NieA 7

NieA_7

NieA_7 DVD cover vol4
ニアアンダーセブン
(Nia Andā Sebun)
Genre Comedy-drama, Science fiction
Anime television series
Directed by Tomokazu Tokoro
Studio Triangle Staff
Network WOWOW
English network
Original run 26 April 2000 – 19 July 2000
Episodes 13

NieA_7 (ニアアンダーセブン Nia Andā Sebun), also known as NieA under 7, is a 13-episode anime series about Mayuko, a poor, introverted student who lives above a Japanese bathhouse, and NieA, a freeloading, freewheeling alien who lives in her closet and eats her food.

The series touches lightly upon issues of discrimination, stereotypes, alienation, city life vs small town life, and assimilation. Mayuko, who attends a cram school, is a young girl living away from her family and expresses a lot of melancholy. NieA, who is apparently placed in an inferior class by her fellow aliens due to being a physical minority among them, immediately accuses anyone who calls her a "stupid no-antenna" or the like, of discrimination. Other aliens adopt various stereotypical cultural styles, one chooses Indian dress and opens a convenience store, another chooses to associate herself with the Chinese Revolution. This theme of the outsider alien is carried through in the brief comic live-action sequence which ends each episode, "Dalgit's Tidbit of Indian Information."

NieA_7 is based on a doujinshi by graphic designer Yoshitoshi ABe and published by Kadokawa Shoten. Much of NieA_7's staff was made up of people who had worked on Serial Experiments Lain (director Takuya Sato was the storyboard artist for Lain, Yoshitoshi ABe was the character designer for Lain, etc.); it is commonly supposed that they chose to do this light-hearted series to cool off[1] after the dark and psychologically intense Serial Experiments Lain. This idea is further supported by the character Chiaki, a UFO fanatic who shares a name with Chiaki J. Konaka, the script writer for Lain.

Episodes

The episodes are:

  1. Alien & Launching UFO Bath
  2. Alien & Violence Cosmic Bath
  3. Alien & Radio Noise Bath
  4. Alien & Beginner Waitress Bath
  5. Alien & Dried Up Amusements Bath
  6. Alien & Rival Hot Spring Bath
  7. Mothership, Go-Con & Cloudy Skies Bath
  8. Melancholy & Cast-Off Summer Bath
  9. Close Encounter & After The Rain Bath
  10. Glow Of The Firefly & Nocturne Bath
  11. NieA_7 Bath (Former Part)
  12. NieA_7 Bath (LatterPart)
  13. Time Flows By In Enohana Bath

Releases

Theme Songs

"Koko Made Oide (Come On Over Here)" by SION (except first episode, which had no opening)
"Venus to Chiisana Kamisama (Venus and a Small God)" Lyrics - Naruyoshi Kikuchi / Composition - Tsuneo Imahori / Performer - Maria Yamamoto
"KA MOA'E" Yoshio Owa

Characters

Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi (Japanese); Tricia Dickson (English)
Mayuko "Mayu" Chigasaki lives in a room at the Enohana Bathhouse. She is hardworking, polite, honest, and very self-conscious. Mayuko spends all of her time and energy just making ends meet. She shares an apartment with NieA who she often refers to as a "free loader".
Voiced by: Yuko Miyamura (Japanese); J-Ray Hochfield (English)
NieA is a lower-class or "under-seven" alien; she has no antennae. She lives with Mayuko and builds spaceships out of junk. She shares an apartment with Mayu who she often gets into arguments with about money and food.
Voiced by: Akira Okamori (Japanese); Josh Phillips (English)
Voiced by: Allan Schintu (Japanese); Wil Castillo (English)
Voiced by: Chieko Ichikawa (Japanese); Linda Bendik (English)
Voiced by: Fumiko Orikasa (Japanese); Zarah Little (English)
Voiced by: Hozumi Goda (Japanese); Patrick Seitz (English)
Voiced by: Mari Ogasawara (Japanese); Lauren Bendik (English)
Voiced by: Rumi Ochiai (Japanese); Robyn Nolting (English)
Voiced by: Susumu Chiba (Japanese); Justin Gross (English)
Voiced by: Takayuki Sugo (Japanese); Eric Da Re (English)
Voiced by: Tomoko Kawakami (Japanese); Casey Strand (English)

References

  1. ↑ http://animejump.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=32&page=1
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