CLXXX: "s-CRY-ed"

Such an odd name for an anime, s-CRY-ed is another title I waited forever to finally review. Bearing likeness to both Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and Marvel's X-men, it has people with freakish powers and discrimination left and right. But let's get to the core of what this title's about.

s-CRY-ed deals with people that can use Alters, which is power deformed, reshaped, and crystalized at the users will. Originally, it was only a special few that bore such a trait, but over time, their numbers began to rise, causing human life to be inferior to Alter users. Even so, this doesn't happen without its perks, and the setting of s-CRY-ed is proof of that. In the anime, even amongst Alters, there is some form of segregation, that of which is between HOLY, which is a subsidiary of HOLD that does missions to bring justice to renegade Alters, as well as to maintain government operations, and their opposition the Native Alters, those who wish for nothing to do with HOLD, some of which exhibiting resentment towards them. The plot device here is stemmed from a rivalry between a specific character from each side. From the Native Alters, we have the protagonist Kazuma. Not much people know he's an alter user, and as HOLY finds out, he's their biggest issue to deal with. Armed with an Altered fist and a brash temper, he is perceived as a troublemaker, but is shown to have a caring side, especially when he does what he has to support himself and Kanami Yuta, the little girl he lives with. On the other, there's HOLY's strongest user, Ryuho Tairen, alongside his humanoid alter Zetsuei. Having his mother slain by an alter user, his personality has become cold, determined to find and punish that user. After Kazuma escapes HOLY, he develops a rivalry with him, as he is the only person to face Ryuho and not lose to him instantly. Their fight evolves to merely besting one another as opposed to a mere sense of duty as the story progresses, but that's not to say there aren't times they see eye-to-eye.

Not entirely extensive plotwise, the anime runs for 26 episodes in length, being featured on Adult Swim. Like Gundam and Dirty Pair, it was created in the Sunrise studio, and its original run before its localization dates back to 2001. It is licensed for US under Bandai Entertainment. In the middle of its anime run, a 5 volume manga was also produced, ending in 2002, and licensed by Tokyopop, who is now no longer active in the US for now. Kazuma is voiced by Steven Jay Blum, who took over as the voice of Toonami's host TOM in September 2000. Ryuho is voiced by Jason Spisak, who voiced Kiyo of Zatch Bell!, and Geo Stelar of the short-lived anime Mega Man Star Force, made from the namesake game series.

s-CRY-ed was eye catching enough, but to me pales in comparison to other works created and licensed by the same people. Even so, I think a 7 of 10 deems pretty fair for this title.