SPIRAL
He thought that she thought that he thought that she thought that...
Review by: M.H. "Eureka!" Torringjan
Length: 26 episodes
Genre: Mystery
Watched: entire series, subbed
Back when I was a kid, I loved playing the game Mindtrap, where you are presented with logical puzzles and required to solve them using only your mind and the clues from the problem. I was never good at them, but I enjoyed listening to them, if only for the "Ah-ha!" moment when I was told the answer. Imagine my surprise when I found a series that does almost the same thing, only with a plot-line to hold the cards together. As far as I can tell, the charm has not faded.
Plot summary: Ayumu Narumi is a normal high school student whose brother disappeared two years ago, leaving behind only an enigmatic answering machine message about something called the Blade Children. Now, he has unwittingly become wrapped up in that very same case, leaving him trying to find out anything about his brother's disappearance and present location from people who are all unwilling to tell him pretty much anything. Or us, for that matter. The Blade Children want to test him, though, because they seem to think that he can save them. From what, nobody seem to want to tell anyone. Could you throw us a frickin' bone here?!
Artwork: The artwork of the series is very sharp, about the standard of what one would expect from JC Staff (Melody of Oblivion, etc). The character designs are pretty distinctive, the colors are vivid, and the backgrounds are pretty well done. The artwork doesn't stray far from reality, since it's set in modern Japan, which is portrayed at about par for the course.
Music: The OST is pretty catchy, with some nice in-episode music that sets the mood well and would be pretty decent to listen to. As is the case with most series these days, the opening and ending are catchy and have taken a constant place on my playlist.On the one hand, the soundtrack isn't very memorable. On the other hand, at least it wasn't sugary bubblegum pop to tear your ears off to.
Characters: The characters in this series suffer at times from not being well developed in terms of their background (as is most of the story), although they are interesting characters in the present. Ayumu is an aloof badass-in-training who has inhuman powers of logical deduction, which he uses to get himself out of pinches and to solve crimes as an after-school hobby. He maintains a constant effort to try and find out anything he can about his brother's disappearance, while at the same time trying to set himself apart from his brother, who had almost as ungodly powers of deduction. He is constantly followed around by Hiyono, the eerily-highly-informed president of the school newspaper who becomes obsessed with his story and quickly gains more confidence in Ayumu's logical abilities than he himself has. She sometimes gets wrapped up in the adventures, but proves to be helpful in any way that she can, sometimes unexpectedly. The extent of her information network makes me wonder how many cameras she's got set up and can I have copies of the ones from the girls' locker room? Madoka is Ayumu's sister-in-law who works for the local police prefecture, investigating murders and coincidentally enough, everything that Ayumu sticks his nose into. She lives with him and has little in the way of home-making skills, responsibility, or generally anything that would put her in charge of the household (except perhaps for a paying job). The Blade Children (that we meet, anyway; they seem to travel in packs) are Eyes Rutherford, Takeuchi Rio, Ryouko, and Kousuke. Eyes Rutherford is a gifted pianist whose cool demeanor never seems to crack, even in the most life-threatening situations. Takeuchi Rio is the cute-but-deadly type straight out of Gunslinger Girls (only with less gunslinging), who shows no fear of death and is able to weave the most complex webs of logic of any of the Blade Children. Kousuke follows right behind her in both viciousness and mental acuity, facing his opponents with a cool demeanor that almost amounts to smugness. Ryouko is the reluctant Blade Child, who wants to stay as far away from the conflict as possible, even though she shows as much mental ability as some of the others. Her hobby, fittingly enough, is running. The Blade Children don't tell us much about themselves, but they do tell us that someone is trying to kill them, and that they are technically supposed to die. They aren't prepared to go down without a fight, though.
Plot: Like I said in the introduction, the plot of this series follows somewhat like a game of Mindtrap, where the answers to the cards are the climaxes of the episodes. The only problem with this is that they seem to have used up the best cards by the end of episode 10. Although the puzzles presented in the later episodes are still pretty good, they just don't measure up against the puzzles from earlier in the series. Another problem is that the entire series is spent in this puzzle-solving mode, with very little actual explanation of important plot points, such as the question that Ayumu asks during the entire series, namely what the hell are the Blade Children, and why the hell are people trying to kill them (as well as his personal interest in "where the hell's my brother"). In that respect, the plot of this series could easily stretch out another 13 or so episodes, and it would really help its case a lot. I'm guessing the manga does a better job of explaining these things, so why not oblige the fanbase and do a little bit more work?
CHICKS!!! This series offers up a bevy of cute chicks that aren't total airheads, a nice plus. In fact, all of the female characters contained herein have logical abilities that could easily get them into MENSA (if they weren't so busy using them to stay alive). Start with Hiyono, who takes pride in knowing as much as she can about as many people as she can. She has a petit (as anime chicks go) figure that accompanies her upbeat attitude and her information network. Her information obsession could be a boon or a downside, as she can tell you anything about other things and would easily be able to keep track of the household management, but she might also divulge things to other people that you wouldn't like told, like you cat-ear fetish or your favorite flavor of body paint. Take it however you want to. Madoka is a looker, all right, but as mentioned before, is somewhat lacking in her ability to cook, clean, get up on time, etc. She would, however, be extremely devoted to you if you could get to her, which should be easy now that her husband has disappeared. Act now, it's a limited time offer! Ryouko is the athletic type who wouldn't only figure out the best ways to please, but would have the stamina to keep it up as long as you could! She seems to want a normal life, so try to stay as far away from the topic of Blade Children as you can.
Overall: What I had of this series was enjoyable and somewhat memorable as the only anime series that challenged me mentally while I was watching it and gave me the sensation of solving puzzles, which I consider an enormous positive. However, it was also far too short and skimped on details, which will make me grade it down. They got some 'splaining to do! I'd recommend watching it if you don't mind not getting the entire story and enjoy a good puzzle, but otherwise, you might want to stay clear of it.
In a nutshell:
+ Great puzzles
+ decent artwork
+ interesting backstory
- Which they promptly ignore
- Too short
Final score: 8/10
Similar titles: - Case Closed
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