NAME: Spiral - Suiri no Kizuna
NETWORKS: J.C. Staff, TV Tokyo
TYPE: adventure/mystery
SEEN: episodes 1-15

the SYNOPSIS: 5/5
Narumi Ayumu is an average 15(?) year old, first year student at Tsukiyomi Academy who happened to be caught in the middle of an incident involving the fall of a girl from the fifth floor of the school. It was concluded that she was not suicidal, nor was it likely to be an accident. Since Ayumu just happened to be at the 5th floor moments after the girl fell, he seems to be the primary suspect. In these situations, people would normally panic and try to explain themselves, but Ayumu calmly tells the head of the Newspaper club, genki Yuizaki Hiyono, that he didn't do it. Later, at an inspection, it was revealed that one of the inspectors on this case is his sister in law, Narumi Madoka. Madoka is married to Ayumu's older brother, Kiyotaka. We also find out that Ayumu is tremendiously skilled in cooking, and does all the cooking at home, where he lives with Madoka. Ayumu later goes to the crime scene with Hiyono and uses his careful observation skills, his reasoning and his logic to figure out exactly what happened. Brilliant I tell you, brilliant! XD Unfortunately the story isn't that simple, the real perpatrator was attempting to kill one of the "Blade Children." He escaped from Ayumu and company's confrontation but was attacked and fatally wounded by someone (assuming one of the Blade Children). The Blade Children are assumed to have some sort of power, all Blade Children are characterized by a missing seventh rib. (o.O;) It's not clear how many of these children there are, but their age may vary from 12-17-ish. Kiyotaka (Ayumu's older brother) left Madoka 2 years ago in search of the truth behind these mysterious Blade Children. Ayumu is said to be the "only hope" for these children, because their destiny is to die.

the CHARACTERS: 5/5
Many of the characters can be associated with characters of other anime. Main character is Narumi Ayumu, obviously. XD He's very laid back, carefree, go-with-the-flow sort of guy. On top of which, he's a fantastic cook, very mature, caring, intelligent and a definite cutie. He always seems to wind up solving the cases involving the Blade Children, and his goal is to find his older brother, Kiyotaka. The Blade Children are the only clue he has to finding his brother, so Ayumu interacts with the Blade Children. The Blade Children seem to dislike Ayumu to the bone though, they wouldn't hesitate to kill him and have attempted to do so several times, without success...but both sides are forced to interact, Ayumu's the Blade Children's key to survival, and the Blade Children are Ayumu's only clue to finding his older brother. Then there's Yuizaki Hiyono, head of the Newspaper Club at school, secondary main character. She's very hyper all the time, very cute, think of her as the Tsukino Usagi of the show. Although she's not that clumsy, she sure is nosy and knows all the gossip, her being the head of the newspaper club and all. XD Ever since the initial incident, she follows Ayumu around all the time and is pretty much facinated by him. She's likable though, not too annoying. xD Plus she's a whiz at getting even the most confidential information, so she's pretty useful for solving mysteries. Narumi Madoka is Ayumu's sister in law. She works as an inspector, and she always seems to be involved with the Blade Children incidents. Her only weakness seems to be Kiyotaka. She misses him terribly so and also wants to find out his whereabouts. Otherwise, she's a very tough woman. :D Narumi Kiyotaka is Ayumu's older brother and Madoka's husband. There is nothing that he cannot do. He excels at everything he does. Ayumu always thinks of himself as not as good as his brother, and he constantly compares himself to his brother. During almost every trick, Ayumu would think "how would my brother solve this" or "my brother probably used a more intelligent way to solve this." I don't blame him though, the Blade Children all seem to know Kiyotaka and refer back to him very often, primarily as a way of putting pressure on Ayumu. But in all of these episodes, Kiyotaka remains in the background, and not much is known about him. Eyes Rutherford first appears in the 3rd episode. Think of him as the Ryuichi of Gravitation, without the 3yr old-ness and with a sexy seiyuu, wardrobe and goddamn gorgeous hair and eyes. He is tremendously talented at playing the piano and has been a "Renowned Pianist" at age 14 in America. He's now 17 and a huge hit in Japan. XD He's later revealed to be one of the Blade Children. He's also hinted to have a close relationship with one of the other Blade Children. (coughyaoichough) XD Asazuki Kousuke first appears in the 4th episode, stating directly that he's one of the Blade Children. He's very skilled at deception and knows a ton of tricks. He tests Ayumu's intelligence more than once, but Ayumu always succeeds, although through his own tricks rather than intelligence, or so he says. XD Kousuke seems a bit harsh, but in reality, he's just trying to protect his friends, fellow Blade Children. One of his friends is Takeuchi Rio, who first appears in the 5th episode. Think of Rio as Ruri (of Martian Successor Nadesico). At first glance, she seems like a sweet, harmless, adorable, sort of clumsy 12(?) year old girl. In reality, she's probably one of the trickest, most deceptive Blade Children. She skillfully kills using dry ice (evaporates into Carbon Dioxide), and also tests Ayumu's logical and reasoning abilities several times. It's clear that she will go to great measures to make sure the Blade Childrens' secrets are kept safe, and preventing her fellow friends from being caught with the police. Episode 5-10 is pretty much a prolonged situation in which Ayumu & Kiyono battle out Rio and Kousuke. But really, it's Ayumu against Rio. Both sides were marvelous at deception and tricking, and Ayumu and Rio reasons incredibly well, enough to know exactly what the other is thinking. They try to outsmart each other, and it was a very close cut in the end. Episodes 5-10 is definitely worth watching. Rio's very close friends with Kousuke and Eyes. She doesn't lose very often, and hates it when she does lose.


the MUSIC: 4/5
I don't fancy the opening song, Kibouhou by Strawberry Jam, but that's just preference. The song is catchy, but the vocalist really gives me chills and strains my ears. The ending song: Kakuteru by Hysteric Blue is much better, slow and sweet, a very cute theme. What I really like is the background music during the episodes. All of the 3 major background themes are very catchy, very appropriate and just fecking cool! In general, I prefer the background music much more than the op/ed.

the SEIYUU: 5/5
The seiyuu *definitely* spices up the anime. Spiral has some of the most popular seiyuu: Mitsuishi Kotono, Inoue Kazuhiko, Horie Yui and Ishida Akira to name a few. Mitsuishi Kotono is Madoka in Spiral, but she's the most famous for portraying Tsukino Usagi, Chibi Chibi and Neo Queen Serenity from BSSailormoon, Kagura from Fruits Basket and Arisugawa Juri from Shoujo Kakumei Utena. Next, Inoue Kazuhiko. *.* He is Kiyotaka in Spiral, but he is also Eiri Yuki from Gravitation and Hatori from Fruits Basket. I can always tell his voice, it's always deep and sexy. XD Now then, Horie Yui is Rio in Spiral, but she also does Tohru from Fruits Basket and Naru from Love Hina. Finally, Ishida Akira is Eyes Rutherford in Spiral. *drum-rolls* He is Xelloss from Slayers >DDDDD enough said.

the ANIMATION: 2/5
Eh, the animation somewhat sucks. There are certain situations where Ayumu looks like part of the background when some other character is talking. Most of the time, the animators really didn't move the characters much. But since Spiral isn't a very active anime to begin with, I guess moving much isn't needed. Still, they could have definitely done a better job.

the CHARACTER DESIGN: 4/5
The character design is somewhat nicely done, the clothing is very detailed, the characters pretty well drawn. Some times, Ayumu and Eyes look sort of like the characters of X, stick-figured, ultra-skinny. The design is more square than smooth on some of the male characters. Females for the most part were nicely done though. All designs are sharp, nicely done. The wardrobe is definitely droolworthy though XD very stylish.

OVERALL: 4/5
The series progresses pretty well. The first episode may not be killer enough for some viewers to stay with this anime. Episode 2-4 basically introduces the characters and we get to know them better. Episode 5-10 really spices the anime up, then episode 11-15 are semi-filler episodes with a few tense moments here and there. Most aspects of the anime are very good, the animation is probably the worst. But since Spiral isn't an action-based anime, one can be lenient on the animation. Overall, I say it's not bad at all, especially if you like solving situations intellectually.

x kill x