Id:Invaded

The Mizuhanome System is a highly advanced development that allows people to enter one of the most intriguing places in existence—the human mind. Through the use of so-called "cognition particles" left behind at a crime scene by the perpetrator, detectives from the specialized police squad Kura can manifest a criminal's unconscious mind as a bizarre stream of thoughts in a virtual world. Their task is to explore this psychological plane, called an "id well," to reveal the identity of the culprit.

Not just anyone can enter the id wells; the prerequisite is that you must have killed someone yourself. Such is the case for former detective Akihito Narihisago, who is known as "Sakaido" inside the id wells. Once a respected member of the police, tragedy struck, and he soon found himself on the other side of the law.

Nevertheless, Narihisago continues to assist Kura in confinement. While his prodigious detective skills still prove useful toward investigations, Narihisago discovers that not everything is as it seems, as behind the seemingly standalone series of murder cases lurks a much more sinister truth.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Narihisago, Akihito Main

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Hondoumachi, Koharu Main

Ichimichi, Mao Japanese

Momoki, Funetarou Main

Hosoya, Yoshimasa Japanese

Fukuda, Tamotsu Supporting

Takeuchi, Ryouta Japanese

Kaeru Supporting

Miyamoto, Yume Japanese

Wakashika, Kazuo Supporting

Enoki, Junya Japanese

Tougou, Sarina Supporting

Bridcutt, Sarah Emi Japanese

Narihisago, Ayako Supporting

Endou, Aya Japanese

Narihisago, Muku Supporting

Shimabukuro, Miyuri Japanese

Matsuoka, Kokuryuu Supporting

Nishi, Rintarou Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Ogata, Mitsuhiro Producer

Nakahigashi, Toyokazu Producer

Reviews

Jan 27, 2025

necrosan

Recommended

Id:invaded is the place where old good freudism, concepts based on neuroscience discoveries and japanese creativity get mixed together. It turns out that a result may come out quite interesting. Low budget, but quite ambitious title manages to represent something pretty original and imgination stimulating. However, anime Id:invaded seems to struggle in few areas, certainly proving that making a well routed one season, only 13 episodes production is not a piece of cake for japanese screenwriters. Maybe a model of 16 episodes would solve the problem? Let us see.
The world construction of Id:invaded is not really worth our attention. Not fully specified universe completely based ... on our own gets its idea of fiction borrowed mainly from old psychological concept of unconsciousness and dreams compiled with neurological knowledge(by the way, I am inclined to consider viewing Id:invaded as an interesting popcultural environment where those two oppositions get mixed and reconciled - truly fascinating and revelant nowadays).
And now, to make things more clear, let's portrait the general plot of the series shortly: mysterious character soon introduced as brilliant detective Sakaido gets awakened in some messed up reality to find his body parts separated from each other. After this, putting it back together and regaining his cool he reminds of his sole point of existence in this quirky world - solving the mystery of a murder of young girl Kaeru. Soon, we find out that the world Sakaido participates in is an abstract realm of an unconsciousness of a serial killer - one of seven we will be observing through the plot. But there is one thing that connects all of them - a significant trace of dream character named John Walker who had to influence their killer instincts. Sakaido, in the real world known as Akihito Narihisago who was a real detective in the past, now turning out to be a serial killer himself focuses on finding the John Walker's identity.
His journey includes constant intertwining of two worlds: reality, consciousness and dream world of unconsciousness based on such abstract elements like dark fantasies of various killers(so supposedly components of dreams) which is interesting for sure, but that is all there is really. The Id:invaded background world structure is not too advanced, we do not see anything outside the interior of Kura organization, who deals with serial murderers by using an astonishing possibility of diving into worlds of unconsciousness. What is surely stupid and quite cheap is that we find all those killers working at the same time in the same town(probably Tokio or something) and with similarly absurd methods like drilling holes in victims' heads(so called Perforator) or tearing out their hands(do not remember the name, but quite memoriable one as well). Such factors make things quite grotesque, hard to get perceived as serious from viewer's perspective.
There is a dark story behind the main character's current personality. It is really dark, to say the least, which I personally see as an asset of the series because it allows the story to hit you with a great introspection of the character and develop him quite decent. Especially in the second part of the series we can experience how harsh reality is for Akihito, and how badly he wants to escape it(no spoils, but he literally gets to dive into an alternative reality where he is experiencing the past again, the past when he was a ,,normal" person and then he changes it so the tragedy does not happen). However again, that is pretty much it - we do not get any real development in terms of back story in case of any other characters, including even the antagonist, who plays quite an important role in the plot as a point of its existence is to make antagonist's identity revealed by Akihito and others(basically, who is John Walker, if he even exists in the real world, and how is he or she acting?). Id:invaded certainly has good characters like Hondomachi(another detective) and Fukuda(The Perforator), but their development is mainly based on shortly revealing their psychopatic sides and then engaging them into interactions with Akihito. That is for sure intriguing, especially when well executed as it is in this anime, but probably not enough really.There is simply no room for big developments of either characters and the world structure,. Well, 13 episodes only and there are different factors anime has to take care of(maybe there is too much to draw/work on actually, anyway you have to truly stimulate your imagination and instincts to read manga and anime writers' character and world concepts deeper; such 12 or 24 episodes anime that have just too little of such the advancement is actually quite a frequent occurance - they are like that being really ambitious with its plot and dialogues at the same time, for instance look at a Jormungand manga and an anime) I mean, anime made me accustomed to seeing such dark motives well executed(good music and overall atmosphere, e.g Darker than black and that is only an one example), but there is this usual flaw - there is too little of: episodes, the advancement and the character build.
Character desings are okay, not really bright or anything of a kind like in Date a Live series. It seems quite plain to be honest, nothing remarkable maybe aside of Tamotsu Fukuda, who has that one really significant hole in the head(literally). Akihito, the main character simply looks cool, which is a standard in manga and anime universe for sure, though other important characters like Hondomachi aren't special as well. Especially the whole group from Kura monitoring Sakaido and other briliant detectives are generic in a looks perspective. That surely reflects a poverty of their development as characters in general - there was no time(once again - 13 episodes with a complex problematics). What may be worth highlighting here is that Sakaido and other brilliant detectives in a world of Mizuhanome(the machinery reponsible for creating worlds of killers' unconsciousness, there is also a relevant mistery after it which will be solved in the story) get their own unique constant designs - they are pretty cool as well. I like this transition that demarcates two different worlds on a principle like: ,,a different world means different character designs"(that is significant for sure in Anime objectively, where designs play an invaluable role).
This Id:invaded anime exploits dark misterious world of psychopaty, which psychology often tries to explain with this elusive term of unconsciousness. I mean, there are people dying all the time (frequently in a grotesque manner). It needs specific mood to let you immerse into it and actually influence you with its brutality and how scary and shocking it should be. This, in my opinion, is truly well executed in here. I see this aspect as one of the strongest assets of this series. Music, facial expressions of characters and of course voice acting make the show really immersive and moving, even with its defective, exagerrated representations of serial killers methods(this turns out acceptable, not really meaningful and if you answer it consciously it is all fine - you just understand). Opening and ending are cool, nothing special for anime industry where in here the overall standard of specific anime music is high - Id:Invaded fulfills it.
Screenwriters did quite a job on the story pacing field. It is not an easy task to wrap that quite aimbitious material Id:Invaded forced on them in 13 episodes only, but they took on the challenge and made it decent. Surely, the dynamics of the series can seem rushed on certain occasions. This problem especially hits in two last episodes, but objectively it is okay as the story manages to progress steadily and makes sense in the end. Personally, I consider this pacing actually to be really good until 12 and 13 episodes kick in - then things get significantly rushed indeed. Id:Invaded for certainty can't get called a slow or a boring anime.
To summarize: Id:invaded is obejctively a 7 score anime. It is quite low-budged and looks okay. That was quite a good move to animate this particular series with such budget as it does not contain any adavanced animations whatsoever(completely unlike Jujutsu Kaisen 2, for example). When there is a need, they can deliver something smooth, though. There are minor scenes in a last episode when a battle with John Walker implements some more dynamic action and it actually is well animated. I respect that detail as it shows that producers actually cared about the show until the very end. They wrapped it decently, though it is rushed in the end and leaves the room for a complaint. That, on the other hand, displays the immersive part of this creation as a whole. Id:Invaded places quite fine inbetween top, greatly developed and tremendously ambitious top mal action and psychological series as Aot or Fullmetal and mediocre action series who do not deploy anything significant to the spectrum of the popculture. The title surely may be called ambitious and boasts in fantastic ideas into its plot and dialogues, but does not have the original background world set up. Personally, I should give the series 8 stars. This evaluation may seem as an overestimation, but as I emphasize - this is personal as I am a huge fan of how Id:Invaded used freudism with its ,,id" phrase and managed to connect it with an charachteristic japanish popculture' passion for the display of psychopatic deviations and importance of family values in life of an above average savage unit, which Akihito Narihisago, the main character of the show certainly is.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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May 15, 2024

WWIscientist

Mixed Feelings

Conceptually very interesting but the execution could use work. I feel like it gets better through the season though. The concept itself is honestly pretty unique at least in the way the idea works. Using ex convicts to enter the mind of other ex convicts to solve crimes, with an added twist and a added mystery element. The problem comes to the drawing and the writing of the dialogue. The animation is good. it doesn't suffer from the single frame that pans problem, the animation is actually pretty good, but for the characters on each individual frame, the characters are miss drawn in perspective most ... of the time. Some could argue it was intentional and stylistic but really it just looks like the animators don't know how to draw people in perspective. The backgrounds are very well done actually, and the entire intro sequence looks gorgeous which would lead me to believe that the drawings in the anime would be just as good but they didn't meet expectations. The writing for dialogue was just not there. The voice actors did great but the dialogue sounds like the kind of dialogue amateur book authors write, the style of dialogue you might read on watt pad. The writing also suffers from the all too common "exposition dump" and "telling rather than showing" tropes that you find in normally beginner level writing. I feel as though the writing did get better about half way through the anime though. I guessed the identity of the mystery person in the first couple episodes but there is a twist somewhat separate from the mystery element that I was kind of leaning towards but didn't fully expect and it played out somewhat differently than how I expected it to though which pleasantly surprised me. Episodes 9 and 10 actually started to pull on my heart strings slightly, although maybe that's just the empath imagining the emotions I would be feeling were I him in that situation. Episodes 9-13 really brought it up to a 7 for me from a 5.5-6 before. I think the end really ties everything together better than expected and they stepped it up.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Feb 14, 2021

HereLiesWaste

Not Recommended

Funny

Spectacularly stupid and sublimely dumb, this is definitely a complete waste of time UNLESS you can derive second-order humour from it's stunning lack of success. In respect to that though, it was honestly very entertaining. Almost everything here so transparently attempts to be smart, twisty, and gripping, and all of those attempts fail so completely that just seeing it all unravel was enough to keep me watching. Stupid pop-philosophy concepts are paraded about in dialogue that ranges from offensively trite, to hilariously essentialist/reductivist, to what basically amounts to the script-writers talking to each other about their ideas at the pub transplanted directly into the show. ... I have to assume that the plot is trying to surprise the viewer with all it's twists, reveals, and non-sequiturs, but anyone watching with even half a brain will see basically the whole trajectory of the story from the fourth episode at the latest, and the non-sequiturs achieve a remarkable state of being /so/ contrived and stupid that, once you get the right attitude in your mind, you can see them all coming too. The result is actually a not too awful experience, if a bit surreal, akin to watching a failed magician try and surprise you with bungled slight of hand - the desired affect is certainly not achieved, but it really is very funny. There is a scene here, not to far into the runtime, where a character shoots at a man who was had two trepanning holes drilled into his head. Even by this early stage in your studentship at this shows feet you should know what to expect next, but that correct expectation only elevates the deranged giddiness you will feel when you see, in slow motion, the bullet fly harmlessly into one of the holes and out of the other.

Honestly, if you're a certain kind of person it might be worth watching this show for that scene alone, and the experience of having everything fall into place exactly as you knew it would happen is a fun one. I do feel quite bad for whoever made this though, because they were clearly trying very hard to be intelligent, and they ended up making something for which stupidity was it's only merit. Slightly more concerning is the fact that other, real life people, neither directly involved in making the show, nor related to those who were, seem to think it is genuinely smart/deep/compelling. I'm not quite sure what to say to such people, but I guess I can see how they would maybe make that mistake. This is a dumb anime draping itself in the facade of a smart one, aping things it's seen elsewhere in some of the most rightfully lauded exemplars of the medium, and not understanding how they work, how to execute them, or in what context they should be deployed. Imitation may be the highest form of flattery, but surely we at least have a right to hope for more competent imitators?

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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