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"I don't want to die. I want to live."

Infinite Ryvius (Mugen no Rivaiasu) is an original anime series directed by Goro Taniguchi (who would later become best known as the director of Code Geass), which aired for 26 episodes from 1999 to 2000. Set in the year 2225 AD, a Negative Space Wedgie called the "Geduld Phenomenon" has created a sea of plasma stretching across the solar system in-line with the orbital plane of the planets, and the catatrophe on Earth it caused lead to a rise in space travel and the colonization of many planets. The space station Liebe Delta is a training center for children who wish to become astronauts. However, the station harbors a dark secret, which leads terrorists to sabotage it and send it plunging into the Geduld. All of the instructors on board sacrifice their lives to save the students. In the aftermath, 486 children of varying ages find themselves aboard the Ryvius, a mysterious spaceship which was concealed within the core of Liebe Delta. With limited supplies, no adult supervision, and hostile forces still after them, they struggle to escape their pursuers and form a stable society. All they want is to be rescued - but a Government Conspiracy has convinced the media that the Ryvius has actually been commandeered by the same terrorists who destroyed Liebe Delta, so finding safe harbor will be no easy task.

While the series has a huge cast, with at least 33 named recurring characters, most episodes focus on a few core cast members. There's Kouji Aiba, an Ordinary High-School Student (or astronaut-training equivalent thereof) and main protagonist; his younger and far more violent brother Yuki Aiba; their childhood friend Aoi Housen; the charming but fervent Ikumi Oze; and the mysterious girl in a strange pink outfit who nobody recognizes and who seems to appear and disappear like a ghost (Neya). Other significant characters include the arrogant Zwei (elite cadet) leader Lucson Houjou, the popular and talented Zwei member Juli Bahana, the vicious gang leader Airs Blue, and the religious girl Faina Shinozaki.

The show has been described as a cross between Lost in Space and Lord of the Flies, by way of The Hunt for Red October. It won the 2000 award for Best TV Animation at the fifth animation Kobe.


Tropes:

  • Absurdly Powerful Student Council: After all the adults die, the Zwei elite class decide that they're in charge.
  • Accidental Kiss: Happens between Kouji and Aoi in Episode 13. Aoi spends most of the next episode angsting about it.
  • Accidental Misnaming: In Episode 4, Team Blue nicknames Good Turtleland III "Charlie." Despite his insistence on being called by his real name, it is all but forgotten by the others within a few episodes despite his occasional reminder. Viscuess also, puzzlingly, refers to the Ryvius as the Brattica
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys:
    • Played straight from Episodes 16-25 with Juli and Blue; averted with Kouji, whom both Aoi and Faina are in love with.
    • Gender-flipped with Charlie and Criff. While Charlie is an easily manipulated, but good at heart, boy, Criff is a manipulative juvenile delinquent, until she realizes that Charlie genuinely loves her in Episode 16.
  • Aloof Big Brother: Inverted, Yuki is Kouji's younger brother and is cooler, stronger, taller, and better looking than the nebbish, goodie-two-shoes Kouji.
  • Apocalypse How: A single Vaia Ship can destroy an entire inhabited moon in an instant. A second Geduld Phenomenon would destroy the entire solar system.
  • Artificial Gravity: The Ryvius has artificial gravity thanks to Neya's powers.
  • Ascended Extra:
    • Cullen starts the series as a background character collecting music; she evolves into an Action Girl mecha "pilot" and Yuki's girlfriend.
    • Natalie Sheen, a girl with prominent glasses who sometimes appears in the background but has no spoken lines, gets development in the manga and drama CDs.
  • Ax-Crazy: Most notably the captain of the Blue Impulse, though all of the captains of the Vaia Ships go insane in combat. It's later revealed that the Vaia is detrimental to their mental health along with the crew's.
  • Betty and Veronica: Aoi and Faina are this for Kouji. Aoi is his childhood friend and a fairly typical teenager, while Faina is mysterious and follows a strange religion.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: When Kozue is beaten, Ikumi snaps hard.
  • BFG: The Ryvius's Barge Cannons can detach to be used as guns by the Vital Guarder.
  • Book Ends: The first and last episodes begin with Kouji reassuring his mom that she can contact him at any time and then meeting Aoi at the train station.
  • Bottomless Magazines: Averted: due to wasteful firing, the Ryvius eventually runs out of ammo for its Barge Cannons.
  • Brother–Sister Incest: Ikumi was in an incestuous relatinship with his sister and she killed herself over it.
  • Bridge Bunnies: The girls of Zwei take this role, although Juli has a brief stint as the captain.
  • Butt-Monkey:
    • Lucson Houjou, the self-proclaimed leader of the Zwei and captain of the Ryvius. After being deposed, he is forced to work as the ship's janitor, frequently has his clothes stolen, and is constantly ridiculed by his fellow students. Even eight-year-old Pat thinks Lucson is "uncool." However he's redeemed in the end, when his fellow students offer him the position of Captain and seem to treat him in a more friendly way; even Heigar seems to be more mellow towards him.
    • Kouji gets beat up repeatedly, often by his younger brother.
    • Charlie gets bullied for Team Blue and the rest of Zwei starts looking down on him once they realize that he's betrayed them to the former.
  • Cain and Abel: Kouji and Yuki wind up on opposite sides during Ikumi's regime. It's ultimately subverted when Yuki realizes that he can't bring himself to let Ikumi kill his own brother.
  • Came Back Wrong: A rather loose case: Neya based her humanoid form off the body of a dead soldier floating out in space near the Ryvius at the time of some that only brief flashbacks are seen of, seemingly some sort of military operation or experiment involving the Vaia. That soldier was Anjay Viscuess, Conrad Viscuess's daughter. This leads to Conrad momentarily thinking his daughter had come back from the dead when Neya confronts him on the bridge of the Geshpenst.
  • Cassandra Truth: When the children on the Ryvius send out the distress call, the military assumes that the signal is a trick by terrorists who have seized control of the ship.
  • Cataclysm Backstory: The birth of the Geduld, which resulted in the Earth’s atmosphere being altered, 1.7 Billion People dying, and Humanity accelerating its expansion into space.
  • Chekhov's Gun: There is exactly one gun aboard the Ryvius, stolen from one of the terrorists. It naturally plays an important role when Blue uses it to take over the ship. Blue later give it to Kouji, who tries use it to overthrow Ikumi only for Ikumi to grab it and shoot him instead.
  • Childhood Friend Romance: Kouji and Aoi are childhood friends, with the former being oblivious to the latter starting to realize that she likes him as more than a friend. They get together after comforting one another during the Ryvius's darkest hour.
  • Children Are Innocent: Played surprisingly straight with cute little boy Pat, who maintains his innocent personality throughout the series.
  • Converse with the Unconscious: In Episode 24, after Kouji is shot and wounded by Ikumi, then treated by Criff, a heartbroken Aoi spends a good amount of her remaining screentime in the episode begging for him to regain consciousness.
  • Cool Starship: The Vaia ships.
  • Corrupt Church: Faina's religion inspires Kouji at first, but grows more malignant as time passes. This turns out to be the Path of Inspiration, as Faina was deliberately twisting the teachings of her actual religion.
  • Creepy Monotone: Neya speaks like this, except when the collective emotions of the crew reach a high point.
  • Declaration of Protection: Ikumi's overriding motivation for the later half of the series, after Kozue is assaulted in his absence. This leads to several murders and a few more attempted. But hey, Utopia Justifies the Means, right?
  • Delinquents: Airs Blue and his gang are a bunch of lower class students who don't abide by the rules set by Zwei.
  • Did They or Didn't They?: Kouji and Aoi at the end of Episode 21. Nothing explicit is shown, but the two are seen embracing, then falling onto a bed. The manga makes this scene much more obvious that they had sex. Lampshaded in an episode of Ryvius Illusion, where Kozue sends "fanmail" asking whether they "did it." Needless to say, Aoi is not pleased...
  • Distant Finale: The very end of the final episode takes place thousands of years after the events of the series.
  • Driven to Suicide: Airs Blue, at one point. But he doesn't go through with it. Viscuess on the other hand does, once he realizes he's thrown the entire weight of Earth's naval forces behind destroying a ship crewed by children
  • Easily Forgiven: A lot of people do a lot of bad things over the course of series and every one of them, even Faina, Heigar, Ikumi and Blue are forgiven for their crimes.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: Despite the many hardships the children go through, the entire main cast survives, as do most of the recurring extras. Most of the kids return to the Ryvius to help in the development of Vaia ships and a thousand years later their efforts lead to humanity being able to evacuate the solar system before it is destroyed by the Geduld.
  • Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The Blue Impulse uses its gravity weapon to destroy the inhabited moon of Hyperion.
  • Empathic Weapon: Neya and the other Sphixes of the Vaia ships feel the emotions of the crews and also make them act more irrational, of ten to the point of insanity.
  • Emotionless Girl: Neya begins the series as a blank slate; by episode 22 she's capable of talking and acting like a normal human, as being around the kids has helped her learn by osmosis what it's like to be human.
  • Engineered Public Confession: Heigar records Airs Blue talking about stealing the Vital Guarder and abandoning the crew of the Ryvius. He later plays the recording via intercom. Break out the Torches and Pitchforks.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Even Blue, who took over the ship at gunpoint in the earlier episodes, is disgusted by the tyrant Ikumi degenerates into by the end of the series.
  • Everybody Lives: Sort of; All but two named children who survive the initial disaster survive to the end. However, *large* numbers of unknown nameless people are killed in the process, as well as some of the antagonists.).
  • Everything Trying to Kill You: For a time it looks like if the government didn't get them, they'd have killed themselves eventually anyway.
  • Evil Chancellor: Stein turns down the position of captain, preferring to be an advisor instead. He even goes so far as to engineer a coup to set himself up in this position. Naturally, he dreams of being The Man Behind the Man.
  • Evolving Credits: The Ryvius isn't shown in the opening until it is properly introduced a few episodes in. As the show gets darker, shots of the kids being happy are replaced by more shots of the Ryvius and Lift Ship. Whenever the crew is about to fight another Vaia ship, that ship is shown in the credits. In the finale, the happy scenes are restored to the opening to reflect the unexpectedly happy ending.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: Kozue stops putting her hair up into pigtails, representing her loss of innocence after being attacked by the other girls and likely sexually assaulted.
  • Failure Knight: Ikumi is motivated primarily by the death of his sister and later his failure to prevent Kozue from being assaulted.
  • General Ripper: Conrad Viscuess, captain of the Grey Geshpenst is obsessed with sinking the Ryvius [[spoiler as revenge for the death off his daughter.]]
  • The Ghost: The fifth and sixth Vaia ships are alluded to, but never seen on screen, partly because the Geshpenst (Vaia ship #4) is rushed out of drydock as a last-ditch effort to capture the Ryvius before its real situation is discovered.
  • Government Conspiracy: There are two competing government conspiracies. The first is trying to cover up the Vaia experiments to avoid further casualties. The second sought to capture the Ryvius from the first to resume said experiments.
  • Gratuitous Foreign Language: The names of the Vaia ships. "Impulse" is obviously English, "Dicastia" comes from the Greek word, "dikastis," meaning judge, and "Geshpenst" comes from the German for ghost. "Ryvius," on the other hand, seems to come from a variety of English words and phrases, including "Leviathan" and "Reawake us."
  • Gratuitous German: Quite a few of the characters have German names, some of which sound as though they were pulled from a "Beginning German" textbook. For example, three of the Zwei are named Stein, Eins, and Kreis. While "Stein" is used as a given name in some countries, it seems a bit silly that two of the characters would have the German words for "one" and "circle" as their given names.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: The instructors on Liebe Delta, who sacrifice themselves to save the children. Particularly notable is Pat's father, who begs for the plan to work while being crushed and incinerated by the Geduld
  • A House Divided: The leadership of Ryvius is contested between the aristocratic Zwei class and the lower class Team Blue, all the while the ship faces constant threats from government conspiracies.
  • Humongous Mecha: The Vital Guarder. The crew laugh at it when it's first discovered, as they don't see the merit in having a legged weapon operate in space, but it proves to be their greatest weapon.
  • Immune to Bullets: Airs Blue shoots Neya. The bullets harmlessly pass through her.
  • Impossibly Cool Clothes: Neya, who wears a turban and a strange form-fitting costume. Everyone who sees her thinks that she's just trying to be fashionable.
  • Infinite Supplies: Averted: the limited supplies on the Ryvius are a major source of tension amongst the crew and their attempts to ration their supplies through a points system are what starts the decline of civility on the ship.
  • Jerkass: Yuki, who is constantly picking fights with people
  • Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Ikumi's desire to protect Kozue drives him to turn the Ryvius into a police state.
  • Just in Time: Subverted. When Liebe Delta is falling into the Geduld, the Zwei activate the engines Just in Time... except that the engines don't actually activate. Oops.
  • Knight Templar: Ikumi, who places the Ryvius into a permanent security lockdown in the name of safety.
  • Large Ham: Lucson is always loudly declaring his greatness, much to the annoyance of everyone else.
  • Living Ship: All of the Vaia Ships are powered by aliens.
  • Love Makes You Crazy: Both Ikumi and Faina's face heel turns are partially driven by this, though the latter was possibly insane to begin with.
  • Love Redeems: Criff Kei and "Charlie" both become better people through their love for one another.
  • Love Triangle: Aoi likes Kouji and Yuki; Kouji likes Aoi and Faina.
  • The Mutiny: Blue leads a successful one against Zwei. Several episodes later, he is deposed once Stein riles the crew against him.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Faina is last seen looking horrified after realizing that she killed two people and no matter how hard she tries to forget it, she's going to have to live with it.
  • Non-Action Guy: So very much Kouji, who gets his ass kicked whenever he tries to fight. He's also very poor at controlling the Vital Guarder.
  • No Name Given: Neya is a major character who is introduced in the first episode, but we don't learn her name until near the end of the series. The other two Vaia ships aren't named either, though in fairness they don't even make it out of drydock by the time the Ryvius is cornered.
  • One-Winged Angel: When the Ryvius gets the upper hand against the Grey Geshpenst, the Geshpenst merges with several Vaia to assume a monstrous form that is far more powerful than both the Ryvius and Vital Guarder.
  • Only a Flesh Wound: Averted when Kouji gets shot in the shoulder: he only survives because he is immediately taken to the medical center and undergoes surgery, and the official timeline notes that he underwent three months of physical therapy and recuperation afterwards. In the final episode, he says that he can no longer raise his right arm above his shoulder.
  • Parental Abandonment: Justified; all of the adults on Liebe Delta die while saving the children.
  • Prison Rape: Implied when Criff and Michelle are imprisoned after the coup in episode 16. While nothing explicit is shown, there are a few lines of suggestive dialogue and it is seen that Michelle is shackled up with her legs spread.
  • Promotion to Parent: Juli, and to some extent, Lucson, after Pat Campbell's father, who was also one of their teachers, dies trying to save the children aboard the Liebe Delta..
  • Punny Name: Yuki's lonely ex-girlfriend's name is Elina Rigby, a pun on the Beatles song "Eleanor Rigby." In additon, Stein Heigar seems to be named after a German variety of gin called Steinhager.
  • Putting the Band Back Together: In the final episode, most of the Ryvius's crew reunite for a second voyage to help humanity master Vaia technology.
  • Replacement Goldfish:
    • After she is assaulted, Kozue becomes a replacement for Ikumi's beloved older sister.
    • Neya becomes this, unintentionally, for Conrad Viscuess's daughter, Anjay, and when he sees her for the first time, he realizes that evil has has committed in trying to kill hundreds of children to avenge his own daughter..
  • Sapient Ship: The Vaia Ships are mostly technological, but each has a living Vaia at its core. The Vaia are sentient, though only one is a full-fledged Spaceship Girl.
  • Scholarship Student: While most of Zwei are scions of nobility, Juli Bahana is an orphan made it into the program via a scholarship.
  • Shadow Discretion Shot: Used when Faina murders Sandy and McBane.
  • She Is Not My Girlfriend: Lots of characters assume that Kouji and Aoi are dating, leading to some flustered denials by both of them.
  • "Shut Up" Kiss: Faina does this to Kouji to keep him from breaking up with her. It doesn't work.
  • Some Kind of Force Field: The Vaia Ships can control gravity and deflect attacks by bending space.
  • Space Cadet Academy: Liebe Delta, where the cast are training to work in space at the start of the show.
  • Space Is an Ocean: Literally; the "Geduld Phenomenon" has produced an ocean of plasma in the solar system.
  • Space Madness: A Vaia will unintentionally inflict Sanity Slippage on their crew and potentially exaggerate what were once smaller character flaws, this combined with deteriorating conditions and personality clashes further worsens things. By the end of the series a way around this is discovered.
  • Space Whale: The Vaia are squid like aliens living in the star ocean that is the Geduld.
  • Spaceship Girl: Neya, who is more or less the avatar of the Ryvius itself.
  • Straw Vulcan: Stein Heigar, the most logical and emotionless member of Zwei - which makes it even more creepy when he cracks and tries to get everyone he considers a burden to the ship killed.
  • Talking the Monster to Death: When Neya confronts the Sphix of the Geshpenst, she doesn't attack it, instead pleading for it to see reason even as it pummels her. She finally succeeds in convincing it to let her speak to Captain Viscuess.
  • Team Pet: Rafra, the ferret mascot of the Ryvius.
  • Techno Babble: Most of the conversation occurring in the Vital Guarder control room is unexplaned technical sounding words.
  • Theme Naming: The Vaia ships are all named for their colors: Blue Impulse, Crimson Dicastia, Grey Geshpenst, Black Ryvius.
  • The Captain: At first it's the incompetent Lucson, then the ruthless Blue, followed by the well-intentioned but ineffectual Juli as a puppet for Straw Vulcan Stein, and then finally Knight Templar Ikumi as another of Stein's puppets.
  • The Vamp: Michelle Kei tries to seduce her way into others's graces, with mixed success.
  • This Is a Drill: The Blue Impulse's Vital Guarder, the Vorticular Drill.
  • Those Two Guys: Kikki and Radan, the "Dinosaur Girl" and "Pillow Boy". These two are usually spotted once per episode, sometimes just in the background. They're notable because of their strange attire, a big blue dinosaur costume and a modesty-preserving pillowcase. Interestingly, they only appear together for one scene over the course of their entire series.
  • Thrown Out the Airlock: Nonlethal variant: two crewman are dragged behind the ship on lines (in spacesuits) as a punishment for attempting to steal the Lift Ship.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Kouji finallly becomes more assertive towards the end.
  • Tron Lines: Appear when the Ryvius first activates in episode 3, and again when the gravity control system powers up in episode 5.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means: Ikumi and Heigar's philosophy as captain and true power of the Ryvius is that perfect safety trumps morality.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Viscuess, after seeing that Neya has his daughter's face and realizing that he's been trying to commit the same tragedy that he's been trying to avenge.
  • Weasel Mascot: Rafra, Faina's pet, who quickly endears himself to her roommates.
  • A Wild Rapper Appears!: The full version of the opening theme features a rather jarring Engrish rap verse which ruins a fairly good song. One Analysis Channel video about the show's soundtrack claims that the bilingual rap in several tracks symbolizes Blue and the other Delinquents who play a significant role in driving the show's plot and atmosphere (contrasted with the orchestral music for the elite Zwei Space Cadets and jazz for the ordinary kids like Kouji and Yuki caught in between).
  • Wild Teen Party: After the fight at Mars, the crew throws a party to raise morale and release tension. It features, among other things, a contest to program the Vital Guarder to dance. Unfortunately, it gets cut short by the announcement that the crew of the Ryvius have been declared terrorists. Also, as later shown in a flashback, one person gets murdered. All in all, not a success.
  • Yandere: Actually more than it seems at first sight. Obvious one being a weird guy obsessed with a certain girl who often is seen stalking her, giving her points he earned or even assaulting her boyfriend . Faina, who was trying to kill her ex-boyfriend and the girl he left her for, and even killed her previous ex and her friend who called his name, is quite less obvious at the beginning. Ikumi showed some traits when he took over entire ship to make sure his girlfriend will be safe.
  • Younger Than They Look: Blue, Criff, and Lucson all look like adults, but are all children, with Blue actually being one of the younger students at age 15.
  • Yuppie Couple: A girl in a mascot costume (Kikki Kibure) and a boy in a towel (Radan) appear in the background of at least one scene in every episode.

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