Distorted Image: An Alien 9 Review
Prologue
What makes you wake up every day. Why do you do it. Where did you find the reason to get out of bed. Something hedonistic? Something of a ritual? That which you can share with others to feel anything more than alone? I tried asking my grandma this question last time she visited this January, only to get in return an unsatisfying answer describing some activity I mentally categorized as materialistic. Even so, I did my best to be a good listener.
When I go on the Internet and try to talk to people, I can't help but see them as human. How terrifying. Judgemental, staring, gawking creatures eager to pounce on you, stab your back, or pull you back into the bucket. To circumvent this, I've been practicing seeing others as less than human. Finding something about them I could feel superior about, or to treat them with some purpose or value I designed for them, at least until the anxiety fades away. This idea was briefly described in NHKにようこそ, where the purpose of doing so was to make social interaction more approachable. It's easy talking to a rubber duck sitting on the corner of your desk, isn't it? Well, maybe there are tiny cameras or microphones hidden about, but I checked and double checked. I'll keep it to a whisper, or just say it in my head.
Ah, that unchanging expression. So predictable. Unconditional. My delusions can't follow me here, lest my image of the world is so fundamentally flawed that God Himself was watching from the other side of those rubber eyes. My heartbeat moves to a resting state. You are an extension of me, and me an extension of you. I can curse you to Inferno or sing your beauty without fear of disgust or rejection.
Take now, in place of a duck, the drawing of a girl-child. What changes? Some more emotions are evoked now. A burning feeling in the chest. Those primal desires even the cavemen tens of thousands of years ago understood. What words float up into your thoughts? Cute? Protect? 中出し? Whatever and however many feelings, let them move to create a series of constellations with their points. We'll need them to find our way through the night.
Just recently I finished reading The Picture of Dorian Gray. I don't believe Basil Hallward to be an autistic or antisocial man, evidence shown in his ability to speak and interact with others just fine. However, I will liken how he describes his infatuation with Dorian to how you or I might see Kudryavka. To how these observations made form then a painting only Basil could paint, with colors and shapes accentuated, masked, commented upon, or not commented upon. That painting forming some foundation. Some constellation. What if the Library of Alexandria had not been burned and two nukes instead dropped on 1800s England could be called 萌え.
When you think of your favorite artpiece, what's so striking about it? Can you describe it? How long can you describe it without repeating yourself? How many ways can you describe it? How many things can you say? What's so satisfying?
I only learned about the term, "Redology" maybe a month ago. It's supposed to refer to the academic study of Cao Xuequin's Dream of the Red Chamber, a book considered important in China. It was the first time I came across some idea describing this concept of studying a non-religious text. What I might otherwise see as a normal book. There really isn't much in English on this subject, but to my understanding what's so satisfying about it is the intricacy in which it depicts Chinese society in the 18th century. How these stories can then inform a view of the world or of society in this point of time. Well, I decided to stop reading after getting a fourth of the way through due to frustration, so I can't say much.
Do you remember the latter half of Kara no Shoujo? One criticism I had of it was how much focus shifted onto familial structure. Scenes where a point of surprise was the relation of one person to another. Really? Something about using family trees, the slow revealing of the branches of those family trees, or the infatuation with the percieved depth of something for having a lot of characters. Wasn't it the protagonist from 世界から猫が消えたなら whose mother fell into some obsession with this. Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe I just don't care about people. Maybe they need animal ears.
Shows like Kemono Friends and Hetalia succeed because they attach the ideas of these characters to pre-existing structures that you should already kind of have in your head. This makes understanding them a bit easier. You should already have this foundational structure of what animals, countries, archetypes exist at various points in your memory. Am I just appealing to anime as a familiar medium. Am I just appealing to my fetishes as a familiar spice.
Episode 1
Part 1
Fading in from black, the sound of a horn and the chirping of birds dress the image of a camera seated from the ground, gently facing upwards. Contrails are being drawn across a morning sky sparse in clouds, over a foreground depicting a group of trees decorated in cherry blossoms before two buildings: one rectangular in shape, with windows running across one of its sides in sets of four, noticeably parallel to the strip of white being drawn, making up some five floors in height. The other is seemingly much smaller, adorned with a curved roof.
One practice I enjoy doing is trying my best to recreate or describe this first cut to myself from memory. To create as vivid of a depiction as possible to use as the jumping off point for replaying the show or those emotions in my head while lying in bed or underneath the water in the bathtub. Moving from thought to thought.
I most closely associate these kinds of camera angles with something Shinbou would do. It's a breath of fresh air, don't you think? We can't always be looking at girls from the same angles. How you frame tells just as much or sets just as much of the tone as the words spoken.
On the subject of associations, maybe sounds would make for a better example. You might have had the experience where you listen to the first note of a song, and connect it to another song which uses the same note. There aren't too many notes to draw from when making music, or at least people don't stray too far from what's normal sounding and common, so I might expect people make these observations regularly. That observation by itself though feels intensely satisfying, no? The dopamine receptors in my mind run wild. Even if it's just an instrument that I don't hear too often.
The biggest point I went to get across about Alien 9 is that it's full of these points of connection for me. Full of these individual moments, even if it's just how a building is shaped, how a camera is placed, what objects appear or what symbols are used. The feeling might be likened to that derived from ingesting Ritalin. It's almost overwhelming. It is overwhelming. I am overwhelmed.
Are you only noticing the things that you're looking for. That you want to hear. That affirm what you already think. What you've already seen. Making connections where there are none. Creating a completely separate truth.
There's the idea if that the academic system were based around using your horniness as a tool for learning, all of the world's problems would cease to exist. Humanity would evolve. A show like this feels like that on a much smaller and personal scale. Even smaller than those I mentioned above.
Camera angles and sounds were mentioned. How shadows are drawn also make up an important foundation for why I find this show visually beautiful. Why though? What is it about shadows? The sense of depth it gives? Space? I guess that's it, acting themselves as light's depiction of the world. The color of the shadows, being maybe tinged in pink to highlight that theme of spring. Creating spaces to cool off and breaking up monotony. Maybe monotony isn't the right word, I'm trying to remember how Saitou Naoki described some observation about a viewer's submitted drawing which filled too much space with one color.
That shade of green however really strikes me, and is the primarily used color throughout the show when casting shadows. Why is this? I'd guess that it has something to do with the tinge used in the glass on those windows, but that might be overthinking. That it's just an aesthetic choice. Something to contrast with the red, pink, and purple of the outfits we'll see so often. The reason I like it so much though personally is because of how a frame of glass in my life did turn light into that shade of green in the basement at my grandparents' home. Ah, but that observation even so might not be right, just what I decided felt so or how time distorted that memory. There's some phrase for constructed memories in psychology. Repressed memories? I wonder where I saw it. Still, the feeling exists, and this show brings me there.
大谷さん。大谷さん。大谷さん。大谷さん。Repeating noises. I can't get enough of them. You've read visual novels. One of my favorite things to do is click that voice icon to replay those voices on repeat, over and over. Finding short recordings of some line and looping it for hours and hours. Maybe listening to the same song on repeat might be a better example. Well, I think it's distinctively human. What a soothing voice. Did I leave the VCR on loop too often. どこで間違えた?
How the desks are spaced, classroom is arranged. Where our hero sits. The concept itself of students taking leadership with the teacher sitting off to the side. This is less so a praise of Alien 9 than it is of Japanese culture. The satisfying uniformity of it. The responsibility you can bear. How a society views its children. If there's any episode of anime that encapsulates this idea best, it's Girls und Panzer's OVA's third episode.
I've had the pleasure of listening to a few arguments between pedophiles trying to make rationale on why they should be allowed to have sex with children. Being able to listen to someone argue something so foreign is definitely a good exercise in human compassion and mutual understanding. The reason I bring it up is just to mention that the way society functions is very capable to change from region to region and culture to culture. I used that example as something of an extreme, but the same idea applies between countries or sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideologies. 舌の上の君 might be a good comparison. Alien 9 is one such show.
The character designs are closer to chibi than anything too realistic, which I love. If I'm being honest they aren't my favorite, maybe preferring something closer to 灼熱の卓球娘 or 咲. Still, those monkey ears are just so adorable, I wanna tug and nibble on them! How the character designs contrast with the backgrounds or the atmosphere of the show is an important factor, so I don't think I would change it for anything. Something close to a グロカワ with a bit more mutedness to it. There's this genre of musician who employ album cover and MV artists that adopt the style quite well, such as x0o0x_, ましろ爻, or ぐちり. Would 鳩羽つぐ work in this comparison? Maybe too muted. Too dark. Too stylish. I'm not sure.
Part 2
Alien 9's OP is good stuff. Very on the nose lyrics about coming of age. That cool red on black. A show about elementary schoolers soon to be moving onto middle school fending off aliens with roller blades and lacrosse sticks. I actually don't have much to say other than that, it's an OP for a show like this... Maybe there's the observation to be made that it's pulling a なるたる, but then I do believe that this show is more lighthearted than it's made out to be as far, as I'm concerned. A society in the desert which has a tradition of cannibalizing its people can just as well see it as an honor as you might see it as a horror.
Yuri as a person is a very pouty girl. She's easy to whine and cry, and I love that about her. I almost want to say that she's just like me. Yuri does have a friend in Miyu, so can hardly be called lonely. She has some hope of growing out of it, right? This shot of the 渡り廊下 stands out to me just because it's all I can think of when I try to remember what my elementary school looked like, or the other way around? I'm actually not sure if lacking walls on the sides is normal or not. Generally I think to myself of the one in Little Busters which does have them.
Architecture is something I look at a lot when watching this show. I wonder if this is just my inclination after watching so many shows prior with poor art but amazing backgrounds. The inclination of someone rejected from art school to lead a country. There's a lot going on and I do wonder how much getting a lot of time to work on it as an OVA across some eight months helped with that. I really don't know that much about the production of this show to be honest. There are a few interviews you can grab actually in the OVA extras with 真木太郎 and some other guys, including things like a sketch gallery and whatnot, but they don't tell as much as, say, that Little Witch Academia documentary Trigger came out with when making their movie for the アニメミライ I believe it was.
Why the エイリアン対策係 needs a room this big I'm not sure, this being otherwise used as a gymnasium or assembly hall or something? If nothing else, it serves to create big dramatic shadows and bright dramatic light, which is enough of a reason... We meet the 担当, Megumi, as well as our two new friends, Kasumi and Kumi. Without much of a 自己紹介 from any of the girls other than their body language, we're introduced to the Borg, something of a FLUDD for the エイリアン対策係 if you want to think of it that way. Borg are beautiful and friendly creatures with big 'ol wings and pointy bits to protect you from those nasty aliens.
It makes sense that the world you inhabit should have some sense or degree of reason... right? I think I first heard this idea, or how I'm going to apply this idea to Alien 9, was in a Barry Harris video about feeling the "and", describing as a sidenote how jazz was originally listened to in dancehalls. When we went to hear Charlie Parker we went to a dancehall. When we went to hear one of the big bands we went to a dancehall. Can you dance when watching Alien 9? How finely does it mesh with your body?
There isn't really anything objective about how I even want to talk about this show. The same rationale I'm using today can be used for why someone might enjoy エロマンガ先生, Dead Leaves, or I guess whatever else. I think that's fine though. I would hope that people speak so personally about art as though it birthed or helped raised them.
At least the first time I watched this show, I immediately likened it to ぼくらのウォーゲーム. Our director, Yasuhiro Irie, worked as a key animator on the movie during the same period. It makes sense that he would draw some amount of inspiration from it, whether that be through clothes, shot composition, or coloring and shading techniques. Hosoda has this very specific style which he brought along with him when directing his early movies and TV anime episodes, at least until around Summer Wars came out. Caribou-kun has a great video describing it in more detail that I remember watching before I started learning Japanese a couple years ago. How these principles are applied to Alien 9 and its characters through Yasuhiro is really satisfying for me.
Besides Alien 9, Hitoshi Tomizawa has worked on actually a few other pretty comfy manga. The ones I've read so far include Milk Closet, Nekokan.Batch, and what I wonder if it's the most popular thing he's made or not, Yume Nikki. They all use largely the same themes as throughout Alien 9, leaning towards science fiction, guro, and horror elements surrounding young girls. In the English release for the Alien 9 manga, a short interview about him was included. In it was described a couple of his influences, so names like Larry Niven and Robert Heinlein. I'm only a couple chapters in Stranger in a Strange Land, but I can see already where the connections lie. This scene with Yuri in front of the TV I like to think to be some allusion to the fate of that first Mars mission.
One of the first steps I generally try to take when unwrapping why I like something or what I think about it is looking at what themes and symbols are used. Often times something can use themes I detest, but grow on me, so not exactly an amazing means of judging works! Those objective standards would be better. Living as a normie would be an easy life. 団地 are one of those symbols. Where does my mind lead me? I guess towards that first Digimon Adventure Movie. My time playing Terraria. That German Kowloon Walled City documentary. Hafu Go's video describing the life at a university dorm in Chongqing. I can remember those sweet memories and let my mind and imagination run wild. What a beautiful world.
You have to maintain the give to the give-and-take relationship for any structure to last. It can't only be one-sided. Responsibility. Pressure. Nervousness. Disgust that you have to have your back licked by an alien. Really, I can't speak on responsibility. I'm a jobless NEET. Yuri is as lost as I am.
During this last rewatch, I actually noticed for the first time that framed photograph of Kasumi and her brother on the swing together sitting in front of her mirror. I don't think I had seen an image of his face until this point. Despite having watched this show some few times, even now there are still things I can get from it just due to not having payed attention. Kasumi's relationship with her brother is important to her. She's something of a perfect child who doesn't waste too much time with words expressing herself, but this is one thing she makes a point to mention to her Borg.
The casualness with which aliens landing on school grounds is announced and dealt with is refreshing. It's become so commonplace that it's been systematized and people have grown numb to it. Alien 9 as a show has a lot that it doesn't show to the viewer. Where aliens are coming from. Why they're here. What state is society really in for this to be the case. It goes largely unanswered, but if a girl shared all her secrets she would lose half her beauty.
Because of your inaction, an alien was killed. A living creature. You have to bear that. The sound of a plane can be heard overhead.
A show which gets the noggin joggin', synapses firing about. A show which amps you up. A show that improves your mood. A show that reminds you why you woke up today. A show which motivates you to continue. Choices made as though your mind was read. As though the shape of your tongue analyzed for the perfect brew of tea. Three aliens sitting atop a table. A fence atop a concrete wall in a back alley. A rectangular staircase wrapping counterclockwise with a pair of windows shining such a limited light. Each something acknowledged. Each with a connection. Something liminal. Maybe ethereal. The emotions clothing express, showing Yuri's childishness as much as her dear crying face does. How I love that crying face. So familiar. If I could hug you I would. Would I. Could I. Kumi on the other hand so straitlaced. Capable. Please help me. Feed me that fish before I starve.
Part 3
We're introduced more closely to the home lives of each of the three main girls from the perspective of Hisakawa in the form of a parent-teacher conference. By doing so, teachers can more closely understand the lives of students at home, what their parents expect of them or what relationship they have with one another. This is important for Hisakawa's data analysis. What is she analyzing anyway? We've seen until this point a bit of fiddling on the computer, what with charts and graphs. What purpose does the エイリアン対策係 serve, honestly?
Even at home, Yuri is a useless and childish young girl. Someone still interested in stuffed animals and manga by the name of ちゃ！One thing I would wonder is, why is Kasumi on the cover?
Kumi is so organized and independent. Someone you could look up to. A mother for her mother. How I wish I could grasp at that.
Kasumi, you're so impressive! How many awards! You're the shining beacon of this family. Piano, ballet, robots. A real polymath. Something almost intangible. You are a real product of your environment. Someone with great and supporting parents and an all-out attack attitude.
Serious fear among small children of a bull-sized alien ready to bust down a door with its Vice-Versa looking ass fists. Yet, the teacher is calm. Is she insane? Does she know something about what the aliens want that we don't? I'm inclined to ask if the aliens are controlled by someone somehow that she not show fear. That fear be shown so seldomly.
I got off to too much loli and too much 乱暴. Found myself in the wrong community. My mind is all 珍紛漢紛. What is wrong with me. Throw me in the trash. Feed me to some starving animals. When you see the drawing of an elementary schooler scared out of her mind and crying, why do you let your face get so hot. Your eyelids droop. Genuine vulnerability. Fear laid out in the open for everyone to see. Emotions spilling out your pockets. A driveling mess of a human being. A real baby. Am I just a sadist. A masochist. Who am I.
Satellites atop the roof of a school. A broad and open courtyard. A pool elevated off the ground. Indentations at regular intervals. Paying no mind to turning the faucet off. Because you like it.
I can appreciate that Alien 9 doesn't sexualize children like so many other anime might be prone to. This is a subject a remember Choror commenting upon around the time we were reading Haimura Kiyotaka's Hotel Ergriffen together, or maybe it was in relation to some Range Murata artpiece. Those two are exemplary of this principle. Taking body measurements and feeding your Borg are serious business. I couldn't even get through the first episode of 名探偵コナン or an episode of ふしぎの海のナディア yesterday without someone being a perv or freaking out.
Throughout Alien 9 there exist a couple dream sequences. Dreams as a tool of communication are something I find easy to understand and relate to, simply because I've spent so much time around them, especially in the past two years after finishing Yume Nikki and starting a dream diary of my own. There are anime like Paprika which use dreams and hallucination in a manner I almost find haphazard, bearing little connection as far as I could immediately tell to the characters themselves. I walked away from that movie with my greatest takeaway from it being Susumu Hirasawa's soundtrack.
Oneirology. I guess neurophysiology sounds more sophisticated. What can you really grasp by looking at someone's dreams. How can you trust their interpretation. What can you tell or understand. Maybe with enough of a spam of information, you can get the general picture of the life someone leads. Their memories, what their experiences consist of. Their fears, their desires. The best anime I've seen which uses this subject to great effect is 神霊狩, a show most people should recognize as one of Chiaki J. Konaka's works outside of Serial Experiments Lain, Digimon Tamers, and many other masterpieces in otaku media. I can't say exactly what I find so enjoyable about 神霊狩 other than its subject matter, themes, and the tight writing, as I haven't watched it more than two times some years ago. The reason I bring it up is to emphasize or compare what I believe to be another strong point about Alien 9.
That ambience which follows Yuri into sleep is really dreamy. The choice in using a bright and poppy field of flowers nearby a lone tree really stands to contrast from that shadow and grittiness which always seems to encompass every shot in this show. This is Yuri.
Symbols alluding to all that we've seen so far are shown throughout the dream in the form of objects, people, clothing, and words spoken. A stadiometer and bug net act as the objects, Yuri's 担当, Borg, and fellow エイリアン対策係 members as the people, the choice for Yuri and Kasumi to be wearing dresses, Megumi in a maid's outfit, and Kumi in セーラー服 as the clothing, and Hisakawa and Kumi's brief comments as the words spoken. I guess I'm missing a few things but maybe this means of explaining things is fine. From these symbols we can get a boiled down idea of what's going on in Yuri's head right now. We can figure out what information she's digesting, what she thinks about others, or how she feels. Dreams are kind of just organizing and sorting information. It doesn't mean much but you can't really imagine something which you haven't seen before or can't imagine? I guess that's kind of what I'm getting at? Something so subtle you might not have even noticed.
Alien 9 as a show has such a great cast of characters that I can't get enough of. Their dynamic and understanding with and of one another has already grown a bunch throughout this first episode. Everyone's got their strengths and weaknesses.
Our first episode moves to a close with Hisakawa making some allusion to one of the children being chosen, whatever that means. How mysterious. She finishes inputting her data on the girls into the computer before stepping away and revealing drill hair! What!?
The ending song and animation for this show is one of my favorites. It follows kind of the same theme as Sarazanmai in putting drawings in spaces from real life, or at least interlacing them between images of real life to give that feeling. Images of twilight. Of plants and clouds breaking rays of light. Of an urban aboveground train station which I can't help but think of that long running scene bathed in green from 書を捨てよ町へ出よう. Of a plane. Shots reminding me of my time in Pennsylvania as a child. Pensive.
Continuing the theme of making all of the promotional material follow those cute themes with complete disregard of any crying or horror found throughout the show comes the 次回予告.
Episode 2
For the opening and ending theme, each episode uses a different singer from the voices of the main girls. Of them, Kumi's rendition is probably my favorite, especially for the ending. Her more mature sounding voice fits in well with the somber and downbeat tone. All of them are great though.
The alien in the beginning of this episode, or 宇宙船 if it can be called that, as we look into its... eye? The anatomy of how aliens are drawn is still pretty foreign to me. Nausicaa kind of does a similar thing with drawing those big bulbous things. I wonder where this kind of trend came from. I've heard of insects and bugs being used as references generally for how aliens are depicted in media, but I guess I kind of imagine there to be some equivalent of the middle-earth peoples system. Or is Beowulf the originator for that system. I dunno, I haven't thought or read that much about it.
So in the second episode we're introduced to some boys. These three are probably my least favorite part about Alien 9 since they kind of lack... humanity. When it came to the aliens, they could exist in a space where they had some mystery to them. They could exist with a lot of wonder. I really liked that. These boys though feel genuinely psychotic. A complete lack of sympathy and empathy as they take steps to kill Yuri. It's not just the case that the aliens they attached to themselves make them feel this way, but even without them they have this lasting sensation of boredom. It really makes me wonder where the real human compassion is in Alien 9. In this school and in this world. The skinship. The past Pavone described in Ever Maiden. I guess you can look at a story like this and make the observation that everyone is nihilistic as hell. That passing some weird secretive competition between the schools comes above everything. How do people like Miyu exist. Is the エイリアン対策係 a necessary or good force in the world.
I actually really like these fight scenes involving those CG drills. Something about it makes me think of space warfare or maybe of fighting games. The Borg does all of the action while the user stands silently. I'm imagining in my head right now the image of ネモ船長. Between this and running around with lacrosse sticks the latter is cooler and more preferable, leading to some interesting interactions like in the previous episode where Kasumi jumped off the roof, but I don't think this is overbearing. Kumi has a cool attitude to her and Kasumi turns it into some kind of game. Get into range for a quick KO!
It's really in this second episode where the room where aliens are kept after being captured is showed off. This atmosphere is really comfy. Feels like an Animal Crossing house almost. Like going to the pet store. I do wonder how these aliens can be treated so humanely. Err, except for Kumi tossing that one on the shelf. I would almost expect society to be more cruel to them if there were that many. That I don't really get.
Yuri has been crying more and more as of late, and Kumi finally snaps at her. It's gotta be frustrating! Everyone is doing their best but you can't pull your weight... How the Borg shares Yuri's emotions on its face is really amusing. She's so fucking adorable I can't get enough of it. I wish she was my daughter.
The world Alien 9 inhabits is picturesque. There are trees, sidewalks, parks. It feels almost pathetic, but nobody walks around where I live. Nobody goes outside so there's no need for sidewalks on half of the roads. No need for trees. This show doesn't have to do much to make me feel like I jumped multiple decades into the future. This show is very much 癒し系 for me.
So much of my love for Alien 9 is how much it reminds me of the beauty of being alive. The beauty our world can exhibit. The beauty in some staircase or in some shadows or some basic city planning. My mind has been stuck inside of dating sims and strategy games for so many years now that the whiplash is just so strong. Memories of visiting my cousin.
This might be the sweetest moment in the entire show. I can't help but put so much of my own emotions into birthdays. What they mean. What acknowledgement and celebration for your friend's existence can say. Having friends come visit you at your home for a birthday party. It's special. It's really special.
We're given little tidbits of information as Megumi gets blasted with her colleague at the bar about her thoughts, worries, and concerns about the development of her three girls. Her use of aliens against the girls. Mysterious, huh.
Merely buttoning your shirt. Putting on a sock. Brushing your hair. Yuri you really are beautiful. I can't get enough. You want to crawl through the monitor just like Tai could and take the deepest breath of your hair. I bet you smell amazing. Your shampoo. Your sweat. Alien guts leftover in places you couldn't wash.
The following scene builds on this tension by Yuri feeling some 恥ずかしさ over the boys staying at her! Really and truly masterful. Nobody but a true lolicon can appreciate what went into these two scenes and how they build off one another, able to identify the extremely subtle means by which the springtime of youth can be communicated, through simple objects like socks, buttons, and hairbrushes. If you look at Watanabe Akio's art he has this down beautifully, putting bandages of all things all over in places where they don't even make sense to be. It communicates burgeoning youth. Miyu plays a wonderful supporting role in girliness and acknowledging Yuri's モテモテさ. Yuri's feeble body is PUMPING with hormones like she's never felt before. Brilliantly written, drawn, composed, and directed. If I had any ounce of distaste for those boys before their role has now come to fruition.
Alien 9's world is vast, with a history stretching years into the past and into the future. It's unclear when the show takes place, with bits and pieces hinted about in scenes like this one or in maps or just in guessing how people act or looking at the technological advancements the world has. The sense of scale, even if it's not specified the details, is something I love. I feel like I'm in another world when I'm watching this. None of those stinky hour-long expostions. It's like Hidetaka Miyazaki always said. Nobody gives a shit about the story in Dark Souls, but if you want it, it's there. Now he probably didn't say that but you get my point.
This scene with Yuri feeding the aliens is fucking insane. She is taken from behind by those nasty boys and her Borg torn to shreds. She gets an epic level up into this crazy Borg hair thing that takes out all of the aliens. Hisakawa's efforts are all for naught. On top of that, the other Borgs get fucked. This is really protecting your host at all costs.
If you didn't get it until this point, you should get it now. The girls are connected emotionally through their Borgs. They are a team, and they have to be able to understand one another. This means emotional stability. Yuri crying all of the time takes its toll on the other girls. It's not just sounds into the microphone for you and I to hear, those tears communicate something. The bond has increased in strength, and the emotions are at an all time high with Yuri fearing for her life. This is the first moment of vulnerability for Kumi and Kasumi as they genuinely feel the qualia how Yuri is feeling.
After all that, miss モテモテさん returns to her friend Miyu waiting for her in the classroom to break down in tears in front of her. She can't do anything but hold her and let her cry as her Borg lies dead on the floor.
Episode 3
It's been a stressful period, and to release a bit of the tension, the third episode comes in to act as a bit of filler in some sense, straying from the manga or at least building up more on it I like to think. It's in no means a bad episode as much as filler might be used as a slur. In fact, it might be my favorite episode.
Yuri wants to quit the エイリアン対策係 but cannot. You have to keep doing your best, and hey, there's only some half a year left until it's donezo. Just hang in there, and try to relax this summer break. In the meantime, Megumi is gonna do her best to birth some new Borgs.
Kids outside in the summer heat catching cicadas. A clock ticking while lying in bed. It really doesn't take much to evoke strong memories in my heart. Sweet memories. Memories of the good times. This third episode is pure and utter 癒し系 through and through.
I'm sure I said something already, but you gotta appreciate the outfits shown off throughout this show. So many different sets of clothes for these girls just in four episodes. Everyone is drippy dripped and ready to start the summer off with a bang.
You've heard that trainline sound before. That ringing. Maybe you actually live in Japan or have been there, in which case why the hell aren't you out fishing or hitting on old ladies or something and why are you reading some 外人's anime review? Or maybe you watched Penguindrum or some other piece of media which uses it a lot.
Soundfonts. That's the observation I wanna make. It's not just ringing for trains, it's not just ticking of a clock, but how animals sound, where sound effects come from. When your show uses a satisfying soundfont that is just crisp to the ears it can mean a lot in building atmosphere. The best example for this would be the soundtrack for Animal Crossing on the GameCube. Those little dog and cat barking and meowing noises, weird ass horns, drums, and other instruments. I don't know if I can explain the idea in much more detail than, I like satisfying sounds. Have you ever played Pokemon Channel? Remember clicking any button in those menus? Now that is a satisfying sound. Lot of those throughout Alien 9, gotta love it.
There are no vibes comfier than riding on a train together into the countryside with your friends eating snacks. I just finished replaying Paper Mario RPG and man I didn't remember just how much I enjoyed chapter 6. I actually forgot the second half of it completely. I don't think I ever actually properly finished that game until this playthrough, I'm not sure. Maybe I watched my brother or Emile play it. Can't say.
Yuri's Haibane Renmei cosplay is very nice. Probably her most stylish outfit I gotta say besides that dress from the dreams. She really needs to pick up on wearing more girly clothes and not button up shirts over long sleeve shirts all the time. This episode is that change.
I am just infatuated with life right now. It's a shame this is just a text and images review because the sound and music in this show carries so fucking hard in creating the right atmosphere, combining with everything else. Can't sing its praises enough.
It's sobering. I'm alone in my bedroom surrounded by the same four walls, ceiling, and floor I've been surrounded by for the past 15 odd years. I wish this was me so bad. I wish I had a group of friends to go out to a summer house with. I wish I felt comfortable enough to take pictures with those friends and bask in the memories. Being vulnerable around these people. God damn it.
I do feel like every frame is a painting when I rewatch this show sometimes. That every frame can remind me of some memory or some emotion I haven't poked at in a while. A little time capsule of a show.
Alien 9 is a coming of age OVA. That's kind of how it's presented on the surface, and it's not like it subverts that by playing into these weird horror or psychological elements and trying to turn everything on its head. It does take steps in emphasizing and exploring that concept and how moving into being a ６年生 is affecting Yuri. It's fucking scary. Your body is changing and the entire social dynamic of how you engage with other people is changing. You can't run by the same rules anymore, you have to grow up at some point and grab onto independence. Avoiding relying on others as often as you have been. Man, I really feel like トロトロ the way I'm talking right now. I know what to do to change my life around, but I have the fear of that change.
I feel like there's a formula this episode could exist. There's probably an Azumanga Daioh episode with similar themes that I just don't remember. One thing I like about Alien 9 is how little it really plays into typical anime tropes. It's kind of a weird show and there will just be girls following after one another shouting にゃあ or whatever. It's just so adorable and genuine.
Kumi has grown more and more sympathetic towards Yuri. Without the responsibility of the エイリアン対策係 looming overhead, friendship can really begin to blossom and care between one another as human beings.
You will never have this. You will never feel the warmth of another human being. The embrace of someone who cares about you, as you two take refuge from the summer rain underneath the cover of a bus stop. Someone who looks out for you. Someone who truly and unconditionally loves you. Someone who you can call yours, someone who they can call theirs. Please God, let me meet her. It hurts guys. It really does. I'm hurting right now. I broke down in the Walmart parking lot the other day you know. I saw a young couple around my age holding hands in silence together. That inaudible trust between each other. I saw kids and middle aged people and older people laughing and talking so casually and fluidly with one another. I couldn't take it. I gulped my orange soda and stared at the trees. I wasn't surrounded by those walls anymore. I'm alive. I'm really alive. This isn't a dream. I'm not hallucinating. There is no delusion. We are here right now.
The summer vacation comes to a conclusion. The girls' Borgs are returned to them and we get back into action, nice and refreshed with a montage to go along with. Soon however, an alien known as Yellow Knife lands unprompted by Megumi onto the roof of the school. We get something of an 水の中の八月-esque scene, wherein Kasumi appears before Yellow Knife in the middle of the night, dressed only in the dim blue light coming from the moon's reflection. お兄ちゃん. She's swallowed whole.
Episode 4
Alien 9's fourth and last episode dips more into psychological horror, and can lead to some amount of confusion. There are some parallels which can be drawn between this episode and The End of Evangelion in how it conducts itself. Yellow Knife is presented to Kasumi as her brother through psychological manipulation. Yellow Knife is an intimidating alien capable of some crazy shit, so we have to be on our guard as we try to figure out a solution on getting Kasumi out of there.
The rules of this world and how aliens exist is expanded upon a bit throughout the fourth episode. We understand that in addition to Megumi and the rest of the schools' proactive choices to place aliens into these sort of duels or acts of training between the students, aliens can just come out of nowhere. These are necessary measures to protect ourselves and find a way to coexist.
Yellow Knife wants to protect itself. It takes every measure it can to keep people away like a porcupine evolves to grow spikes to keep its predators away. However, it winds up getting more involved and causing more trouble. All of the students of the school are tormented by an aching in their head as Yellow Knife pumps psychological attacks at them from its body. This however does not effect the girls and those who have their Borgs. In a way, you can think of it how radio is used in warfare, where the Borgs take on another channel? Look I don't know that much about radios!
The gang devises their plan and Kumi approaches Yellow Knife for the incision. Kasumi's image bursts from Yellow Knife's body to discourage Kumi with a smile. Fucking terrifying. Yuri cheers Kumi on, Kumi's Borg having obscured the sight.
A noise explodes from Yellow Knife, causing Kumi to puke and everyone to pass the hell out. With this attack, each of the girls have been secluded. Their Borgs have been overwhelmed and their minds have been hacked. Your emotions are now at the whim of Yellow Knife who can creep around in the nooks and crannies of your cranium to find your greatest vulnerabilities. Your biggest worries and fears. Your insecurities. You are completely alone.
We don't see Kumi lose her compuser many times throughout Alien 9. She tends to be the rock for everyone else, but this is one such moment of weakness. Her Borg however breaks the confusion reminds her that she needs to calm down. Breathe. Think rationally, there's no reason everyone would have disappeared. You can figure this out.
Yuri is a big crybaby, so this isn't as much of a snap in realization of her fears for her as it was for Kumi. The manipulation from Yellow Knife comes more as loneliness combined with hallucination. Pretty much the same troubles and insecurities she has been wearing on her sleeve the entire show.
Kasumi throughout Alien 9 largely keeps to herself, indulging in the fun of being apart of the エイリアン対策係 as she did so many times before with every other hobby and activity. Using her time wisely and enjoying it. However, she has one weak point, and that's her brother. For how much of a perfect girl she has been built up to be, her brother leaving to go to a 留学 has left a scar inside of her. Yellow Knife capitalized on this.
The other teacher whose name I honestly never got, whether she's the principal or another teacher or something else, comes and defuses the situation. Kumi and Yuri are once again able to see each other face to face. They are not alone.
Yellow Knife on the other hand is still invisible. No worries though, we can still attack. You didn't want to come here, but now you are here. We have to do something with you, and you gobbled up Kasumi.
Aliens are living creatures. This is kind of a 地球少女アルジュナ take but it is not done half-heartedly. Yellow Knife does not want to die. There has to be something that can be done. どうして? どうして? どうして? どうして? Kasumi emerges from Yellow Knife as a child from the womb. This time she comes with a new ability, being a little baby Yellow Knife with those huge speakers popping out of her hair. Do you remember when Megumi got hammered at the bar that one time and ate 肴 with her hair? You should, because the same thing has happened now.
Kasumi jumps in for the kill, but Kumi doesn't make any effort to defend herself. Yuri is the only one who tries to stop Kasumi, and Yellow Knife watches from above... Yuri pleads Kasumi to stop... Ah, it's futile. Yellow Knife is moved by Yuri. It's okay. Let's just stop.
さよなら、かすみ。
The situation is resolved. Everyone is okay. Yellow Knife is dead. There's something on the horizon. Someone has it out for us. Who are they.
Kasumi wakes up in her hospital bed with her Borg at her side. After a prolonged silence on behalf of Kasumi after getting little response to its questions, the Borg becomes suspicious that Kasumi is not actually Kasumi. Well, she is. It's fine... right?
Kumi and Yuri are bandaged up. Kumi clutches at her chest as she phones her mom. You are not alone. This call is fucking heartbreaking. It's over. It's all over. It's finished. It's done.
The ending theme plays as another short and downtempo montage begins. This montage is probably the greatest criticism that I hear from people about Alien 9 as a show, because throughout it we are given a shot of Kasumi approaching Kumi's dead corpse in the library. A real cliffhanger of an ending, but I am the last person who is going to complain about cliffhangers of all things. I invite cliffhangers and don't let them detract from the rest of a wonderful show. They might even be the kind of ending I prefer. I will say however, spoilers for literally the next chapter of the manga, Kumi is fine. We obviously know that we could get those Borgs back, so there's gotta be a way to get hosts back too. Science has advanced a bundle in the past decades, and Alien 9 is no stranger to science. A real SF classic.
Epilogue
I neglected from making a lot of comments that I would otherwise simply because they are observations on memories that certain scenes throughout this show evoked in me. They might be memories of interactions I've had with others, places that I've went to, or things that have happened. These memories also include just mental comparisons to other shows. It's pretty normal when watching a piece of media to make comparisons to other things you have seen. It's a very simple thing to do, but in being so, unless you have some kind of abstract concept you need an example for, it really isn't worth commenting. Those connections still however give me big dopamine boosts or mind getting full throughout the show in each scene.
Even now with this review, I'm still getting my bearings on the world. I'm still getting my bearings on anime, I'm still getting my bearings on social interaction, my thoughts, how I speak or write. I'm hoping that if I just spam and keep saying things and making mistakes then today's mistakes can be tomorrow's victories. I don't remember if ネモ船長 actually said that or it was just a hallucination.
When I share art with other people, a lot of the time I have issues getting my love across. I can wind up giving a really crappy explanation that leads to me being misunderstood. That's a horrible feeling. Being misunderstood should be taken as a sign that, if others can't understand you, you probably don't have everything sorted out. You probably didn't digest information properly. I've come across a bunch of schizophrenic people on the Internet who have their own languages and talk in their own unintelligible way. It's fine, I can appreciate it. There are places in the world where those people can exist and thrive, especially in the arts. I am just insecure and feel the need to understand it all the way through and make sure that other people understand me or at least kind of can a little more than before, even if I'm going against everything Mark Twain or whoever the dude was said about brevity.
On that topic of trying to take understanding all the way through, I've tried as much as I could to watch anime and read manga and books adjacent to Alien 9, just because it seemed like a small enough corner of reality that it could be easy to swallow. It isn't. It's so impossible. With everything I read or watch comes another reference and something I don't get. Innocent Grey didn't seriously expect you to know what the hell ancient ass books Orihime is talking about, right?
I can keep jabbering on about the manga or the fanart and how much of a sweet dessert it is to taste and remind me what I love about Alien 9, but this is already pretty long and I kind of just wanted to give a gist of how I approach the anime. In short, Alien 9 is a show that I love for how beautiful the art is, atmospheric the music is, and well written and directed, leaving a bunch of room for personal interpretation and mystery surrounding the world. It's a show that reminds me of the good things in life and the good memories and why I keep waking up everyday. If you wanna keep going, continue starting with chapter 15 of the manga followed by Alien 9: Emulators and the Champion RED Special. Gorgeous art, can't say it enough.
That's it. The review is over. Watch Alien 9, it's only two hours long and I love to read what people have to say, especially if they hate it. Now scram!
