Customer Reviews

S-Cry-ed - Anime Legends Complete Collection

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

The Complete Collection is a digipak set of the same 6 discs from the individual volumes. It was released in late 2004 for a limited run, just for the holiday seasons. The product image above is actually an outer shell package that houses both the digipak and a collector's pendent/key ring, which is visible in the center of the package.

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.

I wasn't very interested in the show on Adult Swim and I missed a couple episodes but then it was my brothers birthday and he wanted this because he liked the show alot. I became instantly hooked on it too and this just kicks butt. A great purchase, I cant stop watching these over and over again to catch the little details I didnt get before. The story is very good you might get emotional when you watch it for the first time but thats a good thing!

If your into an anime with action everywhere, this is for you. The storyline is not great but all the blood, gore, and destruction will put you on the edge of your seat. The basic plot is that two people named Kazuma and Ryuho are fighting for the same reason; freedom. They don't realize that they are really similar to each other until the end so they fight each other with this power that is called an alter. Besides the fact, this anime is great. I really recommend buying this if your a true anime fanatic.

Action- 10
Storyline-6
Characters-10

Overall- 9

GREAT ANIME!!

s-CRY-ed is, at its center, the story of a rivalry. Hot-headed Kazuma, generally irresponsible and always ready for a fight, realizes he's met his match in his antithesis- haughty, dedicated, emotionally withdrawn Ryuho. They also symbolize their respective interest groups- Kazuma is a free agent living in the wasteland part of the Lost Ground with his friends, and Ryuho represents HOLY and lives in the city. This rivalry, between two equally strong, determined people who are so idealogically different, is what holds the story line together.

There is something decidely Brave New World-ish about s-CRY-ed, and that is not a bad thing. It gives some emotional heft to an anime that otherwise might have been about nothing but battle scenes. It is also important to note that this is not a one-sided deal: Kazuma is the anime's hero, but I found myself even more attached to HOLY and its variety of personalities. Their mission is arguably deplorable and some of their methods inarguably so, but it is all highly realistic, and the HOLY alters are certainly more interesting characters than the essentially faceless denizens of Inner.

This box set is very nice- it contains all 26 episodes. There is also a handful of extras, though I would have preferred for them to be on one disc instead of scattered across six. I should also note that the box the set comes in is incredibly annoying- it's bulky, a pain to open and close, and difficult to store, so I chucked it. The discs themselves are in a digipak, which serves well enough.

I have yet to figure out why s-CRY-ed is called s-CRY-ed. I know what scrying means. The only thing I've been able to figure is that it has something to do with Kanami's preminatory dreams. I do recommend s-CRY-ed to anime fans, though it would be a good idea to catch a couple of episodes on Adult Swim before shelling out $100+ on the set, to see whether or not it's your cup of tea.

The best part of the anime are the character dimensions. Kazuma and Ryoho do more than just chase each other throughout the series and calling the other inept for their ideals. They see what it's like to be in the place of the other person with many surprises along the way.

The peeves I had with this series were 1) the ending (but I won't tell you what happens) and 2) the repetitive nature of anime heroines tripping all over themselves when they're running to the their main squeeze and thereby being caught into an accidental hug.

I will thus rate the following (1-10; 10 being the highest) based on quality or amount:

Action: 10
Romance: 3
Soundtrack: 6
Dubbing: 5
Characters: 9
Story: 8
Violence: 6

This anime is best for those ages 13 and up

When adult swim put this on for a while. I was kind of curious I just decided "what the heck I'll give it a shot." My impressions? Well, it neither good or bad, it's just average. While it does have a story line that might or might not keep you interested (depending on what episode you're on), most of the "action" is sometimes way too repetitive, that it becomes rather boring after a while; and because of this, I just completely lost interest in by the 12th episode. It didn't really make a difference to me whether Kazuma or Ryuhou won...I was just like is that pretty much it? While there were a few moments of unexpected (and welcomed) surprises, the show pretty much never really took off. I can't complain about the animation, as it wasn't too bad, neither were the voice actors, they did an ok job, the music was ok, but still it wasn't good enough. 3 stars.

I agree with the above user, A.J. Dill. I saw the first episode of s-CRY-ed on adult swim and thought nothing of it. But as I watched the next couple of episodes, I began to fall in love with it like I had Wolf's Rain. Soon after the first episode the plot begins to grow and you can see the long term story instead of a copy of Dragonball. I would suggest this to anyone that enjoys some fantasy and tragedy filled backgrounds.