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Infinite Ryvius Volume 1:

Lost In Space

Infinite Ryvius is one of those shows that slipped under the fandom radar, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing; there’s nothing better for an otaku to see something that they haven’t been contaminated towards by watching a fansub or hearing word of mouth about (nothing like forming your own opinions, right?). The only thing that I can liken this opening disc to is the ‘70’s disaster movies like The Poseidon Adventure, The Tower Inferno, and Earthquake where the action is gripping and the “little stories” are just as interesting as the main plot.

Episode 01: The Forthcoming Time

Location: Futuristic Earth complete with advanced space travel. We’re following the beginning of training for a group of teenagers who have begun training on an orbiting space station towards achieving flight certifications (pilot status, service crew… etc). The characters of interest are Kouji Aiba (an insecure, by-the-book teen with a complex about his brother), his brother Yuki Aiba (a dark brooding soul who hates his older brother), their childhood friend Aoi (a bubbly/aggressive girl who cares for both brothers), Kouji’s team-mate Ikumi Oze (a happy go lucky fellow and a good friend of Kouji), Ikumi’s girlfriend Kozue (the kind of aggressive/sweet girl 

that could knock your block off), Blue (the bad apple – leader of the tough kids, the quiet analytical type), as well as the premier talent Juli Bahana (the Magna Cum Laude type who is deserving of the praise and respect – the best officer from Zwei).

The station Liebe Delta Astronaut Training Center is on the edge of the Geduld Sea (a large plasma body stretching across the solar system) 

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and is sabotaged during a routine dive into the sea. With the uncontrolled dive, the station is being destroyed from the intense heat. During the destruction of the station, Kouji and Ikumi discover that there is a person alive in a closed off area and enter in environmental suits to render aid. When Yuki discovers this, he comes after his brother and convinces him to leave the person to die by not placing himself in danger.

Episode 02: Unnecessary Things

Kouji and Ikumi are upset at not being able to save the trapped person and are now scrambling to return to the center of the station. Meanwhile, Juli is leading Zwei and has decided to try and activate the trainer ship Liebel that is onboard the station. The plan is to use the ship as an ark for the station survivors, however, there doesn’t appear to be enough time to prepare the ship to launch before the destruction of the station. To remedy the problem, the remaining station staff sacrifice their lives to forcibly jettison the outer edges of the station to slow the descent into the sea.

On their way to the center of the station, Kouji and Ikumi  come across a victim of the station evacuation, an unconscious girl who they decide to carry along. With their speed drastically reduced, the trio are making poor time and are finding all paths closed to protect the center of the station. Realizing that they must take a chance to survive, they enter the tube transport system where there is no gravity to speed up their journey. Their gamble paid off, as the trio enter the ship just before the station jettison completes.

Episode 03: Beyond the Vast Sea

Now on board the Liebel, Kouji has been keeping an eye on the unconscious girl that he saved with Ikumi; she awakens and introduces herself as Faina Shinozaki. While Juli maintains command, the rest of Zwei has begun recruiting students to help with the preparation for launch. Things aren’t all roses for one of the members of Zwei, he has caught the eye of Blue and was interrogated like only a true bully can.

The people that performed the sabotage have finally made their move. By taking Faina hostage they plan to stop the launch so another ship can rendezvous with the Liebel. The saboteurs appear to be interested in capturing the Liebel as the new ship is setting up to board the vessel. The hostage plan is thankfully thwarted by the group of rogue students led by Blue, interested in their own survival. Although the worst has appeared to pass, the program inputted into the Liebel fails and the system’s engines do not fire; however, the ship is unexpectedly saved when it is forcefully dragged out of the sea by an unknown ship anchored to the Liebel.

Episode 04: Ring of Ryvius

The launch from the sea was not as pleasant as it first appeared; the number of injuries and casual damage to equipment is unknown, and students with any first aid knowledge are being pressed into action as M.A.S.H. doctors. The factions are starting to form – Blue and his group once again asserted pressure on one member of Zwei that they have now renamed “Charlie”. Blue’s interest in the captured kidnappers is unclear, be it revenge or something more sinister.

With the immediate problems solved, the Zwei crew starts analyzing the trajectory and situation of the Liebel and discover that the entire power supply for the trainer ship is actually being supplied by an attached ship called the Ryvius and it’s decided that it would be best to transfer to the operational ship. Ordering the survivors to collect into teams (for living arrangements) – Kouji and Ikumi, form a team with two new additions: Nicks (the younger operations genius) and Akihiro (shy, awkward, overly polite guy). The Zwei team now spends the time to discover who they were attacked by only to discover that the ship that was trying to board them was an Orbital Security Ship… curiouser and curiouser.

Episode 05: A Little Harmony

The ship starts developing a rhythm as jobs and tasks are being assigned to the members of the crew. The boys are pressed into service flying one of the scout craft to perform a visual inspection of the hull and prepare to go under way. The Zwei team continues to figure out the different technology of the Ryvius – but struggles to figure out all of the interfaces. Blue and his crew manage to manipulate Charlie once more, and take out their aggressions on the captured saboteurs. In order to unintentionally increase the mayhem in the boys lives, Juli puts Yuki on Kouji’s team because Yuki hadn’t chosen a team and Juli thought that it would be ok to put the brothers together. When Yuki finds out about this, he chases after his older brother. Before Yuki finds him, the boys were examining a giant robot that Nicks had found but their elation was short lived as Kouji is attacked by his brother and accused of instigating his assignment to the team.

The Ryvius is approached by two Orbital Security Patrol Ships who maintain radio silence and launch a swarm of transporter nodes that attach themselves to the outer hull of the ship in order to capture the ship. At the exact moment that the transporter nodes were powering up, the ships’ engines come on-line and create a gigantic gravity well which destroys the two patrol ship and causes the Ryvius to dive into the sea.

So far the first disc has been maintaining an interesting pace with exciting action interlacing nicely with all of the subplots and unexplained occurrences that are just too numerous to list in a synopsis. I’m liking what I’ve seen so far, and I’m looking forward to seeing where this show is going to go.

- Tazman

(October 26, 2003)

"Imagine if you will being encased in a burning marshmallow. Really imagine it. Do it now."

- Dr. Sanjib (Sealab 2021)

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