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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Wednesday, 21 November 2007 16:00 |
 When alien lifeform Rynax takes up residence in the body of young girl Kurau, it’s a devastating blow for her father, who sees the daughter he loves become someone else, but for Kurau and Rynax it’s the beginning of a whole new life – but the unique abilities that Rynax gives means that others soon take an interest that may not be healthy for Kurau...
1 - Into the Wide World...
Apart from living on the Moon (although that's nothing unusual in the year 2100), Kurau Amami's your average, cheerful young girl. For her birthday, her father agrees to allow her to visit his work - he's a scientist, researching a new kind of energy, so the opportunity to visit the labs is a real reason for excitement. The visit will change Kurau's life forever, though, as a freak accident leaves her playing host to an alien, energy-based lifeform - Rynax. With her physical abilities augmented far beyond human norms, but no memories of the time before Rynax joined with her, Kurau's life is about to become extraordinary. 10 years later, Kurau's a mercenary for hire - a job her augmented abilities make her ideally suited for - but she's no closer to finding a way to separate Rynax from her body...
2 - A Good Word
Kurau's Pair has awakened - and taken a form looking suspiciously like the young Kurau, 10 years ago. First order of business: a name - Christmas - and some shopping to make the new arrival presentable in human terms. Christmas isn't at all familiar with the human world or expected behaviours, though, so Kurau tries to keep her true identity to herself for a while, instead passing her off as her little sister. But while her new life involves her targetting others, Rynax's ailities also mean that Kurau herself is a target for others - and now, so is Christmas...
3 - Those in Pursuit
Kurau's latest job is a rescue mission - the pilot of an out-of-control cargo ship in Earth orbit is stuck on board his craft, and his family and employers have hired Kurau to effect a rescue. At first, she's not keen on taking the job - the combination of having to protect Christmas while keeping her own body in tip-top condition initially leads her to turn the job down, but eventually the need to pay the bills wins her over. While she's out on the job, though, someone manages to bug their apartment, indicating to Kurau that it's time to move on again...
4 - Passing Through the Night
Now on the run, Kurau has to find a place where she and Christmas can rest safely, so she turns to her Broker for help. He's happy to oblige, but he expects something in return - there's a job he needs done, involving a group of local thugs that need taken down. But the job doesn't go as easily as planned, and Kurau soon finds that over-reliance on Rynax's abilities leaves her exhuasted - and possibly with a bit of Rynax missing...
The key to separating Rynax from Kurau is Rynax’s Pair, lying dormant within Kurau – Rynax had made a deal with Kurau’s father that once its Pair had awoken, it would work with him to find a way to separate the three of them into their separate identities – but as the years passed and the Pair remained dormant, Kurau and her father went their separate ways. Now the Pair has awakened, Kurau needs to get in touch with her father again – but there are others who are aware of Rynax and the abilities it can grant, and Kurau’s suddenly a wanted woman.
The first episode of Kurau: Phantom Memory does a good job of making you think you’re getting one kind of show – and then in episode two it goes off in a different (and for my money, less interesting) direction. You see Kurau’s father’s reaction to what happens to Kurau, his initial conversations with Rynax while he tries to get his head around what’s happened, his internal struggles to deal with the combined Kurau-Rynax entity behaving more and more like Kurau used to (is it his daughter, or a monster who’s subsumed her? How should he feel?), and you begin to see how a story about growing up and identity could begin to flow from that. I saw that possibility as quite an interesting one – so come episode two, where we’re suddenly dropped into a story where Kurau’s a super-powered bounty-hunter, I had a mental clashing of gears while I tried to adjust to the show’s direction.
The big issue I had with this, is that bounty-hunter shows aren’t exactly rare, and initially at least there’s nothing done to make it look like the series was going to try anything different. The awakening of the Pair – into the human form of Christmas, looking just like the young Kurau – also didn’t exactly inspire me. As the disc continued, though, things began to change, as Kurau herself became the one being hunted (quite easily, it has to be said – Kurau’s skills at catching other people seem to be much better than her abilities to keep herself hidden), and her efforts to keep Christmas safe and free took centre-stage.
Kurau may go to great lengths to keep her host status a secret, but it would seem she’s not the only one of her kind – among the group chasing her, there’s even a term for them: “Ryna sapiens”, a new form of humanity, and Kurau appears to be one of the strongest of them – and the shadier sides of society seem to want their hands on that power. While trying to avoid their pursuers, there’s also the promise made with her father to deal with, and that looks to be the direction the show’s going to go in from here.
I’m still a bit torn about Kurau, to be honest – the initial setup of the series, and the dual nature of Kurau with Rynax on board, opens up a whole range of possibilities, but with Kurau always been seen as really a “single” personality there’s not as much use made of her nature as I’d have liked, and the story has large elements of a chase story to it, with Kurau having to stay one step ahead of those who want the abilities that Rynax gives her. It’s enjoyable, sure, but it somehow manages to be less than the sum of its parts. Hopefully volume 2 will begin to make more use of all that potential.
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