Juousei Ep 01: Unmei (Fate)

A pair of twin brothers by the name of Tooru and Rai are running through a dense forest with some men hot on their heels. Rai tells his elder brother to slow down as he cannot catch up and suddenly falls down when he loses his balance. Tooru turns back to hold Rai's hand as they run away from the impending danger. Tooru vows to himself that he will protect Rai on behalf of their parents...

In the year DC 2436 within Balkan Galaxy, there is a space colony by the name of Juno which comprises of 10 planets. All the planets have been modified to provide living conditions suitable for human beings and the massive moving exercise from Earth to these planets started from 350 years ago. This led to humans creating a second solar system different from the old solar system they used to know. Tooru and Rai are watching the explanation video whereby Tooru is very impressed with the beauty of Earth. However, the same cannot be said for Rai as he hurries Tooru to go home since they did not tell their mother about this outing and they are supposed to go for the routine medical checkup today. Tooru has no choice but to leave the theatre reluctantly.

On the way home, Tooru tells Rai that human beings can live up to 90 years old even without the absence of the life support system. Rai remarks that the longest lifespan they can have in the colony would be around 50 years and wonders what is causing the difference. Tooru declares that he will enter the pilot school after his primary school graduation so as to fulfil his dream of going to Earth one day. Rai reminds him that as a son of the Klein family, they are supposed to follow the paths of their parents to become scientists in future since their Prime Minister Odin also says so. However, Tooru does not think that Odin has the right to dictate their future. Rai is still unconvinced of this materialising since not everyone can go to Earth but Tooru is unfazed by the difficulty since he wants to see the natural sights of Earth for himself. Rai then says that he will become a scientist and join Tooru on his trip to Earth.

When Tooru and Rai return home, they find their house enveloped in darkness. Tooru suspects that something is wrong and enters the house gingerly. To the brothers' horror, they find their parents murdered. Suddenly, a smoke can is thrown into the room and the twins faint as a result. Before Tooru loses consciousness, he sees the alliance troops' special team members and wonders why they are doing this despite their duty of protecting the Klein family. The brothers are then sent to an unknown planet by the space shuttle...

Tooru and Rai finds themselves at a place surrounded by dense vegetation. Before they know what's happening, some men chase after the brothers who slide down a slope to hide from their enemies. The brothers do not know where they are since there is no such planet in the Balkan system which is full of plants. Tooru concludes that they were thrown here by someone's orders and takes out a small pouch from his pocket with a bad smell. He doesn't know where this came from and tells Rai that this was put into his pocket along with a beam knife. Somehow, this seems to suggest that the brothers have to protect themselves from harm by using these items. Tooru and Rai prepare to leave the place but the latter sprains his foot so Tooru lends a helping hand. Rai apologises for causing trouble but Tooru says that this is in return for Rai's help when they were in Juno.

Suddenly, some grass extend wriggling stems to trap Rai's foot and Tooru has to free his brother from those weird plants. This leads their enemies to know their whereabouts and they find themselves surrounded by these people who want to kill them. Just then, a guy by the name of Zagi appears and tells the people that the brothers will be taken care of by him. As such, these people leave the twins alone with Zagi. Tooru is wary of Zagi who claims to be the leader of those people who were chasing the brothers and defends themselves when Zagi asks what they had done to deserve this punishment. Zagi doesn't want to harp on this issue further and decides to teach them more about this planet.

The planet, Chimaera is where criminals who commit serious crimes are sent to. There are 181 consecutive days and nights in a year where the temperature goes as high as 30 degrees Celsius in the day but dips as low as minus 40 degress Celsius at night. Apparently, this planet is within the Balkan Galaxy but its existence has never been made known publicly. Suddenly, some plants reach out to grab Rai again so Zagi reminds them to be on their guard and apply the liquid of a plant named Muusa on their bodies so as to repel these carnivore-like plants. When Tooru reveals that he has also been given this liquid in the pouch, Zagi remarks that there must be a reason for the brothers to be sent to Chimaera. He also reminds them that the massive amount of plants on this planet have an advantage over the humans so they have to become beasts in order to survive. According to the people residing here, they call Chimaera Juousei (the Planet of the Beast King) since only the Beast King can survive under such conditions.

Chimaera is divided into 4 areas controlled by the White, Black, Yellow and Brown Rings where people with the same skin colour gather. However, the place when Zagi resides is called the Nest of the Wild Kids and they do not belong to any of the Rings. Men and women also live separately from one another. Tooru asks Zagi if there's any way to leave Chimaera. Zagi has a smirk on his face as he reveals the only way to leave would be to get the title of the Beast King and rule over the 4 Rings.

Zagi comments that even though Tooru and Rai look the same, they have entirely different characters. Suddenly, they hear the Wild Kids scolding Rai for spilling a bucket of water. When they start throwing punches at Rai, Tooru comes to his brother's rescue and takes most of the blows for him. Zagi looks on from the side and seems to have thought about something.

Tooru and Rai take a rest in a cave as the latter apologises for causing trouble again. Tooru tries to assure Rai that it's OK as Zagi enters the cave to explain that the Wild Kids were angry because their water supply is running out. Zagi asks Rai to leave them alone as he tells Tooru to consider saving his life instead of protecting Rai. As the night of Chimaera is harsh, someone like Rai who's weak will definitely not survive. Tooru refuses to accept this as he cannot bear to leave his brother in the lurch but Zagi is convinced that the night will prove to be the biggest test for Rai who will be picked on by the Wild Kids.

Tooru decides to leave the Wild Kids' Nest so as to prove Zagi wrong and save Rai from the attacks. As they are walking through the forest, Rai complains of the heat and thirst but Tooru is bent on walking further. Rai throws a tantrum and says that it will be better if they stayed with Zagi since he's better off dead than to continue walking. This makes Tooru convinced that Zagi's opinion holds true and he brandishes the beam knife at Rai who is shivering with fear. However, when Tooru sees his reflection in Rai's eyes, he gives up the idea of killing Rai.

At this moment, some people emerge from the forest who claim to be from the Brown Ring and accuse the brothers of creating trouble in the area. The men want to bring them to be executed before their King but Tooru tries to explain that they just came from the colony and know nothing. Just when Tooru is diverting the attention of the men with his beam knife, he suddenly goes on the offensive and stabs one of the men with it. A guy watching the exchange on a tree branch is surprised by Tooru's move as the other men try to avenge their second-in-line. Tooru makes use of this chance to get Rai to escape but the latter is caught. When one of the Brown Ring guys fire a machine gun, this sends the plants in the area going wild. Rai is swallowed by the plants as Tooru looks on helplessly. As Tooru is caught by the plants, a girl with black eyes use a rope to grab hold of his hand as he starts to lose consciousness...

I have to admit that right from the start, I became interested to watch this only after knowing that Domoto Koichi and Oguri Shun are in the seiyuu lineup. Well, I wouldn't call myself fans of them but I think the TV stations are clever enough to know that having a celebrity in the lineup would generate more publicity and interest in the anime. And does this spell bad news for the professional seiyuus as we see more celebrities taking on lead roles in animes?

In this case, I think the TV station may need to explain why it never said from the start that Koichi and Oguri are not supposed to appear until a later stage. The lead character Tooru is only 11 now and the anime will surely cover his growing-up years in Chimaera so that's the reason why Koichi appears from mid-season at Ep 6. As for Oguri, I think he's appearing in the next episode since his character is already shown at the ending of the debut episode. Somehow, this may cause those who are watching this anime for the sake of these guys to feel cheated but personally, I'm slightly disappointed only. If the story was trashy, I might have a stronger reaction towards this issue.

Coming to the anime itself, I'm quite impressed by the clarity of the graphics and the pace of the story. I wasn't really expecting much from this anime but I must say that I am pleasantly surprised. And it was good to see the Japanese subs which helped in understanding the various mind-boggling names of the planets, systems, galaxy etc. However, the katakana gave me a big headache since the spelling differed much from the romanisation most of the time.

The part about Tooru being caught in a fix on whether he should choose his survival over protecting Rai was quite well-known and for a brief moment, I really thought he wanted to kill Rai. It seems like those carnivore plants made the decision for him since Rai looks unlikely to survive after he was swallowed by them. And this might be the biggest reason why Tooru is bent on being the Juou, so as to realise the dreams of him and Rai. There seems to be a lot of mystery-unravelling coming up so for someone like me who digs investigative or mystery stories, this looks likely to catch my interest throughout the season.

As for the theme songs, I've read rather unfavourable comments about Koichi's OP. Frankly speaking, I cringed for the first time I heard it but when I was going through it for the second time when doing this review, it didn't sound that bad after all. Well, I can say that this is the typical Koichi-style so having been exposed to KinKi Kids' music for so many years, this doesn't surprise me. For those who have not been listening to KinKi Kids, I believe this will take some time to feel accustomed to. The ED didn't leave much of an impression on me but the clip seems to be showing Tooru and a girl in a tranquil place. That shouldn't be Chimaera, I guess. Maybe that is implying that Tooru will go to Earth as he wishes?