Title: Asura Cryin' (アスラ・クライン,
Asura Kurain)
Airing period: (S1) April 2 - June 25, 2009; (S2) October 1 - December 24, 2009
Episodes: 26 (completed)
Voice cast:Miyu Irino (Tomoharu Natsume),
Haruka Tomatsu (Misao Minakami),
Ai Nonaka (Kanade Takatsuki),
Rie Tanaka (Shuri Kurosaki)
The story begins with the male protagonist, Tomoharu Natsume, moving in to his new home Meiou-tei, and starts to enjoy his carefree high school life. He is constantly haunted by the ghost of his childhood friend, Misao Minakami, who died in an airplane accident three years ago, in which he barely survived. His life changes with the appearance of a mysterious beautiful girl named Shuri Kurosaki who gives him a trunk, saying that his brother, Naotaka Natsume, asked her to deliver it to Tomoharu. This causes another girl, Kanade Takatsuki, to go after the trunk at night, dressed in a shrine maiden costume. In the mist of confusion, Tomoharu opens the trunk and unleashes Kurogane, an Asura Machina that uses Misao as a burial doll to fuel its movements, and later gets himself involved in a complex war that will determine the fate of his world.
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Another good story theme wasted - reason being that the messed-up climax in the second season pulls down the potential for the storyline to develop well. Truthfully speaking, the concept of summoning a mecha using shadows, then using spirits/ghosts to pilot the Asura Machinas; the medieval armor-like design for the mecha, combining with science and magic; the idea of two parallel worlds that echo off each others' existence - all these have a lot of potential to give a lot of depth to the story, but they are all simply rushed through hurriedly.
Just touch and go.(Read More...)
