Naga

STORY: (4.5/10)

  What you must know when dealing with Alien Nine that it’s one of those anime in which the whole plot must be deduced from various interpretations, in other words mind*uck. This was a hard one I tell you, I spent a lot of time thinking about it, but I wasn’t really satisfied with presented concept. I thought of three possible curses and didn’t like a single one, mostly because they all spin around abuse, but fail to present a reasonable conclusion or even the solution. Minding that, I have no sadistic tendencies when children are involved, so it’s no wonder I didn’t like the bigger picture of this whole metaphoric clusterfuck.

 Setting the mind*uck aside, the show is still surprisingly progressive with its basic plot. Even without the whole mental mess Alien Nine still manages to reach some sort of ending and present a lot of interesting content along the way. Since the whole show runs around fighting aliens with peculiar alien hats it can be taken as a surreal Sci Fi with a lot of random content that manages to achieve mediocre status. In that case the plot would be situational, and events would be placed around bigger alien threats and/or Yui’s occasional breakdowns. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s still eligible watch for a certain audience.

 What this story lacks is occasional simplicity of symbols or at least clearer narration that could possibly set some sort of appeal to the whole anime. I would be lying if I said that story was not unique and interesting, but it’s hard to judge the series by the sole mind*fuck without the strong backing plot, which in this case hardy happens, and when it does it’s mediocre at best. 

ANIMATIONS: (6/10)

  Animations were solid. Visually, they were pleasant to look at but there was still nothing extraordinary about it. Nothing stands out except the designs of both characters and aliens, and maybe, maybe gore and violence, which was done quite neatly. The best way to describe the atmosphere would be empty, as in Serial Experiments Lain, or almost paranoid and hopeless as in Blue Gender. In other words; quite fitting and well done.

SOUND: (7/10)

  Music works rather well in this anime. Soundtrack in first episode, together with OP, gives away the feeling of more innocent show, which was also the case in Narutaru. Later on, when the show starts to reveal its true self, music flows up and gets tenser as well. More or less everything fits, the whole OST was perfectly fine, excluding the ED that sounded a bit discordant to me, or at least until I realized how well it really fitted. I must add that spotlight of the whole OST was the “alien-adult” song that actually contributed a lot, needless to say that it crept the shit out of me.

CHARACHTERS: (4/10)

 They were a quite interesting bunch. Maybe not memorable or even interesting, but they served their purpose well. If the show excluded some of the minor characters that were presented out of blur a higher grade would be debatable, since I actually liked the three main heroines. As it is now, there’s a lot of them that serve no purpose whatsoever, except for maybe interpretations and narration. And to be honest there was not much to the main cast except for maybe Yui and her alien. Once again, as it was the case with the plot, character backgrounds and general characterizations can be further deduced by interpretations and/or wild assumptions. Not minding that, the show is not presenting any reasonable development, and since I decided not to give extra credit for mind screwing extravaganza I just can’t consider them good. 

OVERALL: (5/10)

 For me it was a solid watch, as it could be for anyone who wants to test their wit. I know that extortion of little girls may not be the most approachable content, but this might as well surprise some people. Characters can even be relatable for some; if that is the case the content could be a lot more appreciated. I never said that I understand the whole mind screw, believe me it’s harder than it sounds, but I daresay that I did get the most disturbing out of it. Bottom line is: if you are watching for some cute little girls playing with aliens then turn around! This anime is full of disturbing, gory and fucking weird content that may or may not haunt you in your sleep, depending on your personal take on the monster of this series.