American University Anime Society’s Blog

Another action based anime, but this one is different I swear. Instead of one long story line, this anime is divided up into bi-episodic stories. That’s right instead of one long storyline, every two episodes gives you clues as to what the “big picture” is. I’ve enjoyed it over the summer, although I will admit I haven’t been keeping up to date with it. I’m slowly catching up to where it’s at today. And the main anime cliche, it takes place in Tokyo.

In this anime there is this thing known as the Hell’s Gate, that has caused the Japanese government to build a giant wall as to keep it a secret from the general populace. All that is really known is that strange things occur within the gate, and there is a rise in beings known as Contractors and Dolls. Contractors have made a contract that grants them strange powers that have stars that “follow” them. These stars will grow brighter as they use their power and will die when the Contractor dies. Examples of powers are: controlling electricity, stopping time, jumping from one body to the next, freezing water, and my favorite controlling fire. But wait there’s more! Every time a Contractor uses his/her power they have to make a payment. Some examples of payment are: breaking one’s fingers, folding the corners of pages in a book, eating flowers, singing a song, and drinking the blood of children. Contractors are kept a secret from the general populace and all seem to display a disregard for everyone except themselves. Dolls are well, like dolls, they are emotionless “people” who are able to summon surveillance specters that can be used for surveillance. They are programmed with the memories of whoever, but they where once normal people like Contractors.

You follow a Chinese Exchange Student studying in Japan by the name of Li. At least that’s his name while he is not on his mission, then he dawns a black cape, mask and goes by the name Hei (as a side note Hei means “Black”). He works for “The Organization” (I wonder if there is a connection between this and Claymore?) that is based in China. Hei works with other members Yin (Silver) the Doll of the gang, Mao (Cat) a contractor who lost his body and resides in a black cat, and Huang (Yellow) a normal person with an extreme hatred toward all contractors. The odd thing about Hei is that he is nothing like a normal contractor. He does not appear to have to make a payment after using his powers, and seems to still display every emotion a person has. Hei goes about his missions by oddly placing himself where the enemy makes it’s move. He uses his cover as an exchange student to go from one job to the next and digging up more information on Hell’s Gate. He’s even dug up some things on a Heaven’s Gate that use to be in South America that disappeared 5 years before the anime along with his sister! That’s right apparently he’s using all this information to try and find his little sister.

With the involvement of MI6 (British Intel), CIA, Russian Intel, and now what appears to be a rebel group of Contractors, I’m being drug more and more into the series and can’t wait to see what the “big” story is. I’m even more interested in how Contractors and Dolls are made since they’ve shown what they can do. I’d recommend this to everyone and think it would be a great short or long term series. Although I’m not sure how they will continue two episode stories when the anime is slated for 25 episodes, and episodes 23-25 will be the last arc.

I give this anime a 4.5/5.