s-CRY-ed (2001) User Reviews

S-cry-ed

[WeAreLive · 8/10 · 24 September 2022]

22 years ago, a bizarre uprising occurred in Japan's Yokohama region, destroying civilization, killing many, and causing the area to break off from Japan's mainland. This region came to be known as the "Lost Ground". Over the years, some of the citizens managed to erect a new city in a corner of the Lost Ground and surrounded it with a barrier to protect it from the impoverished inhabitants of the island's surrounding wasteland. However, another phenomenon began to show up in the Lost Ground: Alter, the ability to rearrange matter at the atomic level in certain ways. "Inners" who were born with Alter powers became known as Alter Users, and Alter Users who lived outside the city and misused their powers were branded "Natives". The police force known as HOLD was constructed to control Native Alter Users. A division of it called HOLY was later created and made up almost entirely of law-abiding Alter Users. Now, however, HOLD and HOLY's control over the Lost Ground has become increasingly oppressive to the point that it has started to enslave the wasteland's people. Enter Kazuma, a reckless and hotheaded Native who lives with a little girl named Kanami. Kazuma barely manages to survive off working on a farm and doing tasks for his friend Kimishima. Soon, however, Kazuma becomes caught in the conflict with HOLY and forms a fierce rivalry with Ryuhou, one of its highest officers. What is the true intent of HOLY and its leader, Martin Zigmar?

This anime is kinda like an x-men with how the ulter-users can be treated like mutants and HOLD and HOLY are like the brotherhood and the AMRD.

The animation and art style is really good no doubt and the design are really I think Scheris Adjani would probably have to be my favourite one.

The ost for both the ending and the opening were good.

The English cast including Steve Blum, Crispin Freeman, Lara Jill Miller, Jason Spisak, Dave Wittenberg, Kirk Thornton, Carrie Savage, the late Michael Lindsay, Michelle Ruff, Jamieson Price, Tony Oliver, Lex Lang, Richard Cansino, Michael McConnohie, Paul St. Peter and many other actors were excellent.

If you don't want any spoilers at this point I recommend clicking off my review now.

Story I have many issues with it such as Kazama and Ryuho rivalry between them. At first I thought it was funny but towards the end especially with how much they have been got pretty old only to have some fight which was good but no resolution. Like seriously their rivalry should have been settled way before the final battle.

Also when the ultra user got taken I do dislike how Kazama just wasted his opportunity he could have easily jumped on the plane or blasted it wing. Oh and don't even get me started on how terrible they did some of the characters later after they got captured. For example Ayase Terada in her debut felt like a very nice girl who seem to care very much for brother not to mention attractive but when she made her return she felt like a completely different character of and that weird necklace looked horrible. Biff I'll admit he isn't particularly someone who I found smart but Jesus Christ, the way how they made him into some kinda mindless brute was just stupid also outside of shouts one word "HAMMERR!!! HAMMERR!!! HAMMERR!!!" he didn't even have many lines also the way how they killed him off was hilarious bad. The way how they even handled Kunihiko Kimishima especially towards his death was dumb.

Many of other characters I though I thought Straight Cougar was probably my favourite of the members. Scheris Adjani character development was good too and was probably more of a ship able candate then Mimori Kiryuu even if they were childhood friends. Many of the other members though Asuka Tachibana was just there for having the most comedic line cause of how many times he says "balls", Martin was just too much like Lex Luther and his supposed son was just annoying. Urizane is just some fat-a*** who eats water melons all day while Unkei is just a bad poet. Emergy Maxwell on the other hand was a complete unstable psycho who had an obsession of being saved by his weird transformers looking robot. Kyoji however was an excellent well written villian.

So while I do have some issues with some of its plot, I did still enjoy watching this.

You Can't Watch Just One...

[aeris4am2i · 12 February 2005]

s-CRY-ed is one of those series that you're just not quite sure what to think of in the beginning. You are thrown into the middle of a world where you have no idea what's going on--and despite your instincts, you're really not sure who the bad guys and good guys are! For a long time, I only had the first 5 episodes available to me, but upon getting my hands on the entire series, I found that I couldn't quit watching. The story is intriguing, and the writers did it just right so that as one episode ends, you absolutely must watch the next episode to know what happens next, or to get that new twist in the plot.

If you like action and a thick story mixed with it, s-CRY-ed is definitely worth a look-see. It is one that will leave you on the edge of your seat, eagerly awaiting each episode. It also sticks to the story--there aren't any filler episodes that aren't attached directly to the storyline. Watch out, though--you could find that characters you like and dislike constantly switch places. That's what makes it so fun to watch. Check it out!

nice original plot

[eplanting · 9/10 · 15 December 2013]

While it does have some problems, like it didn't cut enough out -see episode 13 where some huge ambitions crash down and they ruin it with a cutscene of the catastrophe and 88 piece orchestra music, i mean, cut the episode 30 secs earlier to only see the guy realizing that everything he worked for come to pieces, that's enough. I really thought it lacked a lot of editing that went into more modern series, but the story was very original.

I found it amazing that they took the main character's antagonist and showed that he was actually a second protagonist by the end of the series. Along with the intrigue which is somewhat the main theme of the series, I can really feel the effort that went into the creation of the series. Also the music which varies quite a bit from big band style to electronica helps to contrast the clash of traditional values (which are Japanese) vs the newer values of the younger generation.

But i digress, the entire series is about blind ambition, the ambition of the mainland versus the ambition of people on the area of the lost ground, who basically are second class citizens of the mainland of japan. Scryed is a tragicomedy with its chief theme as ambition.

Damn good!!!! Possible spoilers!!1

[AzureKite · 9/10 · 7 May 2007]

I am a big fan of anime, and i admit that when i saw the commercials for S-cry-Ed I thought "thats gonna suck". Boy was I wrong. What you have here is a "post-apocalyptic/big crisis" world set somewhere in the future. In an area of Earth known as The Lost Ground, AKA the very site of the big apocalyptic event, humans are being born with a mysterious power: Alter powers. Basically, humans can transform any matter, the ground, your car, houses, etc. into powerful weapons called Alters. Every Alter user has his own unique alter grafted after his personality i think. The story focuses on a young Alter user named Kazuma, as well as another named Ryuho. Kazuma had no parents or last name and lived off his Alter Shell Bullet, while Ryuho is heir to a large fortune and part of HOLY, a police like organization made of Alter users to fight Alter user criminals, referred to as Native Alters.

The anime is 26 episodes long and filled with amazing fight sequences, incredible animation, and an interesting storyline. The hardest part is the story, most of the terms you wont figure out until at least episode 7, but you WILL figure it out. There are also some elements in this anime for most ages, hero's like Ryuho who try to do whats right at any cost, truly evil villains who just make you hate their guts the moment you see them, good hearted people like Kazuma who defend what they believe in, some good humor, and as mentioned before, this anime is practically BUILT around the fight scenes. The alters are another good point, cause there's so much thought put into them. If your like me and saw the Adult Swim commercial with Kazuma running forward with his big fist pointed strait in front of him thinking its gonna suck, punch yourself in the nuts for thinking that cause this is a must see anime for anyone older than 9 in my book.

shall bullet !!!!

[bradleygranz · 10/10 · 25 April 2018]

S cry ed is a very cool anime it is almost better then dragon ball z and bleach it its great anime no lie

Some decent action, but overall rather boring

[OUKnight99 · 18 March 2004]

S.CRY.ED takes place in what could be the distant future, a world where a catastrophic event has shaken a section of the earth, giving select individuals from a certain generation the ability to use "alters," which is kind of a sort of magic, allowing them to transform objects and fight each other. (yes, you would think that they would find a good way to use these abilities, but no, all they do is fight each other.) There are two different types of alter users, "native alters" who live outside the walls of the city, simply trying to go on with their lives, and those alter users who are part of an organization known as HOLD, these alter users form an offshoot of HOLD called HOLY.

Kazuma is one such "Native Alter" with an amazingly strong alter. He works as a bounty hunter, until one day, HOLY comes, and everything changes.



The only thing I can really say about SCRYED, is that when everything is put together, what you basically get, is an OKAY anime. Nothing in the entire anime is really exceptional. The different Character designs are mostly rather unattractive, as are some of the characters themselves. Kazuma is your standard protagonist, strong and unpredictable, and always looking for a fight. Ryu, the strongest warrior from HOLY, is probably the coolest looking, but is still your standard antagonist.

The animation in this series is sometimes good, and sometimes rather bland. While none of the fights are what you would call jaw-dropping, since this IS an action anime, most of them come across as rather decent, if not rather silly.

The music switches between 80's punk rock, and some weird vocals that kind of sound like japanese hymns. Sometimes it fit, and sometimes it didn't. I did enjoy the opening theme though, and I always looked forward to watching it.

The last point I will bring up is the story, which started off simple enough, (I won't go into it, but it is pretty clear after watching just the first episode) but suddenly took a turn for the much more 'weird.' I don't really think the animators planned ahead, because after episode fifteen or so, the entire series is kind of a mess and by the end your just watching it to say you finished it, which is never good when your shelling out twenty bucks a dvd.

Overall, like I said before, this anime is just okay. Had the series continued to get better as it did from episodes 1-15, then this series probably would have gotten an A grade, but with the mess of the second half, the highest I can give this anime is C-.

Ultra Cool on TV,awesome on DVD.

[TimothyMcKann · 10/10 · 7 November 2006]

When I first started watching this series on Caroon Network's Adult Swim, I have to say that of all the sci-fi series types I liked and watched,this one proves to be the jack of all trades. I only watched a couple of episodes of this show,but I felt disappointed that I didn't get to see the rest of the series,I wanted to see the show once again,and that's when I got my chance. When I bought the complete box-set of this series on DVD,I really enjoyed it.The show was cool,and the characters in this series have incredible power,and cool abilities and techniques.My favorite characters in this series are Scheris,Straight Cougar,and Ryuho. What this series really explains that abilities are the most important things to have in life. We all have different abilities that we are all good at that,and they are the most important thing to have.Another thing that is cool about the show is Crispin Freeman playing the role of Straight Cougar. He does have a good voice for playing that role. So in closing,if you are looking for something cool to watch,then you have to see this one.And if you seen this show on Adult Swim. Then you have to buy this series,and you will see what I mean.

Promising

[Finite-Dream · 9 November 2002]

Yeah, so I'm going to admit that this review is just a bit preliminary, considering I've seen... 2 episodes.

But, here goes.

The human race is separated into Inners and Outters. The Outters are normal human beings, but the Inners are certain people with super-human abilities, or "Alter Users". Basically, an Alter is what you'd think it is--like an "Alter Ego"; the Alter is something (different for every person) the user can call up to do his bidding. Which, of course, in anime, means that they're used for fighting spectacular battles.

But Alters aren't just terrible excuses to make this show a shounen title. Alter Users have what we would call ESP abilities... things fly around the room, things blow up, the user has superhero abilities, etc. etc. (Like "Straight Cougar", who can make things go faster, or Kazuma, who can land on a building without a parachute.)

The "Alter Users" were created with the "Lost Ground", a small part of Japan that broke off from the main island. A small percentage of the people born on this lost ground have the Alter abilities.

So, with all these Neo-generation punk kids walking around aimlessly with destructive powers, there inevitably has to be the huge, benevolent organization to control them all.

Enter HOLD.

(Or HOLY, if you will. The organization is called "HOLD" and the foot soldiers are called "HOLY". And they get spiffy uniforms, too.)

So anyway. To the review.

The animation is, at times, dull, flat, and cheap. For instance, a rather simple scene panning the passangers in an airplane. It looked kind of like how I would draw a scene--the little circle for the head and the little semi-circle for the body and hope to hell that no-one will notice that I did my art project at lunch. Oh, and a little smiley face and the two little eyes.

And Kazuma, when in his strange, "Black Motion Lines Freeze Frame Scary Face" mode, looks like he's trying to be punk/mad/intimidating (and looks rather silly) instead of his cute-as-a-button cream puff Lead Male appearance.

Other than that, the character designs and the over-all appearance of the show are just squeak in at above average. Not good, but not necessarily bad, either. I especially like the outfits on everyone. Very ultra-modern.

The music is another story, but it's not too distracting or weird. To try and describe it, I would have to say something like early 90's wanna-be rock, and/or early 90's wanna-be rock ballads. (Just picture "Gundam Wing" music.)

Again, not good, but not bad.

The story is good, intriguing, but it was really annoying that the first episode ended with Kazuma's cliffhanger and then starts all over again with some other character. The Mildly Annoying Female Lead, no less. Which was a disappointment, because the episode was entitled "Ryuhou" not "Mimori (Mildly Annoying Female Lead Backstory)".

So I waited for 20 minutes for there to be some resolution to what happened to Kazuma and... the episode ends with *another* Kazuma-related-cliff-hanger. Needless to say I felt rather jarred.

But, it is promising. The premise is something that I'd actually like to see resolved and the characters are interesting enough.

Thumbs up.