Scryed, X-men+Jojo-Fabulous and women= this.

Scyred is a rare example for me, of preferring the adaption to the source amterial. Scryed's anime did indeed come first, and it wasn't bad, but it lacked the punch of and overall badassery of the manga. Kazuma is a much different character, though the rest of the cast acts largely the same, at least til the anime decides to kill everyone off, but more on that later. Scryed has been in my top five favorite manga for over a decade. I've seen the anime three times as well. Unlike the rest of my blogs, I'm writing about the manga first.

 Both Scryed series have the same basic premise. An area of Japan rose up into the sky one day, and of the children born there a small percentage gained super powers known as alters. They can range from being stand like to creating a seperate entity, or enhance your body, or even heal others. The world is a wasteland similar to theworld of Fist of the North Star, and our hero Kazuma is similar to it's protagonist, Kenshiro. Kazuma is known as the treasoner, he takes jobs that his friend Kimishima offers him, usually rescuing kids from bad alter users. He lives with a young girl whom he takes care of, Kanami.Early on, he clashes with Ryuho, a member of Holy, a police force dedicated to order in the last ground. Kazuma escapes, but vows to kick Ryuho's ass next time they meet. Kazuma gains fame taking down corrupt Holy Officers, and soon Ryuho arrives at his door. The two of them head out into the middle of nowhere to throw down, and an epic battle commences. Ryuho has the upperhand, but Kazuma refuses to give up, to the point where he manages to reattach his severed arm to crush Ryuho's alter, Zetsuei. Kazuma passes out, satisfied, and Ryuho, despite being impressed knows he has to arrest him. Enter Lawless, and their two leads, Akira Mijou and Hannish Lightning.

    Hannish and Akira take Kazuma back to their compound, while the nurse in charge of Kazuma reveals she is a childhood friend of Ryuho, Mimori. She heads out to get medicine for Kazuma, but is captured by Holy. Kazuma absorbs the medicine through his skin, and with Akira and Hannish heads out to save her. Kazuma's brilliant paln is to bust in there and kick some ass. Kazuma breaks into the facility, and finds  Mimori about to be raped, and saves her. He also finds Kanami and Kimishima in the facility, and just when he's about to free them, Cougar Straight shows up. Cougar was a childhood friend of Kazuma's, and a fast alter user. The two of them fight with Kazuma getting his ass kicked, until Kazuma absorbs some of Cougar's speed in his arm, and uses his falling speed to attack quicker. Ryuho shows up to witness this, but Cougar stops him from attacking.On his death bed, he reveals that he joined Holy to get more food to the poor people of the lost ground, and that the true villain is the man in charge of HOLY, Martin Zigmarl. He is quickly killed by one of Zigmarl's men.Ryuho and Kazuma team up to quickly deal with this threat. They part ways, with Ryuho and his partner Cherise heading to Holy for some answers, and Kazuma returning to Lawless.

   Ryuho and Cherise get their shit kicked in by a member of the new Super Holy,Mary Jane, and Cherise uses her alter to merge with Ryuho, saving him from death. She leaves him to recover, and heads back to sneak into Holy, but is brain washed into being a slave by the second member of Super Holy, TT. Meanwhile, the third memeber of Super Holy, Taiki Aono destroys Lawless Headquarters, leaving only a wounded Kanami and Akira in the wreckage. Kazuma and Akira head off to get revenge at Holy Headquarters. They easily wipe the floor with any Alter users in their path, until they come face to face with Taiki Aono who overwhelms them. They are saved by the Alter Hermit, and pulled to another dimension. The alter hermit was originally Martin Zigmarl's teacher, but was killed by him. Cougar had told the Hermit about Kazuma, and how he would be the most powerful alter user and able to use the word of evolution, Scryed. The hermit passes this knowledge onto Kazuma and Akira, and passes away for good.

Kazuma's true final form.

    Kazuma comes up against Taiki, while Akira engages Mary Jane in a room full of clones, grown and created to have alter powers. Taiki reveals he is Kazuma's brother by way of a matching birthmark, but Kazuma doesn't belive brotherhood should stand in the way of beliefs. Kazuma kicks his ass after he powers up using the word Scryed. After the fight Kazuma reveals he is the treasoner because "In a guilty society, it is treason to do what is right." Mary Jane is Beaten when Akira uses Scryed too. During this Ryuho has entered the fray, coming up agaisnt TT, and Cherise under his control. Ryuho kisses her, they merge, and speak the word of evolution, Scryed. Ryuho's alter gains it's final form. The two of them head to Zigmarl's office, where he reveals he can take the form of a pretty boy, and he does.

He wipes the floor with them, until Taiki reappears, and helps Kazuma land a direct hit. Taiki passes away, and Martin Zigmarl summons his Alter, Galan Du. Shortly after, Galan Du turns on Zigmarl, killing him.  Galan Du controlled Zigmarl, and is planning to wipe out humanity, with the help of his time machine. Kazuma and Galan Du are sent back to the time of the dinosaurs, where Kazuma summons all his strength and beats him. In the present day, a glacier in unearthed with the word Scryed scrawled in it. A battle worn Kazuma reurns to Kanami, and leaves us with the word "Your destiny is what you make of it, sometimes it just requires a little force." In the epilogue, it is show Kazuma regenerated his arm and missing eye.

From upper left: Cherise, Ryuho, Mimori, Kanami, and finally Kazuma in the front.

   The anime of Scyred is similar to the manga for the first few episodes, before diverging wildly. Kazuma is the Shell bullet here, not treasoner. he's also many times weaker than his manga incarnation. He still takes jobs, but early on he is captured by HOLY, before managing to escape. The aniem also loves it's death with Kimishima dying early on, and Kazuma going to the Alter Forrest to power up Alter. Despite this power up, Ryuho still kicks his ass, but the fight tears open the dimension, Ryuho loses his memory, and Kazuma becomes some sort of Gladiator. The interesting thing is that the world below the lost ground interacts with the island, sending people and the generic silver haired villian to the lost ground. No matter what happens in this world though, it all just feels forced and generic to me. Martin Zigmarl dies, but he's a good guy, Cherise dies, most of the alter users Kazuma helped early in the series are experimented on and die, the series is just a mess. It doesn't help that this series shares a character designer with Gundam Seed, so expect plenty of same face. The villian is so forced even when they beat him, nothing changes.

     Kazuma's alter also destroys his body, for whatever reason. Yeah, no one else has this problem, it's to make Kazuma for more tragic. Kanami is also an Alter User here, she can see the future in her dreams, she narrators the opening where she recounts her dreams about Kazuma. There's plenty of Alter Users here, but overall they don't add much. Kazuma struggles when fighting most of them too. This Kazuma is kind of angsty teenager to the bad ass of the manga. Still, the series is okay, I like the fight scenes, but the characters are a mess, plus the final episode is Ryuho and Kazuma beting the shit out of each other for no reason. C'mon guys, you beat the final boss together, why do you have to keep fighting?

Anime's Cat thing/ Guy Shishio rip off Final form

Same as the manga's final form, I give it a pass.

    Scryed is a series I'd like for sunrise to revisit at some point, the manga at least. The anime can stay dead for all I care. It had two compilation movies a few years back, but they were never translated due to lack of interest really. Scyred aired on Adult Swim, but personally I hate the dub. In addition to sharing a character designer with Gundam Seed the leads also share a vocie actor. Kazuma is also voiced by Soichiro Hoshi, same as Kira. He turns in a much better performance here though, most likely due to understanding Kazuma's emotions. Still the anime is a 7/10 to me, whereas the Manga is a 10/10. I have no idea how many times I've reread the series, but I know I'll do it again. Kazuma is a bad ass, kicking ass, taking names, and never giving up. We could all learn a few lessons from ole Kazuma.