Spiral

[gravitation]

Hey i really liked the Spiral series and just had to post this thread coz it was here once before...the ending was okey i guess....it was pretty much happy but i really hope they make another series! wat about u guys??

[Sakura-chan]

There is manga called "Spiral alive" running in Japan. It most likely has something to do with ~suiri no kizuna~. :p
I think the ending was just a set up for the following series. At least I hope so. :D

[|Aion|]

I remember a little bit about Spiral,it was a good series,would like to see another season

[gravitation]

yeah it was good, i would love to see another series/season!! i hope they do make one and i think it is very possible to do so ^_^

[eLstar]

To tell you the truth was disappointed by the ending but there were many g\ood points saying how the ending was perfect for the series. I can't remember them by heart and all I know was that it convinced me. It's just that it didn't convince me enough to still like the ending.

;)

[daedalus6]

Thats perfectly good question.


I dont know but I like that serie anyway.

[Oneesama]

Spiral~Spiral~Spiral~Spiral~Spiral~ I love Spiral :love:

I still need to finish dl them.....

[Fronzel]

Spiral is good and should be liescenced. I heard someone was scanlating the manga, but I haven't looked into it.


pom-poko-pin, God damn it!

[Wandering_Youth]

It was because of your Spiral signature that I started watching it, gravitation. :) I thought the character art looked good so I went and looked up the plot for it on Animenfo.com, and after that, I decided to download it. I really like this anime because it's entertaining and amazing how Ayumu solves all the mysterious with his logic. I thought the ending was also poor because it still left a lot of questions unanswered, but like the posters above me said, there probably will be a second season. The thing that bugs me was how the good guys became so friendly with the Blade Children after they murdered like a whole bunch of people. It was also quite awkward to see my favorite seiyu Horie Yui do the voice for devious Rio. :eyespin:

[boneyjellyfish]

yeah it was good, i would love to see another series/season!! i hope they do make one and i think it is very possible to do so ^_^

I don't think that's much of a possibility. By the ending of spiral, it had already gone pretty far from the manga. Also the manga isn't even DONE yet. People STILL don't know what the blade children are!

There is manga called "Spiral alive" running in Japan. It most likely has something to do with ~suiri no kizuna~.
I think the ending was just a set up for the following series. At least I hope so.

Spiral Alive is a manga, and it is associated with the Spiral manga. However, it takes place 10 or so years before Spiral starts.

[gravitation]

woah this threads bak! :D lol almost a month since it was created! PARTY! j/k ^_^
It was because of your Spiral signature that I started watching it, gravitation. :) I thought the character art looked good so I went and looked up the plot for it on Animenfo.com, and after that, I decided to download it. I really like this anime because it's entertaining and amazing how Ayumu solves all the mysterious with his logic. I thought the ending was also poor because it still left a lot of questions unanswered, but like the posters above me said, there probably will be a second season. The thing that bugs me was how the good guys became so friendly with the Blade Children after they murdered like a whole bunch of people. It was also quite awkward to see my favorite seiyu Horie Yui do the voice for devious Rio. :eyespin: lol, wow im glad i influenced you to download it :D ^_^ yeah it is a pretty good series...awwww...

Spiral Alive is a manga, and it is associated with the Spiral manga. However, it takes place 10 or so years before Spiral starts.
ooo maybe they will make an anime outta that, kinda like X and tokyo babylon....lol anyway bring on more Spiral! plz:) :D

[kazusa]

*hehe* Spiral eh?
Yeah... it was a very good series and yeah, I think that they're going to make another series otherwise the Japanese producers wouldn't add the "~suiri no kizuna~" onto it, they'd just make it Spiral. But then again... it could also mean that that was only the anime version... -____-;
Oh well, from my hunch I think there's going to be another series/season soon ^ ^

[Tomomi]

I love Spiral! But the ending was very disappointing! They didn't even cover anything at all! Like who's the Blade Children and where on earth is his elder brother... :(

[Sakura-chan]

Spiral Alive is a manga, and it is associated with the Spiral manga. However, it takes place 10 or so years before Spiral starts.
Well, the only thing I heard about it, is that it takes place before Ayumu's brother left. Too little information. >.<

[Asakura_Y0h]

Do you mean that they are doing a prologue to the series?

[Thelastguardian]

I can tell you why, the reason for that crappy ending is because the manga hasn't even finish yet! The manga is even behind the anime, thats why. ( I saw the manga versions of it in my local manga book store. )

[kazusa]

Well, from what I know, the Blade Children are cursed children that can only kill. Apparently, they are cursed to never have the ability to save another life and I suppose that's why Ryouko decided to get away from the rest of the Blade Children because otherwise that might push her to kill [like the Chief Police Officer, although it wasn't really her fault].
Another thing about the Blade Children is that they have one lung ^ ^;
What that has to do with the curse... I don't know XP
Regarding the brother... somewhere on some Japanese site I visited, it said that there's a possibility that the brother is already dead since all those that help the Blade Children get killed [which is why Ayumu was also in danger].

That's all I know for now.

[Sakura-chan]

Another thing about the Blade Children is that they have one lung ^ ^;
O.o;; I thought that they were missing one rib. But I could be wrong. :heh:

[Killua4Hire]

ok, I just finished watching Spiral in import DVD...and I'm confused like hell. It didn't help that the sub was horrendous. Can someone who has seen the whow clarify the following points for me? Thanks!
1) Why did Kanon betray the Blade Children?
2) In the last ep, how does Ayumu escape from the explosion? I mean, how does throwing a bomb into an explosion help him survive?
3) What exactly are the Blade Children anyway?

[Thany]

Killua4Hire you're being mean ...
Use spoiler tags for people that still haven't seen the end of this anime, thanks :)

[Keitaro]

3) What exactly are the Blade Children anyway?

Thats exactly what I wan't to know. Spiral was very good in the begining lots of potential then it all went downhill. I was like o shit this show is cool then the next thing you know it ends with not a single question answered which the plot seemed to rely heavily on then tells us oh it doesn't matter anymore and it ends. Piece of crap.... ended just like E's Otherwise.

[boneyjellyfish]

Killua4Hire - Those are three questions that nobody knows the answers to. I don't think even the manga readers know the answers :\

[NoSanninWa]

ok, I just finished watching Spiral in import DVD...and I'm confused like hell. It didn't help that the sub was horrendous. Can someone who has seen the whow clarify the following points for me? Thanks!
1) Why did Kanon betray the Blade Children?
2) In the last ep, how does Ayumu escape from the explosion? I mean, how does throwing a bomb into an explosion help him survive?
3) What exactly are the Blade Children anyway?

1) He bought into the idea that the Blade Children are cursed. Betraying them was his way of embracing his destiny. I know it's messed up, but there you have it.
2) I believe that the idea was that the force of one explosion can cancel another. I doubt if the physics really work, but perhaps someone else knows more about the subject.
3) We have no idea. My personal belief is that they were created by genetic engineering. (Blade = scalpel. They are the Children of the Scalpel.) I hypothesize that the researchers were so frighted by the intelligence of their creations that they decided to kill off the lot of them.

[Thelastguardian]

the manga version has not even finish yet...

[Killua4Hire]

Thank you so much guys! It doesn't really clear up much, but it feels good to know I wasn't the only one being utterly confused by this show :). BTW, sorry about not using the spoiler tag, I'm new to the forum, I didn't know that thing existed, I'll make sure I use it from now on:). Well...now I guess I'll go to watchign something a lil less damaging to my poor brain...like Yu Yu Hakushi :naughty:

[drvtech]

To answer 2,

at the time there was explosions and fire in the factory. When an object explodes, it usually releases a tremendous pressure as a compressed wave radiating outward. Normally when something explodes, it won't cause a chain reaction. But, the items that were exploding were made of gunpowder, which also generates tremendous amounts of heat, and as gunpowder is naturally unstable (hence the need to touch copper plates before entering a facility with gunpowder to remove all excess static electricity) so a little heat from a little fire, would cause the chemical make-up to change, causing an explosion. Okay, that's the background for that part. Now in the beginning, I believe dynamite was used (which is a different formulation) so it also generates a lot of heat and sets things close to it on fire, this fire then can give enough "activation energy" to gunpower (in the fireworks) causing it to explode which then forces the fire even further out. This heat and the rapid expansion of the fires generating the heat causes the massive chain reaction. But it requires excess fireworks to keep it expanding. Now imagine that I took a chain of those red chinese fireworks and added a length of string in the middle without any fireworks. The explosions will continue to the point where the string was attached, but afterwards, there will be a lull as the spark burns towards the next set of fireworks. The string is similar to what Ayami did by tossing in the bomb. Now there could be questions of why didn't the bomb also create a chain reaction? That goes to chemistry as a certain amount of energy input is needed to cause gunpowder to go unstable and explode. So therefore, the bomb Ayami threw probably didn't contain enough of this energy to further the momentum of the explosions. But since there were many fires and such in the warehouse, eventually enough energy would be transfered to cause the reaction to start again. Think of a forest fire, the firemen sometimes will burn a ring of trees around the forest fire in hopes of containing the wild fire. Similar though process used by Ayanami. Remove the fuel and you buy time.

[Fronzel]

You should get s fansub version, if you can. The Kraze and Empire versions are good.


Can someone please license it and the manga? It's one of the few things I've seen in fansub I'd want to buy, weak ending or not. And at least the ending wasn't like Sakura Diaries or Kare Kano (or so I hear for the latter), which is just "Stop. No More."


I like the irony that Rio is the sterotypical cute anime girl, but she also kills people, and the fact that Hiyono and Ayumu are adorable togerther, even if Ayumu is a wet blanket.


Similar though process used by Ayanami. (empashis added)

Wrong show, friend. Hah! I mock your minor mistake!

[drvtech]

Wrong show, friend. Hah! I mock your minor mistake!


Hehe, I apologize for the mistake. I should know better given that I at least followed and translated an episode of Spiral. But it was quite a while ago. ^_^.

[kamij0]

ok, I just finished watching Spiral in import DVD...and I'm confused like hell. It didn't help that the sub was horrendous. Can someone who has seen the whow clarify the following points for me? Thanks!
1) Why did Kanon betray the Blade Children?
2) In the last ep, how does Ayumu escape from the explosion? I mean, how does throwing a bomb into an explosion help him survive?
3) What exactly are the Blade Children anyway?

just finished watching spiral too,

Questions
1)Where is ayumu's brother anyway.. i thought he's gonna be appearing soon yet its still a mystery..

2) Any Spiral 2 in the making ?

3) i see the blade chidren "vanishing" in the last episode.. what does that mean
their sufferings ended ?

[PocariSweat]

Spiral is just one giant "Psyche!" of an anime. It sets itself up to be a mystery style show, but then just gets utterly lost in it's pointless bomb fetish and silly overwrought Batman style traps.

The fireworks factory is good example: First no one would generate *that* much static electricity without a Tesla coil strapped to their back. Even so, all Arumi had to do was touch a slightly non conductive object (like a cement wall, wood, or the floor) which will discharge you slowly enough not to spark (try it yourself sometimes). Taking off his shoes would do it too. Second, the whole "fight fire with fire" idea is probably based on using explosives to put out stuff like oil well fires. That doesn't make sense here though. The only way his bomb could be of any use would maybe be to blow a hole to escape through before the main bomb went off. That's hard enough to do without setting off the whole mess, but the show implies the bombs somehow canceled each other out long enough for him to escape.

It's quite a joke to have a mystery series where not ONE of the central questions are answered. Instead we have a fuzzy "I'm ok - you're ok" ending trying to convince us the real answers don't matter. It's kinda like a bad magician shouting "hey, look over there" to distract the audience as he stuffs a bunny down his trousers.

[Adamjt]

Spoiler



good anime but i waited the hole time just to find out what the Blade Children were and they never tell YOU! :frustrated: what the hell

[kamij0]

ahh .. seems like the blade children aint important in the 1st place

[chamelean75]

Maybe the reason why so many questions were left unanswered was because there may be a season 2? Anyone know if there will be a season 2?

[wao]

I think the case with Spiral is as it is with a lot of other anime; the manga simply hasn't finished and they decided to just stop there first. Damn you J.C. Staff. I WANT MORE SPIRAL!

I really really really really really want the manga to see how it continues. Gee... I agree the "ending" was one of the shittiest ever...

Hehe, despite the ridiculous parts of the show and other really erk parts, I still love it. XP It's one show I can truly say is love-or-hate... either you hate it to bits or you love it.

[dkellis]

To echo what most people have already said, I was also quite disappointed in the ending.

Spoiler tags just in case.
From what I can see, the Blade Children started killing people because they were being hunted. They were being hunted because they killed people. It's a circular argument, that did not get answered in the end. For all we know, the hunters (I think the term was) were religious fanatics who wanted to kill the Blade Children "just because". For all the impressive mysteries the show presents us, it's kind of depressing to see that the story itself got nothing more than a token effort.

[azndragnz2k]

In the anime Spiral, i have just recently finshed it, but i;m somewhat left hanging. I don;'t understand what kiyotaka's purpose was and what Ayumu had to do, adn why were the blade children so unfortunate.


Can someone explain to me the ending of this anime or what's this whole thing suppose to mean?

[suguru]

In the anime Spiral, i have just recently finshed it, but i;m somewhat left hanging. I don;'t understand what kiyotaka's purpose was and what Ayumu had to do, adn why were the blade children so unfortunate.


Can someone explain to me the ending of this anime or what's this whole thing suppose to mean?

Unfortunately, I'm not sure anyone can do that, the anime was left *very* open-ended. I understand the manga is still running, so maybe more is explained there, but the anime explained virtually nothing. After 26 episodes, you still don't know who the Blade Children are, why they need to be exterminated, etc.--it's the kind of "ending" that made me delete Spiral off my HD pretty quickly...

[boneyjellyfish]

Can someone explain to me the ending of this anime or what's this whole thing suppose to mean?

I promise you that we'll tell you as soon as we find out.

[Village Idiot]

Spiral was one of those anime series that started while the manga was just beginning, then had to end before the manga was no where close to finishing, hence no one but the writer of the manga knew what the hell was going on.

The manga is being scanned/subbed already, though it is being released very slowly.

Last I heard, the manga is at around vol 7 or so.

[baka]

if you were paying attention to it i will say you had to pay attention to almost every world of it to understand but i called this my overachievers anime . Well worth the time In my opinion. I wont give spoilers because I don't i believe it ruins it for the future enjoyment of anime fans who have not seen shows.

[Fronzel]

Just got 1 + box today......and I'll be damned if it isn't a bit messed up. I remember from the fansubs that the first part of the first episode was a kinda dream-like sequence with a flashback showing the last time Ayumu spoke to his brother, and it isn't on the DVD! Why are my professional materials missing footage?

[Tabiree]

Just got 1 + box today......and I'll be damned if it isn't a bit messed up. I remember from the fansubs that the first part of the first episode was a kinda dream-like sequence with a flashback showing the last time Ayumu spoke to his brother, and it isn't on the DVD! Why are my professional materials missing footage?

DO you still have the fansubs? have you checked? There is a possibility that FUNimation are using a JP DVD release of the show, which occasionally is altered from ordinary TV broadcast.

[Kamui4356]

Just got 1 + box today......and I'll be damned if it isn't a bit messed up. I remember from the fansubs that the first part of the first episode was a kinda dream-like sequence with a flashback showing the last time Ayumu spoke to his brother, and it isn't on the DVD! Why are my professional materials missing footage?
You mean the scene where he's talking to his brother on the phone? If it's missing, complain to the company. Hmm, I thought funi was getting better with their releases... This is the kind of thing that gave them a bad reputation in the first place. But as had been mentioned, that scene could have been ommitted in the r2 dvd version, or it could have been an authoring mistake.

[Tabiree]

You mean the scene where he's talking to his brother on the phone? If it's missing, complain to the company. Hmm, I thought funi was getting better with their releases... This is the kind of thing that gave them a bad reputation in the first place. But as had been mentioned, that scene could have been ommitted in the r2 dvd version, or it could have been an authoring mistake.

Actually, what gave them a bad rap in the first place was changing Dragonball Z/GT series in regards to music and dialouge.

[Fronzel]

You mean the scene where he's talking to his brother on the phone?
Exactly. Ironically, I specifically liked that brief scene.
DO you still have the fansubs? have you checked?
I had them on discs I may have thrown away when it was licensed, but I remember it well.
There is a possibility that FUNimation are using a JP DVD release of the show, which occasionally is altered from ordinary TV broadcast.
I am familiar with this phenomenon, but would it have less footage than the TV version? And maybe I'm wrong, but isn't this more common with really popular shows? Spiral wasn't that big, was it?

[Emiri-san]

I hope their is nothing wrong with it because I asked it for Christmas..eh.
However I have only seen one episode but I thought it was really good.

[paraneo]

hmm.. I didn't even know the Spiral DVDs were released yet, I guess I'll have to get them sometime since I never finished before it was licensed.

[Fronzel]

I DO still have the fansubs, and I didn't make it up! Maybe I'll post some screencaps somewhere or something.


The question is still there: how the hell did this happen?

[Dagger]

I am familiar with this phenomenon, but would it have less footage than the TV version? And maybe I'm wrong, but isn't this more common with really popular shows? Spiral wasn't that big, was it?

Meh, it doesn't seem to have that much to do with the show's popularity. Nowadays plenty of anime, both popular and otherwise, have major or minor clean-ups for DVD.

The only case of "missing" footage in a DVD release I can think of is the R1 release of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, which like the Japanese DVDs used the official opening CG animation from the very beginning. IIRC, the TV broadcast of SAC initially had a temporary, 2-D OP. The temporary openings weren't included as extras or anything.

[Fronzel]

Interesting.





I want my damn Spiral prolouge.

[Laxe]

Ok, I was looking through my old fansub cd's when I found the first 20 episodes of Spiral which I'd downloaded way back in 2002! After trying to seach for the dvds I discovered that Funimation had ONLY JUST started releasing the series! What's up with that?? I was hoping to just buy them all in one go but the powers that be certainly took their time to release this series!

I hope I'm not the only one who's peeved off by this...it was an amazing series!

[xris]

Ok, I was looking through my old fansub cd's when I found the first 20 episodes of Spiral which I'd downloaded way back in 2002! After trying to seach for the dvds I discovered that Funimation had ONLY JUST started releasing the series! What's up with that?? I was hoping to just buy them all in one go but the powers that be certainly took their time to release this series!

I hope I'm not the only one who's peeved off by this...it was an amazing series!
What are you talking about, all the Spiral DVDs have been released since last August.

Here's a list of all 6 DVDs available at DVDPacific (http://www.dvdpacific.com/search.asp?title=spiral+vol)

11/16/2004 Spiral, Vol. 1: What Are The Blade Children?
01/11/2005 Spiral, Vol. 2: Disarming Fate
03/01/2005 Spiral, Vol. 3: Shooting Fallen Stars
04/26/2005 Spiral, Vol. 4: Sharpening Wit
06/21/2005 Spiral, Vol. 5: Melody Of Logic
08/16/2005 Spiral, Vol. 6: Notes Of Truth

[Laxe]

What are you talking about, all the Spiral DVDs have been released since last August.

Here's a list of all 6 DVDs available at DVDPacific (http://www.dvdpacific.com/search.asp?title=spiral+vol)

11/16/2004 Spiral, Vol. 1: What Are The Blade Children?
01/11/2005 Spiral, Vol. 2: Disarming Fate
03/01/2005 Spiral, Vol. 3: Shooting Fallen Stars
04/26/2005 Spiral, Vol. 4: Sharpening Wit
06/21/2005 Spiral, Vol. 5: Melody Of Logic
08/16/2005 Spiral, Vol. 6: Notes Of Truth

Hmmm, it would appear I need to get some sleep...for some reason I'd lost a year and thought we are in 2005! :heh: :heh: :heh: Bah! Still Region 1 dvds though! :upset:

[KoroshiyaX]

Here's a few shocker spoilers from manga...

Be warned.


- Narumi's brother is evil, and is the mastermind behind most of the bad stuff that occurs throughout the story. He is jealous of Narumi and wants to use him for his own means.

- Blade Children are genetically engineered/modified humans who have parts of the genes from this devil like superhuman and at some point in time, those genes would take over their personalities and they would be forced to act againts their will... to do what, I won't spoil that :P

- Narumi is actually a clone of his brother, both of whom are also genetically engineered... as for what, I won't spoil that :P

Here's the biggest shocker...

- Hiyono is a made up character, created by Narumi's brother, he hired her to get close to Narumi and gain his complete trust, so that he could take it all away at the end and hurt him greatly... This somewhat reminds me of Matchstick Men with Nicolas Cage and his daughter :P

[Nayuki]

How about a series just about Rio?

[Potatochobit]

are u serious KoroshiyaX? is that BS u made up or is it really from the manga.


now u told me what the blade children are and now i feel like ive been soiled ;___;

[Shinji103]

are u serious KoroshiyaX? is that BS u made up or is it really from the manga.


now u told me what the blade children are and now i feel like ive been soiled ;___;The only thing he said that I'm not sure about is Hiyono working for Kiyotaka, but I don't think he's BSing it as I suspected she was far more than she appeared for a long time. everything else he said is true. I'm not entirely sure about the Kiyotaka being evil part, since Kiyotaka wants Ayumu to kill him. [Kiyotaka] I ordered volume 15 and it'll be here in a few days, so I'll find out soon.

[Shinji103]

Yep, Hiyono is indeed not "Hiyono" but somebody (who remains nameless) that Kiyotaka sent to Ayumu to create a wekaness to exploit.

final volume, btw.

[KoroshiyaX]

Told ya ^_~

[WabukiSensei]

It's been over three years since I watched the anime and I was thoroughly disappointed by how it ended, but now you tell me that the manga (which I haven't read) is almost finished too? Please, tell me how it ends!!!

[Shinji103]

Manga Ending(Skipping a lot of the talk scenes where they talk about how they'll live for tomorrow, etc. :heh: )

Ayumu and Hiyono go out to buy a new pair of earrings, and Ayumu gives one to Hiyono to give him back when he returns from his confrontation with Kiyotaka. Ayumu and Kiyotaka meet, and Kiyotaka tells Ayumu that Hiyono doesn't actually exist and is just one of his subordinates who he sent to become Ayumu's greatest weakness. Kiyotaka almost gets Ayumu to kill him [Kiyoatak], but Ayumu doesn't. Ayumu and "Hiyono" meet one last time, and after giving "Hiyono" the earring again as something for her to give back when they next meet, they part ways. 2 years later, the Blade Children are succeeding at leading normal lives, while some of them are still succumbing to the "curse" of the Blade Children. Kiyoatak and Madoka managed to keep their marriage in one piece after all that had happened, and Hizumi has just died due to genetic imperfections since he's a clone. Ayumu has also been hospitalized due to the same illness, and "Hiyono" returns to see him in the hospital. They have their usual spat, and "Hiyono" gives Ayumu back his earring before he plays the piano for her.

[LightningZERO]

Did Kiyotaka's face was shown? How does he looks like? Identical with Ayumu?

[Shinji103]

Did Kiyotaka's face was shown? How does he looks like? Identical with Ayumu?Yes they showed his face and he does look a bit like Ayumu.

[XxX_Blade_Child_XxX]

yeah, Kiyotatka looks alot like Ayumu, but with longer hair that he keeps tied back

[gknight]

i know that unless it was announced no one can give me a solid answer but i just want it so much.. i don't understand what's up with that ending. :(

maybe you heard the creator/studio saying anything about a 2nd season..? ^^"

thanks.

btw how's the manga and is it released in the US? (how many volumes is it)

[NoSanninWa]

There has been no word about the anime ever getting a second season and I personally doubt it.

Hopefully someone will post a synopsis of the manga's ending for those people who are curious. Before the forum crash in December some kind soul posted such a synopsis, but we lost that post. I will only say that after reading that synopsis I lost all interest in ever seeing a second season of Spiral. Still, it would be nice if someone would post that again so that others can understand why a second season is not desirable.

Trust me when I say that anything you want to imagine about the secret of the Blade Children is better than what was revealed in the manga. It's as if the manga mutated into a totally different story and genre than the early part which was animated.

[D a m i e n]

I only remember 2 things about this anime.
1 : i loved the opening song + visual, the puzzle piece moving everywhere really left me a good impression.
2 : it ended without giving any answer about what were the "childrens" and what was the deal with the main guy's brother.

I think i used enjoy the anime but the end just suck, not sure i would enjoy a second season, dont think this kind of anime would appeal me now. Not even sure they will do a season 2 after so many years between the Spiral serie.

[XxX_Blade_Child_XxX]

3) What are the blade children?
MAJOR SPOILER!!!
Throughout vol 6 (or 7?) through to 10, Kanone took over the entire school, threatening to kill everyone. And he was successfully subdued in vol 10. I dunno how they did it because in my stupidity I skipped 10 and bought 11 and 12.

Anyway, this brings us back to the question. Why did Kanon betray the Blade Children? In his conversation with Eyes, he mentioned that he was with the Blade Children all along, until he met the enigmatic character only known as "Hizumi." This Hizumi character made him realize what evil existence the Blade Children are, and he’s determined to put an end to them himself.

There's this other group called the "Watchers" who watched this whole event unfold, and only broke silence to Ayumu after Kanone was apprehended. The Watchers' representative Tsuchiya Kirie, along with Eyes Rutherford, revealed the truth to Narumi Ayumu...

Eyes began with this, "Narumi Ayumu, do you believe in a 'creator'?"

An all-powerful creator who created the all life and everything in the universe. One day, that creator, out of his whim, decided he’ll try to destroy mankind. Now the creator understand that great natural disasters won't work, because humans are great at surviving and adapting...so the creator decides to destroy mankind from within. He sent to the world all-powerful demon: "Mizushiro Yaiba:” born to Japanese parents For some reason he was born with a rib missing. He’s the father of all the Blade Children.

Mizushiro Yaiba was a child prodigy, and excelled at everything. He grew up to be an adult with a certain kind of charisma. When Yaiba was 23, he formed a group called "Knights," with him as leader. No one really knows what the Knights does, but Yaiba, with his talent, took control of the financial and political scene, and his group grew bigger and bigger. By the age of 26, Yaiba had become the undisputed ruler of the world in shadows. But as powerful as he is, it's still impossible for one man to defeat several billions of people in the entire world. In order to destroy the world, he started the "Blade Children" project at age 29. It's a project to "mass-produce Yaiba's children": Yaiba means "Blade" in Japanese. The Blade Children are Yaiba's children

Many people wanted to inherit Yaiba's lineage. Through artificial fertilization and test tube babies, they willingly carried out Yaiba's seed. About 80 Blade Children were born through this. Those who willingly carried out the project had no idea of Yaiba's true intentions. They thought that with Yaiba's talent multiplied, they could change the world for better...

Yaiba's children, The Blade Children, for identification purposes. had one rib removed surgically as soon as they were born…

The project was a great success. As the children born of this project all inherited the Yaiba's great talents. However, some members of the project sensed that something was going on. Of all the children that were born, all of them inherited the talent: genetically speaking this is rather abnormal. In the evolution of mankind, the Homo Sapiens won over Neanderthals because they were better and fiercer. Could this be that Yaiba's trying to create a superior race and using them to wipe out the inferior?

It also turned out that Yaiba's talents is inherited through every generation. The number of Blade Children continued to increase after the second and third Blade Children project....

The doubters confronted Yaiba, and asked what he’s plotting. Yaiba told them each and every detail with a smile, along with the lines: "My will is to wipe out mankind, and my blood carries that will. Adult Blade Children will act to destroy mankind. There's no running away."

All of Yaiba's Blade Children are born to have a certain distaste for common people. But they are not always like that. It is said that even Yaiba himself was not like that before the age of 20. But when the Blade Children reach a certain age, all those who have inherited Yaiba's lineage would awaken and proceed to act as Yaiba wills: to facilitate the destruction of mankind.

People who remained with Yaiba asked him why would he reveal his plan to those who oppose him, and he replied, "This is just to make sure that the game is a little more difficult to clear, otherwise it'd be boring."

The group soon broke into three parts.
Those who fear the project and Yaiba's existence and want them quickly eliminated, became the "Hunters."

Those who thinks that the project is still in its middle stage, so they should continue monitoring the children and see what happens, the "Watchers."
And finally, those who support Yaiba's plan no matter what, the "Saber."

This breakup of the group is all just entertainment to Yaiba. The Hunters tried to purge the Blade Children, some as young as 5. During this initial purge, about 20 were killed. Of course the Hunters tried to target the source of all problems: Yaiba himself, but they were at a disadvantage in the beginning - No man can kill Yaiba. Yaiba would have a hunter point a gun at his head, but for some reason the hunter can just never pull the trigger to kill him. No bomb or blade can hurt Yaiba, it's just his innate immunity to harm.

The Hunters factions were cornered, and all seemed lost as Yaiba continued with his Blade Children. At that moment, one unexpected 20year old Japanese man appeared. He easily killed Yaiba, who died with an unbelieving look on his face. That man is Narumi Kiyotaka

Yaiba could not be killed by mankind. In the Bible, a rib was taken from Adam to create Eve, so that he could reproduce. Yaiba reproduced without Eve, then why is a rib missing?

Just as there is god and devil, good and evil, there are two creators on the opposing end of the spectrum . One created Yaiba to destroy mankind, the other took a rib from Yaiba to create Narumi Kiyotaka. It's like a chess game.

At the moment of Yaiba's death. This whole matter should've been easily solved by killing all the Blade Children, which the Hunters wanted to do. However, the Watchers and Sabers would not have them kill the remaining 50 Blade Children, who were all no more than 6 year old. They wanted to find a way to save the Blade Children without killing them and asked Kiyotaka for help. But Kiyotaka was powerless in such a problem: he’s a "destroyer," born to destroy Yaiba and has no power to release his heir. But he showed the watchers and sabers a glimpse of hope: one who is Narumi Kiyotaka, but is not Narumi Kiyotana - one who is not like god, but not god, and has powers like god: Narumi Ayumu. Ayumu was created to save the Blade Children.

Of course not everyone believed that, so some continued to hunt down the Blade Children, but some hunters switched and joined the Sabers or Watchers....

Tsukiomi Academy was a school run by the Knights before the rift, therefore a large number of the Blade Children were assembled there. Kiyotaka sent Ayumu into this school in order to slow down the Hunters' progress, and also give him problems so that he would mature and grow from them. He has developed a personality that would cause him to fight the Hunters whenever someone gets murdered with no reason.

But there something in Kiyotaka's plan that he didn't tell anyone, and that's the reason why Kanon went berserk. It turns out that Kiyotaka never really planned to save anyone, he’s just wasting time so that Ayumu can mature to his true purpose: like Yaiba and Kiyotana, Ayumu has his opposite: Mizushiro Hizumi, Yaiba's brother. This is just a recurring game between the two opposing creators. But some like Eyes still continue to believe in Ayumu even though he’s just a false hope, for those who have no hope, it is better to believe in a false hope than nothing at all.

[Potatochobit]

yeah, and thats why this show is silly after the lets blow up ayumu arc :/

[hiyono_s2]

um would anyone know a good site to find translated scans of the manga??? :( i only found volumes 1-4 online. && can anyone explain what happens in the manga that the anime doesnt show? more details on hiyono being sent by kiyotaka please!

[XxX_Blade_Child_XxX]

There aren't many more details about Kiyotaka sending Hiyono, not that I can remember at least...

I know that there are some translations for the spiral manga at

http://www.realitylapse.com/manga/spiral.php

as to which volumes I'm ont too sure... :heh:

[XxX_Blade_Child_XxX]

How about a series just about Rio?
a series about Rio would be cool, I like Rio...

[Kain Wanderer]

Its been some time from this post to the 1st one about 3 years. Does anyone know anything new on this anime. I have been checking out a few other places and some of those fourms are saying that a 2nd season to this anime is in the planning and will be starting on Japan some time in 2007. Also can anyone will update us on the manga.

[NoSanninWa]

It seems unlikely that there will be a second season. To date there are no reliable sources saying this.

[Skyfall]

Just finished watching this, and if asked to describe it one sentence i would say: One big ball of nonsense.

The start was interesting, and despite the anti-climatic chibi and slapstick moments (that thankfully gradually dispersed as the series progressed) i was interested in learning about the Blade Children, their curse, fate, the reason they are hunted and how is Narumi's brother connected to all this and what role he is supposed to play. Needless to say, i was not exactly pleased when the anime failed to address any of these points.

The plot and details were forgotten very quickly in favor of ''Lets have out weekly 'blow up Ayumu!' episode". Through the series they keep referencing to the cursed Blade Children, yet we never get to know why they are cursed or even how this curse manifests itself. As far as i could tell there was no curse to begin with, aside from being mentioned simply to add more 'serious' and 'futile' feel to the situation.

We learn they are being hunted, yet we have no idea why these hunters even exist or why they should be hunted in the first place. Unless we assume all of the hunters to be a bunch of medieval idiots who think that "Zumg, missing rib! Evil, evil i say!!" ... though from the looks of it such a guess wouldn't be too far off.

Which brings us to the next point ... the missing rib. Why are they missing a rib? Ok, that would not be so important, but at least explain to us what the missing rib stands for. Whats the symbolism behind it ? Why is it 'evil' to have a missing rib in the first place ? Another 'deep and meaningful' element that seems to be added simply to make the atmosphere of this mystery without substance more 'meaningful'.

Ayumu ... why is he the hope of Blade children ? What is special about him ? What is it they are supposed to be saved from in the first place? (No, "Their cursed Fate" are just empty words that mean nothing without any explanations and/or evidence to back them up). How are they supposed to be saved, and why is it him who can save them? Again - nothing gets explained.

Kyotaka ... why did he disappear? Why is he special to the Blade Children? What is his relationship with these children, seeing they have great trust in his words. Where is he now? Is he alive/dead ? Again - details of the show that got thrown out the window.

Ok, if the plot(?) is a complete mess, at least i can look towards some nice action and adventures taking place inside the story, even if setting makes no sense and is not explained. ... Or not.

More often then not the characters act in a way that makes next to no sense at all. For being such a supposedly smart bunch at times it didn't seem they were thinking at all. The hunters seemed to be the dumbest of the lot. Looks like only the first one who tried to snipe Eyes-kun had some trace of common sense.

If you are so hell bent of eradicating them, then why not simply shoot them from the get go? Oh, wait - they tried ... not really. There were times when some of the hunters actually got them at the gunpoint, but instead of actually shotting they get 'overpowered', because in some weird way someone always had the time to rush forward (For hunters, their reaction time seems to have a few second delay) and knock the gun sideways or throw something at their head :eyespin: But that is ok, since most of the times they were busy setting up some not-so-bright traps for some weird reason. (The whole ordeal with the hunter trapping Kousuke in the train depot was especially roll-eyes worthy). But hey - why do things the simple way if you can do them the hard way.

One thing this series did succeed at was quickly deplete my suspension of disbelief, because most episodes required rather large portions of it. The 'logical deductions' looked more like wild and random guesses that were tried to be passed of as actually logical deductions.

Aside from Rio being cute, there is not much positive i can say about the series. Past the middle point i started to get worried we are not going to get any explanations at all, and sadly i was proved to be correct. As soon as the background was established the whole plot got thrown out the window in favor of episodic adventures involving someone trying to blow up Ayumu one way or another, without solving anything in the end.

5.5/10. Style over substance.

[rooboy]

The song at the beginning is great though. :)

[Xellos-_^]

I am reading the manga right now.

Exploding Lolita :D

[Shabazza]

hi,
I recently started watching Spiral, but I don't know If I shall drop it or not 8/

First I thought that would be some good stuff although the animation was below mediocre (well, the show is kinda old so I don't care), but the characters are already starting to annoy me (I'm at episode 4).
Is there any good plot/character development later on or can I just drop the show without missing anything?

I read Skyfall's post and that makes me want to drop it even more 8/
Any non-fanboy/-girl comments appreciated.

[Solace]

Skyfall's points are fairly accurate. The anime just doesn't really explain anything and after all of the "events".....just kind of ends.

The subplots are interesting, if a little easy to figure out, but the show is all over the place. One minute it's a mystery, then it's a comedy, then it's...you get the idea.

The best part of the whole show (for me at least) was the characters (the opening is pretty neat too). I really wanted to find out more about them, but the show just doesn't deliver on any of the points it presents. If you're expecting character development, there isn't much, sadly. In fact *nothing* is resolved in the end...you're still left with every question presented at the beginning unanswered. You're actually left with *more* questions than when it started.

A serious waste of potential. The manga delivers on the points but it's a huge letdown when everything is revealed. :( It's like the writer couldn't figure out how to tie up all the mysteries into a unique package.

Watch it because you have nothing better to do. There are certainly worse anime out there, but this one is average at best.

[KimmyChan]

Spiral is a really great series that keeps you guessing until the end :)

It has a lot of really good characters and there are so many twists in it's great storyline :)