Anime / ID: Invaded

Id:Invaded^note as per the katakana on the logo saying ''Ido:Inveideddo'', but stylised as ID:INVADED is an original Japanese anime television series by NAZ that is directed by Ei Aoki (Fate/Zero, Aldnoah.Zero, Re:CREATORS) and written by Ōtarō Maijō. The series premiered on January 5, 2020. A manga sequel by Yūki Kodama (the original character designer), subtitled #BRAKE-BROKEN, was announced on September 4, 2019. The show's official Twitter account announced that the series is coming back on January 2021, suggesting another season.

The show follows a special police task force that uses experimental technology to track "Cognition Particles", emitted by the brains of serial killers at the scene of the crime. By plugging these into a machine called a "Mizuhanome", investigators can dive into the killer's ID-Well (a pun on the Japanese language's double meaning of ido) and interpret the visions within to find the culprit. Though the ID-Wells vary wildly in location and circumstance, the simulation enforces certain rules: upon entering the simulation, the investigator loses their memory of reality and takes on the role of a Brilliant Detective investigating the death of a girl named Kaeru, whose murder always points towards the key to cracking the case.

Oh, and only someone who is a serial killer themselves can enter the ID-Well.

Former cop Akihito Narihisago is the team's resident diver, locked in a cell until he's needed to enter the ID-Wells and take the role of Brilliant Detective Sakaido. He searches not only for the killers' identies, but also for any signs of the enigmatic John Walker: a "creator of serial killers" whose influence overshadows multiple cases.

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This series provides examples of:

• Alternate Character Reading: The title is in all-caps, so the general assumption is that it's "ID: Invaded" ("identity: invaded"). If you read the provided katakana though, you'll get "Id: Invaded" (as in "Freud's concept of the id") and the all-caps is there to give the title more symbolic significance, since both a character's identity and their id cause their Mental World to be what it is.
• A Father to His Men: Matsuoka very much cares for the safety of his men while doing investigations and is even willing to send Hondoumachi to the special division just to make sure that they stay safe while doing investigations.
• Ambiguous Situation: In Episode 12, it is currently unknown if the people who went comatose by Kiki's powers and were killed inside a Id well would be revived or stay dead. Hondoumachi asks Narihisago if the people who lose their lives in the ID well will be revived, but he wasn't sure. However, Hayaseura, who killed himself and entered his own Id well, won't be returning to the real world.
  • It was confirmed in the series finale, most of the members of Kura regain consciousness after Kiki is put back in the Mizuhanome System.
• Amnesiac Hero: The divers wake up in an Id-well with no memories. Upon seeing Kaeru's corpse, they will then remember a false name, that they are a Brilliant Detective, and they need to solve Kaeru's murder. Most of them have only one name that ends in "ido", which is lampshaded as a full name being unimportant until the case is solved, an exception being "Miyo Hijiriido". One character posits that this may be a safety measure in case a pilot enters their own Id well. If told their real name, the great detectives remember everything, which may have consequences for the well. Certain brain injuries let them keep their memories, like Fukuda who was only faking his amnesia.
• And the Adventure Continues: The manga is confirmed to be the sequel to the anime since Matsuoka's new co-worker, Fukusen, has appeared in both the anime and manga and Shirou Kokufu is currently the new leader of the Kura. Whether the manga will be animated into a second season is unknown.
• Arc Numbers: 7 and 3.
  • 7 for John Walker. He creates seven serial killers who he allows to kill seven times (given his real identity and knowledge, he’s able to arrange for police to capture or kill the killers before their eighth attack). He even arranges each killing to occur on a specific day of the week assigned to a certain killer, which is called out by Hondomachi as part of his god complex, although that he technically failed at it probably isn't enough to stop him from trying to kill Narihisago and Hondomachi.. There are also seven members of the Kura well team (including the pilot).
  • 3 is for the (more or less) good guys. By the end of the first half there are three brilliant detectives, it’s revealed to be the favorite number of the arithmomania-afflicted Fukuda, the storm in Narihisago’s Id well lasts 3 subjective years and Narihisago’s family had three members.
• Asshole Victim: Narihisago's "victims", being serial killers themselves (see Serial-Killer Killer entry below). It stands in contrast with all the serial killers seen, whose victims, for the most part, are completely innocent civilians.
• Badass Adorable: Hondoumachi as an investigator and in the Well as a Brilliant Detective. She even wears a iconic detective outfit too!
• Bittersweet Ending: With Uraido trapped inside Kiki's ID well for good, Narihisago finally moves on from his wife and daughter's death, and most of the members of Kura regain consciousness. However, Fukuta and possibly Inami are still in the comatose state indefinitely. Kiki decides to return to the Mizuhanome System and someday Kura will find a way to suppress her powers and let her live a normal life again. The final scene shows both Narihisago and Hondomachi starting their next mission in a new Id well.
• Blood Bath: In the penultimate episode, Kiki Asukai casually pulls a bunch of hapless computer technicians into an Id Well that takes the form of a giant bathtub full of blood and sharks. Upon arriving later, Uraido speculates that it's because this particular killer's first memory was a painful one, while jumping around a giant baby that resembles the Challenger.
• Book Ends: The series starts in the Well of Fukuda and the final battle ends in the same Well.
• Break Them by Talking: Narihisago does this to The Pyrotechnician in episode 3. It's later said that it's not the first time. He drives him to suicide from across a prison hallway, although he did take advantage of information obtained in an Id well and discovered by the well team.
  • It’s also how he deals with the serial killers taking turns to torture Asukai while trapped in the Id-well in Inside-outed. This is made more impressive by the fact that he was in a wheel chair at the time due to the injuries sustained during his fight with The Challenger and presented no physical threat to them.
• Buried Alive: How the Gravedigger kills their victims. They make it even worse by livestreaming their slow deaths and later body decomposition online.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Let's just say that Fukuda is not the most sane person when he's inside the Well. As a Brilliant Detective, he becomes very hammy and likes to do funny Finger Gun poses and occasionally speak with Gratuitous English. Although, silliness aside, he does become quite competent as a detective when working together with Sakaido. Although his real-world analysis of the issues arising from two Brilliant Detectives in the same well is quite perceptive and causes concern, those issues never arise possibly because Fukuda is able to manipulate the situation to avoid them due to his not suffering the amnesia effect.
• The Corrupter: John Walker, whose blurry image appears in the Wells of multiple serial killers and is probably the reason for them becoming serial killers in the first place.
• Crossing the Desert: Episode 8 features Sakaido and Anaido traveling through a desert Well where the sun never moves from directly overhead.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Narihisago. Muku, his only daughter was brutally murdered by a serial killer and his wife committed suicide after said incident. Avenging his daughter is what landed him in prison.
• Death of a Child: Narihisago's daughter, Muku was murdered by a serial killer called "The Challenger".
• Determinator: Narihisago, and to a lesser extent Fukuda, as they repeatedly go into the same wells to try to solve them, even though the amnesia effect means their progress is essentially luck-based each time. Narihisago even soils himself once, and is forced to take a break while the chair is cleaned before his next dive in a continuous series over several days.
• Digital Avatar: The diver who enters into the Well changes their appearance and name. Narihisago (as Sakaido) changes his appearance to what he looked like in his prime, Fukuda (as Anaido) appears with no scar and looks younger along with wearing an elaborate trench coat outfit, Hondoumachi (as Miyo Hijiriido) wearing a cute-looking Sherlock Homage outfit, and Hayaseura becomes Uraido in the John Walker outfit.
• Dull Surprise: In episode 8, Togo wasn't flustered or disgusted when she watched Sakaido and Anaido pissing on their clothes offscreen to prevent dehydration in a desert-like ID well.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Most of the ID wells contain some kind of lethal hazard. Even when they don't, John Walker is generally stalking about looking for victims.
• Exploding Barrels: Deliberately constructed by the Gravedigger as a boobytrap for police looking for his victims. They're filled with gasoline, rigged to spew and then be sparked to destroy the building when the cables leading inside are cut.
• The Faceless: In episode 10, when Narihisago is having his last conversation with his wife and daughter after two years have passed in Kiki's ID well, their faces aren't fully shown. It's possible that the reason they look exactly the same as from 2016 is because there are no records of them alive in 2018.
  • Reconstructed: The well team determines that the large numbers of prospective victims in one Well are composites of the killer's actual victims, and in another are well-known actors or athletes as substitutes for the victims that the killer never saw, but their subconscious still gave detailed faces and clothing. The girl hiding under Kaeru's body in Kazuta's ID well even has facial features that change over time as she represents multiple victims.
• Fantastic Radiation Shielding: The helmets made to protect the wearer from Kiki Asukai's psychic powers. Early on, a simple headpiece was enough. During the finale, a full-body suit fitted with a life support system is barely survivable for the wearer approaching her presence.
• Floating Continent: Kazuta's ID well consists of a single floating plot of land containing a house where he used to live, surrounded by empty sky, plummeting endlessly. Fukuda's ID well also resembles a landmass with a cityscape floating in the void once it's fully assembled, though it starts splitting up again in short order.
• Floating Limbs: Narihisago gained this inside Fukuda's Well. Because Fukuda's mind was fragmented, this also affected Narihisago, who suffered floating chunks of his body before refitting himself back to normal except for his left elbow, making a floating gap in his left arm. This actually becomes helpful in solving the first case because he can detach his left forearm and hand to extend and reach for objects like floating platforms and the handle on the other side of a locked door. However, this remains exclusively for the first well as Narihisago is later seen to remain whole in other people's Wells because they weren't fragmented like Fukuda's was. When returning to Fukuda's in the finale, Narihisago initially conceals his left arm then uses the detached hand in a surprise attack on John Walker.
• Friendly Enemy: After the arrest of Fukuda the Perforator, he decides to spend his days in jail talking to Narihisago for company, at some points even teasingly calling him "sempai" and "partner". The "partner" part plays into effect when Narihisago and Fukuda have to enter into the Well as a pair to save Hondoumachi. Although Anaido tends to annoy Sakaido in the Well, they do surprisingly get along as Brilliant Detectives.
• From Bad to Worse: Your only child was beaten to death by a sadistic murderer, and then you watched your spouse slowly lose themselves in grief until they take their own life. Even worse, they blame you for your child's death. And you were arrested for the murder of that murderer, lost your job as a police officer, and have been imprisoned.
• Gory Discretion Shot: In Episode 9, when Kiki accidentally shows Narihisago her memories of being killed several different ways in her dreams, some shots of her have been censored into silhouettes instead.
• Great Detective: The identity taken on by people who dive into wells, called "Brilliant Detective" in the anime. In the real world, Narihisago used to be this and Hondoumachi is shaping up to be this. Also notable is Wakashika on the well team.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: Zig-Zagged Except for Fukuda, due to his mental reconfiguration, and Hayaseura because he's actually dead, people who dive into an Id well are subject to an amnesia effect that's supposed to prevent them from being caught in a paradox-driven collapse if certain situations occur. Which forces the pilot(s) to try again and again when their Brilliant Detective dies without solving the mysteries in that well (both the Kaeru death and the overarching reason they're in this well). Some wells apparently take multiple days of retries, and usually only a few failures are shown before the success. Seeing a success will trigger the well team to eject the diver back to reality, otherwise a death does it anyway. Doesn't apply to those forced into wells by Kiki's presence. Or to those who enter a well within a well, although those don't seem to be escapable except by external intervention.
• Hero-Worshipper: Hondoumachi really respects Narihisago as the Brilliant Detective and aspires to be like him someday.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In episode 10, Narihisago mentions he made three serial killers - The Tongue-Tearer, The Arm-Twister, and The Thigh-Severer - commit suicide using their own killing method on themselves.
• Hope Spot: We follow a girl who was kidnapped and Buried Alive, with her final moments being livestreamed. She's determined to be rescued and assures those watching her that she'll make it out alive, or at least beat the time record of previous victims. The police finally find where she's buried and break her out of her confinement... only to find out that she died days ago, and the livestream everyone was watching was pre-recorded.
  • Also goes for a version of her in the killer's well. Sakaido does manage to finally save her from the burning building, but he also realizes that this is essentially meaningless, as it won't bring her back in reality and this one is a much younger age. Although, upon finally meeting her, she casually gives information that nearly solves the case for her real-world death.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: Played with. The opening scene of the series (and the promotional art) makes it look like the series is going for this, based on the first shots we see of Narihisago and his outfit... but it turns out the trope only applies to detectives' appearances in the Well. Outside, clothes are fairly standard, though there are still unrealistic hair colors.
  • In an interview it was explained that the Brilliant Detectives' clothing are based on their ID wells.
• Jack the Ripoff: It turns out the killer in episode 4 isn't the Gravedigger as initially thought, but is copying the method in order to pin a murder on them and cover up their own involvement. The real killer even visits the site of the arrest, is spotted and pursued, although at the time he's only a person of interest as the missing victim of another serial killer.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: The Id-well in which Narihisago is trapped during Inside-outed.
• Lobotomy: How the Perforator kills his victims. He also did it to himself first, and survived. Hondoumachi and Kazuta survived too.
• Marshmallow Hell: From behind when Togo grabs one of the well team and covers their mouth to stop them from speaking. He's shown doing several reactions as he realizes he's been grabbed, that's he's not supposed to make any noise now, and then where his head is.
• Murderous Mannequin: The sniper in the Pyrotechnician's ID well is a faceless mannequin with a rifle. It's a figurative nobody, because it doesn't need to be anybody as long as it causes the destruction the Pyrotechnician craves.
• Meaningful Name: John Walker is a reference to Johnnie Walker, an alcohol brand, while according to a behind-the-scenes interview done by Funimation with Ei Aoki (director), Atsushi Ikariya (character designer), Kenjiro Tsuda (Sakaido/Narihisago) and Yoshimasa Hosoya (Momoki), most characters are named after types of alcohol. For instance, Narihisago is a type of sake from Fukui.
  • The common element in the brilliant detectives' names (井戸) means "well", as in a well for water, as well as being a reference to the id (井 by itself also means "well"). According to the Funimation interview, Kaeru (which can mean either "frog" or "to return" by Alternate Character Reading) matches this because of the story of the frog in the well.
  • The title itself is one. The most obvious component is how the detectives "invade" the well... then there's the layers of symbolism between "Id: Invaded" and "ID: Invaded"...
• Mental World: Played with. The Id-Well is a world created from "Cognition Particles" emitted by a person with Killing Intent and is a "snapshot" of their mind when they had those thoughts. Some, like Narihisago's can be years old if the intent that produced them is strong enough, although these particles can be blown away in the wind. Appropriately, the objects within it represent more abstract things that the killer was thinking at the time. Complications arise from automatically updating the Well when new particles are found, or it's actually the diver's own Well.
• Mission Control: Momoki and his team are this. They control the Mizuhanome and observe the actions of Narihisago or others inside the Well to determine hints and motives as well as valuable information, which is then sent over to the real-world investigation and apprehension teams to resolve cases.
• Never Tell Me the Odds!: Played for Laughs while being chased by giant boulders, Wakashika calculates the odds of survival at roughly 70% although that doesn't reassure those nearby.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: When Narihisago confronts the Challenger while within Kiki Asukai's well, he deliberately foregoes simply shooting him as he did in reality and the two engage in a brutal, gruesome hand-to-hand deathmatch that Narihisago survives by the skin of his teeth via combat pragmatism.
• Old Cop, Young Cop: Matsuoka and Hondoumachi. However, Matsuoka sends Hondoumachi to work in the special division for the safety of his men and himself.
• Older Than They Look: Hondoumachi is actually 23, but her short stature and young looks make Matsuoka believe that she could easily pass off as a middle schooler.
• Only Friend: Momoki to Narihisago.
• Placid Plane of Ankle-Deep Water: In the final episode, we see Narihisago meeting Kiki Asukai in one of these, which seems to be Kiki's own ID-well post-collapse. Narihisago is overjoyed to finally find "Kaeru" alive.
• Police Procedural: A very unconventional one.
• Portal Crossroad World: Chief Hayaseura's ID well becomes one of these thanks to his connection to Kiki Asukai, who in turn is connected to countless serial killers. When Kiki makes him remember his true identity, his well changes to a dark, muddy cavern full of masks that act as portals to other ID wells.
• Posthumous Character: As we find out fairly early on, Narihisago's wife and daughter are long dead.
  • Played With in the case of Kaeru-chan: every time a Great Detective jumps into a well, she is already dead. But as Narihisago keeps reminding himself, she is just an abstract concept that only exists within the well. The very purpose of her "existence" is to act as a murder victim, so that the Detective has a case to solve. Uraido even discovers that he is apparently her murderer as he is holding a bloody knife upon his first arrival, "solving the murder" in only a few seconds.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: The Mizuhanome functions by piggybacking off the psychic powers of Kiki Asukai, who is kept in stasis and isolation. Each time an id-well is created she experiences her own death as a way to give clues to the investigators.
• Power Incontinence: Kiki Asukai's psychic powers. When she sleeps she shares dreams with other people, usually violent. Even when awake she can't help but send her thoughts and memories of said violence to the people around her. During the climax, her just being out of the tank forces everyone in a large radius to fall into the id-well. She says to Momoki that she's starting to hear people from other countries and fears engulfing the world if she goes on too long. Worse, killing herself would make her a killer, sending herself into the id well and continuing the expansion. Only being murdered by someone else will stop it.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Deconstructed. Narihisago gets his revenge on The Challenger by going to his house alone and gunning him down on sight. Though The Challenger was a sadistic serial killer, Narihisago is tried and imprisoned for murder.
  • Later on Narihisago gets a second try while in a deeper id-well and reliving his past. This time he lets The Challenger fight back, wounds him with bullets, then beats him to death. The courts see this as self-defense and let Narihisago free.
• Rivers of Blood: The Challenger's ID well is a swirling sea of blood, concealing sharks!
• Rule of Three:
  • Narihisago killed the Challenger and was arrested three years ago.
  • The three Brilliant Detectives.
  • Fukuda's favorite number is three. In the present times it shows by the three stitches on his head and the holes on his head (one was caused by drilling himself and the remaining two are the piercings.) Anaido's design and his mannerisms show his love for the number three too.
• Scars Are Forever: Fukuda has a nasty scar on the right side of his face along with the hole on his forehead that he drilled into himself. Hondoumachi has a similar scar because of Fukuda and although she recovered at the hospital, blood still tends to leak from her scar.
• Self-Harm:
  • Fukuda drilled a hole through his own skull and survived. It was motivated by his arithmomania, which it managed to cure.
  • Hondoumachi ends up doing the same to herself in a last ditch attempt to escape Fukuda. She gets better.
• Serial Killer: The criminals that are investigated are all this.
  • The end of episode 6 implies that Hondoumachi has the potential to be one and that being a serial killer is a requirement for being able to dive into Wells. While it was implied before, this is the first confirmation that Narihisago is also a serial killer.
• Serial-Killer Killer: Narihisago. Deconstructed in that the legal system still considers it to be murder when it wasn't done in a situation that could be claimed self-defense, which Nahirisago ran afoul of when he killed The Challenger immediately on entering his house in the past. Nahirisago averts this result in his well within a well, when he deliberately wounds The Challenger then allows himself to be beaten in return to justify killing the man, which drastically alters his existence for the next several subjective years.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Nahirisago does this when he finds himself re-living his past in the id-well, using his foreknowledge to neutralize serial killers ahead of time while also bonding with his family, eventually forgetting he is in a simulation.
• Sherlock Homage: Hondoumachi's Well outfit is modeled after Sherlock's iconic hat and coat.
• SWAT Team: The investigators are assisted by various Anti-Firearms Squad units when a lot of firepower is required to apprehend dangerous criminals and other bad guys.
• Strapped to an Operating Table: Hondoumachi is kidnapped by the Perforator and strapped to a metal table in episode 2, but she is rescued shortly after thanks to Matsuoka and his unit and from the support of Narihisago.
• They Killed Kenny Again: Kaeru dies off-screen in every ID well.
  • Fukuda's ID well: She was stabbed in the chest in a locked room.
  • Hondomachi's ID well: Kaeru hangs from a tree, her shoes neatly placed before her, having killed herself. While there's a suicide note, and the well was created by an incident of Self-Harm, it is odd that Kaeru's feet are tied together...
  • Huyukawa's ID well: She is always the first person killed, starting the initial panic, though she attempts to point in the direction of her attacker as she dies.
  • Oono's ID well: Kaeru's body was already burned, then moved to its present location in a threatened apartment in a burning building.
  • Kazuta's ID well: Kaeru is located in the house having been stabbed, both her and a pool of blood floating mid-air.
  • Inami's ID well: Kaeru's dead body is sitting with a knife near her, and Inami and Kazuta as they appeared when they were younger are sitting nearby travelling in the train.
  • Narihisago's ID well: She died from being struck by lightning.
  • Momoki's (really, Narihisago's) ID well: She died from dehydration.
  • Hayaseura's ID well: She died from a stab wound to the chest inflicted by Uraido/Hayaseura himself.
  • Mana's ID well: Kaeru's dead body is located in the back of the truck with a fatal wound in the chest.
  • Unnamed (presumably Ayako's) ID well: Kaeru committed suicide by bleeding to death in a bathtub.
• This Is a Drill: The Perforator uses a powered hand drill to drill holes through the heads of his victims.
  • Hondomachi's ID well has gigantic drills.
• Wham Episode:
  • In episode 8, Momoki has a Mizuhanome cockpit inside of his ID well that says "Kiki Asukai".
  • In episode 9, Kiki Asukai looks exactly like Kaeru inside of her ID well.
  • Episode 10, double wham in immediate succession: Anaido isn't affected by the well amnesia function, and the well they're in isn't Momoki's... It's Narihisago's.
  • Episode 11, at the end of the episode, reveals Chief Hayaseura is John Walker and Kiki Asukai is actually part of Mizuhanome System within Kura base.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: In episode 10, it is revealed Narihisago was trapped in Kiki's ID well for two years subjective time. In the real world, he was only in there for 10 minutes. This is speculated by Fukuda to be because his time in that well wasn't under real-world observation by Wellside. Hondomachi, who arrived earlier (real-world time) via a cockpit within a different well, says she was only in there for about 20 minutes subjectively before meeting Narihisago. Weirdness ensues with the dates shown on cell phones while the Well's world starts to collapse, until Narihisago is unexpectedly ejected by Fukuda finishing his pre-arranged 10 minute count.