11eyes (anime)

"Is there an answer at the end of this nightmare?"

- 11eyes TV series' catchphrase.

An anime adaptation of 11eyes produced by Dogakobo and directed by Masami Shimoda began airing in Japan on October 7, 2009. The anime has been licensed in North America by Sentai Filmworks; distributor Section23 Films released the complete box set on January 11, 2011.

Summary
After losing his sister seven years ago, Kakeru Satsuki led a vacant life, only able to return to his normal days with help from his childhood friend Yuka Minase and other friends at school.

Suddenly one day the sky turns red and the moon turns black. Everyone around Kakeru and Yuka disappear and monsters start roaming the streets. They are only able to run away and hide and after a while, the world returns to normal. But just when they thought this world was a dream, the Red Night occurs again.

Kakeru and Yuka manage to find four other humans involved in this mysterious phenomenon: Misuzu Kusakabe, a red-haired onmyouji swordswoman, Kukuri Tachibana, a strange mute girl who looks like Kakeru's deceased sister, Yukiko Hirohara, a lively young girl who reverts to the personality of a cold killer when her glasses are removed, and Takahisa Tajima, a young pyrokineticist with a heated attitude to boot.

They get together and try to survive, but six shadows suddenly appear in front of them....

These six shadows call themselves the Black Knights, and for an unknown reason wish to kill Kakeru and friends. The teenagers wind up coming across a girl with flowing silver hair wearing a white dress, trapped in a red crystal. Her name is Lisette. She claims that she is being held captive and asks for their help. The Black Knights prevent them from doing anything and begin referring to Kakeru's friends as fragments and to Kakeru as "the bearer of the Eye of Aeon". As they go on trying to survive, the six teenagers gradually form bonds and begin to work together in order to defeat the Black Knights, in the hopes that this will end the Red Night (phenomenon) once and for all.

Along the way, Kakeru receives a strange note saying "You are the reason the demon has awakened." This note and "the demon" does not come up again until much later in the series.

They manage to defeat four of the six Black Knights, while revealing their pasts.

Takahisa was abandoned by his parents because of his abilities as a pyrokineticist, and the school nurse Saiko Akamine took him in. The Kusakabe are a clan of magic users and sword fighters; Misuzu is both of which. Yukiko was raised to be a human weapon from her earliest years so that she could fight in a war in a far off country until her grandfather in Japan took her in, and she falls in love with Takahisa. Its revealed that Kukuri has no memories of her past. Kakeru's other eye is revealed to be the fabled Eye of Aeon, able to see into the future for instants. Lastly, Shiori Momono the transfer student, explains that her true name is Ursula of the Bookshelf, and that she is an agent of the Holy Office of Index. To sum things up, she's a powerful magus and also a fragment.

The history of the Eye of Aeon is explained by Shiori. It once belonged to an ancient Drasuvenian king, Verard. According to legend, Verard was tricked by a witch; at this statement the girl in the crystal is instantly mentioned by one of the characters.

A black knight known as Superbia is later revealed to have once been a woman named Misao; an exiled member of the Kusakabe clan.

After Takahisa is tragically killed (this happening after he nearly destroys the city in a mad rage) by Yukiko because he lost control of his powers, the reason for everyone's being referred to as "fragments" and the reason for the girl in the white dress's imprisonment is revealed. Their powers come from fragments located inside them. These are the fragments of the VoidStone; the lost source of power for the captured witch. The captured witch is also the witch said to have tricked Verard; Lieselotte. But in truth, she was in love with Verard, and their kingdom was at war. Seeing the carnage, Verard (whom is also the original owner of the Eye of Aeon) felt that the world was a pointless void of chaos, and said that it should just be destroyed. Lieselotte responded by saying that the entire world could come to an end, so long as she had him.

Later on, Verard was assassinated, and the blame was pinned on Lieselotte. In rage and anguish, she dedicated her life to execute Hell Fall and end the world. She is also the source of all of the major eras of turmoil in history. The Holy Office of the Index fought her time and again, until six mages used forbidden magic to strip her of her magic and memories while sealing away what was left (Lisette) in another world. The reason the magic was forbidden in the first place was the terrible cost: the spell casters would be forced to take on hideous forms. The six spell casters then became the Black Knights.

Unaware of her past and in a world where she wouldn't age, Lisette bided her time until the fragments were gathered in one place, and she could bring them into the parallel world that was created in the spell: the Red Night. The Black Knights quickly came to the conclusion that killing the fragments would stop any chances of Lisette escaping forever, and took on the initiative to kill them.

Yukiko decides to confront Superbia and kill her as revenge for Takahisa's death. To show how serious she is, Yukiko smashes her glasses (her means of holding back her killing nature) before announcing that she'll kill Superbia. Unfortunately, Yukiko loses, and dies as her fragment is forcefully removed.

Kakeru and friends finally arrive, a fight ensues, and Superbia drops the fragment. Yuka gives it to Lisette, and she becomes Lieselotte once again. Kakeru seeing her being killed through the eye of Aeon, saves her, but immediately sees what would happen if he tries to fight Lieselotte: she wins and the Hell Fall ensues. Kakeru attempts suicide to prevent this.

While out cold, Kakeru has a flashback of the few days leading up to his sister's death; the time when his bond with Yuka came to be. When he wakes up, he's still in the Red Night. They go to the roof and the remaining Black Knights, as well as Lieselotte appear. In a great battle where Shiori and the leader of the Black Knights sacrifice their lives, Lieselotte is defeated once and for all.

Yuka returns to her old self, Misuzu reveals her love for Kakeru, and they and Kakeru are transferred to a new world. Here, no one died, and although they don't know them anymore, Yukiko and Takahisa are dating and happy, albeit with Saiko still going after Takahisa for his behavior. However, there was no Kukuri or Shiori.

Episodes list

 * Note: The subtitles of the episodes are in Hungarian, most of them are the approximate translations of the Japanese titles. However, almost all of them sound strange to native Hungarians.

Trivia

 * In episode 5, Misuzu uses Kannagiri and Amakuni against Invidia, the Kannagiri temorarily turns into Raikiri.

Music

 * For more information, see: List of 11eyes albums

Opening theme song: Arrival of Tears... by Ayane

Ending theme song: Sequentia by Asriel