Review: Fractale

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Episode Reviewed In: Episode 80
Alternate Titles:  None
Original Japanese Release Date: # January 14, 2011
Episode Length/Run-time: # 11 Episode
Summary:
The story takes place on an island resembling a futuristic Ireland (certain scenes are directly taken from Galway city in the west of Ireland), in a world ruled by the “Fractale System” that ensures mankind’s stability and prosperity. One day, Clain meets a fleeing girl called Phryne, who disappears during the night leaving a pendant. When he is able to activate the pendant (which turns into a “doppel” named Nessa), Clain sets out for a journey with the girl-shaped avatar Nessa to look for Phryne and discovers the secret behind the Fractale System.
Review:

Plot Summary:

  • This is really a weird anime.  There are these creatures called Doppels that look just like the cousins from Katamari.  Clains’s parents are doppels.  My impression of Doppels is that they’re like Avatars that people can use.  A virtual self.  Think about that movie with Bruce Willis, Surrogates.  They use the Doppels to check up on and visit Clain in his house but they don’t live with him because they don’t want to be “tied down”.  They think that if they live together its a  sign that they don’t trust each other….odd.
  • The story takes place on what looks like an island surrounded by high cliffs.  Otherwise, the island is covered by grassland.  This is some kind of a data based world. The fractale is a world made up of trillions of little computers.  This kid is living his normal, weird, life, when he sees a girl on a glider, very reminiscent of Nausicaa being chased by three people on a hot air balloon.  One of them looks exactly like Ed Elric.  No joke.  She takes a look at the main character and allows herself to fall off her glider backwards into the ocean below.
  • So the first episode is called “encounter” because he finds the girl lying on the cliff below and revives her.  She’s actually pretty cute. Her name is Phyrne.
  • They go back to Clain’s house and that night they fall asleep up in the hillside in some old ruins.  When Clain wakes up, Pyrne is gone but she leaves him a pendant.
  • The next day Clain is trying to figure out what the pendant is when a girl named Nessa comes out of his laptop.  Shes very energetic and cute and that day, Clain shows her around town.
  • She seems like she has special abilities.  She can touch Doppels, which I guess most people can’t do.  She also seems to cause wild things to happen when she touches things.  For example, she was in a trailer park and touched an RV and all of a sudden the thing took off without a driver and drove right into another RV.
  • In the end, Clain suddenly cannot touch her anymore and she goes to the police station to be a “missing person” of sorts since nobody knows who she is.
  • After that, the 3 people that were after Clain abduct them and take him to their leader who is also a young boy.
  • At the end of the episodes, Nessa returns to him, he can touch her again but they get capture by the three people.
  • We learn a few more things in episode 3:
    • People in the town that Clain was brought to have to wear special glasses, or some kind of eye wear(googles, etc…), in order to see Nessa because she is a doppel.
    • In the world, there was some event in which mankind started relying on these “Fractales” to survive.  People had “fractale terminals” put into their bodies and rely on data and doppels to do everything.
    • Clain and Nessa have been taken to a village called Ganitz which do not rely on anything from the new mellinnium. No doppels, data, or terminals.
    • The people in the village are members of a rebellion movement called Lost Millennium which is a group fighting against the fractale system.
      • Turns out doppel Nessa carries some kind of very special data that can help Lost Millennium in their efforts.

Audio and Visuals:

  • The visuals are stunning.  The colors are vibrant and beautiful.  there is a very tasteful use of CG  graphics on things like water.  The animation is smooth and flowing.  Also, the music is quite good.  The intro isn’t that great, but the in show music is fitting to the scenes in which they are played.