Mugen no Ryvius Review

Overall score 7.2/10 - Often heavy to watch, it is for thinking people only.

I recommend it for people who can understand symbolism and literary fiction. For those who do not understand literary fiction I will not recommend it since it will be pointless to watch.

Now, this one is one of the heaviest to digest shows that I have seen. On par with Revolutionary Girl Utena, SEL. Perhaps only Umineko is more difficult.

However, it can make you smarter. For those you like to think it is a rare find. It is on the harder level for understanding that say Ghost in the Shell, Planetes or Tatami Galaxy.

It is about what happens when society and its rules and systems suddenly disappear. What people will do when they end up in such a situation.

That is exactly what happens on board of the spaceship, that loses all contact with society. In such an isolated environment, established power structures, backed only by higher authority could not last too long and fall prey to the strongest on board.

As show progresses, Infinite Ryvius goes through a series of coup d'etat that changes who is in charge. Each new leader is in many ways different from the previous, both in their way of ruling and sources of legitimacy. 

It is also telling that while some people in power come and go as situation changes, other do stay same and even grow more powerful as people at the helm change. 

Stein Heigar in particular increasingly becomes more and more a real power on board, particularly during the Ikumi rule, when things started to get very oppressive.

I personally think Ikumi-Heigar rule was worst of them all, I would have opposed it like Kouji. I kind of got disappointed that Kouji did not manage to overthrow Ikumi. During these times even Airs ended up passing his gun to Kouji, in hope Koujicould fix things.

Airs may be a thug, but things were not so oppressive when he was in charge. Zwei hated him and his gang, but ironically ended up employing many of them (with exception of Airs himself) as police force during the Ikumi-Heigar rule.

Juli rule was rather ok, since she was a compromise candidate. Chaotic, but free enough.

But that is not all.

Since society, from which Ryvius got isolated, did not what to just let it be, they ordered that Ryvius be destroyed. Therefore, people on board of the ship had to figure out how to function as a society and a ship crew in order to survive. 

That evolution is very interesting development. In order to survive, society on Ryvius ended up adopting currency and creating an economy. Eventually they even created a sort of a police force, manned by former outlaws from Air's crew.

Well, this is not a simple show to watch, it requires enough time and brains to analyze and understand it. 

Therefore, I recommend it to every thinker out here or there.