Synopsis

After losing his sister five years ago, Satsuki Kakeru led a vacant life, only able to return to his normal days with help from his childhood friend Minase Yuka and other friends at school.

Suddenly one day, the sky turns red and the moon turns black. Everyone besides Kakeru and Yuka disappears and monsters start roaming the streets. All that they were able to do was just to run away and hide. After a while, the world returns to normal. But just when they thought everything was a dream, the Red Night occurs again. Kakeru and Yuka manage to find four more humans who are involved in this mysterious phenomenon: Kusakabe Misuzu, a red-haired onmyouji swordswoman, Tachibana Kukuri, a strange mute girl who looks like Kakeru’s deceased sister, Hirohara Yukiko, a lively young girl who reverts to the personality of a cold killer when her glasses are removed, and Tajima Takahisa, a young pyrokineticist.

They get together and try to survive, but six shadows suddenly appear in front of them…

REVIEW

Trapped within the Red Night, six high schools attempt to survive against all odds against six malicious shadows, the main premise of 11eyes. This twelve episodic anime produced by Dogakobo,Inc is an shining example of how good a visual novel , hentai game can turn out to be a good anime series. Very loosely based on the visual novel, as stated chronicles the highschool students to survive and band together against the six sinister shadows that are after their lives.

On the surface, it is very easy to misjudge the storyline as a Persona series copy if you are familiar with it, but on the contrary, the anime has a very deep plot and story that goes far beyond the original premise and redefines the plots good and evil concept. Near the end however, it starts to follows a meandering and low resolution despite the good dénouement. The characters however, work in unison to give the story movement than it initial has, so the lack of explanation is rolled out through the story so it doesn’t take long for the story to really move and keeps the viewer locked in their seats. The number of twist and various plot devices that contribute to the characters are overall dynamic, but for some reason, quite a few of the main characters remain static, which is a small disappointment, but nothing significant.

The artwork is pretty much lively and aesthetic for most viewers, so it’s another promising device. Although as promising as the art is, the battle scenes were a bit stale and dry, which needed some spicing up, but, were alright compared with other visual novel pieces of it’s genre. However, the musical selections of the series provides a pretty nice backing and is a nicely composed set of dark themes mixed with some old school Japanese influence rhythm and tempo from old school type of instruments and also modern ones as well that fully convey the scences. The opening “Arrival of Tears” is performed by Ayane and ending by Arisel entitled “Kegare Naki Yumi,” which are two lovely pieces that fully fit the series. If you haven’t I highly can’t recommend the soundtrack pieces enough along with the original pieces as well to grab a hold of. They are truly breath taking.

Personally, the series is very nicely done and enjoyable for awhile, that is until the approaching ending which is a letdown to say the least. I have played the Visual Novel, but only gotten half way through the story which more or less is a better way to enjoy the series, but I hope to revisit it once my Japanese recognition improves.

However, the anime series 11eyes definitely has room to branch out from the collection of material it has and would be a joy to see, but not really needed. I won’t highly recommend the series, but I do suggest you watch for something different and semi-enjoyable.

Score: 78/100

Pros
-Excellent Storyline.
-Good execution and movement.
-Aesthetically pleasing artwork.
-Dynamic situations that give way to dynamic plot devices
-Plenty of room for extra ovas and other material.

Cons
-Static characterization for the impressive elements
- Great artwork wasted on half-assed action sequences
-Disappointing end (well…to me at least)