Ten Years Later: Tokyo ESP Anime

Based on the manga by Hajime Segawa, Tokyo ESP is a twelve-episode series that aired in the summer 2014 anime season. Animated by Xebec, the show has a lot of appeal with its design, and even just in a superficial sense, it can please with what it presents visually because of the action and character designs. The original manga, which saw an English release through Vertical Comics, began back in 2010 and had sixteen volumes when it ended in 2016, two years after the anime. The show clicked for me pretty quickly as in a lot of ways there’s more of a Western vibe to this show that reminded me of things that the superhero genre has done in varying forms over the years, from the big publishers to the small publishers, and that’s certainly a decent part of its appeal for me.

That said, the series is also incredibly frustrating for me in how it’s presented. The story actually starts off in a fantastic way as we get to see the Professor working a big plan to make the world realize that those with ESP powers, aka the espers, are a force to be reckoned with and want their own state. This comes after a range of events and laws aimed at dealing with the esper problem that has resulted in the Professor and his group causing even more chaos and acts of terrorism to make it clear they’re not going to be dealt with easily. Their various powers, from teleportation to illusion and more, are now being used to forcibly take over the parliament which they’ve ripped from the ground and are now floating over Tokyo in order to show the scale of their powers. It’s a series of impressive events and it quickly puts us into the war footing that exists.

Unfortunately, the show wants to spend the next nine or so episodes showing us how we got there and then resolving it in the final two episodes. This is, sadly, standard fare, and something that really frustrates me because we actually start at a great and engaging part of the series and pick up the character pieces quickly. What they wanted to cover could have easily been placed within flashback material going forward, allowing the fight itself to dominate longer and in more engaging ways as these pieces of the past are revealed. It mostly feels like we have an opportunity that’s lost here by going for the safe and simple approach – and I get that it’s adapting the manga – but it again reminds me that these adaptations are largely far too safe these days and that the difference in mediums isn’t being exploited well enough.

The central focus of the show is on the character of Rinka, a high school girl who has suddenly found herself gifted with esper powers when she sees a range of glowing fish floating through the sky. This has impacted other people as well and a number of powered individuals are starting to come into play. For Rinka, she gains the ability to phase and resolidify, something that causes her hair to turn white when she gets into ready mode. Combining that with some solid physical skills she has, being the daughter of a cop who retired since he couldn’t cope with all the corruption around him anymore, makes her a fairly solid character to work with. She gets her education in the world of these abilities from Kyotaro, a young man who is gifted himself with the ability to teleport. His story is a bit deeper as we learn in the final couple of episodes, but it’s easy to see how the pair get close relatively quickly over the course of the series as the threats pile up and the danger is close.

The show works itself in two forms as it progresses. First, with Rinka, we see her learning what she can do now and growing a small group of friends around her with abilities – which even includes her father, though his abilities aren’t used much outside of comedic effect in the first couple of episodes. The dynamic with Kyotaro is solid and the others that end up befriending her are fun. Most of the focus is on Kyotaro as he’s trying to be the right kind of hero with his abilities – having been saved by Rinka before all of this without her realizing it – and I like that he actually wears a creative and large mask in order to stop other espers that are causing trouble and criminal acts. The group grows at a natural and expected pace but also goes through the standard fracturing until they come back together at the end for the big fight at the beginning of the series.

The other side of the series is following the Professor himself and what he’s up to. He gets to come on strong in the first episode, especially with Rinka not as prominent, and it makes him an engaging opponent in the classic Magneto/X-Men vein. He’s looking to establish things right for his fellow espers and has built a solid team about him with some real skill, including his daughter who has a real love for Kyotaro that factors into events. There are a lot of familiar things with how he operates, but it’s when we get to his past that I really engaged with him and wish it had happened sooner. Discovering just how far he was pushed and the reasons why he’s doing what he’s doing doesn’t absolve the evil of some of his acts, but depending on your point of view you can find a lot of it justified. But I also love that the exploration of the origin of powers comes through the Ark of the Covenant and some really shady moments. This is all part of the larger story that at the end left me demanding a second season. The Professor is definitely a far more compelling character here than most, but it should be a given considering he’s the main adult character of note and has a lot more thrown at him.

When this first came out I hadn’t seen the simulcast and ended up just binging the home video release, which worked to its advantage even with the structural problems that exist. I had little idea what to expect going into this series but the first episode knocked my socks off and the final three episodes delivered exactly what I wanted out of it. What left me frustrated that the middle aspect of the show was far too familiar. I know, I know, this is how anime adaptations work and fans demand a pretty clear copy when moving into animation as opposed to reworking it. There’s a whole lot to like here and if it had played out a little more chronologically I think I would have liked it a bit less than I did. It opened so strongly that I just felt let down after that even as I enjoyed seeing the pieces come together, the quality of the artwork and design, and the solid action that’s presented throughout it. It’s a good show that could have been a great show with some restructuring and less direct faithfulness to the source material and its design. I definitely recommend it in the end, however.