In this original series, the world is at war with creatures called Unknown. When the Unknown first launched an attack on Japan, the land was devastated and children were put into a cold-sleep. When they awoke several decades later they discovered they had inherited supernatural powers. It seems like there are adults who are still around, but they are few and far in between, at least in this first episode. The gifted children set up defense fortresses in three Japanese cities: Tokyo, Kanagawa, and Chiba. Students from these three cities fight together against the Unknown.
… At least, they’re supposed to. Cold, hot-headed Ichiya Suzaku is convinced that he is the only person needed to fight the Unknown. And once you see how large these battles get, you see that that’s a bullshit idea. His friend/”big sister” Canaria Utara is always by his side, and together they are the head and subhead for Tokyo. Maihime Tenkawa, a silver-haired girl who likes to wear a uniform jacket over her shoulders, and Hotaru Rindo are the respective head and subhead of 
Kanagawa City. The other duo in this Tri-city trifecta are Kasumi Chigusa, subhead of Chiba City, and Asuha Chigusa, his younger sister who is Chiba’s head. All three representative duos report to Airi Yunami and Gutoku Asanagi, Regional Management Officers who help coordinate all the students and their attacks. Gutoku is also shown to be in charge of assigning and removing points, which are currency for the ranking system which all students participate in. Ichiya is listed at #4, while his rival Kasumi is #207; Ichiya is very protective of his ranking, while Kasumi couldn’t care less about his.
So at the beginning of the episode there is a small Unknown attack, but Ichiya heads out and destroys all the creatures on his own without waiting for Canaria or any of the other students to arrive. He says repeatedly “I am all we need,” but in continuing to shirk his teammates he is costing himself ranking points, nevermind the interpersonal damage he is causing between himself and his peers.
After the first battle Ichiya and Canaria must hurry to the Tri-City meeting. Afterwards Ichiya and Canaria have a quiet moment together, where Ichiya names their powers (dubbed “World”) and Canaria shares some of her singing. Ichiya remembers the war from before he was put into cold sleep, when he was initially younger than Canaria; he says that they are both the same age now though, so she must have been left sleeping longer than him. Ichiya has no respect for students younger than him, but he very much respects adults, and this is because the adults protected the children during the first onset of the war.
Suddenly there is a warning of another Unknown attack, but this time the battle scale is much larger. Ichiya arrogantly decides not to wait for the other students and instead drops off the side of a building with Canaria, using his gravity manipulation World to fly them to the battleground. Ironically this takes longer and they are the last two to arrive, behind both the Kanagawa and Chiba students.
The battle goes well, with all the students making gains against the unknown, but Ichiya stepping onto Chiba’s toes starts the infighting between the three bodies of students. As Hotaru points out to Maihime, this is most likely because of the ranking system. Everyone wants to get to a higher ranking, so easier battles like this one are fertile ground for competition and kill-stealing. This upsets Maihime, because she fights for everyone and hadn’t thought even for a moment of being competitive – and she’s ranked at #1.
In the end it’s Maihime’s super mega energy sword attack which ends the battle, but also accidentally destroys the Aqua Line in the process. Hotaru amd Kasumi blame its destruction on Ichiya, but their whole group ends up in trouble in Gutoku’s book.
As everyone starts to depart for home, a bird is shown flying overhead… before it disappears beyond what looks like the same barrier the Unknown came out of?!
My thoughts: The animation’s pretty smooth and I like the music. Ichiya’s a dick but some of his comments are pretty hilarious. I can’t tell if he and Canaria are just friends or if they’re actually siblings. Their relationship seems simple, but hushed comments from Ichiya hint that there may be some feelings running a bit deeper which will be explored later.
I definitely want to learn more about the Unknown and where they come from, and more about that tease regarding the bird passing through the barrier at the very end of the episode.
For an original series, this seems to be pretty decent. I’ll stick with Qualidea Code for at least three episodes. (◕‿-)
Possibility of Watching: Moderate
Possibility of Blogging: Moderate