English Dub Season Review: High-Rise Invasion Season One

 

Overview (Spoilers Below):

A confused high school student named Yuri Honjo wakes up in a world of only high-rise buildings. She struggles to contact her mom or dad, but her big brother, Rika is able to get through to her. He explains the world she’s currently in and how she should treat it as reality. However, she attacked by a masked person and manages to escape. However, she gets a rude awakening of how the world works where she has to kill others or she’ll be the one dying.

She gains allies and gets more information on the world they’re in which is to create God. Yuri rejects the rules of the world and finds out about a helicopter that can get people out of the world. She hatches a plan to destroy the world they’re in and to reunite with Rika. However, Rika gets taken hostage by a person closer to God named Aikawa who has malicious intentions of becoming God. Yuri and her allies get into battles in order to save Rika and defeat Aikawa.

 

Our Take:

High-Rise Invasion is a bloody show in a twisted reality of high buildings with wooden bridges connecting them. The cast of characters is large and High-Rise Invasion has a good balance of action, plot, and the occasional funny moments. From the start, murder is on the screen, and getting to understand the world through Yuri’s journey has been a thrilling ride. The music in the scenes helped out with the mood of the scenes going from light-hearted comedy to intense horror in an instant.

Additionally, the show adds a nice tidbit with the beginning of each episode like the saw for the chef mask and the perspective of the mask using the grenade launcher. There are few panty shots from the female characters, but it’s not excessive like other anime. Admittedly, the show feels longer than it actually is with how we get the information about the realm piece by piece. The transitions worked well to show how the realm has changed people. For example, when Yuri tells Mayuko about Rika who is beating up a Mask. The fights in High-Rise Invasion have a balance in terms of who wins or loses in the war to become God.

Our protagonist, Yuri retains her ability to act with kindness despite the crazy world she gets into without any explanation. She adapts to her circumstances and has a strong will to reunite with her older brother. One by one she gains allies as well as an enemy. Her journey going from a scared high schooler to a determined leader was great. It worked well to show how strong of a character she is in comparison to the other inhabitants.

Then there her allies in the fight to survive. Mayuko Nise, another student who was an enemy but turns into her ally. I did enjoy how they bonded and how Yuri helped Mayuko sees her own humanity in the process. Mayuko becoming Yuri’s friend was a good development from her initial introduction as a person who had no one in the other world to trust.

Another ally is the Sniper Mask who at first appears as an enemy, but after getting a crack in his mask he gains some of his memory before putting on the mask. In his choppy memory, he learns that he’s a friend of Rika and that someone forced the mask on him. It was unexpected to see his side of the journey and how he strives to retain a cool personality. Admittedly he is cool even when he’s in moments he considers to be embarrassing. His journey worked to show that even Masks are no different from normal people because they’re forced to obey the commands that the masks give them.

There’s Kuon, a naive girl who is a God candidate and has the ability to prevent Masks from attacking her. She ends up partnering with Sniper Mask as they trail after Yuri and Mayuko. It takes a bit of time for her to understand the situation she’s in with Sniper Mask. When she does, she recalls a few of her abilities. One of them is includes firing off a railgun which happens to be a part of the requirements to become God. The moment where she fired off the railgun was epic. Her crush on Sniper Mask was cute and solidifies the fact that she is a normal girl. Her determination to not be useless is a good starting point to her arc.

Then there’s the antagonist, Aikawa an evil god candidate who wants to become God. He executes his plan by crushing other god candidates and gathers information on becoming the Perfect God. He appears to be a normal person but his actions and orders make it clear that he’s a malicious character. He’s smart and shows it when he directs the Great Angel to destroy Yuri and the others with his words. He can control controls 30 Masks which is a testament to his determination to become God. Furthermore, those Angels are stronger than the usual ones we see in the beginning.

The masked people are divided into four categories: happy masks, emotionless masks, angry masks, and blank masks. Those that put on the mask obtain superhuman abilities and have certain positions in the realm. The happy masks are known as Angels and are common in the realm. They act to push normal people to the brink of despair by suicide. Emotionless masks deliver supplies such as food at various spots in the realm and aren’t threatening like the other masks. The angry masks are the Guardian Angels of the realm and are the strongest of the mouthed Masks. They exist to prevent the erasure of the realm and the creation of god. They can talk to other people and don’t attack people unless they sense hostility.

Lastly, there are the blank masks that grant people abilities and designates them as ones who are closer to God or God candidates. God candidates can have an array of abilities from firing the railgun to heightened abilities. It depends on how compatible they are with the ability and if they have the will to execute it. A majority of the cast becomes masks like Yuri becoming a God candidate to save Mayuko who became an Angel to fight against a stronger Masked person.

Overall High-Rise Invasion is a good show with each character and their goals. I look forward to seeing how Yuri and her allies will defeat Aikawa and bring peace to the realm. There are a few mysteries surrounding the realm, and that ending with Rika and Aikawa does have me intrigued for another season.