Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17697 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-10-24
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English, Japanese
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 650 minutes

Amazon.com
Twenty-two years before this 2001 sci-fi adventure opens, the Kanagawa region of Japan was devastated by a major earthquake; the "Lost Ground" suffered the most serious damage. A small percentage of the inhabitants who cling to life amid the devastation are Alter Users, whose psychic abilities enable them to create mecha forms of themselves. Hot-tempered, red-haired Kazuma is a powerful Alter who defies all authority. His obstreperous attitude brings him into conflict with Ryuho, a dedicated officer in HOLY, the special police force recruited from the Alters. They command so much power, their battle reconfigures the topography of the Lost Ground.

What sets s-CRY-ed apart from formulaic mutant good guys vs. sinister military-industrial cabal series is the relationship between Ryuho and Kazuma. Like evenly matched high school athletes, they pursue a rivalry tinged with admiration and even grudging affection. Ryuho's bond with the brilliant physician Mimori and Kazuma's almost fraternal romance with the eerily puissant Kamani can't compete with the heroes' need to establish who's the strongest, once and for all. s-CRY-ed ends not with the defeat of the screeching Kyoi Mujo and his evil plot, but weeks later, as Kazuma and Ryuho pound the wasabi out of each other, because neither one can bring himself to stop fighting. Like cagey boxers, screenwriter Yosuke Kuroda and director Goro Taniguchi feint and weave, keeping the audience slightly off-balance with their characters' unexpected actions. (Rated 13 and older: violence, mild profanity, grotesque imagery, tobacco use) --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews

An Underestimated and Overlooked Anime
s-CRY-ed is a Japanese Anime series that tells the story of two young men named Kazuma and Ryuho. The story is about the people living on a part of Japan that broke off from the mainland during a great upheaval. Now this island, known as the Lost Ground, is home to many people with strange abilities called alters. Alter users have the ability to break down matter and rematerialize it in a completely different form. One of our main characters, Ryuho, is an alter user and member of HOLY, a group of alter users created to work for the mainland and stop any native alters who get out of control. The other main character, Kazuma, is one such native alter who works by doing odd jobs to survive. Along their journies, these two clash many times and are constantly fighting. The relationship that these two have with each other, and the people around them is basically what this show comes down to being all about.

With a supporting cast featuring a wide range of strange and great characters such as Ms. Mimori, Kanami, Strait Cougar, Scheris Adjani, Martin Zigmarl, and Kimishima, it is easy to see how this show can grow on you. The battles are done fairly well, and are overall enjoyable to watch. You can usually find at least one character you can relate to, or root for. The main villain, Kyoji Mujo, doesn't enter until halfway through the series, though in my opinion his threat is second to the main story of the relationship between Kazuma and Ryuho.

Though if you still don't know why this product deserves five stars, it is because all 26 episodes of the show, yes this series is short, are in this set. To get an entire series, especially an anime, for just over 30 dollars is in my opinion an incredible deal. Perhaps I am giving this anime too much credit, but I really enjoy it and do feel it deserves more appreciation. Of course, ultimately whatever you think of this anime is up to you to decide. If you haven't yet seen it, perhaps you should before actually buying it, though I don't believe you'd regret buying this. What's left to say? If you like an action anime, that revolves around a large number of entertaining characters, check out s-CRY-ed.

Everything DBZ could have been.
I'm rather fond of s.cry.ed for several reasons. Style wise I found this anime to be incredible, not quite up to par of the likes of Cowboy Bebop or any Gibli film, but still with a unique flare all its own.

The main characters, Kazuma the dense and brutish savage, and Ryuhou, the uptight upright paladin of honour, constantly battle one another through the whole thing, culminating in sheer brutality. The brutality is something that is often lacking somewhat in much of the anime that falls into the shonen fighting genre. I think this is one of the better and more noteworthy things about it. It also keeps the fights short, and really doesn't stretch any one single battle over multiple episodes...unlike some members of the genre that shall remain nameless...

That's not to say that this is an overall masterpiece of any sort. The plot is fairly thin (as to be expected with any shonen fighting sort of piece). The female characters are ALL pretty much useless, which is something I've always despised about the genre.

Overall, it's enjoyable, but not high art.

Need Just a Little Patience
When I watched the first episode, I thought I had wasted my money. It looked like the show was going to have the plot that of a kiddy anime show in which the only thing that happens is characters just power up. So the DVD set just laid there gathering dust.

I came back to the DVD a couple weeks ago to watch the second episode, and found out my intuition was wrong. Some very fun and intriging characters were introduced in the next episode. There was only one person I found a tiny bit annoying since she continually talks about this indecisive dream of hers, but it didn't throw me off. None of them are alike; their personalities all vary and there is always conflict.

Talking more about conflict, there is a lot of fighting in the series. All the fights seems to have a unique twist, though, that keeps away the boredom factor. Plenty of time is spent plot developement too. The central theme of the plot seems to be about being too quick to judge and the bad effect of the opression of people. I hardly found it predictable, and there is always an unknown.

I also have to give kudos to the people who did the music of the show. I can't remember one time that the music did not fit into the scene, and I found the beginning's song very catchy. I've seen quite a few anime shows in which the background music sounds a little too korny, but not in S.Cry.Ed

What keeps this show from getting five stars? I think it has to be the animation. Not that the animation itself is bad- actually it's very well done. The special effects are realistic and the character's faces never look disportional. The only problem is the coloring. Its very cheerful, light, as pretty as a rainbow. I think if the colors were dark and the characters were drawn more maturely, I think this show would be much more popular. The pretty colors give it a kiddy show feeling even though people die and there is cursing.

I highly recommend this series, but I just have to tell you don't be too quick to judge like I was.