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Forum - View topicThe Anime Backlog - Alien 9
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FireChick
 Subscriber Posts: 2436 Location: United States |
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My college anime club showed an episode of this years ago! I remember not liking it, not because of Yuri, but because it seemed a little too weird for my tastes.
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RenimLS
Posts: 125 Location: North America |
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I found the series interesting, and definitely picked up the manga volumes when they were released in the US. It's been a long time since I saw the anime, enjoyed the OP, but if I recalled it really ends on a massive cliffhanger spoiler[with Kumi being killed] shown during like the ending credits.
I am not sure the author Hitoshi Tomizawa can make a series that isn't extremely weird. Milk Closet was another series that was extremely bizarre by them which involved children and dimension hopping. |
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dm
 Subscriber Posts: 1423 |
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Yes, manga author Hitoshi Tomizawa comes close to Made in Abyss levels of weird, at times. I'd forgotten the title of Milk Closet, but it is indeed surreal.
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chrisb
Subscriber Posts: 627 Location: USA |
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Bringing up Shamanic Princess reminded me to go rewatch that OVA. I hope you do a Backlog on that one. It’s a weird, confusing, dark pseudo mahou shoujo and it's so pretty. Definitely deserves some more attention.
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Kicksville
 Posts: 1221 |
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CPM released a boxset of the DVD and three manga volumes together - a clever way to make up for the anime obviously not finishing the story (yes, they do preview a shocking story turn in the end credits of the last episode).
While the manga doesn't explain every tiny detail, the story is a complete thought, so it's a shame the anime didn't get to adapt everything. It does a tremendous job of wringing a certain mood out of the source and adds well executed original touches (a short montage becomes an entire original episode). There's subtle setup for coming events, which makes it all the more sad it ended early...but, very much worth watching still. I recall being impressed by the dub: Kelly Ray's performance captures Yuri's insecurity and fear in a way that feels natural, and Veronica Taylor brings nuance as the teacher Megumi. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4124 |
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Episode 1 Introduction, 2 The Trouble with Boys 3 Summer Fun + That Next Episode Preview and finally 4 Fallout and Dreams of Newer Days.
I consider it Essential viewing, not just for the story but how it uses its episodic format to tell it. Truthfully, I don't think it would be as impressive as it is if it told the entire story. |
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 2981 Location: Email for assistance only |
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I've seen it but it's probably been 20 years. Isn't it kind of told backwards? |
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Kicksville
Posts: 1221 |
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Shamanic Princess arguably makes "enough" sense as a complete series in episodes 1 to 4. But then episodes 5 and 6 cover events from before that time - so that if you had seen those beforehand, it would've been that much easier to follow.
If the dates out there are correct, the six episodes came out one after the other in a fairly typical OVA fashion (every few months from 1996 to 1998), which perhaps suggests this was intentional rather than being a second series. They do have a different OP/ED format though, and I don't know if there's any interviews or information out there that verify the intent. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6888 Location: Kazune City |
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Wow, it's surprising how much this DVD has shot up in price on Amazon. When I bought it just 3 years ago, it was less than $10 even with taxes and shipping factored in. Maybe in this era of anime overproduction where everything's sanded down to a passable "meet the deadlines" sameness, there's an appetite for this kind of unusual 2000s fare, even with the early-digipaint production, unconventional character designs, and very-obvious CG elements.
I first saw Alien 9 back in 2010. But in the years between that and when I rewatched it in 2023, I've spent a fair bit of time around young girls -- nieces, cousins' daughters, associated friends -- and I have to say that the "crybaby-ness" when confronting such bizarre and unearthly situations is quite reasonable and realistic. More so than the elementary-age Magical Girls that confront everything maturely and calmly, like Sakura Kinomoto as per this blog series. So if you want something weird, disturbing, and well outside the modern norms, Alien 9 is certainly worth a look. And if it winds up disappointing, at least it's not much of a time sink. |
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nyaa
Posts: 128 |
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It's been at least a few years since last watched this, seems I remember it being an odd title with the alien "helmets" the girls wore and the pathos over all the shit they were required to do in the execution of their club duties. Guess I'll have to put the dvd into my player and rewatch it soon.
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pachy_boy
Posts: 1334 |
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This was the set I got on a blind buy back in the day, and thank all goodness for that. I watched the anime first and let me say--if I didn't have the manga to read afterwards, that last shot in the anime would have left me feeling scarred/upset beyond words for a good long while, which would've been too bad considering that I was enjoying its distinctively weird entertainment. But the manga's story continues beyond that, where crazier-yet-intriguing things happen to our protagonists, Yuri develops more into a heroine with agency later on (granted not by much, just technically, which is still more than you can say what you saw in the anime), and a suggestive relationship develops between Yuri and Kumi. It really makes me wonder why they didn't do the whole series, or at the very least picked a better cutting-off point, because otherwise the anime adaptation was in fact very well done for what it was. If, hypothetically speaking, someone like Discotek were to license-rescue the anime, someone better make the manga accessible in some way, lest the anime leaves new viewers the same effect it nearly had on me. |
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One-Eye
 Posts: 2263 |
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I never watched the anime, but I read the manga something like 15-18yrs ago? A long time ago and I remember really enjoying it. Saying that it pulled a School-Live! is pretty accurate. I seem to recall not bothering with the anime because I heard it ended in a cliffhanger. Hmmm...I wonder if I still have the manga in storage with some of my other manga. Maybe I need to pull it out.
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gsilver
Posts: 635 |
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If the manga ever gets license rescued, I hope that they include the bonus chapters from the reprint. After this article, I tracked them down and looked over the first of them yesterday. Stuff like the color map of locations in the series is neat.
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Swissman
Posts: 785 Location: Switzerland |
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Alien 9 was one of my first true weird manga reading experiences. I discovered the manga after reading manga author Hitoshi Tomizawa's Milk Closet in Afternoon magazine. Alien 9 fascinated me with its concept of cute (?) children characters in a surreal and grotesque coming of age scenario. The manga's art was also rather bizarre and unique. I wrote a german review of the manga, just before the anime was anounced in 2001.
The OVAs didn't disappoint me back when I first saw them on rental VHS in Japan. I especially enjoyed the crisp animation of the alien chases, the opaque colors and the ending song. I haven't seen the OVAs for many years now though, and I wonder if I would still like them today as much as I did when I saw them for the first time because my taste in anime has changed considerably. For example, I have trouble getting through the first season of Made in Abyss and the few episodes of season 2 gave me the rest with its blend of grotesque mysery and cute character designs. It's possible I wouldn't go past episode 2 of Alien 9 today if I saw the anime for the first time. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9917 Location: Virginia |
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Back when this show came out I read the manga and watched part of the anime. I then made the mistake of actually looking at the set up which is horrifying. I couldn't finish it.
You have three pre teen girls (about 11 years old) fighting alien monsters that appear at the school. One is forced into this because she is not sufficiently popular to prevent her classmates from voting her into the job no one wants. The other two are under informed, even if they were old enough to make a life altering decision. Parents are useless and the teachers are in on the scam. The fighting is life threatening and involves merging with the aliens to an extent that they can never become fully human again. Recruiting children when the world is at stake is one thing, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Honestly Truck-kun would have been kinder to these girls. |
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