Juuousei – 01

OP Sequence

OP: 「Deep in your heart」 by 堂本光一 (Domoto Koichi)
Watch the OP!: Mirror 1

Summary:
There are two brothers named Tooru and Rai living on the space colony Juno who find their parents dead one day. They’re knocked out by gas and exiled to a planet called Chimera. There, they are chased by a band of men until the leader Zagi takes them in. Zagi fills them in about the planet, including how it has two cycles of 181 days each: day and night, how it is separated into four groups (called Rings) – Blanc, Sun, Night, and Ochre – that correspond with people’s skin colors, and how the only way off the planet is to become the Juuou (King of Beasts). Anyway, Tooru is feeling held back by Rai and almost attacks him, but can’t kill his brother. They’re then surrounded by Ochres because they’ve wandered into that Ring’s territory. Tooru uses his beam knife on several of the guys, which prompts one of the Ochres to open fire with his gun. A that point, the vegetation comes alive and seems to eat Rai up along with several Ochres. Tooru is also about to be swallowed into the ground, but a mysterious girl throws him a line.

ED Sequence

ED: 「手をつないで」(Te wo Tsunaide) by ユンナ (Younha)
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1
Ok, the opening song is crap. I’ve never really liked KinKi Kids, and this is no different. On the other hand, I love the ED song. That’s probably because it’s by Younha… 🙂

Juuousei is the other BONES series this season that’s actually based off a shoujo manga. Of course it’s not your traditional love/romance shoujo, which is part of what made it so interesting. There seems to be a pretty deep story here, from all of the advanced technology and planets/colonies of the solar system to the primal social system of Chimera. By all of the promo material, I assume Tooru is going to be the one aiming to be the King of Beasts. The OP suggests that he’s going to be on a quest searching for his little brother while probably trying to get off the planet. I’m also intrigued by the fact that, according to the official site’s cast list, there’s going to be an older Tooru starting from episode six. The show is going to be only 11 episodes though, so that’s technically halfway through the series.
Animation by BONES is of course wonderful. The most impressive part was watching the planets zoom in that CG bit near the beginning of the episode.