I can’t believe my eyes. Coppelion is out (that’s not to be read with a tone of satisfaction). I thought this would be released tomorrow, or next week. The Fall season is officially in motion then I presume, since the titles are now coming out – one right after the other. It’s a bit funny because last night, I did a run through of the first chapter (and most of the second chapter) of the manga last night to give myself a small feel of the characters and the premise of this story. Coppelion’s first episode, was chapters one and two of the manga.
Coppelion brings the story of three, genetically engineered girls: Ibara, Aoi and Taeko – students in the Elite Coppelion Force – who are placed in the ghost town of Tokyo City (which resembles the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse) to investigate what remains of the city, two decades after a nuclear meltdown that led to the government’s order of evacuation of the city.
The episode follows Ibara and her classmates during their investigative walk through the isolated town so there are a lot of still frames, the clouds, besides the characters are the only things that move – grass and leaves only move during close-ups. They find a survivor and instead of following orders from the Vice Principal to leave him alone since his body is too weak from the radiation, Ibara saves him and gives him a shot that supposedly slows the effects of radiation.
The Vice Principal gets there and tells her that she should have stuck to the plan but she defies this and tells him that she’ll be saving any survivors she comes across. The Vice Principal leaves. There is a news broadcast of Tokyo city’s situation and the region named Pandora Box is one of particular interest but the radiation level there was too high so there was no way for them to give the newsfeed a proper look of the area.
In the last few minutes of the episode, Ibara and Aoi meet up on a dead person and Ibara is attacked by a wolf, who apparently is made aggressive as a response to the effects of radiation. Taeko, who had been left with a dog to do god knows what with it to get it to stop following the girls, was attacked by it and Ibara, along with the whining Aoi, has to save her.
End of episode 1.
There are a lot of basics to work with where the characters in this are concerned. Ibara is the leader, the defiant one – the very first scene makes that clear when both Taeko and Aoi are running, and out of breath, in order to catch up with her. Aoi, is probably the most unstable character right now of the group and may be the weakest link since her emotions are all over the place. It makes me wonder why she was even put into this group but there always has to be this particular character – either for plot purposes or just to complete the group for the circle of friendship’s sake.
Taeko is a more refined version of Aoi and her support. Her special ability is to communicate with animals – putting them at ease, that sort of jazz. Maybe Aoi’s special ability will be exposed soon to explain her entire worth to this group. She also brings out the sub theme of facing reality that may or may not be carried on through the run of Coppelion.
She wants to deny the fact that they – or herself, rather – are [is] not [a] genetically engineered being(s) – because it’s like being a doll/puppet. But the fact that they walk around in an area – air heavy laden with radiation – without protective gear while faced with a few survivors – including the Vice Principal – who do wear it, is a contradiction and reality she doesn’t want to face but will eventually have to.
Ibara enables her denial by saying what Aoi would like to hear to comfort her. It’s the best thing to do to not make her a burden to the group as they investigate, but the pumping of false hope could destroy her character later down in the series but I’ll see how that goes.
The first episode was good, although the palette is a bit bland and the background scenes seem like a bunch of cut-and-paste pictures – with the exception of the clouds. The art design really isn’t my favorite but I do like the solid outlines, it’s a bit different. The animation though, it isn’t that fluid but still, I can watch this without being distracted by it.
Possibility of blogging: An uncertain yes – because I have this feeling that I might get bored with the series later on. Hopefully that won’t happen.