DVD Review- Jyu-oh-Sei Complete Series
Rating: 
In the future, humans have conquered space and set up a series of colonies in a far-flung solar system. Thor and Rai Klein live on the space colony Juno. The future looks bright for these 11-year-old twins; they’re smart, handsome, and their father is the right hand man of Juno’s leader, Odin. The brothers dream of becoming a pilot and a scientist, respectively, so they can visit Earth. The planet of mankind’s origin is accessible only to super-elite members of the military and scientists. Everything seems on track for the boys to realize their ambition.
Until one day they come home from school to find their parents murdered. The boys are kidnapped and thrown into landing pods. They wake up on a planet with an unbelievably harsh environment: Chimaera, a planet used as a penal colony by Juno’s legal system. Chimaera’s rotation causes half the year to be scorching hot, while the other half is cold and dark. While there appears to be little animal life, the planet is crowded with hundreds of species of carnivorous plants. Chimaera is a world completely hostile to the twins- and that doesn’t even count the planet’s human population, composed of equal parts of convicted criminals and natives who were born there.
Rai, always the weaker of the twins, doesn’t seem cut out to survive on Chimaera. Thor does his best to keep his brother alive as they dodge killer plants and feral humans, despite his growing resentment of him. But something terrible happens to Rai in a moment when Thor isn’t paying attention. Left alone, he’s taken in by a group called the Ochre Ring.
Over the years the people of Chimaera have created a form of government called the Rings. Each Ring is a group governed by a Top, his Second and his Third. Women have their own Rings within the male-run groups; since females comprise only 20% of the planet’s population, the men treat them with deference and respect.
Rings are usually formed by groups of people with the same skin color (a segregation that seems barbaric to Thor), so it’s unusual for the dusky-skinned Ochre Ring to offer sanctuary to the white-skinned Thor. Thor later learns that the Ocher Ring’s Third, a jocular, laid-back sort, was instrumental in his acceptance to the Ring.
From Third, Thor learns of another Chimaeran law: the law of the Beast King. If a Ring’s Top defeats all the other Tops in combat, they are given the title of Beast King. The Juno government slows the Beast King to leave Chimaera and live out his life on the prison planet Hecate instead. Thor becomes determined to work his way up to Beast King someday, so he can go to Hecate and perhaps find out why his parents were killed.
Thor’s adventures continue when he meets a group of women from the Sun Ring and saves the life of their Second, a feisty teenager named Tiz. In gratitude (and with something of a crush on Thor) she resigns her position with the female Sun Ring and stays with Thor. This causes friction with Chen, the female Sun Ring’s Top, who’s in love with Third. In the midst of all this conflict Tiz introduces Thor to Colin, an elderly man who lives apart from the Rings in a cave. Colin was once close to Odin, and provides a tantalizing clue or two to the reasons for the Kleins’ murder. Meanwhile, it becomes increasingly obvious that Third is up to something, and that Thor figures prominently in his plans.
When Thor is tricked by Third into challenging the Ochre Ring Top, he suddenly finds himself, at the tender age of eleven, the new Top, and in a position to try for th position of Beast King.
The series jumps forward five years, Thor, Tiz and Third are in charge of the Ochre Ring, which is thriving under their leadership. But during the long Chimaeran winter someone has been attacking the other Rings and killing their Tops. Thor’s been distracted from his goal of Beast King by his responsibilities, but when he confronts the killer, he is abruptly catapulted into the role he craves. Once on Hecate, Thor learns that Third has never been what he claimed to be, that his own parents were never who they seemed, and- most devastating of all- that the choices he made were never really his. Chimaera and its inhabitants are pawns in a much larger game, and Thor has one last, desperate chance to redeem himself by saving the planet and its people.
For a short series (eleven episodes), Jyu-oh-Sei packs quite a punch: interstellar intrigue, distant planets, a well-developed world, and interesting characters. Jyu-oh-Sei effectively combines adventure, science fiction, and suspense to create an engaging and enjoyable whole.
The world of Jyu-oh-Sei is believably futuristic; some of the finer points of Juno’s society are vague, but careful attention has been paid to building Chimaera and its residents, where most of the story takes place. A few elements of Chimaeran life strike a discordant note; I can believe the Chimaerans have learned to use dangerous plants to their advantage, and that they’ve retained enough knowledge to make really stylish clothes. It’s the flying air-speeder things that get me. How do they keep them fueled? I understand the necessity- the show would be much, much longer id Thor had to walk everywhere- but it still irks me.
Some of the characters are more or less stereotypes- Tiz is the spunky teen girl, while the Ochre Ring Top is an oafish brute. Most of the time is spent developing the main characters. Third is an intriguing case; outwardly laid-back and good-natured, he’s obviously hiding something, but it’s not until the end of the anime that we learn just how drastically his appearance contrasts with his real intent. The Ring murderer is also an interesting psychological study, but it’s Thor who really gets complex: he’s torn between surviving and protecting his brother, and, later, wracked with guilt over Rai’s demise and his own contempt. He loves Tiz, but knows they can’t be together; he wants to trust Third but knows he can’t. Thor is a bundle of conflicting impulses that disintegrate when he discovers the massive betrayal enacted against him, only to reform again into a single purpose: saving the planet he tried so long to escape. Thor is the show’s anchor, and I kept watching just to see what he was going to do next. There is one false note, late in the series. Thor has a hurried love affair with a woman he just meets. It’s distracting and unnecessary, adding romantic drama to a part of the series that needed to move quickly.
Overall, Jyu-oh-Sei does move at a fast clip. For a short anime, it covers a lot of time. The first six episodes are about eleven-year-old Thor; then it skips forward to sixteen-year-old Thor. It’s a bit of a jolt, but necessary to keep the story moving.
Jyu-oh-Sei is a good-looking anime. Character designs are nothing special, but the space colony and the aggressive flora of Chimaera are detailed. The background music is barely noticeable (I think this is a sign of a good soundtrack) but the opening and ending themes are something else altogether. Te o Tsunaide, the ending theme, is a melodic, poppy love song set over animation of Thor and Tiz. The opening theme, Deep in Your Heart, is just awful. The song is very staccato, and neither the music nor the lyrics really fit the anime. The opening animation is excellent, though; like the Neon Genesis Evangelion opening, it hands you all the main characters (including a couple who remain a mystery until the end) while providing tantalizing hints as to the nature of the story. With a better song, it could have been a perfect opening.
Funimation’s dubs and subtitles have been excellent lately, and Jyu-oh-Sei is no exception. I could easily follow the story either way.
The series has been given an attractive release. The two DVDs are packed into two separate slim cases tucked into a cardboard slipcover. The clear cases have reversible covers, and the box features a picture of young Thor decked out in some sort of tribal outfit. The DVD includes several extras, including commentary and Funimation trailers.
I haven’t read the original Jyu-oh-Sei manga by Natsumi Itsuki, but based on the strength of the anime, I probably will.
Details
Publisher: Funimation
Director: Hiroshi Nishikori
Stars: 3
Running Time: 225 minutes
MPAA Rating: N/R
MSRP: $59.98
Release Date: 10/07/2008
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