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]

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Adaptation:	Id:Invaded: #Brake-Broken
Other:	Mr. Fixer, Id:Indeed

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Characters & Voice Actors

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

Tougou, Sarina

Supporting

Bridcutt, Sarah Emi
Japanese

Wakashika, Kazuo

Supporting

Enoki, Junya
Japanese

Narihisago, Ayako

Supporting

Endou, Aya
Japanese

Narihisago, Muku

Supporting

Shimabukuro, Miyuri
Japanese

Matsuoka, Kokuryuu

Supporting

Nishi, Rintarou
Japanese

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Cook, Justin

Producer

Oowada, Tomoyuki

Producer

Ogata, Mitsuhiro

Producer

Ishigami, Joutarou

Producer

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Opening Theme

"Mister Fixer (ミスターフィクサー)" by Sou

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Ending Theme

	1: "Other Side" by MIYAVI (eps 2-12)
	2: "UP" by MIYAVI (eps 13)

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Reviews

Mar 22, 2020

SingleH

Recommended

Id:Invaded is a riveting enigma, an epic mystery, a shocking psycho-thriller. It meticulously places you on the edge of your seat only to mercilessly kick you off into the deepest depths of the abyss of contemplation. As soon as you’ve gotten over its hideously graphic imagery from unthinkable gore to appallingly creative torture, you’re buckled under its poignantly resonant character trauma if not whiplashed into pure blood-boiling hype by its abrasively awesome insert songs and mind boggling visual action. Its story is all genius, perplexing, and entrancing, and the characters who inhabit its irreplaceably unique structure imbue it with a fiercely unforgettable sense of identity ... inherent in their almost confounding amounts of esoteric conversation and characterization just oozing with degrees of implicit meaning little artists have even the creativity to come up with. The more you think you’ve wrapped your head around it, the more it wraps its head around you, leaving you with the natural assumption—having gone this many layers deep into the mind of a screenwriter so mad—that it was all just a dream, and to escape, you need only wake up.

An attempt at explanation would be daft, and an attempt at description would span infinity and eventuate in intense subjectivity. What one may find to be a bog-standard sci-fi murder mystery on paper will—I promise you—come to surprise even the most jaded of pseudo intellectual keyboard warriors and utterly scar any casual viewer with its shell-shocking ego. Being a narrative which quite literally invades the id of its ever-astounding cast of eclectic personas, from broken officers to perverse serial killers, it builds itself around the minds of those thoroughly intentional and cavernously deep characters written to clever perfection and results in a totally arresting presentation of psychotically malleable ideation turned to somehow solid environment, both of which rocket up and down in visual prominence until the only thing you have to ground yourself is your own body, a being far detached from the mental breakdown in front of you, lashing itself dangerously outside the bounds of your screen with its enchanting sense of maddeningly immersive wonder. Call it confusing or call it possessing, at the end of the day it stands as a statement of thought so unforgettable at face and unbelievably impervious to plot holes or forward criticism save production nitpicks, mere impress doesn’t even being to do justice.

Atop its labyrinthine writing and audacious conceptualization stands the freshly iconic visual direction of a true master, thunderously flaunting one visual metaphor after another all whilst juggling the countless ideas said writer bloated its context with to begin with. At once minimalistically elegant, at once overwhelmingly provocative, Id:Invaded is a feast for the senses which it doesn’t subvert, and its feverish changes of pace and betrayals of expectation all find themselves accompanied by cinema sensibilities which can only be described as sublime. While the concepts it asks you to accept out the gate are more than their fair share of freakish, never does the show break its own rules or perforate its own plot, and seeing as said concepts are presented with such acute realization of the writer’s intentions, their believability is unquestionable and their sense of immersion almost dubious in light of their exciting air of unreality. The more its science fiction morphs into pure psycho-fantasy, the more its cast of already human characters evolve and devolve into remarkably affecting icons of expert thematic execution and equally exquisite empathetic development. Be it crying in pain, smiling in wry, or celebrating in hype, Id:Invaded will move you in sincerity, and I bet my life you won’t even comprehend why, how, or by when.

Well, that’s about a lifetime’s worth of poeticism I just wrung out of my naturally prosaic fingers, isn’t it? Id:Invaded, no matter how much I love it, is just so hard to comprehensively write about—let alone critically review—such was the only way I saw forward. When I said an explanation would be daft I wasn’t kidding, and the man, the powerful fucking figure who let me not be kidding was Otarō Maijō. I expect the name Ōtarō Maijō to go over peoples’ heads as much as I expect this thickly bibliographical paragraph to turn what little of you are still reading away from this review, but to not discuss this man would be to deny the very source of the unhinged identity this show defines itself with. As bracingly weird as Id:Invaded is, Ei Aoki is not a weird director. As I’m sure many are aware given the immense popularity of many projects he’s helmed, he’s a grand director known for his sweeping perspective shots, wide frames, and foreground focus, and while Id:Invaded most certainly uses his directorial skill to its fullest extent, no one would ever in a million years walk away from this show with those aspects having been the most memorable. What completely overshadows Aoki’s personal mark is Maijō’s. Which isn’t to say Maijō’s work is better than Aoki’s, it’s more to say Maijō’s is so mentally unbalanced and deranged, even having seen some outstanding cinematography, your biggest takeaway from the experience is what in the hell you could even call that scripting. Id:Invaded is confusing in structure, execution, purpose, and is esoteric as all hell, being nearly impossible to see the immediate appeal of or the immediate intention of outside of surface level actions and fetishes. You’ll often find yourself not knowing what the point of something is, and I honestly think 50% of people who watch Id:Invaded will hate it, and to them I have no harsh words. Characters are as insane and non-relatable as I imagine Maijō himself to be, and his characterization still hits you like a train to the face. The very first sentence of the very first work of Maijō’s I ever read was “my mom is a piece of shit,” and in Id:Invaded, you watch a character deride someone to suicide, watch on contently, and that character is portrayed as being the good guy—and IS the good guy. But this was all exactly what I expected. Maijō is off his damn rocker. He’s a cult author even in Japan and has been since his early 2000s debut, and very few of his works have been translated into english, so the only people who will have likely known about him prior to now are freaks like me deep into the Faust style lore of Japanese literary culture. Since finally founding his long deserved personal studio, TROYCA, Aoki began getting more interesting writers behind his direction. I don’t know if this has gone well for him per se, but it certainly has been interesting. In 2014, Aoki brought on The Butcher, Urobuchi Gen, to write Aldnoah.Zero, and unfortunately, Urobuchi was swamped with the Psycho-Pass 2/Psycho-Pass Movie production quagmire to write any further than the original concept and scenario, and while that foundation and inciting incident were the best parts of that show by far—if not the only good parts at all—his minimal involvement likely left Aoki with some regrets. However, in 2017, Aoki vindicated himself by bringing in legendary mangaka, Rei Hiroe, and had him write the entire screenplay for Re:Creators, and it was easily the most uniquely conceptualized and thereby daringly well produced spectacle I’d seen in years. Aoki is clearly wanting to one-up himself creatively after his past critical and popular successes, and how else to accomplish this feat than bringing on the single most certifiably insane author-turned-screenwriter the industry has ever seen. What’s weirder (and the sad reason I couldn’t put a ten out of ten on this review), is how bizarre and sometimes even downright ugly Id:Invaded looks. Seeing as the pre-production and planning for this work began a whopping eight years ago before TROYCA was even around to launch Aoki’s new oddities, he had to get it off the ground at whatever studio would take it, hence NAZ, and seeing as switching studios once an obvious alternative arose would be notably bad optics, Aoki committed. In the end, they got to a point in the latter half of the production where they literally had FIVE people doing the genga for the entirety of episode twelve. That’s less animators than a student film has, and what we got—at least in that piteous context—I dare say is good enough, especially with such incredible visual direction never leaving the screen.

Now, I fully admit to cheating this game. I have the unique means to look across the room I’m currently sat in and see a shelf carrying Asura Girl and both volumes of Faust, one of which contains Drill Hole in My Brain, so I concede to bringing a gun to a knife fight. This isn’t me being an elitist, scoffing at the thought of casuals or newcomers—or even long time, truly authentic fans who’re just too young to know the industry’s older names—getting filtered by their first taste of even remotely high-minded media. No, this is me reflecting genuine concern for any normal, thinking human being who's about to unknowingly drown themselves in the literary ravings of a barely professional madman given a platform bigger than ever before by a creator outrageously gaudy enough to employ him in an effort to make a statement, only to make a statement so schizophrenic, nothing can be learned from it other than a lesson as to what happens when the wielder doesn’t know the power of the weapon he’s naively placed in his own two hands without the viewer willing to bravely dive deep into the barrel of said smoking gun, whether one thought the viewing of said weapon’s discharge to be utterly badass or fundamentally terrifying. Personally, I thought it utterly badass.

Thank you for reading.

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Mar 22, 2020

MamaSasaki

Not Recommended

[Minor spoiler ahead]
What do you get when you mash well thought-out ideas from other great sci-fi cop shows into a stew and then leave that stew on a oven that's not turned on? A cold mess. ID:Invaded as a product is a cold mess. I can't help but try to understand what people are praising about this and wonder to myself if we even watched the same show. Yes, it's not awful and in a landscape of established IPs and forced squeals/remakes having an original anime come out is fantastic, but is the bar set so low that this show is considered good?

I suppose ... we should talk about the good first. Despite my initial bitching if you enjoy sci-fi/cop shows this anime isn't awful. It'll scratch that itch you have and maybe even keep you going with its case of the week (2 weeks) set-up for awhile. The mystery isn't always hard, but they do give enough to them that you find yourself playing along with the show to try and figure out who the killer is this week. On top of that the character designs are worth praise given how distinct and memorable they happen to be, as well as the animation which although no Ufotable dose keep itself from feeling like they lost budget. Even if some of the shots are laughable bad.

As for the bad.....well where to start. The final big bad of the show John Walker has absolutely NO mystery to it. By episode two you could make a guess and I promise you you'll be right. A child could figure it out which makes the whole shows over arcing mystery (who is John Walker?) a complete bore. The character development is almost as bad. Only really given to our main character Sakaido all the other characters take a backseat till the plot calls for them to actually do something. Yet, when we reach our final few episodes and major (?) deaths start to happen we're supposed to care? I honestly found myself laughing when these people were dying and the show was playing the super sad music like it mattered. On that note the last two episode drop so much exposition that I'm honestly truly baffled that a studio green-lit this project. Nothing in the last two episodes feels natural and spending every five minutes to info dump so you can understand what the hell is happening you loses all tension the show had going into the finally.

I won't lie, I fell behind on this show (and others this season) and ended up marathoning the past six weeks of this show. I'm glad I did because if it wasn't for that ID:Invaded would have ended up dropped. This show isn't good. If you want to spend time watching 13 episodes of an anime in this genre please go watch something else. Psycho-Pass, Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor and if you've seen all those shows and REALLY need something new then fine. Try this show. Maybe you'll find enjoyment out of it. Or at least enjoy watching concepts from better shows get so badly botched. After all their's enjoyment in a train wreak.

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Mar 22, 2020

Ethan_07

Recommended

“Sleep is very important.”

Half-way through the show, I chuckled on this scene. It sounds ridiculous without context, but being warped inside a world within an unconscious world, it has this heavy irony that comes with it. Like, it makes one afraid that everything is just not real after all. But at the same time, it sort of bring back an amazement of the setting that this world is enveloped in, as it gives the desire to seek for more info. That’s when it clicked.

ID: Invaded has this ability to construct a mind-bending story premise by intertwining reality and fantasy, but in a way, it ... doesn’t succumb to its own madness. It consists of sci-fi element that will mess with one’s morale and mystery that keeps one at the edge of the seat. However, even with twists, the plot doesn’t deviate away from what it set out to be, but converges through seemingly unrelated cases toward one – the creator of serial killers. It’s like a maze within a maze, and the only way out is to solve it, layer by layer.

This is where the writing and the execution of the plot becomes crucial, which it all lies in three main characters whom we see the world from each of their perspective – the brilliant mentalist, the newbie detective and the director of the analyst team. They each have their purpose – to discover, to lead and to collect. It is this symphony created among this trio that makes the team works and pushes the story forward.

ID: Invaded is also fully aware of the meticulousness needed on the reasoning and explanation behind all the unconscious mind theory, the motives of the serial killers, the methods used by the mastermind. And they do so by connecting the dots, which all linked together to this one girl that keeps appearing. They done this without altering the fundamental rules set in the story world, that’s why the mysteries are great. It gives you space to deduce, and it triggers your mind to make connection alongside the characters.

Also, the metaphysical visuals are stunning.

The action scenes are fluid, and each unconscious world of different style are handled quite nicely that it doesn’t create noticeable CGI ambiguity. But most importantly, the dream-within-a-dream concept is a really captivating way to explore the MC himself through it. It challenges and changes what he believes in, but at the same time, reconnects the pieces for the big reveal.

The studio NAZ has done a decent job in their character designs ( since this is an original series ). The generic spiky head of the main protagonist – Sakaido, made a great contrast to when he was young with after he became miserable. It’s a clear distinction between a loving father and a rogue detective that seeks justice in his own way. There’s also a 23-years-old detective Hondoumachi who gives a refreshing and cute addition to the show. The other team members are varied in characteristics and just good at their job, that’s all I can say about them.

Besides, the soundtracks are amazingly awesome. Yes, that’s double positive in one sentence. The opening ‘Mister Fixer’ by Sou flawlessly matches the agony of Sakaido and how his regrets have haunted him ever since that incident. The ending ‘Other Side’ by MIYAVI also has this J-rock rhythm that is really catchy and just good even on its own. Even the side songs – ‘Memories of Love’ and ‘Butterfly’ are chosen carefully to blend in with the emotions evoked on the scenes. That’s just how serious the producers are on the OST.

Overall, ID: Invaded is like a blue ocean. The waves envelope you with layers of uneasiness, blurring the line between dreams and reality. So, brace yourself, as this will be one hell of a dive.

Into the painful, yet beautiful world of ID: Invaded.

Other recommendations:
- Hannibal, The Mentalist, Criminal Minds, The Minority Report, Inception
- Psycho-Pass, ERASED, Death Parade, The Promised Neverland (anime)

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Poll: ID:Invaded Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Jan 19, 2020	138 replies	by DatOneDamnKat »» May 7, 11:46 PM
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