I was afraid the anime would not communicate the strongest points of this powerful manga. I was afraid that shoddy animation, and cheap filler dialog would destroy its beauty. Fortunately, my fears were unfounded, and I was pleased that this anime did justice to the manga, and with excellent animation and storytelling, is certainly on par with it.
If you have not received ample warning already, THIS ANIME IS STRICTLY FOR THOSE WHO ARE AT LEAST 16 YEARS OF AGE. I will not be held responsible for anyone who is mentally traumatized by reading my review or viewing the anime.
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The mind is the last bastion of human freedom. Devices can peer into our houses; governments can monitor our Internet and phone use; we can be held responsible for what we say or write. But our private thoughts are safe. Or so they were, until the invention of MRI: Memory Reproduction Imaging. Note that it is “imaging,” and so can only reproduce visual memory. But that is often enough. Take the brain of a dead person, put it in an MRI machine, and you can see every sight their mind ever registered. Look through the eyes of the murderer, and see if they were properly convicted. Look through the eyes of the victim, and you can see their killer.
The group who uses this machine are part of the police force, known as the infamous Section Nine. They are tasked with viewing the images that are extracted, and thereby discover or confirm facts about crimes. They could be considered a branch of forensics. But unlike forensics which only views the aftermath of crime, these people see it play out. They are forced to watch the knife slice flesh, follow the frenzied gaze of a victim in the process of being killed, and repeatedly see assault and crime in all its vivid brutality. The members of Section Nine, though often lampooned for invading the privacy of the mind, continuously sacrifice their own mental health for the sake of seeing justice done, and saving lives.
But they don’t only see crimes. In more complicated cases, they must search through day by day memories, and see everything the deceased saw. EVERYTHING. The victim’s point of attention becomes theirs, the naked body of a lover as much as fine attention paid to the slicing of a vein.
Aoki has been recently accepted into Section Nine, for his lip-reading skills. Being the naïve and open type, he wants to immediately make friends with everyone, including the Director, Maki. Despite his boyish looks, Maki is very cold, even savage, and has little patience for Aoki’s shock when he begins reviewing the MRI projections. Aoki also runs into a lot of baggage, since he resembles a former Section Nine member, Suzuki. It seems there was a complicated history between Suzuki and Maki, which may be affecting how Maki treats him. But despite his icy shell, Maki may just be the most vulnerable of them all.
Uncovering the mystery within Section Nine is only part of the drama. Section Nine deals with the living as well as the dead. Begging the family of deceased victims to allow the memories of their loved ones to be probed by strangers. Trying to prevent crimes before they happen. Investigating possible criminals. Navigating red tape. Uncovering national secrets. Sometimes providing hope and happiness to those left behind. But do they even have the right to do what they do? Does this work disregard human dignity?
At one point, Aoki realizes that even a lustful gaze can be detected via MRI, prompting him to curb his own illicit glances. All the members of the section are painfully aware that their own minds may be the subject of examination one day, should they ever be killed. For that purpose, Maki always carries a handgun. To blow his brains out should he ever be in danger of death.
Gripping and addictive to watch, this anime does have its faults, which warrant the rating of 9 instead of 10. Most obvious is the sound design. The animation is luscious and realistic, and does not cut corners, but for some reason they did not do so well on the music. It is as if they made two or three tracks for the whole series, and placed them randomly throughout, regardless of whether it was appropriate or not. I was annoyed several times when they placed peppy music during parts that were supposed to be sad and emotionally moving. I was also a bit annoyed at the choice of voice actor for Maki. He is a rather small fellow, but his voice is very deep. Granted, small people can often have deep voices, but somehow it doesn't seem to sit right for him.
Another complaint is the degree of violence and disturbing content. While the violence is there for a reason, and is necessary for this particular story, I do not think that we viewers needed to be as traumatized as Section Nine is. The camera does not shy away as a man slices his own throat with a knife. When a young man jumps off a rooftop, we see his body splat on the pavement. We see a scalpel slice into a woman’s bare breast. While the gruesome bodies were finely drawn in the manga, somehow they are not as attractive in full-color as they were in black-and-white. Rape, incest, creepy stalkers, and nightmarish phantasms bred in disturbed minds round things out.
But just as much as this anime is "adult" in terms of disturbing content, it is also adult in the un-childish way it presents the story. The emphasis on workplace drama, and a small, handsome, even tsundere Director may make it a little more attractive to female audience. But we are expected to ask questions related to moral dilemmas, dig deeper than the surface, and accept that while some crimes may often have a deep rationale behind them, some criminals kill for darker reasons. There is little happy-go-lucky. The human soul can be a very dark and dirty thing. Sometimes there is no "good guy." Even the strongest mind can be wrecked, and suffer mental breakdown. Sometimes relationships have no happy ending, straddling you with regret for the rest of your life.
I also was fascinated by how the manga (and anime too) explore how the mind might retain visual memories. Here, even hallucinations are seen through MRI, since that is what the mind "saw." Memories might be swayed by the mind, portraying a loved one as more beautiful than in reality, or a hated one as a monster. Even dreams form memory. In one case, we view the irrational yet useful world of dreams.
Now, I have to admit that I didn’t watch every episode. This series is not licensed in English, so I had to make do with watching fan-subbed versions. There were a number of episodes which were only available with improperly-timed subtitles, which, for me, rendered them unwatchable. If you ever find a place that offers all of the episodes properly subtitled, let me know, and I will be very grateful!
I’ve only touched on some of the things that make Himitsu great. Watch it for yourself, and see how much greater it is. Although, it is not for the faint of heart.
