Year: Spring 2009
Episodes: 25
Subbed
Cat.: SHOUNEN,
ACTION,
COMEDY,
FANTASY,
MYSTERY
Summary: On the eve of nobleman Oz Bezarius's fifteenth birthday, he and his loved ones gather to celebrate in a coming-of-age ceremony. But after Oz steps under a long-stopped clock and the hands finally move once more - thus fulfilling a mysterious prophecy - he is violently thrown into the legendary prison known as the Abyss by three cloaked intruders. Existing in another dimension, the Abyss is home to lifeforms born within its walls known as Chains; these beings can only live in the real world if they make contracts with humans, binding their power to the person's body. However, there's a catch - in time, the human will be overcome by the Chain's power and then thrown into the deepest level of the Abyss. When Oz wakes up in the Abyss he is quickly attacked by hungry Chains, only to be saved by one named Alice - a Chain who appeared just before he was thrown into the prison. Together, the two make a contract and return to the real world, where they are enlisted into the Pandora organization - a group researching both the Abyss and the trio that threw Oz into it. Along with members of Pandora, the duo searches to find Alice's lost memory fragments that are scattered throughout the world, to discover the secrets of the Abyss, and to determine if there's a way their contract can be broken without killing either Oz or Alice.
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The manga is prefered over the anime because of the different endings. But that isn't to say that the anime's ending ruined it.
The best:
-Fantastic storyline filled with loveable characterisation and mysteries to dig in.
-A light load of comedy mixed in that nevers seems inappropiate.
-Bewitching background music to help improve the experience.
-Xarxes Break. He kicks so much ass. Woah!
-It doesn't feel excessively long nor unrealistic or overdone when it comes to character interaction or depiction of emotions.
The worst:
-Sub-par fights. They are good, but you could definitely expect much better.
-An unsatisfying ending.
-''Bishonen'' overload and a very, very, VERY slight shonen-ai undertone. You probably won't even care since it's almost nothing at all, but there are lots of fussy people out there, so yeah...
-Perhaps, quite a bit of cheese here and there.
Overall I give it a 3.5 out of 5.