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Akihabara Dennou Gumi
Though the place of the action is not crucial to the story in any way, it appears to be the town of Akihabara, which is actually Soto-Kanda, a part of Chiyoda-ku (a special ward of the Tokyo metropolis), famous for its large population of stores selling all kinds of electronic, anime, and adult goods. The action takes place in 2010. The anime series had a followup movie called 2011-nen no Natsuyasumi ("2011 Summer Vacations"), set immediately after the events in the series.
Plot summaryThe main character in the series is a high-school girl called Hibari Hanakoganei. Recently some cute electronic dolls named patapi have become fashionable, but Hibari, unlike her friends, doesn't have the money to buy one. One day she is suddenly bathed in light and a young boy (that she calls "her prince") gives her a patapi, that she names Densuke. It turns out that Densuke is not an ordinary patapi. A voluptuous woman, commanding artificial humanoids and a giant machine, tries to take Densuke away from Hibari, and then the patapi transforms itself into a woman in a sophisticated outfit, that fights them and saves Hibari. The woman is exactly like Hibari, only in adult form, and transforms into the patapi immediately after the action is finished. Hibari's close friends have patapi of this kind too, as is revealed soon afterwards. At first they seem to transform at whim, in critical moments, but then the girls learn that they can often control the moment. Once in their humanoid forms, however, the patapi seem to have a will of their own. In the meantime, the spectator learns that the principal of Hibari's school knows about the patapi and their humanoid counterparts, that he calls Divas, and is apparently provoking the attacks on the girls not in order to take the patapi, but to force them to reveal themselves fully and to cause the girls to become aware of their powers. When this happens, someone called the Metatron will return. In a long flashback it is then revealed that the school principal is about 500 years old. He studied with Paracelsus and developed an elixir of life. He apparently founded the Rosicrucian order (his real name is Christian Rosenkreuz). Together with a friend, near the end of the 19th century, they adopted a boy genius (Crane van Streich) who adhered to their quest of bettering the world (by ruling it). The Rosenkreuz group had advanced technology decades or centuries before the rest of the world, but they deemed it dangerous for release. After World War I, Crane became disillusioned with humanity, secretly built a spaceship and fled to space, where he would be in stasis in an orbital castle, waiting for a signal that the human race had evolved enough to receive the benefits of technology. With him he took the blueprints for the Divas, artificial female humanoid beings. After this, Rosenkreuz lived only to see Crane (the Metatron) return, and to this end he created the patapi and released them covertly. The patapi collect and amplify the thoughts and feelings of their owners, and Rosenkreuz hopes that they will be able to find truly pure hearts among the humans, and send this information to the Metatron so that he wakes up and comes down to Earth. Rosenkreuz has chosen this particular school as a scouting ground. Rosenkreuz has adopted a boy, Takashi, that he calls his son. He also goes by the name of Shooting Star and is in charge of a team of three women, who command several kinds of machines and artificial humanoid beings to attack the Divas. These women come from different backgrounds, they all love Takashi and would sacrifice her lives for him, but they don't know anything about the Rosenkreuz plot. When Takashi fails, Rosenkreuz scorns him, and Takashi understands that he's only been a replacement for the Metatron, who is the only one that Rosenkreuz would have truly called his son. He rebels and is harshly punished. The three women in the Shooting Star team side with him, finally learning about the whole plot. They eventually end up fighting along with the Divas. The Metatron is ready to come. At Rosenkreuz's command, the school building transforms itself into a fortress, surrounded by a force field. The Primum Mobile (Crane's orbital castle) descends from space and lands on top of the school, and the two men are reunited. But the Metatron gently despises Rosenkreuz. He refuses to join Rosenkreuz in his plan of ruling the world using technology to advance mankind. He has become convinced that humanity is hopeless and that technology and science have only caused harm, so he wants to use his own technology to take the world back to the old ages. The Primum Mobile extends an energy-draining field over Akihabara, shutting down all electrical power. Rosenkreuz threatens, begs, then feels suddenly tired and sick, and finds that the elixir of life is no longer working. He dies at the feet of the Metatron. The girls (led by Hibari and her Diva) enter the castle and fight their way towards the Metatron. When all seems lost, Hibari is offered the choice to go with her prince, leaving the Earth behind, since she is the only truly pure human being that deserves it, but she refuses, scorning Crane for being so selfish and proud. The Metatron finally understands. He restores the power in the city, and the Primum Mobile leaves. He promises Hibari that he will be patient and wait for humanity to become better, even if it takes a thousand years, since he has all the time he wants. CharactersThe school girls that form the Cyberteam have some strange surnames. "Hanakoganei" and "Sakurajousui" are in fact names of rail stations.
The school principal (Christian Rosenkreuz) goes by the name of RYUUGASAKI Washuu, and his adopted son is RYUUGASAKI Takashi. The Shooting Star team is formed by three women:
The patapi have names too:
SoundtrackThe opening and ending songs are both by Masami Okui . The opening is called Birth, and the ending is Taiyou no Hana ("Sun Flower"). ReviewAkihabara Dennou Gumi evolves from a rather simplistic, light-hearted shoujo sentai anime into a surprisingly dark-toned drama — from time to time. The fighting scenes are mostly bloodless and stereotypical, rather like fillers; the important things happen elsewhere. The Rosicrucian mythos is (as is usual in Japanese animation) severely twisted and adapted, but the story around it has a solid philosophical background. There are no real "bad guys", which may be confusing for Westerners accustomed to simple black-and-white plots; everybody is clearly doing what they think best (for humanity or for their loved ones). Worldviews are confronted. Christian Rosenkreuz believes that an enlightened despotism (which is also a technocracy) can bring peace to humanity, while Crane van Streich is a disillusioned luddite that believes humanity should seek moral perfection rather than scientific progress. These men, however, coincidentally believe that they can and deserve to shape the world as they see fit. Hibari Hanakoganei brings humility and common sense to the story — nobody's perfect and you can't wait them to be; you are a good person if you protect your loved ones. On the esthetic side, the series is not terribly well drawn. The landscapes are rather schematic and flat; there are no 3D effects or computer-generated images. The images do not follow the story in the best possible way. On the side of content, the series seems mostly intended for the young, though children will miss the subtleties of the plot (and thus much of what makes the series good). Teenagers and older audiences can appreciate it too, if they allow for certain concessions, though they will have to wait for the story to get serious. There's no explicit sexual content or nudity, but instead a nice (sometimes completely uncalled for) dose of fan service, mostly in charge of the all-too-common older man with a fetish for pants, as well as rather voluptuous female characters with voluble and independently moving breasts. One of the girls uses breast fillers and is conspicuously concerned about her underdevelopment (which she compares to her friends'). A secondary female character has a homosexual crush on her (that lasts one episode and seems completely meaningless). The series was rated PG-13 in the United States, both for the above and for the violence, which is however rather concealed except in a few key moments near the end of the series. External link |
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