Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne Part 1

Released By: Manga Entertainment

Rating: 15

Running Time: 100 mins

Audio: English 5.1 and Japanese 2.0

Release Date: Out Now

Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes

In Shinjuku 1990 a woman is chased from an apartment block only to be killed by one bullet from a gun held by a lone woman.

Rin, a girl who can definately look after herself meets a young man who is about to be taken away by thugs and brings him back to her apartment office; her assistant Mimi is hoping she'd actually bring back the cat she mentioned before. The young man tells them he is Maeno Kouki, and has details from  his life, but they don't feel genuine to him. He actually thinks he is someone else. Rin and Mimi try to find out more of who he is, but either way he keeps getting thugs in his way who want to beat him up for some reason and Rin wonders what kind of possible connection he has to them, believing them to be some kind of Yakuza organized crime syndicate.

Rin has troubles of her own though, while on an assignment to get information for one of her current clients, she is attacked by someone claiming to be working for Apos.

Rin, it turns out is a jack of all trades, and one who gets into plenty of mischief. Her relationship with Mimi is, it seems not entirely platonic and her leanings do come in handy later on when she gets captured by enemies once she finds the organization she discovered earlier. The basic storyline is the organization's surgeons are into taking away individuals off the street and using them as part of their strange experiments, yet they don't always go as planned. Even from the opening credits it is obvious that this anime is aimed at older teens to view, as well as those who will see a resemblance to X The Series and Saiyuki Reload, it features unusual people and that is pretty much what a lot of Otaku are into right now. The series is graphically sound, and its animation quality is on par with Ghost in the Shell. It has the feel of Darker Than Black and Speed Grapher and it has mild fantasy violence and sexual situations as well as a torture sequence, but that in itself is not as graphic as it could have been. And with Aoyama Pharmaceuticals Yamanobe Sayara missing, Rin and her team of investigators are sure to get into more trouble soon.

Bonus Material: Episode Commentary for Episode 02 Angels Don't Cry.

Verdict: As far as fantasy thrillers go, this is by far one of the best around - Rin has enough hard edge to keep the viewers watching.