| Infinite Ryvius | |
 Infinite Ryvius anime series logo | |
| 無限のリヴァイアス (Mugen no Ryvius) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Science fiction,Psychodrama |
| Created by | Hajime Yatate |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by | Gorō Taniguchi |
| Written by | Yōsuke Kuroda |
| Music by | Katsuhisa Hattori M.I.D. |
| Studio | Sunrise |
| Licensed by | |
| Original network | TV Tokyo |
| Original run | October 6, 1999 – March 29, 2000 |
| Episodes | 26 |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Yōsuke Kuroda |
| Illustrated by | Shinsuke Kurihashi |
| Published by | MediaWorks |
| English publisher | ComicsOne (volume 1) DrMaster (volume 2) |
| Magazine | Monthly Comic Dengeki Daioh |
| Original run | December 18, 1999 –September 18, 2000 |
| Volumes | 2 |
| Original net animation | |
| Infinite Ryvius: Illusion | |
| Studio | Sunrise |
| Released | June 30, 2000 |
| Runtime | 5–7 minutes |
| Episodes | 6 |
 Anime and manga portal | |
Infinite Ryvius (Japanese:無限のリヴァイアス,Hepburn:Mugen no Rivaiasu) is a 26-episode science fiction drama anime series produced bySunrise.
The character andmecha designs inRyvius were created byHisashi Hirai, who later went on to design characters forGundam SEED.
The series is noted for its music, which blends WesternR&B/hip-hop withJ-pop vocals, including its title song "dis–", performed by bilingual Japanese-American singerMika Arisaka. Most of the songs were composed by M.I.D., while background instrumentals were created byKatsuhisa Hattori.
The anime was originally licensed byBandai Entertainment in North America until it went out of print in 2012. Following the closure of Bandai Entertainment,Sunrise announced atOtakon 2013 thatSentai Filmworks had rescuedInfinite Ryvius, along with a handful of other former BEI titles.[1]
A two-volume manga adaptation was released concurrently with the series in 1999–2000, which was then published in English in 2004. A parody spin-offoriginal net animation (ONA) series,Infinite Ryvius: Illusion, was released in 2000.[2]
In the year AD 2225, mankind has expanded fromEarth to inhabit nearly all the planets and nearbymoons incolonies and settlements. Space travel has advanced to the point of being commonplace; for the inhabitants of theSolar System, becoming an astronaut is a realistic career path. One of theschools established to train future space voyagers is the Liebe Delta, aspace station positioned in Earth'sorbit. This progress exists despite theGeduld, a mysterious sea of plasma that erupted from the sun along Earth'sorbital plane in AD 2137. Stretching from the sun to the edge of the solar system, this phenomenon of high temperatures and gravity pressures remains unexplained.
Kouji Aiba, a sixteen-year-old boy, leaves his home on Earth to attend the Liebe Delta and train for his Level 2 piloting license, traveling alongside his childhood friend, Aoi Housen, who unexpectedly reveals her enrollment in the station's flight attendant program and informs him that his younger brother, Yuki, will also be joining the same flight class.
Thestudents and teaching staff on the Liebe Delta lead normal lives, focused on their studies and daily routines. They even have avacation period, called theDive Break, during which the space station approaches the Geduld for system maintenance. Out of approximately 1,000 students, about 500 remain onboard during the break. Unknown to everyone, the space station is sabotaged by a gas attack during a routine dive, leaving most of the staff unconscious. The Liebe Delta begins free falling into the depths of the Geduld Sea, where the intense gravitational pressures threaten to crush the station and kill everyone aboard. The remaining instructors sacrifice their lives to save the students, but their efforts fail. Just as the station teeters on the edge of collapse, a hidden ship called theRYVIUS activates and surfaces from the Geduld Sea, rescuing the surviving students aboard the Liebe Delta.
Now stranded in space and abandoned by humanity's governments, the students aboard theRYVIUS must navigate their new reality. As anger, fear, and tension grow among the crew, Kouji struggles to maintain order and unity. He faces personal challenges (including clashes with his brother Yuki), his complicated feelings for the Uranianaristocrat Fina S. Shinozaki, the task of avoiding Aoi, and the mysterious appearance of a girl in pink wandering the halls. As the situation worsens, Kouji must determine whether he can guide theRYVIUS to safety or if he will lose everything he holds dear.
The Vaia ships are said to be crucial to mankind's survival, despite their effect on those exposed to them for long enough, which results in a major mental breakdown as seen with the Blue Impulse's captain after losing the battle with the Ryvius. It was mentioned that there were six Vaia ships, which took several hundred thousand trained astronauts entering into the Geduld to capture, formulate, and secure Vaia for the ships. This was done to protect humanity from another Geduld phenomenon, as the Vital Guarders' gravitational warping effects could block the advancing Geduld phenomenon.
After an intensely fierce battle and the loss of his Vital Guarder, Conrad Vicuss took his own life, marking the end of the war between the Orbital Security Bureau and the crew of the Ryvius.
Infinite Ryvius explores complex themes and symbolism:
The titles given by Bandai Entertainment sometimes differ from literal translations; the Bandai-given titles appear in parentheses.
| Ep No. | Title | Original release date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "A Time That Should Come" Transliteration: "Kitarubeki Toki" (Japanese:きたるべきとき) | October 6, 1999 (1999-10-06) |
| 2 | "Unnecessary Things" Transliteration: "Yokei na Koto" (Japanese:よけいなこと) | October 13, 1999 (1999-10-13) |
| 3 | "Crossing the Ocean (Beyond the Vast Sea)" Transliteration: "Unabara o Koete" (Japanese:うなばらをこえて) | October 20, 1999 (1999-10-20) |
| 4 | "Ring Of Ryvius" Transliteration: "Rivaiasu no Wa" (Japanese:リヴァイアスのわ) | October 27, 1999 (1999-10-27) |
| 5 | "A Small Settlement (A Little Harmony)" Transliteration: "Chiisana Matomari" (Japanese:ちいさなまとまり) | November 3, 1999 (1999-11-03) |
| 6 | "My Moment" Transliteration: "Boku no Setsuna" (Japanese:ぼくのせつな) | November 10, 1999 (1999-11-10) |
| 7 | "The Changing Times" Transliteration: "Kawari-Yuku Toki" (Japanese:かわりゆくとき) | November 17, 1999 (1999-11-17) |
| 8 | "We Didn't Know Anything" Transliteration: "Nanimo Shiranakatta" (Japanese:なにもしらなかった) | November 24, 1999 (1999-11-24) |
| 9 | "Vital Guarder" Transliteration: "Vaitaru Gādā" (Japanese:ヴァイタル・ガーダー) | December 1, 1999 (1999-12-01) |
| 10 | "Even if it's Unbelievable (Even If You Can't Believe)" Transliteration: "Shinjirarenakutemo" (Japanese:しんじられなくても) | December 8, 1999 (1999-12-08) |
| 11 | "After the Festival (When the Party's Over)" Transliteration: "Matsuri no Ato" (Japanese:まつりのあと) | December 15, 1999 (1999-12-15) |
| 12 | "Whereabouts of the Future" Transliteration: "Mirai no Arika" (Japanese:みらいのありか) | December 22, 1999 (1999-12-22) |
| 13 | "We Can Only Touch Each Other (If Only to Meet)" Transliteration: "Fureau Koto Shika" (Japanese:ふれあうことしか) | December 29, 1999 (1999-12-29) |
| 14 | "Overly Conscious (To Be Too Conscious)" Transliteration: "Ishiki Shisugi" (Japanese:いしきしすぎ) | January 5, 2000 (2000-01-05) |
| 15 | "As if We Were Set Adrift (Swept Away)" Transliteration: "Nagasareru Mama ni" (Japanese:ながされるままに) | January 12, 2000 (2000-01-12) |
| 16 | "Distorted World (Deforming World)" Transliteration: "Yugamu Sekai" (Japanese:ゆがむせかい) | January 19, 2000 (2000-01-19) |
| 17 | "Free Order" Transliteration: "Jiyū no Chitsujo" (Japanese:じゆうのちつじょ) | January 26, 2000 (2000-01-26) |
| 18 | "We Didn't Understand (Incomprehensible)" Transliteration: "Wakariaenai" (Japanese:わかりあえない) | February 2, 2000 (2000-02-02) |
| 19 | "Smiling With You" Transliteration: "Egao de Kimi to" (Japanese:えがおできみと) | February 9, 2000 (2000-02-09) |
| 20 | "Things You Can't Give Up" Transliteration: "Yuzurenai Mono" (Japanese:ゆずれないもの) | February 16, 2000 (2000-02-16) |
| 21 | "We Don't Need Tomorrow" Transliteration: "Ashita Nanka Iranai" (Japanese:あしたなんかいらない) | February 23, 2000 (2000-02-23) |
| 22 | "For the Sake of Surviving (In Order To Survive)" Transliteration: "Ikinokoru Tame ni" (Japanese:いきのこるために) | March 1, 2000 (2000-03-01) |
| 23 | "The Torn-Off Past" Transliteration: "Chigireta Kako" (Japanese:ちぎれたかこ) | March 8, 2000 (2000-03-08) |
| 24 | "Kōji Aiba" Transliteration: "Aiba Kōji" (Japanese:あいばこうじ) | March 15, 2000 (2000-03-15) |
| 25 | "For the Sake Of Being Myself (In Order To Be Me)" Transliteration: "Ore de Aru Tame ni" (Japanese:おれであるために) | March 22, 2000 (2000-03-22) |
| 26 | "Tomorrow" Transliteration: "Ashita" (Japanese:あした) | March 29, 2000 (2000-03-29) |
A companion manga was released in Japan in 1999–2000. Created by Shinsuke Kurihashi and published byMediaWorks Publishing, the manga details the voyage of the Ryvius from the character viewpoints of Aoi Housen, and to a lesser extent, her roommates Kozue Izumi and Reiko Ichikawa. This is in contrast to the anime, which is seen through the eyes of the Aiba brothers, Ikumi Oze, and other mostly male characters. As such, the manga does not follow the anime "to the letter" but provides episodes and plotlines previously unseen.
The English-language rights to theRyvius manga were acquired byComicsOne, and the first volume of the English version, covering anime episodes 1–13, was released in October 2004. The second and final volume, covering the remainder of the series, was expected to be released in January 2005. AfterComicsOne was taken over byDrMaster, Volume 2 of theInfinite Ryvius manga was delayed. It was finally released under the new DrMaster label in May 2005.
Infinite RYVIUS Original Soundtrack 2
In 2000,Infinite Ryvius won an award for Best TV Animation at the fifth Animation Kobe.[3]
