for this anime:


Story- good 7.

I like the plot where it involves a similar scenario of that from Fukushima Prefecture, and yes I'm referring to the nuclear plant whose one of it reactor exploded causing most of its area within the 20 km zone to be contaminated with nuclear debris, I also like the melodramatic thing that happens within the plot, but, I cannot fathom the part where there is action involve where the main task of the 3 girls have to face some adversary when they where just suppose to be in a salvage mission to look for survivors.

Art- pathetic 1.

Ok, the background, that I have no comment, but them Coppelions in school uniform out in a salvage mission??????AH! It is as worse as going to a formal gathering in a bikini, wtf was this writer, Tomonori Inoue thinking?!Geeez, they're in a salvage mission, at least writer Tomonori Inoue-san could have at least made them wore fatigues uniforms, and if he wants to maintain that moe thing, he could have them girls wore cargo short shorts, with matching long socks and hiking boots, in fact I'm thinking of the same attire that Lara Croft of Tomb Raider would wear except with a bit of Japanese theme in it, where it would have been more appropriate for them girls. Haruto on the other hand would have looked good if he be wearing the same uniform that the JGSDF would, also there is the HAZMAT suits, where it kinda looks more like a space suit than a Hazmat, which was a clear indication that when the illustrator did such illustration he probably didn't do his research well, and let's not forget the Division 1 people, who dresses like they are members of the NAZI. I hate to say it but the character's attires are just too way fancy. What's even more bad was that I don't get to see any panty shot or some uncensored boob flashes.

Sound- Decent 4.

I just don't have anything to say about the seiyuu's who did the character's voices, except that I like the closing theme.

Character- fair 6.

I kinda like Ibara Naruse's character as this head strong leader of the trio with a heart, but I kinda have some reservations about her being too dedicated in saving lives that sometime she endangers her team.

Aoi Fukasaku, was some what of a character, where at one point I like her sweetness, but I despises her indecisiveness, I also hate the fact that she can only use her powers on a limited basis.

Taeko Nomura, she more like a dichotomy, where at one point she has medical training, but kinda paralyze by her hesitation to deliver Ibuki's twins.

Ozu sisters- They would have been the character's I like to hate, but somehow on the last episode, they seems to be a nice duet, not bad for having a DNA taken from a psychopath.

Haruto, well I like the part where he really did play out as a hero who gave his life, that is if he is still alive.

Ok, so we all know that the main character's here are them Coppelions, it was nice to know the way they perform, but I just can't fathom the possibility that in this anime/manga the Japanese govt spends a lot of money to make an artificial enhance humanoid, like a Coppelion, just as so that they can send them on a salvage mission where it would have been much cheaper to make a more effective Hazmat suit. So, despite of the performance I guess for this part should be.. fair enough.


Enjoyment- good 7.

What is enjoyable were the melodrama and the action, and that's this anime's silver lining which is good enough.


Overall- Fair 6.

Despite of the all things fancy in this anime, and the exaggerations, it was still good, but, for me the action and the melodrama wasn't enough to convince me to give this anime a score higher than 6, frankly because I really can't fathom all the fancy things and the exaggerations that this anime exhibits.

Coppelion follows a group of high school age girls, known by the same name as the title, as they wander around the abandoned and contaminated former capital of Japan, Tokyo. After an accident several decades ago caused the entire city to be filled with radiation and become unfit for human life, a project was started to create genetically enhanced humans who could survive in the toxic conditions.

The story of the anime follows about a handful of arcs ranging from around one to five episodes each. The arcs all involve the protagonists meeting some stranded people they have to save them by protecting them until a ... helicopter can arrive (which always seems to come as late as possible). The people who manage to survive have special hazmat suits that can keep out radiation to a certain extent, but there is always some other complication that makes saving the people more difficult.

I was expecting to enjoy Coppelion when I first read about it and saw a preview video. The animation is similar to K Project (meaning that every scene contains at least four or five colors of the rainbow and everything else on the spectrum in between) except set in world that looks like it was taken out of Call of Duty. The show started off well enough but eventually collapsed in on itself as the characters failed to develop, the story became repetitive, and the animation budget apparently ran low towards the end.

The main characters are three girls named Ibara, Aoi, and Taeko. Ibara is the brave leader who does all the action and keeps the other two in line. She was the class president back at their school while they were in training as Coppelion and is one of those characters that decides she has to save everyone even if they are constantly trying to kill her and everyone else. Aoi ends up being just an annoying damsel-in-distress who only does about two useful things throughout the anime as well as becoming an even less useful recluse for a while. Taeko is hardly even noticeable and performs most of her big acts of helping non-Coppelion humans off-screen. There are also a few minor characters in each arc. Most of them are humans who need rescuing (which is what the girls' job is) as well as three other Coppelion who have most of their traits spoiled by the OP's animation. The villains in the show are only there for the purpose of making things more difficult for the protagonists and are very generic with poor motivations.

The animation is interesting to say the least. While some scenes have way more colors than necessary, many are just astonishingly vivid and make the city filled with radiation look like you would expect (especially when there are sunsets). However, the show gets carried away with using too much blue/green in some shots even where there isn't any radiation and it just gets overused and honestly looks kind of gross. The action scenes later on also get very lazy. Many times you'll see someone start to punch and then see its conclusion with the actual action not being shown (this applies to many more things than just punches of course) as well as many shots that look like nothing more than a gif. All of the Coppelion have almost the exact same face as well as the same school uniform with some minor adjustments to them. A few of the minors characters also look similar. The soundtrack has some issues with being played a little too loud in comparison to the speaking at times, but it still manages to fit with the action at other times. Otherwise though, the soundtrack is hardly noticeable.

Story -- 3/10 (I really dislike the overused "Save the pregnant woman" plot point)
Animation -- 4/10
Soundtrack -- 3/10
Character -- 2/10
Enjoyment -- 3/10

Coppelion really had a chance to be good, but it just utterly failed in every way. The few aspects that initially seemed good disappeared as the budget disappeared. The characters which started off bad, stayed bad and Aoi just got worse. Most of the minor characters had too short of screen times for the viewer to connect with them the same way the protagonists did and in the final arc, where there was enough time, the villains were horrible and ruined any chance it had of picking itself up. The story just goes nowhere with little development in between the arcs and ends in an unsatisfying way.

Coppelion follows the rescue unit on their journey through post apocalyptic Tokyo. Are main characters are Ibara Naruse, Aoi Fukasaku and Taeko Nomura. These three girls are not exactly ordinary as they are artificial clones created to withstand massive doses of nuclear radiation and they possess their own special perks such as speed, super strength and even the ability to create electricity. Ibara has super strength, enhanced athletic abilities and she’s very accurate with a gun. (Though rarely uses it to harm others) Aoi… Can’t do a thing as she has no special perks or abilities and I just presumed that she was a prototype ... until latter episodes. Finally we have Taeko who has heightened senses such as eyesight and hearing and has the ability to communicate with animals. The rescue unit’s job is to find any remaining survivors from the calamity that was a nuclear meltdown and get them to safety away from apocalyptic Tokyo, whilst dealing with rogue Coppelion units, dangerous civilians and disturbed military forces.

This anime came out in fall 2013 and I was anticipating this anime the most along with Kill la Kill, since I am a fan of apocalyptic settings brought upon by man itself, I was hoping to get a really good and well developed story. Did Coppelion match up to my expectations? Well let’s explore this in a bit of detail.

The story seems very straight forward, find and rescue all the survivors left in Tokyo, but from the first story arc in the series it doesn't seem to go all that smooth as a couple of them die sacrificing their lives for others, but it did seem very unnecessary, if they didn't panic and freak out everyone would have lived happily ever after. It did occur to me that not everyone can be saved from themselves and their inner demons. So after that start the series eventually goes on about discovering the reasons behind people staying in Tokyo because of guilt, unfinished business, fear and leaving without someone you love and seeing if they can be saved by the rescue unit.

The characters in this show are somewhat mixed, we have Ibara who is the leader and role model to the other two main characters she is the authority figure in the show who wants to help and save everyone she can as Ibara feels that she has no purpose for being created if she cannot do so. Aoi is the cute, ditsy and useless girl amongst the trio. She pretty much is a spectator for the majority of the show and when times get tough she steps up and locks herself in a room as Aoi feels like she is dragging down the rest. Later on in the series she gathers enough courage to help out after some inspiring words from an android called Nosense.The final 1/3 of the group is Taeko who is the lesser focussed member of the group. Taeko is very brave and straightforward and always does whatever she can to save others around her using the methods taught to her in school

Other mentionable characters include the Vice principle Onihei Mishima who cares about the safety of civilians left in Tokyo and even cares about the Coppelion rescue unit. We also have the only male Coppelion in the series Haruto Kurosawa who is a member of the clean up crew. Haruto is skilled with making bombs and is a good shot. At first Haruto makes his dislike of humans known to us, but he eventually learns to co-exist with others. Next we have the first of the Ozu sisters Kanon Ozu (I forgot to mention that Coppelion are clones of pre-existing humans) she is a clone of a psychotic serial killer; her power is the ability to conjure up electricity. Kanon has a deep hatred for humans (which you will discover the reasons why later on in the series) and works with other forces in order to bring about the end of humanity. Shion Ozu the second of the Ozu sisters is a very childish and sadistic girl who also carries a grudge against humanity. Her powers include super strength. She also carries the serial killer genes of her human counterpart.

I couldn't find the OST anywhere so I'll go with the sound what i can remember the opening theme tune is very good and i personally didn't want to skip the intro as it is a treat for the eyes too. The ending track is also very likeable. The animation was very good, at first i was a bit surprised with the thick pencil outline on the characters but i forgot about over the course of time.

What was bad about this anime was how it appeared that the producers wouldn't be afraid to kill off characters at the beginning then decided to chicken out and everyone comes out unscathed. The characters that did die seemed expendable if anything. (Granted it was only one or two characters)

(This could be a spoiler so be warned) Near the end of the series there was a giant robotic spider… yeah. A rogue military leader controlled this gigantic spider machine that shot rockets and some other shit… The fight scene with said spider-bot was ridiculous and it felt like it was thrown in purely for the sake of having a giant spider-bot. I can’t even begin to imagine how much time and money would go into making that thing, and for what reason or cause.

The dialogue could have been better in some places such as Ibara’s hard to watch pleads to those trying to cause trouble or to the civilians that refused to leave Tokyo.

I'd also like to give a shout out to the android Nosense who teaches us that regardless of whether or not he is human that he has feelings and emotions.

Overall Coppelion was a bit of a disappointment. I did like the show but after watching the first three episodes I was disappointed with how the rest of the series turned out. Characters can be hit or miss at times like Aoi who can be adorable but also very idiotic and insufferable, Ibara who is brave and courageous but when she went to the ground and pleaded with tears pouring from her eyes it was very pitiful. The story can be very absurd at times but I enjoyed this enough to continue to the end. Although I did enjoy the series I would not personally recommend this, I’d say give the first few episodes a try at least.

So I first heard about Coppelion through Kotaku's anime preview list, and the premise intrigued me. Then, as the series went on, on CrunchyRoll there were a lot of people who thought this was one the most disappointing anime they've ever seen, and how it's pretty darn bad. Note: I have never read the original manga material, so I do not know how the anime compares to that, so I'll be reviewing the anime on its own.

Well, I disagree. First, let's talk about the goods.
1) The artwork and style is truly fantastic. The characters pop, details are easily visualized on screen, and it has that ... grey-ish filter that makes everything look post-apocalyptic. When we get to a change of green scenery, the viewer can definitely see a drastic difference between what's been damaged by the nuclear incident and what nature has done to repair itself.
2) I really enjoy the OP and ED by Angela. The voice actors and actresses all do a pretty good job portraying their respective characters too.
3) The pacing is pretty good. Each episode always ends in excitement, so at least for me, I was excited to next week's episode.
4) Story is acceptable for what's going on. I don't think the anime is portraying itself as being a very realistic and serious series, so the occasional gags and jokes aren't out of place in my opinion. Others however, thought the opposite. Some think there's too many illogical instances that go in stark contrast to what the anime is trying to portray.

What I didn't like
1) Characters don't really develop throughout the series. Nearly everybody is one-dimensional (at least until the climax), and some viewers may find Aoi really annoying. But, I think she was funny and cute. On the contrast, if people have seen Anohana, I thought Menma was much more annoying than Aoi.
2) As a result of the characters not really developing, the viewer doesn't really connect emotionally to the characters, especially when things, both good or bad, happen to them.
3) Story could have been done better with a tighter script, but this is a minor fault.

So overall, I enjoyed this anime. Therefore I'd give it a 7/10. It's not a masterpiece by any means, but I enjoyed it through and through, and would definitely watch season 2 if that were to ever come out.

When I read the other reviews for Copellion, I thought this might be bad, but it was actually the opposite.

Story is great, I can't give any other info on that. Too important to spoil.

Art was amazing, but the fact that the characters kinda stand out in comparison to the scenery was a bit of an issue that kept catching my attention.

Sound was wonderful, and the SFX was nice.

Characters were nice, wish they could've elaborated more on the girl's backstories, but I'm content.

... Enjoyed this enough to give it a 9, don't let the other reviews discourage you.

Overall, a definite 10.

Coppelion was part of my summer anime viewing a couple years ago. Alongside BlazBlue: Alter Memory and Kill la KIll I can't quite recall right now, it really had potential to go places in 13 episodes. Unfortunately, it stumbled by episode 3 and crashed before episode 7. What followed were the charred remains scratching and clawing out of the wreckage that was its plot and begging to be put out of its misery. Is the manga better? Unfortunately, I couldn't be bothered after this botched attempt.

Starting where it should be saving itself, the sound is... Meh. The only memorable part of the series was the ... op despite it having a few okay tracks. You don't feel anything except sheer boredom when watching and the music doesn't alleviate this. Part of what makes an anime work is the musical score which someone in the studio behind this mistake forgot about.

The characters are what you get when someone doesn't try. Ibara is a bad leader, the General is about as incompetent as military personnel can get, and the rest border on annoyingly stupid (Aoi comes to mind) or psychotic. Nothing about the characters redeems them and even when one sacrifices themselves, you can only feel happy that they were able to get out of this mess.

The art feels rushed and incomplete, especially when some scenes have thick outlines around the girl as if the animation team said "good enough" and called it a day. Despite some of the visuals being pleasing in places, they're off-set by the thick outlines or lack of depth to the characters. Oh, but that's not the worst of it.

Imagine if Tokyo did go up in flames during that last tsunami a few years ago. What the studio (and mangaka) attempt to create is a post-meltdown Tokyo where people in hazmat suits have somehow survived in a highly-radiated area of the country with only the apparently incompetent Japanese military dudes suffering for it. Hazmat suits are a short-term option when dealing with this kind of stuff and even then they don't provide 100% protection nor are they immune to degradation.

None of the story makes sense, the characters are awful, the sound is forgettable, and overall it's a miss-able series. Miss it.

Oh yes!!!!!!! This is outstanding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (to me)

This Anime gave me the feels! The OP and ED gave me the feels, and was great!

I loved the art, it is so nice! I loved the story, and the characters a lot! I imagine myself in this Anime, and I was one of those made people, and I just went out and go to the contaminated place without permission hehehehehhe

I have no dislikes about this Anime, and still wish for a second season! There is enough material for a second season, I believe. But, I guess this didn't got much attention, which is sad.

I recommend this a ... lot! It's so Beautiful!

Coppelion was a science fiction manga written by Inoue Tomonori from 2008 to the beginning of this year. In late 2013, before the manga had actually ended, there was an anime adaptation by GoHands. Now, I've never seen a GoHands anime before, so all I know about Coppelion is what I heard from the young lady who requested that I review it. She called it “hilariously bad.” I don't know if that's going to sum up my own feelings on it. So, let's take a look and see if it is, indeed, hilariously bad.

Story:

After a nuclear accident, Tokyo's been left a smouldering wreck. Twenty years ... after the incident, a group of students, genetically engineered to resist radiation, are sent into the ruins to find survivors and clean the area. These students are the titular Coppelion.

Let's begin by talking about the flaws with the series, and there are some major ones. First of all, the message of the series. You know how Miyazaki films tend to contain subtle, eloquent environmental messages? Well, Coppelion does the opposite. It has a loud, sanctimonious and ill-conceived message about how terrible radioactive waste build up is and we're ruining everything. While it is a message that I can get behind, in theory, the presentation here is just really inept. The series also suffers from narrative disconnect with the characters. Supposedly these girls have been trained for this all their lives but they come across as completely and grossly unprepared for the situation. Almost like they're ordinary teenage girls who were tossed into it after all of a weekend of preparation. It's also odd that these girls have superhuman abilities, but in the case of one of them they deliberately handicap those. Why would you engineer her to have super powers if you don't want her to use them? Another of our protagonists doesn't know how to use hers. You'd think that would be the number one item on the list of training necessities. Show them how to use the super powers they were designed to have. What's the point of giving them these abilities if they don't know how to use them? The back story we're given simply doesn't mesh with the action on screen. The series also suffers from its share of dumb moments. We're talking the characters thinking a bomber is a bird and an “epic” chase sequence using paddle boats shaped like swans. Incidentally, those are the only two scenes that are kind of hilarious in how stupid they are.

The sad part about all this is that the premise itself does have potential. I would be really interested in a competently written series about a group of genetically engineered characters with super powers exploring a radioactive wasteland to achieve a goal. Unfortunately, we didn't get competence.

Characters:

I've talked about the incongruity between the back story these characters are given and what we see of them on screen. Let me talk about what we see of them specifically for a moment. Our main characters are Ibara, Aoi & Taeko. All three of them are very quick to cry and become emotionally distraught. Which is pretty annoying. So, let me get this straight, the government sent these girls into the field after training them their entire lives, but they couldn't be bothered to help them build up any mental toughness? They didn't think they'd encounter anything tragic or potentially upsetting in the radioactive wasteland? They thought it was all going to be rainbows, sunshine and the magic of friendship? Aoi isn't even aware of what her special powers are, forget about being trained in their use. Taeko has heightened senses and glasses designed to dull her super vision. There are also a couple of antagonistic coppelion with weak motivations. So weak that the ending entirely negates them. It doesn't help that the characters have no real complexity.

Art:

The art is one area where I'll give the series some credit. The backgrounds are really well drawn. The character designs aren't distinctive, but they look just fine. The biggest problem with the art is that the backgrounds can be really static. There are points where it looks like the characters are standing in front of a static image, albeit a really nice static image. It's like there are points where GoHands animated the characters and their actions and then put in the same background image for the entirety of the sequence.

Sound:

They did get some strong actresses for this. Hanazawa Kana, Tomatsu Haruka, Horie Yui & Sakamoto Maaya all have roles as major protagonists or antagonists. The trouble is that their characters really don't have much to them. The amount of time the main characters spend whining also really hurts the performances. Which results in acting that's pretty sub-par. The composer for this series was Endo Mikio and he did a decent job. It's not a particularly good soundtrack, but it's okay.

Ho-yay:

The three major girls cuddle up to one another in the opening theme, but there's no indication within the series proper that they have any romantic feelings towards one another.

Final Thoughts:

So, that was Coppelion. Is it bad? It's not one of the worst anime I've seen, but yeah. It's pretty bad. Is it hilarious? Not really. It has some scenes that are pretty funny in their stupidity. The paddle boat chase is really funny in its absurdity. The characters being too thick to tell a bomber from a bird is pretty funny. But aside from those two specific scenes, it's not really funny. It's just bad. My final rating is going to be a 3/10. Next week will be the first review of January and you know what that means. Every review is going to follow a specific theme. We've had Hayashibara Megumi, yuri, Ghibli, magical girl and sequel months. This year, it's all about girls with guns. Next week we'll kick that off with a look at Gunsmith Cats.

I am back for another review on the anime Coppelion. And what do I think of it? It wasn't that good.

STORY (3):

The story takes place in an abandoned city near Odaibi nuclear power plant when there was a nuclear explosion and the 3 girls who call themselves Coppelion, have their duty to evacuate the remaining survivors of the abandoned city. Coppelion is a team of students who are trained to perform different tasks and they are immune to radiation.

Now, I was looking forward to the post-traumatic anime both perspectives, but sadly I was let down by the careless writing and plot holes. Also not ... to mention annoying characters.
I will list down all the technical problems that this anime is suffering from.

Technical problem #1:
B2 bomber is a Black Crow. The writers really think that B2 Bomber can fly as fast as the birds so they just make it fly together with the birds. Not to mention the B2 Bomber can be used to transport material. It appears that the writers never understand what the design of the plane "B2 Bomber" looked like and its functions. From our observation, we already can tell that this is a B2 Bomber plane. The writer just made it blatantly obvious for us to tell.

Technical problem #2: (Possible Spoilers)
In episode 2, we only see the after effects of what happened. How did the child managed to be saved? Why is the mother of the child, the only one who fell to her death?

Technical problem #3:
The main cast refer to the 1st Division as "ghosts". This means that we can never see them even though it was very obvious for us to see them.

I can go on all day about the technical problems but I have to preserve my mental health.

ART (4):

I am fine with the design style of the anime. They used bold lines and the background is tinted in green when it is sunny.

SOUND (4):

I find the ending theme and opening theme all right.

CHARACTER (2):

How do I describe the characters? That's simple, just one word "incompetent". I really didn't like their attitude. All they do is cry and moan all the time and this sickens me. Let me remind you again, I hate crybabies and I have seen people in anime who really survived through hard times and yet they never cry or moan.

Aoi, to me is the most annoying character in this anime. All she does is cry and moan all the time. She always makes things from bad to worse. She was the reason why I didn't enjoy Coppelion.

Haruto was the only likable character in this anime but he was pushed aside after that.


CONCLUSION (2):

It seems that the writers used a lot of puns like refer the giant robot as "Spider" in the last few episodes. In fact, I have mentioned this in previous discussions on each particular episodes. Trying to make us unaware of what is going on, is it? You can't do that.

Not only that, I didn't care about any of the characters in this anime. They were annoying.

(Possible Spoilers)
The ending shows that the Ozu sisters and the 3 Coppelion girls are left behind in the abandoned city while the survivors are rescued. Why can't they also be rescued? Why is there only one chopper? Oh, I really think that the 3 Coppelion girls are comfortable in the environment they live in. Or maybe I think that there might be other survivors?
(End of possible Spoilers)

I really just have nothing more to say.

Overall, Coppelion could have been an entertaining series but with its inconsistencies, annoying characters and anti-climatic ending, it just killed the enjoyment for me. I'll give this anime a 2 out of 10.

In this post-apocalyptic nuclear melt own scenario there are bunch of special kids who are resistant to any amount of radiation. They are made to help and rescue people (anyone who is still alive) in this radiation contaminated area. How these kids feel and how they work to save people forms the story. Now the plot is not bad initially but it does not develop from there. Characters are not at all developed from the first to the last episode. It seems they have some issue with them, all these special kids i.e., Coppelions, but its never told out. Only one thing is revealed. The ... main dissatisfaction is the incompleteness of the story. Even when the series finishes in the thirteenth episode you see that the story has not progressed even an inch from the first episode.

Story: 3/10
Art: 8/10
Sound: 5/10
Character: 3/10
Enjoyment: 3/10
Overall: 3/10

I really wanted to like Coppelion, storywise it had a lot of potential, but an onslaught of problems coming from the direction, the writing, the pacing, and the animation from the anime itself really held it back from being anything but "...eh.."

Coppelion is directed by Shingo Suzuki. It's about three high school students who are genetically altered to be immune to radioactivity in Tokyo after it's contaminated by a nuclear accident. The Coppelion are sent in by the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force to rescue the people still living in the city after a distress signal from inside Tokyo is received.

The anime started off ... strong with nice backgrounds, nice colors and a really nice setting... that is until we see the characters. The characters themselves don't mesh well with the backgrounds whatsoever. They have really thick outlines at times and don't seem to fit into this world. The backgrounds remind me of more vibrant and realistic styles of anime like Paprika, Children Who Chase Lost voices, or something Studio Ghibli with the detailed backgrounds, but the characters are cheaply drawn, poorly animated and are drab and almost devoid of any color due to an annoying color overlay that washes out any vibrant colors onscreen.

I started the first episode and was bothered already by the thick outlined cheap looking characters that I almost stopped watching after 5 minutes. I pushed through and actually found myself getting into the story and got used to the design choices for the most part, and the characters didn't look too bad to me anymore. But after the first 5 or 6 episodes, the plot really slows and gets convoluted. There's a lot of pacing issues and it made the anime hard to watch and kind of boring at times.

The last 2 episodes were really solid and I do think if the pacing throughout the entirety of the anime was more like this it would've been a much more enjoyably experience. It definitely wasn't all bad, especially since I did have a smile on my face at the end of the 13th episode, so if you can get passed the problems, you might find this anime rather enjoyable.

I do like the story, it's an interesting concept, and I did enjoy parts of the anime a lot, but the execution of the anime itself was so poorly done that I'd recommend not watching it and just reading the manga, which is still going today.

Which is why I have to give it a 6/10

After watching the first episode of this series, i had high hopes for it, it looked promising and like it would be good. By the end of it, it was like seeing an attractive person and liking them until they open their mouth and start talking. In my opinion, this anime had a lot of potential to be good but a few plot holes and the characters ruined it. Dont get me wrong, while i may complain about it, im generous in the rating because certain people can watch this and enjoy it to some extent. It isnt bad if you can get over some ... details and focus on the events.

Plot: 6/10
The plot of the story is original and good. Three genetically engineered girls go into the wasteland known as the old capital to find survivors and help them. I would find it hard to argue that this isnt somewhat interesting since it takes a different perspective of a post-apocalyptic city since its not about zombies or something like that. The downfall of the plot is that it has a few holes that may bug people. At some scenes i would pause and wonder "did you really just 'conveniently' find that?" and have to take a breather to not get annoyed. There are times when things happen all too conveniently and there are also times when the plot changes for an unclear reason. For some people, possiblely anyone reading this, if you can watch something and not question what is happening then you can get past these plot holes. In my case, i just sucked it up and moved on but it still bugged me til the end. Another downfall of the plot is that it doesnt build up to many things. In a series, it is okay to go from action to drama but there is a buildup that is required for that. A person cant go from "im going to save this little girl!" to "please let me do this (while crying by the way)" without some sort of build up. Even then i dont know if the extent of the drama even called for crying in most cases but still a little buildup would have made the characters look a little bit less pathetic.

Story line: 7/10
When i say story line, im referring to how events play out in the series. The story line in this series isnt bad but the first few episodes may discourage you to continue. The first few arent very consistent and the characters can make you want to drop the show, ill be honest, i found myself day dreaming a bit between the 2nd and 4th. However, after these small parts the story does follow a sort of arc. While the first few episodes are a bit "ugghh", they are reference later on.

Now, the story line as a whole is actually very good. It isnt always predictable even though some events seem like they'll lead a certain way. It is interesting in my opinion because it isnt on an episode by episode basis and it isnt one long arc. The events that play out do vary to a certain extents and the characters arent doing the same thing over and over again nor are they on one long journey. I found this nice and refreshing because things escalated as the story went on and this kept my attention.

The characters: 5/10
All i can say is "oh my god, are you serious..." the characters in this series are the biggest downfall i would say. The main 3 girls especially caused this series to be as bad as it was. What made them so bad, well to put it simply, they have mood swings like crazy. One minute theyre acting tough and being awesome, the next they break down and cry like they already lost the battle and watched everyone they loved die. This made me wish that someone would backhand they and tell them to get it together. The story does make it understandable to cry but i think that since the main girls were suppose to play heroes, they lost so much respect that they killed the show for people. The roles they play also makes the show unbearable to a certain extent. For example: Aoi was one of the main 3 girls yet she didnt do much for the story. I would say she was suppose to be there for comic relief but she just came off as silly and useless. Her character becomes useful eventually but even then thats not enough to gain any respect for her after the reputation she created. as a whole, i'm guessing that she is one of the reasons people dropped the show because they were too angry and annoyed at her to continue.

The side characters got to me a bit to. Yes we all understand the situation that theyre in and it can be traumatic but they dont need to cry for everything. Even the temporary characters cried and that left me shaking my head because they are too emotional for their own good. The only person I would say held back their tears was the vice principle and he had a legit reason to cry in some incenses.

Art and music: 8
Im combining the art and the music in the series just because they both were very good aspects of the series and fit well together. I felt that the ending song matched the story quite well because it had a dark mood but hopeful; which is what this anime was suppose to come off as. The intro song wasn't bad but i felt it was a little out of place because it felt like it was for a fighting type of movie rather than one where the characters cried more than they needed to.

now the art is probably one of the best aspects of the series. It is captivating in many ways and it is very detailed. The art really gives a sense of the situation the girls are in and at the same time it also can leave a person in awe just because it is detailed and it sets a nice mood.

Overall: 7
I gave this anime a 7 because it had a lot of potential and was great, that is if you ignore the characters' whining, some of their motives and the fact that some things in the series were just too convenient. For anyone that decided to watch this anime, i warn you that you should be committed to starting what you finished because while the story line and art of the series may be good, the characters will make you want to drop the show. If you can go 13 episodes without questioning motives, the convenience of things or why the characters have mood swing as if they were dying then you can enjoy it.

*spoilers*
The premise sounds... promising. Genetically engineered girls go into deserted Tokyo to inspect the destruction wrought by a reactor that apparently ran on nerve gas, weapons grade plutonium, and the t-virus. Okay a little topical, but there's a lot of focus on the characters and how they feel about being engineered - oh what why can she tame that wolf so fast. Because she has a good sense of smell? Okay... you know what I'll go with it. Why why is that one crying and screaming. Well, I guess the scene was a little emotional, maybe I just didn't notice - Wait, wait a stealth ... bomber? A B2 stealth bomber... owned by a corporation... secretly flying toxic waste... into nerve gas Tokyo... so they can dump it in a lake. Tell me, when they were at 20,00ft, did they happen to notice the ocean, because most corporations do. So, now we have a bazooka, and we're chasing a B-2 stealth bomber around in a jeep, though nerve gas Tokyo. And these girls FEEL SO MUCH!!! THEY CANT STOP FEELING! WHY WERE WE MADE!?! WHY!?!

I think this was the only time I kept watching an anime simply because I thought it couldn't be as bad as it seemed. It was worse. The girls are so damn emotional, there's one of them I like just because she doesn't freak out quite so much. I think she freaked out once because she sympathized with this couple who I think abandoned their kid or something and she wanted everyone to know how much she FELT FOR THEM!!! Really, you may not believe the all caps are appropriate, and they''re not, because no writing can express how much she FEELS FOR YOU!!! The emotions are TOO MUCH!!! I mean there's a lot of stuff here to get upset about and to be scared of and their very existence I'm sure can be a source of anxiety but wow can they over do it. I cannot believe how much they can over do it.

And then there was the part where we case a B-2 stealth bomber, trying to shoot it down with a bazooka one of the girls apparently had, and we are trying to kill these people on a plane because they had the nerve to dump toxic waste in a lake in an irradiated nerve gas zone. Guys if you're gonna feel so much how about feeling that its wrong to kill people just for improper disposal of industrial waste? And no I mean they are having a party hunting these people down and shooting them out of the sky over Tokyo. And everyone's behind them on this. And it doesn't get better after that. It really doesn't.
Read more at http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=445&show=6640#tQ2VCXzXK3dZTyJy.99

It is the year 2036 and humans have successfully engineered living dolls called Coppelion. They are genetically-modified human clones that are immune to radiation, miraculously heal from serious injuries, and have unique special abilities. These coppelion are conveniently deployed into the shell of the former Japanese capital, now a radioactive wasteland, in order to save the remnants of humanity there.

When I think of nuclear wasteland, I think of the games S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Metro 2033, and Fallout. None of these games contain school girls in school uniforms who cry every time anything goes wrong. And yet this is exactly what GoHands has added to the theme, complete ... with mini skirts and an extreme dose of estrogen. While the animation of Go Hands does justice to the post-apocalyptic cityscape of "the Old Capital", the lively personalities of the characters and the caliber of action don't follow this dark tone. For me, this action-adventure only fares slightly better than Kyoukai no Kanata, another series that desperately lacks a coherent atmosphere.

Animation:
This work shares a lot with other GoHands works. Again, a major city holds the scars of a disastrous accident as in K. The amazing clarity and detail found in K is carried over in Coppelion, except that everything is now rusted and overgrown, in contrast to the sparkly-clean look of K. The character animation is a bit different in that there are very clear outlines around the characters, making it quite obvious that they are superimposed in front of the background. I also found it a bit odd how the girls were able to keep their uniforms tidy and clean, despite sleeping and rolling in the dusty, grimy deserted city. The character designs are fair with distinguishable important characters. Somehow, Naruse reminds me of Shino, the student council chair in Seitokai Yakuindomo. Unlike K, we don't have overly bishounen guys.

Though there is a lot of action in Coppelion, there isn't as much reliance on magic as in K. In its place is a lot of conventional firearm battles with antagonists who always spray lead almost universally resulting in a light show that misses the intended target. There is noticable CGI usage, especially in the earlier episodes. Expect blood and a bit of gore, though not anywhere near the level found in the games mentioned above. The more military/gamer-inclined viewer may take offense at the grievous misrepresentation of the B2 bomber, unrealistic effects of radiation, and copyright infringement of the Monkeylord from Supreme Commander. As there is no Neko in this show, don't expect there to be much in the fan service department.

Sound:
The show opens with a rock-based OP with weird-sounding gaps between the vocals. The show ends with a traditional-sounding song that feels like it fits with a Yakuza flick. It has a dark melody that, while not great, is much more melodic than the OP. The BGM is similar in instrumentation to that found in K, though with less emphasis, cohesion, and presence.

The VAs do a good job giving their respective characters fitting personalities. Kana Hanazawa and Yui Horie do well in their supporting roles but I particularly liked Rikiya Koyama's performance as the general.

Story:
This is one of those series that you shouldn't take seriously if you want any to derive any enjoyment. From the ridiculous "lead barrier" holding the radiation in to characters coincidentally discovering functional RPGs in the ruins at critical moments, this show isn't going for any realism awards. At least plot-wise, there's much more continuity compared to what we saw in K.

Basically, special "human dolls" called coppelion graduate from a special high school (training them in vital subjects such as how to use firearms and how to perform surgery) and are sent on various tasks in hazardous, radioactive environments. The show follows the medical team, a group of three whiny coppelion whose goal is to find and rescue/extract all the remaining humans in the city. The story is very episodic at first with the gals discovering various groups of people. Eventually, the story centralizes around rescuing a large group of people, which carries the plot to its climax. Along the way, convenient antagonists are introduced and mysterious winds interrupt at the worst of times. While there is continuity, the execution doesn't flow naturally.

Since Coppelion are essentially scientifically-created clones, the story attempts to invoke the same morality questions and themes also recently found in Railgun S. Unfortunately, the theme was only lightly explored and had almost no real effect on the viewer. The story also touches upon the idea that there are people who may willingly want to live in the radioactive zone, free from the burdens imposed by the outside civilization. Ultimately, none of the themes are explored with enough detail, and many seemingly important side plots (such as the Prime Minister's past) are hinted at but never explored.

In the end, this feels like an exploratory work; there are certain elements that are unique but a lot of core pieces are missing. What are the coppelion? Why is the rest of the world seemingly apathetic to the fact that Tokyo has been blown up? What kind of an engineer would think that building an experimental reactor in the center of mega city is a good idea? These critical questions, and more, will remain completely unanswered in the series.

Character:
The coppelion are as mysterious as the protagonist in K. Expect a lot of special abilities and cheesy last minute saves based on these abilities. While there is some depth to the main medical group, there isn't much explanation on the antagonists. A lot of emphasis is supposedly on the purpose of the coppelion and why they willingly follow what they are ordered to. My main gripe, however, is that antagonists completely change their mind, almost on a whim. One minute they're out to kill the protagonists, no holds barred. The next, they decide to just give up and join forces. This change in conviction just feels completely unnatural.

Value:
Coppelion is a nice looking show. It's got a pretty good atmosphere and a fairly unique setting. However, the characters didn't really grow on me and the unnatural pacing and execution didn't help either. If you're a huge GoHands fan then this might be for you. Otherwise, if you must get your fill of armageddon, watch something like Kaminai. It has a much richer atmosphere and likeable characters. If you're looking more for an action-scifi, Railgun S is a good alternative.