This series is Dark. Really, really fucking dark. How dark? Take Elfin Lied and remove all the cute bits with a plasma cutter, that's how dark.

I think I mentioned when I listed the series I was looking at watching a few articles down that the first episode was a downer. But that was the bright spot.

So, we started off with Our Hero being saved by a girl with destructive "Magic" power from a landslide that her other magic friend predicted. Okay, that had the potential to be uplifting. But no, that's not the road this takes. We find out that this girl, who sure as hell looks like a grown up version of his childhood friend "Kuroneko" - who died tragically, leaving him angst-ridden and living the life she would have if he hadn't doomed her - gained her magical power through this big metal plug installed in the back of her neck by some lab, and they're out to get her back... to kill her.  And her friend with the precognition, and a bunch of other girls on the scheduled for destruction list who got away, and anyone who helps them, like Our Hero. In fact, in the second episode some JSDF trucks roll by our unsuspecting hero, and in the back of one are two of these other girls, naked and heavily bound (but not in some kinky way) and once they are repatriated to the lab, we are treated to what happens to one of these girls when her plug is removed (actually, they call it a harness, which is a setup for a badly crafted Engrish word-play later on). Basically she dissolves into goo.

But a pop-o-matic spinal tap that forces you to do a Lugo-man cosplay with the push of a single button isn't bad enough. They also apparently require certain medication every 35 hours or they start to spontaneously bleed all over like an Ebola victim. Not-Kuroneko tries to stretch out her dwindling supply by coming to school heavily bandaged one day (or else it's a killer Evangelion cosplay, I'm not sure which) but she's absent the next day.

Our Hero, determined to meddle in her affairs, even if it means the lab guys will kill him too, tracks her down via some school paperwork to an abandoned village in the valley below the Observatory (it was condemned to make way for a hyperspace bypass reservoir that was never built). He finds her there, and ignoring her demands to go away, sneaks into the house they're squatting in and meets her housemate. The Precog girl is totally paralyzed less her left hand, which she uses to speak via some sort of type-and-talk device. She's also dressed up like a little goth dolly. Naturally she accuses him of being some kind of perv who wants to have his way with her. That colors their banter from then on out.

Not-Kuroneko explains to Our Hero about the whole medicine thing, and shows him her remaining supply of 10 capsules, and explains why she therefore can't go on the school trip to the beach, even though she really wants to (Another of Kuroneko's dreams) because she's gonna die first, and then, while trying to boil some water in the firepit (this being a semi-traditional Japanese house they're in) she sets the house on fire. Our hero manages to rescue the Gothy Precog, and Not-Kuroneko puts out the fire by blowing apart the house with her destructive power. But it's too late, all the drugs were burned up, and Gothy Precog is already starting to bleed.

Sheltering at the Observatory, Our Hero reveals his suddenly convenient gift for photographic memory. He knows the drug number from the blister pack the pills are in, and they do a little Googling to find the place it comes from. Now "Don't Hemorrhage From Every Pore As A Side Effect From Your Magic Powers" isn't exactly an over-the-counter medication, so they plan a raid on the factory to get some more. They enlist the help of another magic girl via their surprisingly unmonitored ham radios, whose gift is the ability to access computers remotely with her mind. Her price for disabling the security system is half of their take.

(Why am I having a flashback to the Deadman Wonderland "candy" here?)

Gothy Precog is concerned, because she sees that Not-Kuroneko is gonna get killed by another magic girl at the facility. Precognition in this story however is changeable, so they adapt their tactics. Except that the reason for the prediction is that Not-Kuroneko is planning to make a Noble Sacrifice so that our Hero can get away with the drugs, and of course, Our Hero won't let that happen.

Unfortunately, the explanation for why the defending magic girl is such a problem involves "Classes" or levels (if they start Arena Combat, I am SO out of here). All of our escapee friends are mere Class B's whose powers are either not interesting to the Lab Boys or have drawbacks, like Gothy Precog's paralysis, for example, or Not-Kuroneko's progressive memory loss the more she uses her powers.

Ah, my astute reader (readers?) can see exactly where THAT little tidbit is leading.

The lab defender is Class AA, which means she can use TWO A-class powers (they mention it goes up to AAA, which I assume they're saving for the final boss fight.) The first one is that she can slice the bejeebus out of anything in a 6 meter radius, and the second is... (sentence cut off by episode ending for cheap plot manipulation.)

So, predictably, Not-Kuroneko goes off to get herself honorably killed by the defender, and Our Hero goes off to make her sacrifice meaningless by trying to save her instead of going after the drugs for the other girls. Gothy Precog freaks that the prediction has changed to both of them dying.

During the fight, Not-Kuroneko gets ALMOST MCSA'd, (wait for the re-animated scene in the Blu Ray) but it's enough that our hero can see that she really DOES have the unique three mole pattern on her side, he just couldn't see it in her armpit before because, well, the skin moves a bit when one grows boobs. Proof! Not-Kuroneko really IS Kuroneko! The plot thicks.

Except that in her next attack, the defending girl makes Not-Kuroneko go *Spluch*. The End.

But no! Our Hero manages to drive a pointy crowbar thing into Spluch-girl right through the heart! And he demands that she use her OTHER power right now or else she'll die. (Or maybe, mortally injured like that, she'll die before she can use it, dumbass). Instead, she Spluches Our Hero. Yay! But then she realizes she has no choice, because she's gonna die unless she does it, so faster than you can make a Cher reference, she turns back time. One whole minute un-elapses.

Now this has a lot of terrible consequences. For one thing, it renders Our Hero and Not-Kuronkeko not dead. Second, it uses up all of Spluch-girl's magical reserves. Her "Harness" plug pops slightly out. This being "on Hold" condition happens when you use too much magic, or can be induced by pressing button number two of the three buttons on the plug (number one being the whole dissolving into goo thing, and number three remains un-named for future dramatic purposes). And the third thing is that now Our Hero loses all knowledge of having seen Not-Kuroneko's side-boob... oh, and her identifying moles.

Now apparently the lab guys really don't value their creations at all, because as Spluch-girl is captured and tied up (but not in some kinky way) by our heroes, they decide to pull the plug on her, remotely for her failure, and Our Hero is treated to the sight of a girl dissolving into goo before his eyes.

Oh, and speaking of eyes. Amid the fizzing girl-goo, some slimy blob of a creature with eyes all over it is slithering about. Perhaps THIS is the source of their powers? Our hero valiantly dispatches the disgusting creature with the heel of his shoe. And observes that "Harness" might actually be "Her Nest" - yeah... no.

(I will give it one plus.  The opening theme is pretty epic, for the most part.)

Posted by: Mauser at 10:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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