Mugen

Infinite Ryvius is one of the best series I’ve watched in quite some time. The basic premise is that a few hundred of teenage space cadets were dragged into an accident that left all their adult instructors dead and them drifting aimlessly on a mysterious spaceship named Ryvius that was hidden in the space station. The elite seniors, a student group called Zwei, take charge of managing the ship until rescue comes, but though they are the brightest and the best, they are still just kids. When Ryvius comes under attack by a mysterious enemy and it was revealled that the death of the instructors wasn’t just an accident, Zwei had to choice but to conceal these facts to prevent chaos from taking over. However these goodwill actions create distrust and discontent, as the rest of the students feel that Zwei has no right to rule over them and enjoy better privileges. Social structures soon fall apart as the enemies continue to attack Ryvius. Think “Lord of the Flies”, but better. And in space.

I think the best part of this series was the unpredictablity. Innocent-looking characters were changed drastically by the extreme circumstances while the menacing-looking deliquents at the start of the series turn out to be harmless (relatively speaking). Everything follows the flow of the story, yet does not lend itself to be easily predictable. The exception being the girl that the main character ends up with.

There are quite a few reoccuring supporting characters that don’t really tie in to the main story, but they get short ten-second scenes dedicated to them once in a while that, at the beginning provided comical relief, but takes on a serious tone later on as they are inevitably changed by their surroundings.

In the end, I think what was most memorable was the raw emotions displayed by the children in a hopeless situation without a reliable authority, the different extremes they go to to achieve their goals and how they push each other to their psychological limits. Though the series was really tamed graphically, I find some of the things to be quite disturbing. Disturbing because I find it to be quite an accurate depiction of human society (the ship even had a tiny cult/religion forming).

The character designs are by Hisashi Hirai (of Gundam SEED fame), but his unique style has not yet developed fully in this 1999 series. At least you can easily tell the characters apart. *cough*