Review for 11 Eyes: Collection

Introduction

If you haven’t heard of 11 Eyes before, then you’re not the only one. Anime is a ‘now’ thing, especially with the age of simulcasts and online streaming. And it’s the current shows that stick in the mind, that linger for a few months at the most as we patiently wait for someone to announce a licence. In fact, it’s more likely that the home video rights will be snapped up before a show’s initial broadcast these days, so hot are the companies for the newest thing. In this world of quick turnarounds, 11 Eyes is an old anime, yet it’s not a vintage anime that’s been through the cycle of release, and re-release, license rescue and high definition upgrade. This one is an in-betweener. 11 Eyes was made back in 2009, and it was released by Sentai Filmworks in 2011, DVD only. It’s only now that we in the UK get to see the show on home video format courtesy of MVM.


Seven years previously as a child, Kakeru Satsuki suffered the trauma of witnessing his sister Kukuri commit suicide. The trauma marked him physically as well, he wears an eye-patch, and his impaired eye is a different colour to the other. He grew up as an orphan, and it was only with the help of Yuka, a girl in the orphanage that he stayed connected with the world, although he’s not the most social of teenagers, now that he’s in high school. He may keep to himself most of the time, prefer to avoid crowds, but he has plenty of time for Yuka. Only the world changes the day she convinces him to take her shopping.


On the way to the shops, his eye suddenly flares in pain, and the world inverts, leaving him and Yuka in a world, dark and red, and bereft of humanity. It’s a black moon in a red night, and there are strange creatures in this world who don’t want human interlopers. Now Kakeru and Yuka keep being pulled into this world at random, having to face these dark demons, these Black Knights. Fortunately for them, they aren’t alone in being transported, and one girl in particular, Misuzu Kusakabe has the onmyouji skills to help her deal with the demons. But dealing is one thing, trying to unravel the mystery of this terrifying parallel world is another, especially when the mystery seems to be tied into Kakeru’s past, and his long dead sister, who has suddenly started appearing to him in visions.


The twelve episodes of 11 Eyes, plus the subsequent OVA are presented across two discs from MVM.

Disc 1
1. Red Night
2. The Girl in the Crystal
3. Lonely Pride
4. A Smiling Mask
5. For Friends and Tomorrow
6. Disturbed Minds

Disc 2
7. Twisted Awakening
8. The Witching Hour
9. Broken Bonds
10. The Witch Awakens
11. The Option of Destruction
12. The Dawn of Darkness
OVA. Pink Phantasm

Picture

11 Eyes gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic NTSC transfer on these discs, progressively encoded. The image is clear and sharp, with strong consistent colours, and smooth animation, untroubled by visible compression artefacts or significant aliasing. There is the usual digital banding of course that you’d expect on DVD, but it’s a decent enough transfer. The animation itself is nothing spectacular, although it certainly pulls out the stops for the action sequences. The character designs are a little too cutesy for the darkness of the story and the quieter moments of animation verge on the static. It’s a show that looks 5 years older than it actually is. Also, the fan service quickly gets tiresome, with panty shots practically obligatory whenever a female is onscreen, regardless of the context of the story.

Sound

11 Eyes gets a DD 2.0 Japanese audio track with optional English subtitles. The audio is without any noticeable issue, the dialogue clear throughout, the action coming across well, and the music suiting the story. The subtitles are timed accurately and free of typos. The actors suit their roles although the performances are pretty generic and fit the usual character stereotypes.

Extras

The discs present their content with static menus, jacket pictures, while each episode is followed by a translated English credit reel.

It’s the usual when it comes to the extras, the textless credits, and trailers, this time for Kimikiss: Pure Rouge, Gintama, Guin Saga, Needless, Koihime Muso, and Kämpfer. I told you these discs were old!

Conclusion

Every once in a while an anime show like 11 Eyes comes for review, on the surface really quite dull and mediocre, but occasionally showing flashes of brilliance that stop you from dismissing it completely. For me, the best thing about 11 Eyes was the OVA, a fun bit of saucy comedy, and there was a part of me that wished that the whole series was like it. Of course the OVA only works because the main series is there for it to subvert, but I’m getting way ahead of myself.


11 Eyes is another supernatural mystery show, with the protagonists regularly being drawn into a parallel world where they have to fight to survive long enough to be sent back to the real world. It’s a sudden awakening for Kakeru and Yuka, one minute heading down to the shops, the next minute stuck in a blood-tinged empty version of the world, where they become prey for ominous demonic creatures. It quickly becomes apparent that they aren’t alone in being drawn into this world, and it should be a matter of finding out just why it’s happening, what it all means.


Only there’s not a lot of that in the first half of the series. 11 Eyes quickly settles down into a routine of half to two-thirds of an episode of high school hi-jinks and passable comedy with the characters (panty shots are practically obligatory), and then suddenly the world will fracture, turn red, and you get a few minutes of the characters fighting in the Red Night. The characters are pretty generic too, Kakeru the hero with a tragic past, Yuka the girl who’s supported him all this time (and nurses a secret love for him), Misuzu’s the estranged daughter of a clan of onmyouji mystics, who serves as exposition girl for much of the first half, and she can make swords materialise that she can fight with. Indeed, all of the main characters develop powers that they can use during the Red Night, Yuka can nullify power, and Kakeru gets prognosticating vision thanks to the off-colour eye under his eye-patch.


There’s Kukuri, who shares the same name with and is a dead ringer for Kakeru’s dead sister, but she’s mute, and she can fight with chains materialised by her will. Takahisa’s the school delinquent, also with a tragic past, and who can shoot off fireballs, and there’s Yukiko, who’s a lovable, booby groping ditz when she’s wearing her glasses, but when she takes them off, she’s a lethal bloodthirsty killer, and she’s immortal too. Then there’s Shiori, the mysterious quiet grey-haired girl™ who has a knack for cutting put-downs. There’s a whole lot of silly character interaction in the first half, and not too much in the way of story development.


It’s only around episode 6 where the show starts showing a little promise, taking the story in a dark direction, when Yuka’s jealous nature is revealed (apparently Kakeru’s spending a little too much time training with Misuzu, and annoyingly, Onmyouji training involves a surprising degree of nakedness). It’s around episodes 7 and 8 that the nature of the Black Knights, or rather one in particular becomes shockingly clear, and that’s a set-up for a rather impressive point later in the show where the whole premise is turned on its head. It’s also episode 8 where as the colloquialism puts it, the s*** gets real, and the vulnerability of the main characters is shockingly affirmed.


I think episode 11 is this show’s masterstroke, as it takes the story in an unexpected and wholly nihilistic direction. But it’s actually a masterstroke of misdirection, as the start of episode 12 reminds you just what one of the characters’ special ability is. I usually hate the use of a reset button in narratives, but this is a great one. Alas, there’s another reset button at the end of episode 12 which isn’t as easy to forgive, as the show gets its ‘cake and eat it’ conclusion.


11 Eyes is a show with many problems, most notably in the storytelling and the single note characterisations, although the animation doesn’t do it any favours either. It can be juvenile and too reliant on inappropriate fan service (this isn’t a story that needs panty shots). Certain story choices, character developments can make you roll your eyes. One girl’s transformation into a bunny boiler is so clichéd that it’s painful, while her object of obsession’s acceptance and forgiveness of her is saintly to the point of ridiculousness. But every once in a while, 11 Eyes will throw in a story development, which in a better show would be brilliant. In this show it still makes you sit up and take notice, but you’re left with the lament at how much better the show could have been, rather than any desire to applaud it.