The Three Ws

What Who Why?

What Is s.CRY.ed

s.CRY.ed is an anime based loosely on a five volume Manga by Yasunari Toda and Yosuke Kuroda. While the basics remain the same, such as the history of the Lost Ground and there being actual Alters the anime spins off in a completely different direction. In most ways this it good and in a few ways this is bad.

The history of s.CRY.ed is quite important to understand where Alter Users come from so we'll start with that.

22 years ago a seismic phenomenon struck the Yokohama region of Japan, driving the highly populated district miles into the sky. This caused not only wide-scale death and destruction, but it also effectively cut the area off from the established institutions of Japan--it's political systems, social welfare, and perhaps most crucial to the survival of society, law enforcement. Yokohama descended almost immediately into a lawless dystopia and became known as the Lost Ground. However, over the two decades since the catastophe, some citizens of the Lost Ground have been able to rebuild a small corner of Yokohama. The resulting cities have been protected from the wasteland beyond by well-guarded walls, stirring resentment between the well-to-do within and the desperately poor without.

The seismic phenomenon also triggered a strange biological abnormality in the population. A fraction of the newborns (roughly 2% by the end of the anime, however the birth rate jumps to 5-7%: thanks quycksylver) in the Lost Ground have developed the power to manipulate matter. This power is called Alter, and those who possess it are known as Alter Users. Just as a schism has arisen between the citizens of the city denizens of the wasteland, Alter Users have fallen into two camps: those who choose to aid humanity, and those who choose to exploit it. The latter have been cynically termed Native Alter Users (or Alters born in the wasteland).

The official s.CRY.ed website offers little else aside from the fact that it was radiation from underneath the earth that caused the mutation of the newborns, other than that this storyline remains true. Any futher debates between anime/manga can be found in Thoughts and Manga vs Anime.

Who are Kazuma and Tachibana?

So? Who are they you ask? The duo in the picture shown above are Kazuma and Tachibana. Here's a quick Bio of each.

Name: Kazuma Torisuna(though in the anime Kazuma doesn't have a last name and claims that he barely remembers his first name: thanks quycksylver)
Age: This can be disputed. The official website for the anime says he's 16, but in the manga there are clues that he could possibly be 17 or even 18 years old.
Alias: The Shell Bullet (anime), The Treasoner (manga)
Occupation: Mercenary...or muscle for hire
Alter: Shell Bullet, his alter actually has three stages, each stronger than the last.
The man behind the Alter: His past is very unclear for the most part. He was orphaned at a very young age and at some point was 'adopted' temporarily as something of a younger brother by another Alter by the name of Cougar (who more than likely taught him what he knows). There are also blank spaces in his past concerning this relationship as well. He eventually becomes a wasteland vagabond up until he meets Kanami whom he takes in as a little sister figure and they tend to take care of one another, Kazuma being the bread winner and Kanami (also a hard-little-bread-winning-worker) being the one to watch over them both. He becomes a mercenary after meeting Kimishima, they eventually become good friends. Wherever the money is Kazuma tends to be as well due to the fact that the mainland cut the wasteland off. Though he can be brash and hot tempered Kazuma is genuine to himself, refuses to be told how to live, and he cares deeply for friends and loved ones.

Name: Asuka Tachibana
Age: 16
Occupation: HOLY officer and it is specified in the manga that he is class A
Alter: Eternity Eight (which look like green gem spheres) his Alter only has two levels.
The man behind the Alter: One of the youngest members of HOLY Tachibana seems to have something to prove. Very little is known about his history, though he probably had an acceptance complex which seems to come out more in the manga, but it's there in the anime as well. Upon first impression he comes off pretty cocky and very sure of himself, something of a brat. That is until he first meets Kazuma, who basically insults his pride by walloping him once in HOLY he confronts Kazuma a second time for the sake of his pride and ends up in the hospital with his HOLY membership revoked. Note his acceptance complex, he was proud being a member of HOLY, he was utterly loyal to the organization and to Ryuhou (whom he looked up to) and it was stripped from him. After healing up and feeling rather ahsamed he made one final last ditch effort to prove himself (though I also believe it's temporary insanity) and he returns to the Lost Ground to take Kazuma on once more. This turns out to be more of a friendly contest of strength. Underneath it all he is incredibly sweet (in the manga he has a bit of a perverted side as well). His Alter is the most versatile in the series. It can mind control, become a sword, shield, transportation ect.

Why Kazuma/Tachibana?

Why Kazuma and Tachibana? Why not I tell you! Actually it started out as sort of an AU thing in an RP commuity. It just so happened that one of the characters I played matched Tachibana's personality well...but that's another story ^.~

I've done a little research particularly on Tachibana and I find...one yaoi fic! There's no doujinshi/scans as far as I know, very little fan art, he has one shrine in the s.CRY.ed navigation circle (which I'm thinking is a link to all of the s.CRYed shrines in Japanese). It's a small shrine too. He does have a fan listing! But in the yaoi world he gets...one fan fic that I've seen that exclusively revolves around him and Kazuma (true Cougar gets little yaoi recognition as well, but hey he has a lot more yaoi art and there are even more graphics of him out there and there is a shrine dedicated to Cougar/Kazuma...Cougar has more yaoi love). So basically the Kazuma/Tachibana pairing is getting jilted XD.

Don't get me wrong, I love s.CRY.ed Yaoi, but sometimes it's hard for me to see Kazuma as being the uke...maybe reverse position, but not a constant uke.

There's just way too much Kazuma/Ryuhou, no offence I like them too, but sometimes I want to see something different. It's like with Seifer/Squall, Heero/Duo, Goku/Vegeta...sometimes I get sick of seeing them not that they aren't good couples (I tend to root for the under dog which is why I get a lot of wierd looks when I say Nakago/Tasuki >.> ).

How can you not see it, they'd be uber cute together, I could see a long term relationship...just knock off Cammy and BOOM!

And these are my reasons, to promote this couple!.

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