NieA_7

—by Charles McCarter

Let's get one thing straight, the title of this show is pronounced "Niea underscore seven." It's important to the story. I don't know why it's subtitled "Domestic Poor Animation," but it is.
For those of you who think that the character designs are familiar, they indeed are, as they are done by the same character designer, Abe Yoshitoshi, who did the designs for Pioneer's sleeper SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN. But those expecting the same oft-confusing, bleak, heavy atmosphere of LAIN will find themselves somewhat surprised by NIEA_7.
The show begins with a young girl, Mayuko. She's 18 and she's happy living her ordinary life. She lives in an apartment building, she goes to work every day; she's not that much different than the average young woman. Except, perhaps, for her living situation. Her roommate is Niea. And, well, there's no other way to say it, but Niea is an alien. As such, she behaves rather strangely, and is curious about things which most of us would find rather boring and ordinary. And, of course, like many great anime characters, she has a voracious appetite and is a bit of a troublemaker.
There are two types of aliens, the elite kind, which have these antennae things on their heads, and the "unders," which don't. Niea is of the latter type, and so, at least in her alien society, she is of the lower-class. But that doesn't really seem to matter much in the early stages of the story.
The show is mostly about the lives of Mayuko and her strange roommate Niea. One of the more interesting subplots revolves around Mayuko's friend, Chiaki, who is a UFO buff. She's one of those fanatical types who documents her experiences on her website. So, needless to say, Mayuko really isn't all that keen on her finding out that her roommate is an alien. And the scene where they try to hide Niea's spaceship in their room is incredibly funny.
The show ranges from quiet and almost boring to fast-paced slapstick comedy, mostly with Niea at the center. Mayuko is often the straight man in these jokes, and finds herself being blown up, thrown in a river of flammable oil, and eaten by giant plants.
The central story here, of course, is of Niea and Mayuko, and it's one that develops slowly. But then again, friendships develop over time, and are often hard to fit in the space of a 25-minute episode. However, sometimes the pacing seems deliberately slow, as if too much action will overexcite the viewers.
The animation is something of a mixed bag, but in this case it works. Like LAIN, NIEA_7 uses a subdued color palette, preferring to stick to darker, drab colors rather than really bright hues. And the animation is pretty much what you would expect for a 13-episode television series. In some instances it works really well, and in some instances it's only average.
The biggest draw to NIEA_7 is the quirkiness of the setting. It's like the Earth we know, but not quite. There are a lot of familiar things, and a lot of things that are just bizarre. These elements all blend together to form a world that, while maybe not totally believable, is certainly entertaining. And when the show is funny, it's really funny. So give NIEA_7 a shot. It might not appeal to the die-hard LAIN fans, but it certainly has potential.

Pioneer LDC
DVD, 50 minutes
Vol.1: PIBA-1180
¥5,800
Available now in Japan
Website: http://www.NieAunder7.net/
Where to buy