Aoi Sekai No Chuushin De

I have always wanted to see an epic fight between the two mega mascots of the famous video game consoles, Sega’s Sonic and Nintendo’s Mario. And now it seems that I have finally got that wish. Well, almost. Aoi Sekai No Chuushin De may look like your typical action, adventure and fantasy anime with hot looking guys and sexy scantily clad babes but there is one thing that interests me on this anime. Sonic, Mario and other popular characters of the Sega and Nintendo games have been given the anime treatment. Yup. How do you like your hedgehog and Italian plumber to have that bishie feel? Exciting, isn’t it? Of course the names of the characters have been slightly modified but you can still identify them based on that and some of their stand-out traits. Isn’t that spiky haired guy who moves faster than the blink of an eye Sonic? Doesn’t the big bad moustachioed guy look like Mario? Ah yes. All too familiar.

As the story goes, the blue eyed Segua Kingdom (Sega) has always been at war with the red eyed Ninteldo Empire (Nintendo) over the Consume Continent (I bet they wanted something to sound as close to console). But with Emperor Marcus (that’s Mario, snigger, snigger) and his forces rapidly grew in power, they and their allies control 90% of the continent. Segua is on a losing streak and fast losing the war. But do not fear for the advent of a hero named Gear who will rise as the new hope of Segua to turn the tables on the Ninteldo Empire. Gear? You thought it was going to be something close like Sanik or Sonique, no?

Episode 1
Gear is forced to use his speed and beat up the guards when they attack him, Til and Nel. Although he wins at the end, it came with a great cost: Til’s life. That’s when Gear decided never to run away anymore. He’ll keep running forward till the centre of the world. Vice General Ramses hears Gear and Nel wanting to join the Segua army. She has him prove his strength right now. He must defeat 50 men in this dojo. Using his incredible speed, Gear beats them all in a blink of an eye! Ramses is impressed but it’s not over yet. The captain of defences, Harris wants to test his real strength. Gear blocks his heavy iron rod and knocks him out. I guess he passes the test. Ramses is impressed and feels with Gear in the army, Segua will have a new era. Ramses quickly puts Gear in charge of her special forces. His first mission is to retrieve General Alex who has been captured by one of Ninteldo’s allied countries, Tatoland. Then Opal drops in. Ramses introduces Gear and Nel to her but Opal doesn’t seem happy to be their friend. As Gear and Nel rest in their room, Gear notices a letter on his side. It is a challenge letter by Opal to fight her. Meeting up with her that night at the beach, Opal tells him straight she doesn’t like him. If he wins, he can order her to do anything but if she wins, he must leave. Gear takes up the challenge as Opal chides him for the kind of guy who gets his kicks beating up people weaker than he is.  She shows her power of excellent marksmanship that she never misses her target. She isn’t stupid to kill a fellow Segua and the first one to land a solid hit on the other wins. Opal is confident she will win and predicts the move Gear will make. But I guess her split second thinking was considered too long because Gear in a flash charges straight at her and punches her out in the gut! When Opal wakes up, she is surprised to see him carrying her back. How can he leave a lady lying on the beach alone? Gear explains people may think he is full of himself but he wants to help Segua and for them to accept him for who he is. Opal feels bad for looking down on him. So the thing that he will have her do is to fight alongside him in the special forces. Not something pervy like she imagined.

Can you imagine Ramses disbelief that Gear and Opal are good friends? Well, as long as it works out. She has called them because there will be another member who will be joining them. He is a mercenary and not a Segua. Tejirof is his name and was her senior at Puzzle Magic Academy. In short, he is a genius at theory. The gang are eager to see him. What supposed to be a wait for 5 minutes turned into an hour. And here comes in this good looking guy. The first thing he did was to grope Ramses’ boobs and telling some dirty joke of plugging his stick in the hole left by their general. He is briefed on what is happening and will train the trio till the start of the operation. That’s in 4 days, right? Tejirof will make Gear realize that there are others who are stronger than him. As Gear makes his speedy move, Tejirof notes his impressive speed but he saw it coming and initiates a barrier to block his attack. Then he strikes Gear and beats him in one move. Tejirof advices him he wasn’t running at his best technique and to toss away the feeling of feeling good while running at that speed because fighting on the battlefield means to kill. Gear admits his defeat but vows to go all the way despite being told there are many more others who are stronger than him. Tejirof could tell a friend of his died. Otherwise, why would a coward who had been hiding in the mountains suddenly move forward? Tejirof doesn’t view Gear’s idea of walking his own path as wrong. He thinks he should go as deep as he can because it doesn’t feel good unless he sticks it straight in. He’ll find his real answer there. Is that a dirty joke? Gear wants Tejirof to train him but he wants Gear to rest first. He tosses him the blueprint of the fortress they’re supposed to counterattack. He got it on his way here. That’s why he was an hour late. And nobody told him to do so and was just doing it to pleasure himself.

Episode 2
Gear doesn’t remember his past but remembers his dad telling him that the world is unfair and accepting them is all part of life. He never understood what it meant. Tejirof is training Gear well. He is a fast learner of course. Because Gear is termed as a Killer, Tejirof tells him a little history. The Great Atarika Empire was on the verge of conquering every land on Consume. However they fell apart because they would gather as much soldiers from anywhere no matter what. This includes bandits and thugs. Doing so causes a decrease in the troop’s quality and people’s trust. In the end, a coup d’etat brought them down. This incident was known as Atarika Shock. To prevent such incident ever happening again, nations made their individual soldiers stronger. In other words, quality over quantity. Thus a race of people with power greater than the average are called Killers were born. Gear is one since being a Killer is genetically hereditary. Tejirof goes to train Opal. Though her arrow skills are impressive, he advises her he can put something better than an arrow into her open hole. WTF. As every Killer has their own style like in Gear’s case the ability to change life energy in power called Action, Ramses and Tejirof’s Puzzle ability to rearrange life energy into other kinds of energy, Opal has Shooting. This will enable her to fight long range and at the same time take advantage of her skill with a bow. Then he powers up her finger. She can’t hold it in and feels like it is going to explode. Before she knows it, she lets loose a powerful blast. Opal is interested in mastering this new power of hers. Nel sees Tejirof and is looking for him since Gear is requesting that guy for more training. How did she find him? She followed his voice. Tejirof realizes she may have a Killer power sleeping within. He uses a group of archers to fire at her and she amazingly dodges them all. He explains she has Online ability and is able to attune her senses to the surrounding area. She can be useful in combat but he won’t force her. Nel wants to fight alongside them.

Later Tejirof talks to Ramses if Gear knows the whole truth. Ramses knew Gear will be the one when she first laid eyes on him. She knows it is cruel but Segua can’t lose all of its generals. Even if Gear is the son of Alex. Tejirof quips as long as he gets paid, he doesn’t mind doing anything dirty. Because he’s a dirty guy to begin with. Gear wants to know how many Killers are there, at least the strong ones. Well, there is Marcus from Ninteldo and his second in command, Zelig. Others include a princess from Ninteldo’s allied nation, Slovia who specializes in Crystal, Kichou the samurai CEO of Havid Republic, Tofig the martial artist of Ganp Federation and Myouto of Elil Republic as the only hero known throughout the continent that Marcus won’t even dare touch. Of course the operation they’ll be participating will have strong Killers too. A big guy named D. Fisher and a pair of brothers Boys and Bays with the latter believed to be the strongest Killer in Tatoland. Tejirof wonders why Gear joined the military. Maybe it was because his dad was a soldier. He once saw him defeating a bunch of soldiers in a practice match and was awed. Perhaps that was the reason. So he joined to see if he could see him again but since nobody looked like him, he thought he already died. Well, he’ll get a reunion soon enough. Segua army prepare their invasion of the fortress as Tejirof runs through their plan to save Alex in the underground cell. As they advance, Nel senses a scout nearby. He is badly injured as he reports that Bays is waiting for them at the rear. He knows he will not survive and wants the Killers to absorb him. But Tejirof says it is impossible since he is weak. He is sad he is not strong enough and the most wishes for them to take revenge. Then he kicks the bucket.

Gear doesn’t know this absorption thingy so Opal explains Killers become strong because of this method of absorbing lives of others. However there is a limit of how many a Killer can absorb. The markings on Gear’s forehead indicate how many he can absorb: Two. Tejirof advises he should only absorb someone when it is more effective. Talk time is cut short when Bays comes looking for them. I guess he got bored. Gear wants to show his strength but realizes he can’t move forward. Tejirof praises his maturity that he is able to judge things. Had he entered the fight, he would have died since Bays is very much stronger. Since they have no time to loose, Tejirof will handle him. He unleashes a light barrier onto him. The barrier lasts for 20 minutes so they have to make every second count while Bays plays with himself for that duration. Inside the underground passage, Nel senses someone big. Like a fish. It must be D. Fisher. Who else? Tejirof needs somebody to distract him since his light barrier is not a power he can often use. Gear wants to be the decoy but Tejirof has other roles for him. He has Opal to be the decoy. D. Fisher jumps into fighting Opal since he is bored of waiting. This allows the trio to sneak in. Gear opens the door holding Alex captive. He is shocked to see it is his father. Wait a minute. This suddenly incurs to me. Doesn’t he know his own father’s name? Unless he goes by a different name or Alex is just a bloody common name.

Episode 3
Gear remembers the last time he saw his father was before the war. Alex sent him away and by the time he grows up the war will be over because Alex is confident he will end it. Opal’s fight with D. Fisher continues. Since her arrow won’t work on him (his skin is as hard as rock), she powers up her Shooting and fires at him. She is surprised that he blocks her shot and also has Shooting ability. He uses Force Field to block all her other Shooting shots and hammers right into Opal’s stomach. Opal hides while contemplating to beat this guy. She thinks if she can hit him many times simultaneously, it would work. She charges up all her power into her finger. Although it is painful, she tries to hold it in so as not to give herself away. It pays off when she fires her 7-way Shot to kill him. Back to Alex and Gear’s reunion, Alex is glad his son is alive because he has always thought he died during the attack. Tejirof hates to interrupt them but they have to move on with the plan. The plan to absorb him. Say what? It was decided by Ramses if Alex was too weak to fight, he would be absorbed instead of being saved. Gear protests but Alex views himself as pathetic. He can’t even move from this spot or he will die. Tejirof adds he absorbs Alex for Segua. He dies now, he leaves nothing. It his son’s job to prevent his meaningless death. Reluctantly, Gear goes up to Alex and prepares to absorb him. All he needs to do is to wish of doing that. The one being absorbed must also wish to do so and with a mere touch, it can be done. While absorbing, Alex tells him that long ago Segua had 2 main Killers always on the frontlines. One day they were both badly injured and the plan to survive was awful. One to absorb the other. Because they couldn’t decide who to absorb, the crazy game of rock-scissors-paper was used to decide. In the end, Alex absorbed his beloved wife. That’s why when he sent Gear away, he wanted to ensure his loved ones were never caught in the fight again. Alex apologizes for everything but Gear is glad to have reunited with him and been given the greatest power in the Segua army.

Opal is weakened from her victory. Boys enter the fray and begins raping her. Before he can get to the juicy part, Gear swiftly snatches Opal from his hands. Boys could tell Alex has been absorbed and proceeds to brag how he was the one who defeated Alex and tortured him to such state although he never spilled anything. Before he could say another word, Gear beats him up. He didn’t know what hit him. And since the mission is over, Gear can go all out and beat the crap out of everyone in the fortress this he takes over it. Tejirof goes back to see how Bays is doing. He is out of the barrier. Tejirof feels the need to prevent Bays from preventing Gear in achieving his goal despite wanting to avoid this fight. Because Gear is trying his best, he too feels the need to do so. Bays seeing his determination decides to surrender and have his men retreat. He asks about the light barrier which he used on him so Tejirof says he learnt all the techniques from the Puzzle Magic Academy and should drop by if he wants to. Alex reunites with his wife in the stars. They decide to leave Segua to their son since their time is over. As narrated, Segua achieved its first major victory after a long time. Despite losing Alex, they gained a new hero whom everyone nicknames as Blue Sonic. The fall of the fortress soon spreads to other nations. We see the various Killers either interested with this new and rising kid or just couldn’t care less about him. At least they take note. Of course back in Ninteldo, Zelig rejoins his other generals to prepare for another war. Tejirof talks to Gear. The latter doesn’t seem as depressed as he should. In fact, he is happier than anything. Fighting and winning for made someone he knew happy although he still doesn’t know a lot of things. Tejirof advises him that people won’t respect him because he is strong but because he chooses the difficult path even though he is weak. This has Gear remember what Til told him. He admired everything he had and could never be like him. But he doesn’t respect him. That’s why Gear will keep on running even if it is to the centre of the world.

“It’s A Man’s Job To Thrust Into Any Hole He Finds”
That’ it???!!! I can’t believe this! This series had so much potential and it had to end with just a meagre 3 episodes? Where is the ultimate fight between Sonic and Mario, oops I mean Gear and Marcus that I was expecting? Besides, they don’t even meet! Not even any of the Ninteldo sides. I thought at least hey, even if they don’t get to face off with the big boss, at least maybe the crazy second in command Zelig would have a part to play. But nooooo… All we see is the Ninteldo side bumming around and their presence for 3 episodes is somewhat redundant. It’s like as though they are showing them so that we don’t forget there is Ninteldo Empire that Segua Kingdom has to deal with. Sure, they’ll lock horns eventually. But not now here.

As usual, the hero protagonist who once secluded himself now comes out to the fore. He needs to lose something important and close to him if he is ever going to move forward and gain more power. Gear should be advancing along nicely as long as Tejirof is by his side guiding him. Speaking of which, that guy is the coolest character in the series. Besides his dirty jokes, he gives the best advices and does not panic or let his emotions sway. He is the perfect teacher for anybody who is willing to learn. I believe despite he is doing this job for the money, he is doing it from the bottom of his heart. You can say he has been paid handsomely and thus the need to do a proper job but that’s just an excuse on the outside. Notice he takes the initiative to do things that I feel his payment doesn’t cover? While Opal provides a good support for the team, I feel Nel didn’t have much impact in her presence. It feels like she is excess baggage tagging along since she possesses no fighting abilities and the use of her Online power feels like as though it is to remind us she is useful to the group.

You might call me bias since I am always a Sega and Sonic fan as compared to being a Nintendo or Mario enthusiast. That’s why I was cheering all the way for Gear and his gang to beat up his enemies. But I can’t say much for the action since they’re just pretty okay and not that they really unleash any flashy moves. Gear is so fast that you probably won’t be able to catch his special technique. Opal’s 7-way Shot feels like a continuous rapid firing of her usual Shooting and nothing that unique. In addition to the action, there are bits of fanservice too. Mostly from Opal. I don’t know. Most scenes that involve her feel ambiguous and sometimes show her like as though she is close to orgasm. Whether it is training or powering up. She makes it close to look like porn. Heh… Is that pain or pleasure she is feeling? Maybe she’s got a dirty mind herself… Of course, Tejirof’s dirty jokes that include his finger gesture will make you either roll your eyes or snicker in glee. Remember, don’t ever attempt to use them as pick up lines! You might get a very harsh slap (or slaps) across your face, a kick in your crotch and worse still, a sexual harassment lawsuit to follow.

I know that all, if not most of the characters are based on some console video game as mentioned. But because I am not an avid gamer even during my younger days, there are many that I have failed to identify. Of course Gear and Marcus as the main ones are identifiable. The only other character identifiable to me was Til and Zelig. That’s Tails, right? Sonic’s best friend and helper. That’s Link from The Legend Of Zelda, right? Only looking much crazier like a cold blooded killer. Isn’t one of Ninteldo’s generals, Guliji resembling Luigi? Must be. I have this feeling that I might have seen Tejirof somewhere but after I couldn’t pinpoint it and gave up guessing to do some research, I realized he is supposed to take after that once popular block game of Tetris. Now I know why his powers are ‘blocky’. Yeah, his earring that resembles that distinctive ‘L’ shape Tetris block should have given me a hint. And his dirty jokes of ‘putting it in’ feel somewhat close to the Tetris objective of filling the holes with the correct blocks to clear the lines, eh? Besides, as a mercenary in this anime, Tetris didn’t come from Sega or Nintendo, right? Which reminds me, when they mentioned the old empire of Atarika, I had a good laugh at how that the old video game console that I once played too, Atari has declined into oblivion. I glimpsed Wikipedia and noticed that there are other video game characters that do not appear in the anime (yet) like Metroid, Kirby, Star Fox and even Pokemon.

I remember Nintendo had a game called Super Smash Bros whereby the famous characters of Nintendo games are all under one cartridge in a melee battle like Street Fighter. I don’t recall one for Sega, though. Maybe it’s because that company stopped producing consoles since 2001 and went from hardware to software. Now with many other nations in Consume Continent, I thought of hoping to see Playstation and Xbox in the fray of the console game wars too but I suppose that will be a different story. It will be fun if they ever make this into a full-fledge TV series and I will definitely be looking forward to it. Right now, I would just have to satiate my dream of Sonic pounding Mario in my head. Heh. Sonic FTW!!!