Opening Songs
OP 1 - Tokyo Zero Hearts (Faylan)
Ending Songs
ED 1 - Silver Salvation (Yousei Teikoku)
Genre: Action, Comedy, Drama, Supernatural, Romance
Episodes: 12
Espers is a theme very commonly used in anime, and its only natural that people (like me) are getting less and less impressed with how they are using it. From the name itself, you can already tell that "Tokyo ESP" is an anime ALLLL about espers. Look to your left, your right, espers everywhere. There is not a single important non-esper character in this show, so you should pretty much know where this is going right off the bat. While the show might seem pretty ridiculous right off the bat (especially after its epic first episode, only to have you find out that its just a foreshadowing of events to come), it actually gets good towards to end. Its one of those anime that takes quite a awhile to ramp up...which might not be for everyone. Still, the usual applies, give it time and it impresses. If you like wacky action scenes revolving around multiple different types of powers, some (actually well done) conflict via diplomatic issues and a little bit of half-baked romance, "Tokyo ESP" is an above average shounen anime experience that has a lot of potential.
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| The white haired girl has arrived! |
I'll be real here, "Tokyo ESP" has some pretty good theme songs by some artists that I really like. The opening theme is "Tokyo Zero Hearts" by Faylan. While it's not easily as powerful as most of her usual songs are, its still good enough to garner my attention. Its slow and steady pace followed by her powerful vocals are enough to lift it to rather good standards. The ending theme is the killer here, and its "Silver Salvation" by none other than Yousei Teikoku. It's honestly been awhile since I heard a Yousei Teikoku song in an anime, and "Silver Salvation" was just what I needed. Its goth, its fast paced as hell, it has a little bit of metal, it has those demonic chantings that I used to love so much in their songs. It boils my blood when I listen to it, its wonderful.
Rating: 7.5/10
While its pretty good towards the end and it ends well enough, there are some problems that prevent "Tokyo ESP" from jumping to greater heights. It's first episode is REALLY strong, and while you might feel confused, it foretells a battle of epic proportions with some really incredibly music AND fight scenes. It really got me interested in this series. However, the episodes to come were...not so good. A little bit boring, even. That's the first problem, the starting episodes were slow. It ramps up decently, thank god. There are also too many characters (yes, this is one of those shows), and there isn't nearly enough development for some of these characters for us to really care about them. As for what the anime does well...its music and fight scenes. The fight scenes are only good because of the multitude of different esper abilities present in this anime (I'm a sucker for super powers, seriously). The story, while slow to ramp up, also does a good job of investing us into the world of "Tokyo ESP".
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| Well, behold the master race. |
The story circles around Urushiba Rinka, a regular high school girl with some of the most righteous ideals I have ever seen. Anyway, she runs into a bunch of glowing fish flying in the sky, and one of them swims right through her, knocking her unconscious. Waking up the next day, she finds herself slipping through the floor, the walls, through tables, even through her clothes. She ends up in her neighbor's apartment, completely naked. A man who was with Rinka when she turned into a girl that goes through everything, by the name of Azuma, comes to help her. He explains what happened, and after everything, Rinka realizes that she is now an esper, a special human who came into contact with the glowing fish and has received super powers. With her righteous ideals in check, she realizes that other espers use their abilities to commit crime, and that only espers can stop other espers. With this in tow, she joins Azuma in fighting crime against the bad espers, only to find herself plunging deep into matters that she should not concern herself with.
"Tokyo ESP" isn't exactly what we like to call part of the "norm". Its got some things going for it, the usual good action and fancy powers, its all there. The story is somewhat dark as well, and since the story doesn't exactly end with it resolving everything, I'm betting on a second season, if they ever decide to release it. Well, the manga's 2nd arc is more interesting IMO, so let's hope they animate that.
Peace.
