Yeah, so I'm going to admit that this review is just a bit preliminary, considering I've seen... 2 episodes.
But, here goes.
The human race is separated into Inners and Outters. The Outters are normal human beings, but the Inners are certain people with super-human abilities, or "Alter Users". Basically, an Alter is what you'd think it is--like an "Alter Ego"; the Alter is something (different for every person) the user can call up to do his bidding. Which, of course, in anime, means that they're used for fighting spectacular battles.
But Alters aren't just terrible excuses to make this show a shounen title. Alter Users have what we would call ESP abilities... things fly around the room, things blow up, the user has superhero abilities, etc. etc. (Like "Straight Cougar", who can make things go faster, or Kazuma, who can land on a building without a parachute.)
The "Alter Users" were created with the "Lost Ground", a small part of Japan that broke off from the main island. A small percentage of the people born on this lost ground have the Alter abilities.
So, with all these Neo-generation punk kids walking around aimlessly with destructive powers, there inevitably has to be the huge, benevolent organization to control them all.
Enter HOLD.
(Or HOLY, if you will. The organization is called "HOLD" and the foot soldiers are called "HOLY". And they get spiffy uniforms, too.)
So anyway. To the review.
The animation is, at times, dull, flat, and cheap. For instance, a rather simple scene panning the passangers in an airplane. It looked kind of like how I would draw a scene--the little circle for the head and the little semi-circle for the body and hope to hell that no-one will notice that I did my art project at lunch. Oh, and a little smiley face and the two little eyes.
And Kazuma, when in his strange, "Black Motion Lines Freeze Frame Scary Face" mode, looks like he's trying to be punk/mad/intimidating (and looks rather silly) instead of his cute-as-a-button cream puff Lead Male appearance.
Other than that, the character designs and the over-all appearance of the show are just squeak in at above average. Not good, but not necessarily bad, either. I especially like the outfits on everyone. Very ultra-modern.
The music is another story, but it's not too distracting or weird. To try and describe it, I would have to say something like early 90's wanna-be rock, and/or early 90's wanna-be rock ballads. (Just picture "Gundam Wing" music.)
Again, not good, but not bad.
The story is good, intriguing, but it was really annoying that the first episode ended with Kazuma's cliffhanger and then starts all over again with some other character. The Mildly Annoying Female Lead, no less. Which was a disappointment, because the episode was entitled "Ryuhou" not "Mimori (Mildly Annoying Female Lead Backstory)".
So I waited for 20 minutes for there to be some resolution to what happened to Kazuma and... the episode ends with *another* Kazuma-related-cliff-hanger. Needless to say I felt rather jarred.
But, it is promising. The premise is something that I'd actually like to see resolved and the characters are interesting enough.
Thumbs up.
