fconsidine - 2015-04-27 12:38:15

a moment of silence and a hands of applause for this beautiful anime with a lot of action and drama thats really fking great to watch after some episode you cant stop and you completely dont stop the serie and thats what i have done but lets begin !

About The Story
at the beginning you can see thats strange because you just dont know what is going on.. but thats not make the things bad .. after some episode they explain what is happening and now the real story begin , this is 3 girls who can survive to high radiation why ? you gonna know if you watch it and they work for the Special Unit for saving the people from this Contaminated Old City but a large of things is gonna happen and you gonna see thats really the hell on earth !

About The Animation and Sounds
the backgrounds are really awesome i have really like the backgrounds graphics in this anime and about the others things i think this is normal like everytime and the sounds are normal too but the opening is nice too thats depend on your genre i will leave you the link right there

About The Characters
all characters are not forget they all have a important role on the story ! the only character who dissapear is the Dog/Wolf

Ibara Naruse / a energic girl serious in everything and have physical ability so she can run more fast than the others,this a great character to follow in the anime

Aoi Fukasaku / she have annoying me a little bit because of his stupidity but thats a fragile girl who like to help !

Taeko Nomura / this one have a vision ability you gonna have more information in the anime about this , she can see more far than the others so thats make her a little bit special and she gonna have a important thing to do later im not gonna say more about it !

Haruto Kurosawa / this guy appears later on the anime he have a serious and solide role too in this anime thats a nice guy with great combat ability

Kanon Ozu / okay i know she is bad but i like her but i prefer his sister .. so this girl his completely a psycho and a killer thats why i like her but she have abillity too but im not gonna say what is it.. and she very love his sister

Shion Ozu / i very like this girl because of his psycho killer mind but she is very stupid somtimes LOOl .. thats one of my favorite character in this anime and she is the sister of Kanon (she have a ability too)

Onihei Mishima / the vice president who command units thats a nice character too but he have lost something very important in the past and now he is very serious in his job and take it very but very serious more than anything

Gennai Ishikawa / this old man is just too nice xD...he know how to repair some things and build some things too ! i very like this one

Gojiron Kajii / this guy is normal but he can be freaking annoying man.. but he is not soo bad he just comments too much on anything..

No-Sense / this is a Robot with feeling.. yes with feeling for a robot i can say he have a important place you gonna like this character 

Oyakata Kurobe / this guy is normal but nice.. i dont really know why.. 

About The Enjoymentthe action with the drama in this anime make a great mix with some comedy for cheering you up after the bad events a lot of tears are here with feels and i have notice a lot of people dont like this anime i dont know why they find this bad.. thats better than the some stupid story in some anime.. you have a lot of thriller in it you not gonna know what is gonna happen so you want to see the next episode right now and this anime is simply a beautiful hell story.. they are soo much in trouble.. you can't imagine..

so yeah thats a anime to recommand dont think this is bad because of the most people saying that.. this anime is a beautiful story the explaination is just not soo much explained.. but they dont have really the good number of episode for having the time to explain everything so anyway go for it ! a lot of adventures ( or event if you prefer ) !

mhalvorson - 2015-03-14 18:35:47

The plotline promised a lot but chapter by chapter the story gets pretty bored and when there could be a cliffhanger the story fell down to boredom again.

There're cliches, useless fan services, not-quite-good dialogues.

It could be better. It could.

uhayes - 2014-11-23 05:02:59

[Old review is old.]

I’m not exactly sure when the term ‘seinen’ lost it’s true meaning, but I know for a fact that this anime is one of those cases where its genre has been stretched in definition beyond belief. When someone thinks of seinen as a genre of anime content, they rule out any sort of mucking around with cute high school girls or silly chibi styled faces or overdone powerups in a vs. fight. However, nowadays seinen has been stamped onto shows that honestly don’t fully deserve it. Seeing the term seinen for some reason next to a moe blob show or slapped onto some sci-fi show even though it included common dumb anime tropes for the general crowd; it almost seems like some sort of cop-out for those wanting something with serious storytelling.

Coppelion is a sci-fi “seinen” that takes place in a Tokyo that has been mostly devastated by some sort of nuclear disaster, causing the entire region to be contaminated with unfathomable radiation. The anime follows three genetically enhanced humans named Coppelion who can easily withstand the radiation as they fulfill their mission to seek out and aid anyone who is still trapped in the nuclear wasteland of Tokyo. Along the way, they discover who exactly inhabits the destroyed city, come across other Coppelion, and figure out their own senses of individuality and humanity, even though they aren’t technically human.

For awhile, this show was actually not that bad. It had it’s problems here and there, and in all honesty there were some glaring flaws in its overall composition, but as a new world discovery show it did pretty well in the beginning. The first half of the show had very good exploration of the setting and the various people they meet in it, and it helps make the ruined city a very believable and detailed place. The first ten minutes alone are done without any score, it’s just letting the audience take in the unfamiliar setting, along with the characters who are  experiencing the same thing. I’ll get to the art and animation later on, but the atmosphere of the first half is breathtaking at points. At first, the format is kind of episodic, having the crew of Coppelion meet new sets of people and help them out, or having them figure out a new factor or issue that’s in the strange setting. This evolves into a larger plot with a more expanded cast including a band of survivors and a section of an army that remains in the city to exert revenge on humanity. I thought it progressed and moved on to different content just enough to keep interest and curiosity. There was also a lot of genuine emotion in the first half with the various things they encounter and the new people they have to help out, which is sort of tossed to the side for very cliched drama in the later part, but I’l get to that in a bit. I give it credit that at least it was going places quickly at first. The only major complaints lied with the writing. It seemed to be very simplistic and straightforward, which wasn’t able to match the intrigue of the actual setting and atmosphere. It didn’t flow smoothly, the characters weren’t written that well, it just seemed like the cast was reading lines from a mediocre script instead of saying what actual people would say. Because of this, some of the characters could get very annoying and old because they’d retread old themes or they’d be a victim of bland writing. Overall, the show was at least interesting, and even if the script didn’t feel smooth or natural most of the times, at least it kept things moving along so we could quickly see more.

The later half is where the show absolutely tanked. Imagine the most stereotypical and overdone psychotic crazy killer in anime. Now double that and make them even more cliched and unoriginal than before. Now give them a boring script with very little depth and tell them that they’re now the main villains of the show. Top it off with overused lightning power and physical strength, and you have the run of the mill psycho antagonists that murdered this anime dead in its tracks. After a couple of Coppelion known as the Ozu sisters show up in order to stop the protagonist party with progressing their plans, the the script becomes even worse, characters become even more annoying and stale, and focus is taken away from the setting and its atmosphere to show the generic battle happening between these two parties. Even though the script tacks on the reason that the sisters want to destroy humanity because they don’t care about them, the writing can’t hide the fact that they’re only there to be bullies and roadblocks in order to stall the plot from continuing too fast and to squeeze out every last bit of character problems from the leads, even though they already explored them very well in the first part. So we get more overused crying scenes, more cliched psycho laughs, more of those generic aspects that should normally be very toned down in seinen material. Other little things like bad explanations, odd motives for characters, and forced angel symbolism seemed to be more prevalent as the show went on. At the end of the day, even though the script was at least kind enough to give a satisfying resolution to its poorly written plot, the show still has a faint glimmer of hope for sequel seasons, leaving it off on a very annoying note of “there might be more…” An odd comparison would be something like the original Hellsing anime, where the story it focuses on is concluded by the end of it, but the leads still hold out in the last minute expecting more developments in the future. It’s a major annoyance for me when something has a perfectly fine ending executed, but it still manage to mess it up in the final moments.

The characters in the show were particularly hit or miss types of people. I spoke enough about the villains of the 3rd act, but I realize I left out the three leads. To sum up their basic personalities (since that’s basically what the script does), we have a confident leader who tries to block out her trauma by acting composed, a smart and capable companion who has trouble adjusting to the new setting, and an energetic crybaby who tries her hardest to be important and useful to the others. On the whole, they certainly aren’t bad characters, but unfortunately the script wasn’t able to ensure their likability. The leader’s attempts as masking her problems get very old, the crybaby gets to a point where she becomes so incompetent and annoying that viewers actually wanted her to get what came to her, and the smart one was able to suddenly gain inexplicable talents as a complex surgeon in convenience to the show’s finale. The side characters were thankfully able to escape the ridiculousness of the script for the most part, and a lot of them actually end up being very likable and surprising. The only other real complain regarding character and the overall writing was that it always bothered me how the leads were still dressed in school uniforms even in a dangerous, threatening setting. It was also never really explored how they were taught in the format of a traditional school and why they kept student rankings in the field of work instead of just being trained and briefed like normal soldiers or respondents. Perhaps a better script could have pulled something like that off. But for this show, it just comes across as pandering to those who want cute girls in schoolgirl clothing, which doesn’t fully work if the demographic for seinen isn’t coming for schoolgirls that can be found in any other genre geared towards younger viewers.

The animation for Coppelion was done by studio GoHands, whose other major projects include K Project and Mardok Scramble, which weren’t exactly received as major successes. As far as animation itself goes, the anime doesn’t do a lot of justice to the style of the art. The varying thick outlines for characters are done in an extremely bipolar way, and end up being inconsistent and messy. They try to get creative and articulated with the movements of the characters, but most of the time it ends up being very awkward and messy gestures. As the show goes on, the overall quality got considerably less detailed or flakey, and couldn’t get as creative as it did in the earlier parts. However, the 3D portions of animation didn’t stick out that much and actually managed to blend in well with the background. There were still a few examples where it just looked flat out bad, but there were still many times where it shined. The one aspect of art that stood out in the show was the impressive work done on the backgrounds and on the colors. The scenes were rich and complex with varying little tidbits of detail that jump off of the screen. The setting itself, as well as the many cyberpunk elements, were well designed and executed, along with the vibrant ambient lighting that made scenes pop and amplify with their contrasting color palette. The movements and shadows of clouds passing overhead, the vast array of textures and tones, the fantastic light reflections and refractions made the visuals magical. This was the aspect that carried the show for me and for lots of other viewers. Even though it gets kind of underwhelming in the finale when the animation quality drops a bit overall, the consistency in art was overwhelming for the majority of the anime, which ended up being the greatest thing to come out of this show.

At first the music seemed to be another aspect that would prove to be very likable in the show. It had a solid ED and OP, and in the beginning, music tracks were used sparingly but proved to have some sense of quality. They provided cool atmosphere and emotionally moving tunes at times. But just like everything else, as time went on, many tracks end up getting repeated and new tracks that turned out to be of very little quality surfaced for the later parts. This resulted in the BGM being repetitive and kind of unoriginal. So I don’t have many props to give to the music either, though the Angel was a very good OP, in my opinion.

The biggest surprise for me was when I realized how badly this show has aged. At the time of this review, it’s almost a year old, and it looks dated as ever, aside from the gorgeous backgrounds. It was a show that went by fairly unnoticed by viewers, and it certainly doesn’t hold up very well today. If you’re looking for a well done sci-fi show or disaster anime, you’d be better off looking at the robots in Ghost In The Shell, or the ruined cities of Attack On Titan. The script is thin and rough, the animation bipolar, and it’s never really established whom the intended audience is for the show. While there really are a few good gems in the rough, it’s a whole lot of rough to sit through in order to get to them.

I give this anime a score of 4.0/10 (2 stars) and an Unrecommended rating.

jerde.liza - 2014-07-01 21:45:07

A Nuclear Review:

http://inanimeshadow.blogspot.com/2014/06/coppelion-anime-review.html

teresa77 - 2014-05-18 11:46:59

Being one of the most recently made anime out there, Coppelion shines in quality especially in terms of artstyle. I would say that the amazing look of it is the first thing that can get you into this anime. But since artstyle isn’t everything let’s see what else this anime has to over:

Coppelion plays in a post-apocalyptic japan, where their capital city Tokyo became inhospitable for human beings. The audience follows a group of genetic modified girl, which are immune against the virus, on a mission for rescuing survivors.

Since there are only a few post-apocalyptic anime out there, the setting is very interesting and because of its artstyle it feels very unique. But I wouldn’t call it a full post-apocalyptic anime, since normally in a post-apocalyptic story, it’s rather important to create a feeling of loneliness and depression and Coppelion hasn’t included such feelings at all. That’s mainly because after the story it seems like the government is still working and the main protagonist, besides having each other and all the people they rescue, they also are pretty much always in contact with the government. The anime focuses more on the adventure genre and the adventure feeling for it. The pacing of the story is quite normal, but since there is not much of an absolute goal included in the anime it can’t create much of interest. It’s one of those anime you don’t know what will happen next episode, but not in a way that the anime grabs and you really want to find out what will happen next, but ofc that depends of the viewer and I can only tell for me. And I don’t mean that the anime is episodic, there are always some episodes that are connected to each other as well. Coppelion also often tries to be dramatic and sad, but fails in there because of the irrationality, overreactions and unlikeability of characters (but we will come to the characters later on). In terms of consequences the story also lacks pretty much, making it very unrealistic.

The characters in this show are the biggest disappointment, especially the 3 main protagonists. Besides their characterdesign which is absolutely unfitting for this setting and is often very illogic in any terms of being “reality-near”, the characters behavior is just an adaption of the ordinary teenage highschool character. The characters (main character) believes are a very important role in a story, since it not only determines the outcome of an interaction, it also can lead the whole story, and therefore the believes of the storywriters are often included or at least the way he thinks the audience should see it, since he decides the believe that wins at the end. So in believes of the characters who “win” at the end, you can see to which audience the anime you can count it to and since in Coppelion we have 3 teenage girls with teenage believes (which is complete illogical as well, since It is unrealistic that those girl grown up in an environment that’s even close to those ordinary girls from nowadays grow up in) it is determined that this anime has a childish storytelling and is rather for teenager.

To the main protagonist: They are, like I said before, 3 ordinary highschool girl and with ordinary I don’t mean realistic, I mean anime-ordinary. They follow a cliché setting, with one leader hero type character (which is normally a guy), trying to save everyone and 2 unimportant and unfocused sidecharacters, one the rather annoying one, always screaming and being hyperactive and the other one calm and always nice. With this setting creating anything dramatic between the main characters is pretty unfitting in the first place. The fact that they are all genetic modified isn’t in any kind of matter involved in their behavior neither in the story, they only mentioned it at the start, which makes the whole point of it very ridiculous and only to be that they have an excuse that they aren’t infected by the virus. The including of this “genetic-modified” aspect could have worked so much better as secret that the main characters find out later, or as a story-twist or that it makes the characters so desperate with some psychological moments, but that’s only my ideas of it, so never mind those. What also is pretty generic about the main protagonist is that you see a typical rebel attitude against the authority, which makes her even more childish.

What’s also a very weak point of the anime are the enemies. They are a very good example for the ordinary “no-plan” enemies from a lot of other shows, creating absolutely no threat at all, and their only reason to exist is the excuse for the protagonist to have something to react to (most of the time with fighting). The enemy’s motivation is also something this anime doesn’t spend any screentime on.

The rest of the characters are either, like the staff of the government, so less shown that you have absolutely no characteristics about them, or they adapt to the childish believes of the main protagonist.

The artstyle is the thing that keeps you going in this anime. You can see where the quality of this anime is by looking at the very nice drawn detailed backgrounds. They perfected the way buildings are overgrown by plants and make the destruction of this city look so beautiful, probably because there is lots of green involved in the backgrounds. The characterdesign, from faces and everything looks a bit unique (or just better than in every ordinary highschool anime). There just can’t be said anything bad about this artstyle, besides that the including of normal highschool uniforms into the characterdesign is so much illogic and annoying that it deserves to be mentioned here.

The soundtrack

So in conclusion I would recommend this anime just for its artstlye, but don’t expect too much of the story, since it was rather made for the likers of immature storytelling.

Rating with my own rating system:

Artstyle 20/20%

Characters 3/20%

Story 15/50%

Soundtrack 7/10%

Total 45/100%Score 4

bonita83 - 2014-04-09 01:30:21

Coppelion begins as slow but interesting sci-fi anime about a trio of girls exploring a radioactive wasteland that was once Tokyo. Why can these girls walk freely about a radioactive wasteland (in nothing but school uniforms, no less)? Because they are Coppelion; genetically altered "dolls" that have been created specifically to enter this once great city and rescue any people who might still be left there.

As the story goes on, this premise remains at the heart of the tale but becomes enveloped in a far more grand and important mission than anyone could have expected (as you might be able to tell from the OP).

I'd heard from many people that Coppelion was utter garbage prior to beginning it, and as such, I am left wondering if my lasting opinion of it has been tainted by this knowledge that other people didn't like it. Nevertheless, the cracks certainly started to form after the halfway mark and I'm quite certain I still would have noticed those cracks, especially considering that they grow larger as the finale draws closer.

So, where did Coppelion go wrong? It has an interesting enough premise; genetically engineered teenagers exploring a ruined Tokyo looking for survivors of a nuclear meltdown. The way I see it, there is one big problem: the execution.

Coppelion sets itself up as something that could be thought-provoking, emotional and intriguing. It even raises certain points that might suggest it was aiming to be like this, but then fails to deliver on almost all fronts. It tells a story, for certain, and that story does have a definitive ending, but questions are asked that are never answered, concerns are raised that are never addressed, and key elements of the setting, premise and the characters are never explored. The few "answers" and explanations we are given range from silly, illogical or unjustified, to acceptable but only in the sense that it barely covers what it needs to (and only in some cases, mind you) to keep the plot moving.

Instead of trying to tell a well-handled story that supports itself, Coppelion simply decides to up the stakes and try to top itself when it really doesn't need to. On a basic level the plot itself isn't bad, but it's in the details (and again, in the execution), that make it bad. The basic plot could have remained the same, perhaps with a few more answers and explanations instead of pointless and at times annoying scenes that focus on certain characters or plot points.

Perhaps most exemplary of Coppelion's failures is the character of Aoi Fukasaku. She is downright annoying and useless for the largest part of the series. Who would design her to be like that? They are genetically engineered! I guess her personality/usefulness could be construed as a result of her experiences in "school" but again we are left with no explanation and have to think of a reason ourselves.

In addition to their resistance to radioactivity, Coppelion are each gifted with special abilities. Some make sense and fit with their mission, while others left me wondering why they were given; especially because the show goes out of it's way to tell you that one particular power was given on purpose, so we can therefore extrapolate that they all were specifically given, begging further questions.

[Spoiler, skip this paragraph if you don't want to see it]Seriously, if the main trio knew that two of their classmates were cloned from a serial killer, wouldn't the scientists who created them have known? "She was secretly a serial killer" - well how did you find out, and when? That to me just screams irresponsibility.[End of spoiler]

Anyway, enough about that. Besides Aoi, the rest of the cast is okay. There is little development to be had (save for one person) and some characters that I would have liked to have seen more of were relegated to the background or didn't get enough spotlight. Even characters that are pushed to the forefront are for the most part only engines for pushing the plot forward.

Naruse is the leader of the rescue team. She wants to save everyone and tries to bear the brunt of the load almost all the time. She's definitely the most competent of the Coppelion. I think I would have liked her more if I knew more about her, particularly her experience in "school". That goes for all of the Coppelion, actually, so I'm not going to bother talking about the characters any more.

Where Coppelion does earn points is for its animation. It uses bold lines around its characters in a similar fashion to that little show you might have heard of, Attack on Titan. The art style is distinctive and works quite well, especially in addition to the detailed and perfectly coloured backgrounds. The animation is fairly fluid and the CGI is actually very well-integrated. Also, one of the characters looks like an insane Tsuruya (from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiyia). I liked that (it doesn't really add any points though, just saying).

In the sound department, Coppelion doesn't do anything amazing. The OP is decent, and the ED, while at first being rather odd, became quite enjoyable pretty fast (more so than the OP). The sound-design was okay, but I felt like the gunshots (there were many of them) were too quiet, like everyone had suppressors on their weapons (they didn't). The gunshots didn't really have any weight to them, is what I mean. I feel like I can't really judge the voice acting because all Japanese blends together in such a way that I can't tell if it's done well or not.

So on the whole, Coppelion could have been good. It had potential, and the premise was decent, but the plot and characters were not executed well. Too many questions and unexplained lore/background. We are given only the minimal amount needed for the plot to move forward.

From the looks of it though, there is more source material to be adapted. I doubt it will get a second season, but I'd like to hope some explanations are given at some point.

cormier.gavin - 2014-01-02 01:56:44

THE MOST OFFENSIVE ANIME EVER… is what it might have been considered if it had come out 2 years ago when it was originally supposed to. Don’t get me wrong, I might be annoyed too if I just lost friends or family to nuclear radiation and suddenly a show comes on the ol’ telly about a nuclear meltdown in the same area. On the flip side, it probably would’ve attracted much more attention if they had the balls to air it after the 2011 Tokyo Earthquake and subsequent nuclear disaster. There’s no such thing as bad publicity, right? Heh…

Well enough of that issue. Let’s talk about the show itself. The story is about a group of artificial humans who are immune to radiation, known as the “Coppelion”, who go around rescuing the survivors of a nuclear disaster in Tokyo. The group consists of three girls, whom we’ll refer to as Mary Sue, Scaredy Cat, and The Third Girl. The premise is interesting but lacks a real plot to speak of. It’s a bunch of characters doing things in a setting, yes, but it doesn’t really have a story. It has scenarios that crop up in the same vein as video game missions, but I really want to stress there is no overarching plot here.

It isn’t quite a post-apocalyptic world since the Tokyo nuclear disaster appears to be an isolated incident. As such, the scale of the show is quite small, but again has nowhere to really go beyond rescuing survivors. There’s antagonistic forces but no real “villains”. There are a few issues I have with the premise however.

1. The Coppelion. The story takes place in 2016, just a few years after this disaster. It seems too farfetched that Japan’s scientists could create artificial cloned humans with supernatural abilities like radiation immunity or shooting fucking lightning so quickly after the nuclear meltdown. Especially with the condition the country is in… where’d they get the funding and resources? It just didn’t make sense to me.

2. The science runs on Marvel Comics logic. Why can one of the Coppelion shoot lightning? SHE HAD ELECTRIC EEL DNA INJECTED INTO HER AT BIRTH. This ridiculousness seems so inconsistent considering how seriously (but not entirely realistically) the show handles things like radiation and physical injuries (injuries on humans, not Coppelion naturally). Either be over-the-top and crazy or be realistic, I don’t care which, but dammit just pick one.

3. Exactly how advanced is the robot AI? We’re told it’s very limited but the robot is clearly developing more and more human-like responses. It’s not really expanded upon, almost like he was thrown in because the author thought throwing in a robot would be cool.

The three girls are very simplistic in characterization, except for Taeko, the third girl who has no characterization whatsoever. I’m half-convinced she wasn’t even in the show at all considering how little she does. 13 episodes and what did I learn about Taeko? She wears glasses and has some vague medical training, that is it.

Ibara, the leader and presumably protagonist, is about as bland as Mary Sues come these days. It doesn’t matter what the situation is, she is always the one who ultimately solves it. Nobody seems capable of doing anything unless she’s there. Oh she’ll occasionally angst over how she isn’t perfect but she totally is and the show knows it. She’s too perfect, even for a Coppelion and this makes her hard to relate to. Her absurdly thick skull isn’t helping either. Sometimes she comes across as downright brainwashed by her commitment to rescuing survivors to the point of being creepy.

And then there’s Aoi, who is the best character in the show by the simple virtue of having a personality. It’s not a personality that will appeal to everyone, but it is something. But I found her relatable enough. She whines and complains, she gets tired, she gets excited over mundane things like food and cool things like robots, she makes mistakes and feels guilty for them, etc. If you can get past her whining and general uselessness (most of the time), she’s by far the most developed character in the show. It helps that she’s also the cutest.

The side characters are either not worth mentioning, or just plain spoilers. There’s enough intrigue between them to keep you from falling asleep but other than that, they didn’t do it for me. The antagonists are fun though, and are even given solid motivations for their actions… even if the resolution for them at the end is pretty cheesy.

The scenarios in general are pretty well set-up. There’s a difficult objective, obstacles in the way, unforeseen problems, occasional instances of good fortune, etc. The tension is really good, the only problem is that the characters are just kinda… there. Just kinda going along for the ride. The show in general would’ve been better if it had a stronger cast of characters that I actually cared about. I cared a little bit for Aoi but that was about it.

The music can be atmospheric at times, but most of the time is just there. None of it is particularly memorable, and even the OP and ED are bland and forgettable. But what is most definitely NOT bland or forgettable is the animation and visual style of the show, holy shit. Here’s a few things to know about it.

1. The coloring is done like an old analog photograph. Lots of vibrant blues and greens mixed with a lot of varying shades of brown. It definitely stands out visually. It sets the mood of the irradiated environment very well.

2. Characters have that same thick-line animation like in Attack on Titan. Only difference is this show uses it well and not as a lame gimmick. It feels very natural.

The only things holding the animation back from a perfect score are a few off-model frames here and there and some unneeded CGI. Otherwise it’s pretty great. Overall this show is good enough anime to marathon through if you need something to watch. It’s above-average but held back by a great many flaws.

Rewatch Value: No (On a Yes/Maybe/No scale)

wyman.anahi - 2013-12-28 11:46:47

Synopsis: In 2016, a meltdown of a nuclear power plant creates a big catastrophe in Tokyo. 20 years later, the city has become a ghost town due to the high levels of radiation. From that area a distress signal is received. The Self Defense forces dispatch three girls from the special unit Coppelion to search for survivors. But why aren't they wearing any protection against radiation?

(Source: MU, edited)
Disappointing Story : 4
Coppelion started off as a good story. Post-nuclear disaster, no one can live there, and dolls, who have been created to withstand even the highest level of radiation, explore the broken city to rescue survivors. While I was watching, I expected to see these dolls, called Coppelion, to be emotionless artificial humans with unnatural powers going around and saving lives. Instead, this show features high school girls who have been ill-trained and are emotionally unstable. Sure, I do not mind if you cry due to frustration, or if someone close to you died, but after every single crisis, these girls burst into tears. This is so repetitive that it becomes irritating to watch them. This potentially wonderful story becomes nothing but a tear-fest with poor action scenes.

Wonderful Scenery But Terribly Drawn Characters : 7
This is an post-apocalyptic anime, so dull and simple colours for the background are to be expected. At the start of this anime, the scenery leads to a very promising horror and mysterious anime. Sadly, this is not the case and the backgrounds' effectiveness is diminished.
The characters in Coppelion are terribly drawn. There is nothing unique about these characters; they all look the same. Yes, I know that people need to wear protective suits and the girls have their uniforms, but they shouldn't be a copy-and-paste of each other.

Great Soundtrack : 8
The opening and ending songs by angela were terrific. The upbeat, fast-paced rhythm, along with her rapping made an excellent combination. Throughout the anime there was generally silence, which is understandable because the setting is a ghost town. In the action scenes, there is background music but it does nothing to add to the scene, and it is something I like to call "dead music". Be prepared: Coppelion has a lot of dead music.
Unmemorable Characters : 3
More like character. Ibara Naruse is pretty much the only character that is focused upon in this anime. She has almost no character development. Although she is the strong leader of her trio, she gets emotional and depressed very easily. Not to mention, she cries, a lot. And has a lot of pointless, "I want to save everyone and make sure everyone is happy" speeches. It is these types of optimistic characters that I truly dislike.
Everyone else is just there to take up space. The other two "main" girls have their tiny moments of fame, maybe three times in the overall show. These moments of fame do not really add to the story and seem completely unnecessary except to show the viewer that these characters exist. Different survivors are introduced in each episode and are almost never mentioned again. It is kind of disappointing because I was expecting at least a scene or two of these survivors and how they adapt to their new environment.

Watched for the Music and Backgrounds : 5

After the fourth episode, I really wanted to stop watching this anime. The terrible path of a promising story was a major disappointment for me, along with the weak characters. The cycle of attempting to rescue survivors, then crying because it is too difficult, then crying because one person is sacrificed and finally laughter because everyone is just so happy to be alive was dreadfully annoying and too damn repetitive. I think after I realize how terrible this anime was, I continued watching simply for the opening and ending songs, as well as the scenery. Honestly, I paid more attention to the opening song and ending song than the actual anime.
Overall: Average (6)
I usually try not to bash on an anime series, but Coppelion deserved it. Even writing this review was painful because I wanted to rant about every little mistake. This show had so much potential at the beginning, and by the end, it was a disaster. Instead of watching Coppelion, I would recommend Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. It has a similar concept with a better storyline and characters, and the artwork is not that bad.

triston18 - 2013-12-28 03:21:36

As always, my reviews are spoiler free.

Coppelion began existence as a manga serialized in Young Magazine in 2008, chronicling the adventures of several super-human beings called Coppelion searching for survivors in a post-nuclear disaster Tokyo. These beings have been created by humans to be immune to the radiation they will face, as well as having special powers which vary from instance to instance. While they may look just like humans, they are nothing but “dolls,” each with an unknown lifespan and no purpose but to work in highly dangerous conditions.

The TV anime adaptation was greenlighted in 2010, but due to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, production was halted until recently, leading to an air date in fall 2013. Post-apocalyptic settings and superpowers are very common choices in fiction, so Coppelion is not especially unique. However, how does it stand up as an anime three years after its plot came uncomfortably close to reality?

Story - 5/10

Please note that this review DOES NOT take source material into account. It is based solely on the merits of the anime.

Coppelion follows the mission of three of these Coppelion on their rescue mission in Tokyo. Led by class president Naruse, Aoi and Nomura look for survivors in an irradiated wasteland. They meet groups and individuals in need of rescue, often with some measure of resistance, fight for their freedom, and then chopper them away to safety. This is the entire plot in a nutshell. It is not especially unique or interesting, though admittedly often exhilarating.

Of course, episodes are much more detailed and the survivors are given enough characterization to actually mean something, and the villains (whether it be rogue soldiers or companies dumping waste) have some sort of motivation and explanation. What did not have an explanation was the actual disaster which caused the destruction of Tokyo and the creation of the genetically modified Coppelion. The Coppelion themselves are not especially well explained, aside from the fact that they are immune to radiation and have special powers (which are usually explained the moment it becomes convenient to do so, such as right before they need to use them). I think there would have been a significant amount of value in giving more background to both of these subjects, which would improve the viewer’s immersion in the story and give a greater sense of background rather than simply understanding the moment.

Another disappointment was the three lead main characters. They are not necessarily bad in and of themselves (see the “Characters” section), but the fact that the three badass members of the rescue team are cute highschool girls in short skirts makes me shake my head a bit. While the anime industry has certainly had a lot of success with highschool and cute girls, an irradiated Tokyo in an anime with a relatively serious tone is not the time or place for them. The fact that I was watching girls in mini-skirts and school uniforms firing rocket launchers was a little bit jarring for me, and broke my immersion even more in the setting the anime was trying to put forward.

The saving grace for Coppelion is that it is a thriller anime. This allows for the viewer to disconnect their brains a bit and watch the action scenes and edge-of-your-seat moments provided. Luckily, this is something Coppelion does admirably, and I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of investment I had during every life and death situation the characters were put in. While this is not going to buy the series a total pass in the story department, it does mean that plenty of enjoyment can be had in spite of the massive flaws.

Animation - 9/10

The animation in Coppelion is nothing if not unique, presenting a very gritty art style with a color pallet that is more reminiscent of video games than anime. It couples this art style with highly detailed backgrounds that bring life and believability to the abandoned city that is the setting. While most of these superb backdrops are ruined city, the occasional episode involving a park or some area with natural life is done nearly as skillfully. Speaking of natural life, Coppelion does a fantastic job of infusing Tokyo with the overgrown plants that may begin to appear and take over an area abandoned by man.

This series makes heavy use of CG, something that I usually hate to see in anime, even if I understand it as a necessary evil. Luckily, Coppelion includes some of the best CG I have ever seen, and it does not detract from the regular 2D art. Whether this is a result of skillful CG itself or just a positive side effect of the art style I don’t know, but this is the one anime that has obvious CG that I just can’t complain about.

CG is used liberally for fight scenes (see glass above) and vehicles.

The style used to draw the characters is likewise unique, and makes use of a colors not usually used for people. While much anime now is done in bright pastels, especially in regards to character design, Coppelion instead uses muted and pale tones. While this would lead to them to be out of place next to any other character, they fit perfectly into their environment.

The animation itself is smooth and fluid throughout; from the action scenes to the laid back dialogue, there are no obvious mistakes or corner cutting.

It all adds up to an anime that rivals “Five Wallpapers Per Second,” at least if you are a fan of the style and subject.

Sound - 7/10

I have little to say about the sound in Coppelion. Its soundtrack was not especially memorable aside from the opening and ending. However, the voice acting aspect was handled very well.

Characters - 7/10

For the most part, Coppelion has a strong cast for a one cour series. Of particular note are the side characters, who get good characterization even if they only appear for a very short time. This is important for a series of this type, with characters only staying around a short time by the very nature of action, but beg for your emotional attachment when it seems that anyone could die. With this Coppelion succeeds totally, giving me an attachment to characters who had only been on screen for a few minutes. Because it seems that no one is safe from the dangers of radiation and villains, a rapid connection can be developed with enough background given to allow the viewer to develop sympathy for the character without needing their life story.

The main villains were actually my favorite characters. The Ozu sisters are Coppelion, just as the heroines, but have gone rogue on their rescue mission due to the hatred of humans they developed over time. Because they were unknowingly cloned from a murderer, they have highly volatile personalities, and the experimentation done to them has caused them to seek revenge. They struggle with the idea that they are less than human and seen as disposable, just as the leads occasionally do. On top of this, they have entertaining personalities and work well on screen together, as well as with the heroines; they went to school together, and bullied Aoi even then. This gives them everything they need to be great villains: motivation, sympathy, and likability. They are given some of the deepest characterization (although that is not saying much in an action series this short) and provide some of the best conflict right up until the very end, which is incredibly satisfying by itself. Without giving spoilers, I can say that it is a fitting conclusion, and gives more meaning to their existence than a simple fight to the death with the “good guys.”

As for the heroines, two out of three get my stamp of approval. Ibara is the leader, and the former class president (in their high school which teaches them combat and rescue tactics; more stupid points there). She has elevated strength and improved reflexes, allowing her to fight with both guns and hand-to-hand effectively. She has a natural desire to help people, even if it means going against orders. This sense of justice at the cost of following authority is certainly not unique to her, but it does mean that she makes a strong and caring leader for this short series. She does not receive very much character development, but she is laid out simply enough that it isn’t really needed.

Unlike Ibara, Aoi is not especially calm or collected at any given time. She is the embodiment of the “clumsy moe” archetype, which seems a bit out of place in a serious thriller/action title. However, she somehow makes it work and actually receives some development throughout the series. She is also a source of much of the series’ comic relief, and it helps she is pretty cute too.

It seems Taeko was just forgotten somewhere down the line, as she barely talks or does anything after the first episode or two. She mainly serves as a second pair of superhero hands when Ibara is off advancing the plot and Aoi is huddled up in the corner being useless (but for a reason). She is given no real background, strengths or weaknesses, or the slightest bit of characterization, with the most important thing she does in the entire series being delivering a baby, something which any character could probably have done. She could have been removed without me noticing, with many of the side characters having more prominent roles than her (especially Haruto and the Ozu sisters).

Enjoyment - 7/10

As a thriller, Coppelion is definitely enjoyable, even with the broken plot and shaky background information. When it is given an enjoyable cast, beautiful art, and genuine edge-of-your-seat moments that I will remember for a quite a while, this anime really starts to come into its own. This was one series which I was always waiting for week to week, and would make for the perfect marathon series on a boring Friday night. While there is really nothing too amazing about it aside from the art style, Coppelion no doubt succeeded in what it set out to do: entertain the viewer and keep them hooked from beginning to end.

merlin10 - 2013-12-15 11:18:09

Up to episode 11.

A nuclear meltdown in 2016 sends Tokyo spiralling to their doom, and thus, it become a ghost town. Three high school girls born from science are sent to find any remaining survivors. These girls, or dolls, as they are commonly referred to, are named Coppelion. They're not the only ones; there are multiple classes of these genetically modified humans, whose DNA were taken from already existing humans (in the anime)

Their genetic modifications have led them to become immune to radiation, with enhanced senses, human strength... and powers? A little surreal there, don't you think? Ten times the average human strength, or beyond perfect vision, is understandable, but powers? To control electricity, or levitate and summon force fields?

The plot line's pretty good, having finally produced radiation-proof suits (or hazmat suits), or even less, radiation-immune humans. What kind of puts me off is, although their situation may seem dire, something always turns out and it ends well, but then another situation is added which--I suppose--is to make dire once more, especially when there's a time limit; things get desperate.

Eh, moving on.

The animation. The ANIMATION. Having watched K, I expected high standards The scenery, character design and everything, ran smoothly; nicely done. But I didn't like the timing. It felt rushed, a lot of the times, and slow when it didn't need it. Timing does a lot in anime; suspense and tension, excitement and fear; this is what the anime lacked, and I'm really disappointed. At least the eye-candy made up for the lost points, and that's a lot.

Now, the sound. The sound was the main reason why I wanted to write this review. The sound effects were horrible, some what old, as if it had been used in Dragon Ball Z, or 1980s action anime. It was of crappy standards, and it seems as if they couldn't overlap the effects.

As for the sound track, it's not really at a catching or memorable standard; I can't really remember any of it.

Characters. I also had a problem with this; the unneeded skips from scene to scene really messed up the characters' development, and the character of the character themselves (yep, confusing)--especially the main, Naruse Ibara--doesn't feel quite stable; rather emotional, if I say so myself.

I guess overall, it was a 'train wreck I couldn't stop staring at'. It's rather enjoyable, I wouldn't stop now, but the sound and the dissatisfying timing really puts me off.

Well, this was more of a rant, or something of it, than a review. But don't listen to me, I'm just another human being that interests themselves in anime. Have a go and see how episode one goes, if you don't like it, have a go at episode two. I suppose it was just the anime that's what I'm not enjoying, I reckon the manga would be tons better.

I'm just blathering on now. Just give it a go.