Thursday 26 November 2015

ANIME REVIEW: COPPELION - COMPLETE SERIES


Coppelion - Complete Series
Released By: Manga Entertainment
Rating: 12
Running Time: 297 Mins
Audio: English & Japanese DD 2.0
Release Date: Out Now!
Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes 

Coppelion is the title of the first episode where a three teenage girl team consisting of Ibara, Aoe and Taiko are wandering into what looks like a post apocalyptic deserted city on their superior's orders. The mission is to find intelligent life and have it air-lifted back to civilization elsewhere. Coming across a lone man in a hasmat suit triggers in him a fear of the girl who comes to treat him.

Her and the other girls are called Coppelion and have been engineered to be able to withstand the harsh environment of the city known as the world's biggest ghost town. When they find other people who have succumbed to the pollution in the area, we would think that they are taken away to be treated, but their boss, the vice-president seems to hide what he does from the other girls. Dangerous animals can be found around every corner, when Ibara has to dodge them, and some survivors who might not turn out to be so friendly. 

Named after a French ballet called Coppelion where a girl likes to read books in her tower, yet she isn't really a girl, she's a doll made by her father. In this anime all the girls have different personalities that make them perfect for outside surveillance. As we can see, they can look after themselves when they run into trouble, and also find time to do things together that seem to go a long way to make them happy, like eating and reminiscing, but it is Ibara is different as she embraces the engineered part of her, injecting nutrition into her body instead.

Most modern anime dazzle us with the sophistication of their animation while others are action packed and we see what's going on from the point of view of each character and their actions. Coppelion starts out showing viewers their crisp, perfect colour scheme, the excellent renderings of buildings, and realistic flowing water in a stream teeming with fish. There are many reasons to like this anime, and enjoy how it eventually plays out.

Episodes:1-13

Number of Discs:2

Packaging/Box Quality: Bold and bright. A picture of one of the members of the three girl team of Coppelion looks at the viewer, armed, just in case as she is stood around the ruins of a deserted city and could be in a great deal of danger. The image shows the desolation, but also the hope in the girl's face.

Animation Quality:Great. The first episode does a lot to show how well rendered every aspect of the anime is right down to the running water and other aspects of the environments the characters are put in. The characters are the ones who stand out and show how well done the backgrounds are.

Sound Quality:Good.

Collectors' Postcards/Episode Booklet:None.

Bonus Material: Textless credits.

Verdict:If you want an eerie, atmospheric, post-apocalyptic thriller with three cute girls in it - this is your anime - Coppelion rocks!