Tetsuwan Birdy Decode

I will freely admit that I'm a fan of the original Birdy the Mighty. I watched the original OVA back in 1997, and I loved the show for it's surrealistic sci-fi premise. When I heard that the show was being remade into a 13 part TV series, it goes without saying that I was looking forward to it.

The original Tetsuwan Birdy manga was created by Yuuki Masami (who is more well known for his Mobile Police Patlabor series), and ran in Shounen Sunday Super magazine. However, Yuuki's work on Kyuukyoku Chojin R (The Ultimate Esper "R"), for the same magazine eventually led to the manga ... being abandoned. The original manga was received rather well though, which led to it's adaptation as a four part OVA.

It wasn't until a few years later that Yuuki went back to the original Tetsuwan Birdy series, and instead of continuing with the series from the time it was abandoned, he decided to do a complete revision of the series from scratch. The new series, Birdy the Mighty II, began serialisation in Weekly Young Sunday magazine in 2003.

The story for both the original OVA and the new series generally follows the same path. Intergalactic police officer Birdy Cephon Altera and her cyborg partner Tute arrive on Earth in pursuit of a wanted alien criminal and, whilst chasing that criminal, she accidentally kills a high school student named Senkawa Tsutomu. However, this is not the end for Tsutomu as the Federation that Birdy works for will provide him with a new body. In the interests of not causing undue alarm to the people around him (and letting him continue with his life), Tsutomu's "soul" is merged with Birdy's body (allowing them to switch between each other), whilst his new body is made.

In all honesty, I preferred the story in the OVA. The new series, whilst being more in depth, also tends to drag its heels with regards to the plot. The OVA had a much tighter story, and the pacing was far better because of the time constraints. The new series, whilst giving more information, is also guilty of not using the extra time in the series to drive the story forward. Indeed, there are to many occasions in the new series that can only be described as "filler" moments (thankfully though, there's no real filler episodes).

The most noticeable thing about this series is the quality of the artwork and the animation. The character designs are very much in keeping with both manga, however the level of detail in the designs is superior than that of the OVA. The backgrounds are often very well done, and the CG sequences are very smooth, especially during the sequences in space. A-1 pictures have done some excellent work animating the show, and nowhere is this more noticeable than in the various action sequences. The various fights and chases are extremely fluid and surprisingly detailed.

Sound is another big plus for this series, and is definitely better than that of the OVA. The sound effects used throughout the show are generally very good, although some of the effects can be a little odd in their usage. The OP is a pretty good J-rock track by Hearts Grow, entitled Sora. I have to admit that I much prefer the track used for the ED though, as it seems more in keeping with the slightly whimsical nature of the show.

Birdy is actually a pretty good character on the whole. During her time on Earth she moonlights as an up-and-coming idol named Arita Shion. The nice part about giving Birdy a "secret identity" is that it allows more of her playful personality to come to the fore.

Tsutomu, on the other hand, is more of a typical high school boy of the type that appear in many anime. The relationship between Birdy and Tsutomu works surprisingly well however, especially during the time they share one body. There is a definite chemistry between the two characters that was never really developed in the OVA, and the conversations between the two are often lively.

The downside though, is that a number of the other characters aren't developed well (or at all in some cases). Some of the more prominent characters (Nakasugi Sayaka and Satyajit Shyamalan for example), could have received a great deal more development than the show provided, especially in the case of Shyamalan.

That said though, this is still a entertaining series. There's enough going on in the show to keep you interested, although the end of the show was rather predictable. I did enjoy the series on the whole, and whilst it may be superior to the OVA in many respects, it doesn't have the same pacing or the tight storyline of the original.

This is a show that action fans may enjoy, but it may also appeal to those who want to see a strong female lead. If you simply want a show that's got action without being too serious, then it may be worth giving this a try.

Given a choice though, I would go for the OVA before watching this.

Please bare with me thou this is my first review.

I just finished watching Birdy - Decode and I have to say "Great series". The story itself was good in this series. Maybe they had spread it over 12 ep. instead of just 4 OVA's back then. I remembered watching the "Birdy" first OVA's many moons ago and I was like "eh" about the anime back then. When I saw they were coming out with an 12 episode series, I was willing to give it a try and happy I did. It's refreshing to see a anime thats different ... from your run of the mills anime. I'm sad that it ended, but I've enjoyed every episode and can't wait for the 2nd season.

The animation was crisp and smouth especially the fighting scenes. The color palet theyused is very soft, not to loud in some anime I watched. Also the voice acting was great. Also the bgm was good not to heavy, just right. I also enjoyed the OP and ED music they used. Very up-beat and goes with the anime.

The characters designs are great. Every one was drawn completly different from the other and aways wore something different. Also they we're believable and wasn't annoying.

Overall, I really enjoyed this series to the point that when it finished I wanted to see whole series again at that point. I strongly recommend "Tetsuwan Birdy Decode" To anyone who want to see something different. I also recommend that you watch the first OVA's before watching the series to see the diffence between them.

I have never seen the original Birdy OVA so I cannot possibly compare between the two series. Therefore this version is going to be reviewed on its own merits.

I actually found this show when it was recommended to me on Netflix. It looked interesting so I gave it a shot. Birdy had a pretty original premise and that was what initially got me hooked. It seemed like it was going to be mostly an action-based series with aliens thrown in, which is exactly what it is at times, but a lot of the fight scenes are pretty intense and fun to watch. ... The story didn't focus entirely on the intergalactic alien hunter aspect of the series though which was nice, call it a pleasant case of Multiple Personality Disorder. It added a little bit of comedy, mystery, and some romance from Tsutomu's part in the series. This worked out to be a nice balance as it gave enough to satisfy the cravings of those action junkies out there while providing general entertainment for those other viewers.

The show climaxed nicely with everything that had been building up and the ending was so bitter-sweet that it actually made me like the series more. However, the ending was far from conclusive for the Birdy franchise as a whole. The last episode left with more questions and mysteries left unsolved than when the season began, working as a nice setup for season 2. Unfortunately I will say that the show has a tendency to drag its heels at times, moving the pace to almost a crawl occasionally. And while no episode is truly filler as something important to the story always happens, there still were a lot of moments that served only to slow the series down.

I thought that the art for Birdy was pretty good, actually really good, which is most likely the result of it being a newer title. There was a pretty nice mix of CGI and animation which helped when combined with the overarcing theme of sci-fi and aliens. The fight scenes were always nice to watch and were nice and dark and gritty. On the flip side when the animators wanted to they came out with some really nice looking peaceful and artistic scenes and some nice everyday animation.

My only problem with the animation was that sometimes things looked TOO nice. It kind of reminded me of watching the special effects that you see from movies in the 70's or 80's in that things didn't look right with the rest of the scene. Sometimes the animation would be so intricate and detailed that the scene or one aspect of the scene would look clunky or awkward in regards to the rest and that took away from the overall experience at times.

All of the characters had extremely unique appearances so there was no possible way of confusing one character with another, I'll chalk that one up to a plus for the animators and animation. The development of these characters was not quite as refined however. Most of the character development in our main twosome is through Birdy by means of various flashbacks and references from other characters, but these are usually left untouched and are a part of the slew of mysteries that were left at the end of the series. Birdy's alter ego Shion Arita, while not making many appearances, served to add a dash of humor to the series at times too. Tsutomu was a pretty average male anime lead but he grew up a bit over the series, apparently dying does that to you, or maybe it's just puberty, I can't say for sure, and there were definitely times where he showed some balls throughout the series.

On a side note this reminds me of another point I wanted to make. Despite the fact that this show is about a teenage boy sharing a body with a hot alien girl, Tsutomu always remains a perfect gentleman and doesn't act weird when he's riding around in Birdy's body. The series refrained from using that plot point as an excuse for having weird ecchi moments with Tsutomu and Birdy for cheap kicks. This show was about as un-ecchi as you can get. Birdy takes like 20 baths over the course of the series but not once does Tsutomu try to say or do something weird or perverted with their body, which makes me give major props to the director of this show for not tailoring to those who only picked up the series because there was a hot alien girl as the main character.

Some of the background characters have important roles in regards to the main story. Others have absolutely no relevance to it at all. And still others appear to have some role but that role is unknown for now and the viewer won't know for sure until...you guessed it, season 2. As for the primary antagonists, they aren't really given a good amount of devlopment either but it doesn't particularly hurt the story in any way.

The opening theme "Sora" wasn't anything unique but it was still pretty good and I liked it while the ending theme "Let's Go Together" is just a fun and peppy "just don't give a fuck" kind of song that was always pretty enjoyable.

This was a pretty good action show. It was a pretty good sci-fi show. It was also a pretty good looking show with some good characters and a good plot. Basically what I'm saying here is that Birdy the Mighty: Decode is a solid show all around and if you don't mind it being a bit slow, I don't see why anyone wouldn't enjoy it. It's diverse in the genres that it throws at the viewer, it's a unique story, and it leaves you wanting more at the end. Overall I would highly recommend this series for action, sci-fi, and overall anime fans in general.

Birdy the Mighty is a thoroughly enjoyable exercise of an interplay of good and okay execution.

Story: 7. Birdy the Mighty is forgettable plotwise due to a tired genre of Alien superiority. The whole "Aliens are stronger than us but we must survive somehow" premise is dealt by the novels like "War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells or even t.v. shows like "Star Trek" in a greater and more investing manner. The sharing of a body aspect however is quite interesting as it leads to clever and fun character interactions.

Art: 8. The aspect of this show that really brought me in was the direction ... in which the art took. I saw a show with clean animation and cool character designs. I wasn't disappointed, but I also wasn't blown away. Birdy's movements in battle however are truly stunning. The animation style shifts during fight scenes to something else entirely. It takes the simplistic approach of a bare minimum to show movement and coherence and blasts it in front of you in full glory. The fights in this show are something to behold.

Sound: 9. Birdy the Mighty has a stirring and befitting soundtrack. Similar to the Christopher Nolan "Dark Knight" movies, the soundtrack in exciting scenes drives and pumps you up. It creates a truly atmospheric feeling that draws you into the anime as if you were really there.

Characters: 8. The character dynamic between Birdy and Tsutomu, who share a body after Birdy accidentally kills Tsutomu, is refreshing and interesting to watch because the two are at polar ends of the spectrum. Birdy is a stubborn but likeable action hero who stifles crime with her fists and Tsutomu is just an everyday guy trying to maintain his life while dealing with extraterrestrial affairs. However the supporting cast is quite weak and the villains utterly boring.

Enjoyment: 9. I really enjoyed this anime and would recommend it to any action lovers. Shows like this really demonstrate that if every component is at least good in the show, the show can be great. The overall product is what really struck me as nearly poetic as profound themes are lightly explored. However this is still an action show and should be watched as such, just expect to pick up some things along the way.

Note: I haven't watched the original OVA of Birdy, so I therefore am not judging the series based on its older portrayal.

Tetsuwan Birdy Decode depicts the clash between two totally different people, Birdy Cephon, an agent of the alien "Federation", and Senkawa Tsutomu, an ordinary high school senior in Japan. In her chase after an interplanetary criminal, Birdy accidentally destroys Tsutomu's body in her fight with the criminal. However, through some alien power, Birdy saves Tsutomu's mind by absorbing it into her body. While Tsutomu's body is being repaired by scientists in the Federation, he must share a body with Birdy and help her protect ... the galaxy. (Keep in mind that Birdy can shapeshift back and forth between her body and Tsutomu's, and that she can surrender or grant control of the body to Tsutomu.)

The story is a unique cross between slice-of-life and science fiction. However, the series can be extremely confusing with the plot going every which way- political intrigues on the planet Altaria, Tsutomu's relations with his classmates, the mysteries surrounding Shyamalan Satyajit. The flow of the plot feels too fast though- again, too many events squeezed into a mere thirteen episodes. Even so, the show keeps a great balance between humorous and serious moments. I was disappointed in the lack of the more perverted humorous scenes I was expecting- like Tsutomu overreacting while being in a hot female body, for instance, or Birdy's reaction to being in Tsutomu's body.

The animation and sound are great. I enjoyed both the OP and ED, which really matched the cheerful, determined mood of Birdy and Tsutomu. The art style of the series was great- I especially liked how the expressions of the various characters were animated, with good taste too (none of those overused, overdramatic face faults many other animes favor). I felt that the animation worked very well, almost seamlessly with the music and voice acting.

Unfortunately, the only characters that I truly liked were Birdy and Tsutomu. And even then, admittedly, Tsutomu was the typical weak, jaded, yet gallant boy who works (in Tsutomu's case, is forced to work) with a powerful girl. Most of the other characters seemed very flat. Tsutomu's classmates all can be relied on, in every scene Tsutomu's not there, to complain about his abscence, make fun of him, and/or whine about their own circumstances. The main 'villains', Shyamalan and Capella, seem disappointingly stereotypical of the devious, calculating, power-hungry baddies, although they aren't totally unoriginal. Then again, there weren't many opportunities for side characters to develop very far, seeing as the show focuses mainly on the two main characters.

Overall, Tetsuwan Birdy Decode possesses an original and fresh background, interesting character development, and is overall a good watch. However, to me, the storyline felt somewhat rushed and the side character interactions were admittedly much less interesting than those between Birdy and Tsutomu. Despite these shortcomings, the show is very entertaining and worth the watch.

A good watch for any occasion, Tetsuwan Birdy Decode provides some originality bringing back the open imagination to the anime, instead of the usual school plots or mechs it feels refreshing to come up with a different sci fi.
Being a remake it was a good option since the old OVA didnt fulfill half the potential of the plot.
The animation is very good in the fight scenes preventing the show from falling into boring, the plot itself is interesting and featuring only 13 episodes they are quite enjoyable.
The end leaves promises of more to come, and it wont hurt to get another season, some shows ... feel like dragging for too long or sometimes they seem good but no room for future seasons, in this case there isnt any issues left hanging, providing a proper ending but leaves room for future adventures.
The relationship between Birdy and tsutomu is the higlight of the show, provides some comic relief and a bit of drama but is generally light hearted, fun and lots of action.
Wouldnt go as far as saying its a must watch but good entertainment worth a peek.

I found Birdy the Mighty through S.A.V.E. so I wasn't expecting very much from this series. I also wasn't expecting much with a premise about a high school boy sharing bodies with a hot alien super cop. Now I am so glad that I decided to buy this series and hope more people seek it out in the future.
I was expecting loads of fan service, but that was kept to a relative minimum. I found the story to be decently paced and the characters to be developed well. The fight scenes were well done and overall the animation was nice. I have a few issues ... with the English dub, but that is mostly word choices in a few spots that didn't seem necessary. I also found the music to be catchy and can easily recall the OP tune in my head. While it isn't fantastic, I do believe the series in underrated and deserves a little more attention as an overall good anime.
Overall this series is a 5/5 star in my book, and I hope more seek it out in the future.

Tetsuwan Birdy Decode or aka Birdy the Mighty is one of the most memorable and meaningful animes I have ever watched. This beautiful show is gorgeously rendered with stunning linework and visual aesthetics. The tone of the story matches the art very well. The fight scenes are so dynamic and the movement of the characters can be so fluid and artistic at times, that it comes alive to the viewer.

The musical score is reminiscent of Cowboy Bebop, with flowing and moving musical pieces that will remain in memory long after the show is over.

The characters progress and grow beyond that of a linear plane ... and are deeply emotional. As the deep and well developed story progresses, so does Birdy as she encounters more obstacles.

All in all, Birdy the Mighty is my favorite anime. It has so much emotion and meaning packed into two seasons that it leaves a person thinking about it for years to come. Please watch this show to experience the beauty for yourself.

12 Years. I've had this anime sitting around for 12 years without finishing it. That was a mistake, because this anime is awesome. It has so much going for it, but I think the key thing is that while this anime is centered mostly around high school kids, it's not childish. It's a mature story, and very well told. Not a lot of plot holes, not a lot of moe, or nosebleeding, and it actually intersperses adults naturally with children. It's not like most animes today where adults are these far away uninvolved authority figures who only show up at key ... times to push plot. You had adults working side by side with the kids to figure out what was going on. I liked that as it made the anime feel more realistic and mature.

I also liked the main characters, Birdy and Senkawa. But, especially Birdy. Strong, capable and intelligent, but also goofy and humorous at others. The villain, Shymalan was pretty strong as a villain as well, but a bit too arrogant, so you knew what would happen with him eventually. But, what was great about it, is that there are other forces at play behind Shymalan, throughout the anime which left you guessing what was actually going to happen with the Ryunka and where the anime goes from here. There's a lot of double crossing, and government subterfuge involved in this anime, as alien forces are jockeying for power with Earth as a pawn in the middle.

I also loved that this anime wasn't focused on keeping things happy and upbeat. There's a fair amount of death in this. So, even though it has a kind of animation style and feel like it should be more peppy and sweet, it's really a more serious anime with serious consequences.

While Birdy was great and I'm going to jump straight into the sequel, it did have a few flaws. Mainly, the ending was predictable. As soon as they revealed a way to have a somewhat happy ending, you knew instantly how things were going to play out in the finale. So, while it was still a good ending, it was easy to see how things were going to finish. Still, it managed to happen in a way I didn't quite expect, so I was still a little surprised.

Another thing was the cast had a few irritating characters. Particularly Natsumi, who was way too naggy as Senkawa's childhood friend. She just never stopped nagging. She is definitely someone's future ex-wife. Really, most of Senkawa's childhood friends were irritating. Ryouta was just a constant jerk all the time for no reason and I can't remember his name, but the guy who was so overly hyped about exploring abandoned buildings was extremely irritating. I wanted him to die. Fortunately the latter two didn't get too much screen time to drag the anime down.

Other than that this was a very good anime. So, if you're just cruising for something from the good ole' days, this is something to check out.

Season 1 of Tetsuwan Birdy Decode is a stunning reboot to the old OVA and pays homage to the manga which also got rebooted but about 5 more times? Reboots aside, this is one of the best shining examples of story and character done right. With one exception. For the most part the characters are believable, you can understand why every character acts and portray themselves surprisingly realistically. But the main villain. He's almost a disappointing level of why. He's great for memes and in his own way feels like he belongs somewhere, but that place isn't here sadly. While this is a fun anime, ... it's never had anything to really take you out of belief till he shows up and it's blatantly obvious. Aside from him, I do love the art style but it isn't always top quality, especially in action scenes when visuals are needed, and I've heard people don't always enjoy the audio but I don't recall it really but not to say there isn't any. I can definitely say this is a fun anime with natural characters and relations between the them. No forced romance here. There is some ecchi though but it doesn't really get too in the way. I would recommend this to most people.

Review for season 2 continued and if you need more to go on.

I must admit that I got quite a bit of enjoyment out of seeing Birdy the Mighty: Decode. While the series does seemingly set itself up as a typical space action-adventure about an alien agent stopping criminals, it does quite a bit to make itself stand out. It sets up Tsutomu having to share Birdy's body after his body accidentally gets wasted by Birdy during a fight with a thug. This sets up the entertaining chemistry between the two characters as they often get at odds with one another over who gets to snag control of Birdy's body as Tsutomu wants to retain whatever normalcy ... he can in his life while Birdy wants to press on with her mission on Earth where possible.

I've seen a number of reviews online criticize about how they find Tsutomu's character to be rather annoying as he complains very often throughout the series. But considering the kid's a teen, I think his complaining is justified as he deals both with the typical things a kid his age would go through combined with adjusting to his unique circumstances of sharing a body with an attractive female alien agent. His character does develop throughout the series as he learns to cooperate with Birdy as she helps her out at some points within the series and develops a relationship with one of his classmates that the series takes enough time to properly develop and make it credible that Tsutomu would fall for her, especially as said classmate is another central character in the mission Birdy undergoes in this series.

As for the central plot to the series, it is a typical case of an alien threat setting out to wipe out humanity via a powerful weapon. The show takes its time laying out its developments in regards to Birdy tracking down the alien thugs and finding the location of the weapon they brought to Earth. The series tosses in some twists in regards to who has it and what it is capable of with some elements being fairly typical and others somewhat surprising to see unfold. This becomes prominent in Birdy the Mighty Decode's second half where we get introduced to an influential human character whose plans with the weapon are fairly typical of shallow anime baddies and the weapon's nature bringing about some shocking developments involving said mentioned classmate with Tsutomu. One major flaw with Birdy the Mighty: Decode is that it makes mention to some character alliances and aspects of Birdy's past that aren't expanded upon in this season of the show, especially with the show's lack of a proper ending.

In terms of visual presentation, Birdy the Mighty Decode is a mixed bag. While sporting decent-looking scenery and having moments of great animation in action scenes, the character designs look rough and don't have much in the way of detail. The show also takes occasional shortcuts with its animation featuring static shots of the characters, speed lines and some other apparent methods.

While not a perfect title, Birdy the Mighty Decode made for an entertaining series thanks to its unique character chemistry with Tsutomu and Birdy, Tsutomu's developments and some of the later developments involving the alien weapon. It looked apparent that the show still had more to tell considering the hints dropped of Birdy's past and said mentioned character alliances thus I plan to give Birdy's second season a shot at some point.

"Tetsuwan Birdy Decode," or "Birdy the Mighty: Decode," is a smartly written show with decent production values and a good hook. It is not an ambitious show however. Birdy the Mighty is a show that proves to be quite entertaining, but its not likely to leave you with much after the credits roll. There's nothing wrong with that, but its something to keep in mind when deciding to watch it or not.

Birdy's characters are likable enough, but not particularly complex. The show does provide a nice duality between public and private life though. Whether its Tuto's charming mix of effeminate charisma and straight faced ... mentorship, or Birdy's public role of air headed, demure pin-up girl contrasted with her brash, independent nature as a galactic cop. Birdy and high schooler Senkawa also have fairly good chemistry together. The story makes sure to establish early on that Birdy and Senkawa's relationship is strictly platonic, which is good because sexual tension between two people sharing the same body could prove more than a little unnerving.

I don't recall the music too well outside of a fantastic opening and a catchy ending. That doesn't necessarily mean the score was bad, it just wasn't particularly memorable. At least it wasn't distracting, and sometimes that's all that matters.

The art is smooth and clean, with a soft color palette. It does tend to get rather sketchy when there's a lot of movement on screen, making the action hard to follow sometimes. Conversely, the sketchiness allows the fight scenes to be fluid and dynamic. In my opinion, it was a fair trade-off.

As far as conflict goes, I found it hard to take the main antagonist seriously. Perhaps that's due to the fact that he takes a passive role in the story and rarely interacts with the protagonists. Or maybe its because he has a tendency to spew rather cliched villain rhetoric. It doesn't help that he's an Indian television producer named after M. Night Shyamalan. The dubious homage is a tad bit humorous, but it really doesn't help his credibility as a villain. Although to be fair, it could rightfully be argued that he's not the main threat, but to follow that line of thought any further would be to risk delving into spoiler territory.

Birdy the Mighty: Decode is a show that's consistently entertaining, but very rarely impactful. If you're looking for a meaningful animated experience, you'd be wise to look elsewhere. But if you're in the mood for something fun, and occasionally touching, then you could do a whole lot worse than Tetsuwan Birdy Decode.

I was on my Netflix account, cruising for new and interesting anime to watch, when I noticed Tetsuwan Birdy Decode. I'm not really sure what compelled me to watch it, since I'm not usually drawn to anime with title art such as this, but I started watching and I couldn't stop. Birdy definitely surprised me with her confidence and character development. The story itself didn't feel "cookie cutter" and the music went along very well.

I thought this was going to be a rehash of the original OVA, but I didn't know going into it that there are actually two versions of the manga as well. The original OVA was based on the older manga, while this one is based on the new series that fleshed out the story a bit more and added some new characters.

I've got some question. Why is M. Night Shyamalan the villain? Were they trying to say that there was going to be a twist ending? Was the twist that he died? He was so convinced that he was creating a perfect society and that ... he would be chosen for it but he was literally the first person to die.

I wasn't really having much fun with this series, it was more of a chore to watch than anything. The ending song slaps, but the rest was pretty mediocre. Needs more Shion Arata and less Birdy alien stuff. 7/10

So, Tetsuwan Birdy Decode. Birdy the Mighty Decode to be exact, but does it really matter?

Tetsuwan Birdy Decode is a remake of some nineties OVA, that being an adaption of some eighties manga, which was written by Yuuki Masami, who also wrote Patlabor. It is directed by Akane Kazuki who also directed Escaflowne and Noien. It tells the tale of Senkawa, who is in great anime tradition an ordinary high school student... Until he dies. Birdy Cephon went to Earth to chase a mysterious artifact called the Ryunka as an intergalactic cop, but while battling with a bad guy, accidentally kills him. To make ... up for it, Birdy puts Senkawa's conscious in her body until it is fixed. Senkawa can live a normal life... Expect when Birdy switches into his body to battle some villains. This causes several problems for both Birdy and Senkawa of course! However, what is the Ryunka? Could it possibly be closer than Birdy or Senkawa can imagine?

Okay, so the premise doesn't sound good at all, but surprisingly, there's zero jokes created from the fact that a boy shares the same body with a big-breasted girl, and they can switch who's in control/who's body is up. Heck, there's even a few bathing scenes, and all Senkawa has to say is that Birdy is using his body too much for just relaxing! No, the premise can actually be seen as a flimsy excuse to get Senkawa to follow Birdy around everywhere. All the problems it causes are pretty minor and typically just used for comedy. Instead, most of the plot comes from the very vague artifact simply called the Ryunka.
One of my favorite things about this show is the fact that Birdy and Senkawa never get any unresolved sexual tension between them. Senkawa has his eyes on someone else, and the one time Birdy shows any strong feelings towards Senkawa seems to be as she thinks of him as a friend, and her “buddy”. In the age where all lead female and male characters are destined to end up with each other, this is definitely a relief. Another cliché Birdy ignores is that it kills off what seems to be a major character very early on. One of my least favorite things about anime is the refusal to kill off main characters (and even if they do it's in the last few episodes or something), and it also came unexpected. The main romance isn't annoying either (though it does progress a little too fast). Also, the way Birdy and Senkawa meet in the first episode, while is rather coincidental, doesn't really seem that way due to good writing or direction or something like that.

The characters are a good part of this show. Senkawa... I can't tell if he's supposed to be a dull harem protagonist or not. If so, then he is the best one. He has a good personality and reacts realistically to his situation. Birdy herself is charming and manages to get several good lines with Senkawa. The side-characters are also good. Senkawa's classmates are also fleshed out for useless classmates who serve no purpose expect to show us Senkawa's normal life before all of the events of the series happened.

The voice acting is very very good, and all the characters' lines sound real and not like they're just said by some person reading a script. The music is decent enough, the opening being very catchy and the ending being good enough, but with lazy visuals. The animation is also very nice. The character designs are usually good, but every once in a while they draw the noise weird, like a scribble on the face that just looks out of place. The fight scenes are rather neat though.

However, the thing is, they are still a few holes that need to be explained, mainly on what exactly is the Ryunka? How was it made? Fortunately there is a second season. Now, I haven't seen it yet, but there's a good chance it will explain a few of these plot holes. Could be this season was just build-up or something. You never truly know.

So, I can recommend Birdy to all anime fans out there. While it shouldn't be too high on your priority list, it is still definitely worth a watch in there somewhere. And you'll learn how to ignore Birdy;'s outfit quickly, though you'll think an agent who does a lot of fighting would have much more armor.

This was an okay anime. It has an interesting concept but, it failed my expectations.
The series was good and all but the only factor I didn't like about it was the fact that it was about a high school boy who falls in love with a sickly girl who is possessed with a virus called, the Ryuka, but keeps denying it until the very end of the show.
However, the factor that I like about the show was that it was about a space cop whom was on a mission but accidentally kills the said boy and now the both have to share a body. ... Dividing their time between saving the galaxy and whatever high school boys do.
The relationship between the main female character, Birdy, and the main male character was very sweet sister-brother relationship.

Berserker Killer Birdy is a woman with a strong will, yet cheerful and determined. I loved almost everything about her and her personality is what I liked most in the anime. That doesn’t mean that I do not think the other aspects weren’t good as well.

Story (8/10): The story isn’t complicated, but it has a few nice twists. It begins quite simply and slowly introduces you into a more complex network. Though thanks to the slow introduction, it’s all quite easy to understand. More than half of the episodes had an exciting end, leaving me eager to watch the next episode.

Art (8/10): The animation is ... nice, it has a soft touch. Backgrounds are detailed but I would have loved a bit more details in the characters (for example in the eyes), but it didn’t really bother either. I truly enjoyed the action parts, because those were nicely animated (and accompanied with suitable sound effects). I particularly enjoyed the way Birdy’s multicolored hair moved around.

Music (9/10): music of the beginning and ending themes matched with the animation, they also contained a soft touch. The ending theme made me happy every time I heard it, but since the story isn’t all about sunshine and rainbows, that felt sort of weird.

Characters (8/10): Almost all emotions are shown quite brightly, though some emotions seem to have a bad timing and aren’t as touching as they could have been. As already mentioned, I really liked Birdy’s character, she’s sad when she should be, upset when she should be, … Though she seems to have a great capacity of hiding her emotions as well. During the story, no one really seems to undergo any character-development, but all characters are shown with much detail.

Enjoyment (9/10): I was totally absorbed into this anime and could not let it go (I constanly desired to watch another episode), so I truly enjoyed this anime.

Overall (8/10): the anime had a lot of good aspects, and a few flaws. I think anyone who can appreciate action, romance and science-fiction would probably at least be entertained by this anime (of course I cannot speak for all of you).

I’m truly looking forward to watch Decode II.

First things first. My "reviews" system is explained on a blog entry. Which can be found through my profile.
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✦Story
Aside synopsis, I have to say I expected this Anime being one of those older "niche" series that probably are utter boredom. But it was actually much more enjoyable than I imagined it to be. Anyhow the progression felt great, I also grew into characters. And I did really like Sayaka. Anyhow, development and story felt as well quite nicely wrapped up. Obviously story goes one but for "act 1" it was good.

✦Art & Sound
Art was somewhat flat, but in a enjoyable way. Animation also felt quite ... nice. There was subtle touch of obvious fanservice, but nothing bad.
Now as for music&ost, I wasn't fond of the songs in this anime, especially the ending theme. But OST I did quite like. Especially I loved the "Sayaka theme".

✦Character
MC with straight-man slapstick act. Who is whiny at start, gets used, ends up with humane values and risking for those.
Main girl (Birdy) the mischievous agressive-type girl. Who has bad habits, but ultimately is quite caring.
Rest are side kicks mostly with various personalities, but my fav is Sayaka. Quiet/kind beautiful ojou-sama with a bit of sadness.
There were also bunch of aliens, who were okay and Villains were also quite acceptable.

✦Enjoyment & Overall
Ended up adding comments to each section so I don't really have else to add. As said, unexpectedly good Anime. Finished almost in a day.