Download

Qualidea Code (Season One)

Qualidea Code Title

The world was invaded by the ‘Unknown’ and the children of humanity were placed into cold sleep to protect them from the war. They woke up to find the war still going on and that they had developed strange new abilities.

What did you watch?

Of all the letters in my A to Z Anime Challenge, Q was the hardest one to find… well, so far, I still have X to get through! The one that probably jumps to most people’s mind is Queen’s Blade and while I haven’t seen it, I decided to try something a little different and stumbled upon Qualidea Code. One of the most interesting things about this series is that it was adapted from three light novel series that were written by three separate authors in a project that they came up with while drinking together. As an author working on a collaborative series, this obviously piqued my interest. So, let’s see how it went and don’t forget, there will be spoilers.

Qualidea Code Canaria

What happened?

Having woken from their sleep, the children of humanity had developed mysterious new powers known as ‘World’. Each power was different and there were varying levels. It was a blessing for the survivors as the Unknown’s attacks had not stopped. These teenagers defended the three cities of the Kanto Region – Tokyo, Yokohama, and Chiba. Each of the regions was ruled by a head student and sub-head student who orchestrate the defences against the Unknown.

As the Unknown attack with bigger and stronger ships, things get harder and harder to hold them back. As a result, the three regions have to work together, but they’re also teenagers and things don’t always go as smoothly as they’d hope. One by one the strongest students fall, but something seems strange about these new ‘Unknown’. During one attack, the head and Sub-head of Tokyo are killed, but they left a curious message for Kasumi, the sub-head of Chiba, causing him to question everything he’s known up to this point.

Qualidea Code Asuha Freeze

What did you think?

I think this series comes up with some incredible concepts and ideas, but the anime sadly fails to follow through with them. It wasn’t a terrible series, but it could have been so much better had it focused on the strengths and not spent quite so much time with a group of bickering teenagers. The big twist in the series is that the Unknown control the Kanto region and made the changes to the children as they slept, changing them to be compatible with their species. They’ve also been changing their perception to see the humans as the monsters, so they’ve been defending the aliens against their own species without realising it. It’s a great idea. I loved it, but like I said the delivery wasn’t good enough.

Qualidea Code Ichiya Shocked

What was your favourite moment?

There was a large coordinated attack by the Unknown which took out loads of the students in one go. The sky was full of these strange new robots. The head of Tokyo, Maihime who has an almost god-like power was the last defences against these invaders having evacuated the surviving students onto a train. She battled furiously while being massively outnumbered. Her sub-head, Hotaru was desperately trying to get there to help and had picked up Kasumi and Asuha on the way.

They arrived and charged into the battle. Things were turning, but then another new Unknown appeared and charged straight towards Maihime and Hotaru. Kasumi watched through his sniper rifle, but instead of being scared, Hotaru mouthed a message to him. This was where the series really started to turn and the ideas behind it began to emerge.

Qualidea Code Maihime Fighting the Unknown

What was your least favourite moment?

So, they’d all switched sides aware that the Unknown had been fooling them and when they arrived on the human’s battleship, they discovered that it was being commanded by Kasumi and Asuha’s mother and she was a bit crazy. I was fine with it being a parent of one of the students, but I think it became a little too comedic for the tone of the series, which was generally fairly dark and dealt with some interesting themes. This really didn’t fit in with any of that.

Qualidea Code Canaria Ichiya Asuha and Kasumi Not Impressed

Who was your favourite character?

It was a bit of toss-up between Kasumi and Meihime, but Meihime wins out thanks to her lively and positive attitude. She was definitely over the top and with her powers, that made a lot of sense. As they say though, with great power comes great responsibility and with the students evacuating on the train, she stepped up and was prepared to face an entire army in an attempt to buy them time to escape.

Qualidea Code Maihime

Who was your least favourite character?

Ichiya was hopeless. Sure, Canaria died right in front of him in probably the biggest shock moment in the series, but after that, he just fell to pieces and was almost absent for most of the series, only really coming back at the end to take all the glory in the final battle. Kasumi was a far more interesting character and it would have been better is Ichiya had just remained in his shocked state and left the battle to the characters that had earnt it. It would have been a far more satisfying conclusion.

Qualidea Code Ichiya Attacking

Would you like some more?

I really liked the ideas behind this series and would love more stories in this vein, but it would have to be better. There were some really cool concepts, but I think the direction let it down. Even the fights which should have been epic mostly seemed to happen off the screen. As far as this story goes, I think it’s done, so I don’t see there being a direct sequel, but I still like the idea of authors working together to create a bigger and more impressive story.

Qualidea Code Canaria Ichiya Asuha and Kasumi

What have you learnt?

This may come across as a little negative, but you can have all the best ideas and themes, but if you don’t have the characters to ground them and make them relatable then it will be all for nothing. It almost felt like the characters were incredibly one dimensional and there really wasn’t any connection between them and me. I love plot and grand ideas, but I also believe that the character story is the most important part and without it, it’s that much harder to make the reader care.

Qualidea Code Kasumi

Other Posts in the Series

Lynn Sheridan The Otaku Author Header
Tags

8 Comments

  1. While this series had a lot of problems, I did kind of enjoy it. I think the ideas and characters like Maihime were enough to get me through. I’d like to see something like this done again, just with a better writing team, maybe get rid of Ichiya entirely and just have Maihime as the central character. Then again it could just be that I love Maihime and I want to see her again.

    • Haha. Maihime was the star of ths show for sure. I feel the same, the idea was solid and it got better as the series went on, but it was frustrating as it could and should have been so much better.

  2. Interesting, didn’t know that the story was a collab between three people. You wouldn’t really think it at face value. As you say, it’s a cool concept, and the twist is really something, but that’s really the only memorable aspect of the anime.

    • Definitely. Apparently, it was three well-known light novel authors that drink together. They each wrote a story following the different districts. That’s why there are three protagonists. Would have been better if they’d adapted the anime to focus on one and have the others as supporting characters.

    • Now that makes sense. I don’t even remember there being three protagonists, but then I don’t remember any of the characters to begin with haha

    • It was definitely an interesting concept, but I don’t think they quite nailed it with this one which was a shame, because the ideas behind it were solid.

  3. I blogged it and fell off in the middle. It reminded me so much of various roleplay free for alls where the winds of all the writer’s sails have left them. I watched it to the end and the quality was very so-so. Of the three pairs, Kasumi and Asuha were my favorite. And I agree on who we didn’t like. I saw more of myself in Kasumi than anyone. Though he has better aim than I do.

    • I think Kasumi and Asuha had the most interesting dynamic being brother and sister, especially as they woke up at different times and it changed their age differences.

      It felt like the authors came up with an awesome concept, but almost lost interest as they wrote it and it shows in the anime version.

What did you think?

You might also like…