The Scarlet Nexus game was definitely a blast and so it’s nice that it got a full anime adaption as well. You don’t see that very often and especially with a big RPG like this. I’d say that the story is adapted pretty well so you can definitely follow along even if the anime is the only thing that you have absorbed from the franchise. It works like any normal anime would so you have all of the context that you could possibly need here.

The story follows two main characters. The first one is Yuito Sumeragi who has to live up to a rather impressive family history. He is determined to succeed on his own merits. He joins the OSF which is effectively the sci-fi police of this region and they fight off monsters as they keep the peace. These monsters are seemingly endless and so far there has not been a way to get rid of them. Perhaps Yuito will be able to accomplish this since he seems to hold some kind of pivotal role in the situation. So much so that people even want him dead.

Meanwhile we have the heroine Kasane who is an experienced member of the OSF. A girl who looks exactly like her saved Yuito when he was a kid but she doesn’t recognize him. Unfortunately it looks like the only way to save the world is to murder Yuito. Can she really murder an innocent person even if doing so would save the world? Her options begin to narrow as something happens to her sister and there is a serious time crunch. Now she just has to make sure that her information is reliable.

There is a lot going on here and to an extent you can even say that it’s like a government conspiracy type of series. The government here knows a whole lot but they don’t like to share intel. Additionally there isn’t only one faction. No that’d be too simple for something like this. So you have the OSF as a whole, then you have Karen who commands a resistance army that breaks away from the OSF. There is also the tribe of the Moon which has a lot of plans and there is even one more group. So you can see why the whole world is in chaos because humanity is absolutely not close to any kind of unified front. They would sooner continue to fight each other than actually manage to save the world.

In this world most people grow up with a kind of psychic power. The type varies as you can have flames, invisibility, etc. If you don’t have one, then you are literally called a dud and will have a hard time doing much of anything. Almost the whole world is set up for people with mental abilities so basic things like signs don’t tend to exist. We briefly see this as one character grew up as a dud and we see one lady get lost at the hospital. It’s a pretty interesting plotline which shows just how hard it is to not have powers when everybody else does. The show doesn’t really have time to get into this at all beyond the one scene though. It would have been nice to have addressed this a bit more.

As per always, the government is the side you don’t want to be on. They run a ton of crazy experiments and are really a big part of the problem. We see that they have ideas on getting rid of the monsters but in the meantime they are making more and basically hiding it. Once you learn the truth behind the monsters, it makes them look so much worse. Even the drugs they use to help Yuito have a dark secret behind them. There was really no coming back for the government from this and quite a few characters are complicit after they know about it.

The common theme from the higher ups is that you have to make some sacrifices but that’s an attitude that I will basically never side with. After a point you end up causing more harm than good. At least Karen’s motivation is one that I can get behind. Basically he is trying to change time in order to save Alice from an untimely death. As always my train of thought here is that if you have the ability of time travel then you have to do whatever you can in order to save someone who has died. You just keep trying over and over and over again until you have pulled this off. You owe the character at least that much.

So Karen is putting the world at risk in order to do this but that’s fine. He’s the standout character of the series because of his determination. He just never gives up and keeps on trying the whole time. The series gives his character a pretty solid end. Ultimately you just have to remember to never give up and keep on trying for as long as you can. He was also the most powerful character in the series by a longshot to the point where the heroes needed considerable amounts of plot armor in order to even stay close against him. The ability to copy all other powers always tends to be a broken one.

As for the main character Yuito, he’s a solid lead. The guy may not be overflowing with personality or anything like that but he is doing his best to help everyone out. Unlike Karen it does feel like Yuito gave up in the end as we saw what happened to him when he grew old. Not a great look for the guy but he did put up with a lot. Yuito just needed to trust in his own abilities a little more. His power level fluctuates a lot based on his emotions and he is also dealing with a psychic illness for most of the series which limits him quite a bit. Things would have been a whole lot smoother for him otherwise.

Kasane definitely handles herself with a lot more poise throughout the series. She is more skilled with her abilities at first although Yuito quickly begins to catch up in that arena. She can be a bit too reckless in jumping to conclusions though. Particularly when she decided to murder Yuito since that just seems like a crazy gamble and of course there are no takebacks. I do like her tough persona though.

Of course you can’t have a full squad without teammates so lets talk about those. First up is Luka who is Karen’s younger brother. His teleportation is handy and Luka would probably be a huge threat in battle if he didn’t have to always go up against someone crazy strong like Karen. Luka knows how to fight well and while he can be a bit timid, he’s a solid ally to have around. Arashi is a lot more fun when it comes to the seniors though. She likes to slack off and knows how to be subtle about it as well. She can move at super speed which you’d think would make her super broken but she doesn’t actually fight that much.

In general the show isn’t the best at showing power levels. Despite how many monsters there are, it feels like the heroes should have an easy time rounding them up. Arashi alone could crush a great number with her speed but she rarely feels much more useful than the average fighter. Her high rank reflects her ability but it’s more lore than showings. Someone like Gemma I can understand having a tough time since he’s more of a brawn guy. Not the fastest or anything and instead relies on his blows to make a difference. I lost a lot of respect for the guy early on when he was shown to be gullible and change sides quickly. He is an example of someone that you do not want to have on your side because you just can’t trust him.

Hanabi serves as the childhood friend role and has some good fire abilities. Despite this, her role is fairly small and she’s mostly just around to fill out the cast. I would have expected her to have had a much bigger influence especially since fire powers are always awesome. Ah well, at least she does look after Yuito. Then we have Kagero who is another one of those guys who can’t be trusted. He gets a fairly big origin story and at least has a much better reason for the deception than Gamma. I tend to like Kagero but the heroes forgave him a bit too easily. Particularly Yuito who really could have gone to town on the guy. Invisibility is a handy power although slightly less handy when you’re always fighting with other psychics.

Kyoka continues the trend of nobody being all that trust worthy here. She has ties to the moon clan and naturally didn’t tell anybody. She was absolutely ready to leave the heroes for dead and had the worst reason for being a traitor. Not only should the characters not have forgiven her but they should have definitely locked her up. You just can’t leave someone like that out in the open or you are really asking for trouble.

Then we have Shiden who talks tough but doesn’t really accomplish anything in the show. He’s super jealous of Yuito and anyone else who has a fancy family and lineage. That’s the kind of petty guy that he is and the show doesn’t give him enough screentime to really grow out of that. Then you have Tsugumi who is the really timid character of the group. That kind of character never tends to be my favorite and she continues in that trend. She’s okay but definitely gets overwhelmed by all the other characters.

Nagi is one of those guys who is a bit on the annoying side. He tries too hard at pretty much everything including flirting. He wants to be more skilled but is quick to fall for brainwashing and getting wrecked. Now you don’t want to be too harsh to a character for that since most would have folded as well but he was really getting in the way the whole time. He made things considerably harder on Yuito than they would have been otherwise. I do like his wind powers though.

Poor Naomi doesn’t get to appear much but she was a nice character. She did her best to be nice to everybody and was a good cadet. Ultimately she was just not put in a situation to succeed. Then we have Fubuki who is one of the commanders so he’s definitely competent and very skilled. Alas, he is rarely on the front lines so it’s not like this helps the heroes all that much against the monsters.

The animation for the show looks good. It’s definitely not a top level budget or anything like that but it flows together well and the animation is solid. Karen talking to his various other selves and then going for the speed blitz was really smooth. The colors can be striking as well and so overall I would definitely give this one a thumbs up. Meanwhile the soundtrack is also good. Nothing amazing but I did like the two openings. The battle themes are also catchy. So in a lot of ways the soundtrack matches the rest of the show. It’s all pretty good but not great. It’s not a show that you’d expect to be winning awards and making the news or anything like that after all.

Overall, Scarlet Nexus will be remembered as a pretty good show and I’d say that’s still satisfying enough for the fans. I had a good time with it and the ending was really solid. The action really ramped up as the series went on and I would say Karen played a major role in making the series as hype as it was. It’s why it is extremely important to have a good villain. He ties everything together here and the general story was also interesting from the jump. As long as you enjoy a good sci-fi title then you will enjoy this one. It’s got those end of the world stakes and everything. It doesn’t feel like the kind of show that would get a sequel but I’d definitely enjoy one.

Overall 7/10