s.CRY.ed

s-CRY-ed is an action series that follows the development of two young boys that have polar opposite world views. Both of them go through a character journey, losing things that are important to them and transforming both physically and mentally. Of course, there is a cast of regulars that appear and are interesting in their own right.

An early theme as the backdrop between Kazuma and Ryuho’s battles is Order versus Chaos. While it doesn’t stay the focus forever, it’s interesting to see how these viewpoints impact both the two main characters and the world around them, as well as the people that they meet. In ... the end, either they change someone’s view or at least take them out of commission.

Not every episode lands or is very important.. there are a few episodes that for half the runtime serve as more than recaps than actual story progression. But you can bet, however, that the next episode will pick up the slack the last one left. There are a few characters that I feel didn’t get the resolution they really needed, however.

Even where s-CRY-ed stumbles, there are still positive spots. The animation and sound are top-notch, and the fights between alter users are always entertaining at the least. The alter powers can range from gigantic guns to something like turning whatever you want into water.

In conclusion, s-CRY-ed is a good to show to watch if you want a consistently entertaining action show with a bit of self-reflection and solid character development. Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it isn’t gold.

If you're seeking for the typical shonen with the typical main characters that just want to fight, well, this is the right choice. But, if you think this is going to be deep and tragic... turn around and run away!

Firstly: I think s.CRY.ed should've been LONGER. If you want to develop the right relationships, the right motivations and add another layer of complexity into your characters (protagonists or not), you should take your time to do that! You can't include so many things in just 26 chapters (or 25, because the last chapter was a total DISASTER with no ending or whatsoever). Ridiculous.

I can't say ... I didn't like the anime, because it was fun to see with an off-brain. Nothing less, nothing more: fun. Fight, fight, fight! A little cry, and later fight, fight and more fight! Just that. Oh, and the classical "women can do nothing except waiting for her man to come back". Well, that was a LOT to digest. That was insufferable. By far, the thing I hate the most. The only women that can put a bit of fight just appeared in 2 CHAPTERS.

"This isn't for women". Oh, boy...

Don't try to convince me that in 2001 people were still in a stupid mentality like that, for the love of God. Even Macross did it better in the 80s' (taking into account that was also insufferable in the same exact problems with gender-roles mentality).

Even though, I still found my way to like s.CRY.ed. Could've been better, and could've been worse. But hey, that was fun and, at the end, I didn't drop it (I tend to drop A LOT of things).

This anime is criminally OVERrated...

Aesthetically it's a good looking anime with great music. Conceptually the themes are interesting on their own-but fall flat.

While watching, I found myself asking "why?" many times; mostly due to the lack of explanations or reasons presented in the show itself.

This anime is way too long, yet ironically 26 episodes isn't enough to present an idea, build on it, and flesh out a relatively small cast of characters.

Interesting ideas and problems that characters face are forgotten by the next episode, and characters that do absolutely nothing to progress the story somehow get boat loads of screen time.

There is no tension ... in the show at all. The special abilities that characters posses are not explained at all and the "Alter ability" generally has no rules or limits. Characters use and gain special powers and abilities out of nowhere just because something has to progress the story. This became more noticeable during the mid-end portion of the show.

The anime also suffers from not having a main antagonist. The show realizes this pretty deep in and tries to bumrush you with cannon-fodder villains to close it out.

If you want to watch a simple anime with constant fighting then try s.CRY.ed, but in the end that's all it is.