Don’t let the title fool you. It may be cheesy, but there’s a good reason for the show to be named like this. Sci-fi Harry is a mystery-drama, focusing at a psychic named Harry. He’s an incredible social outcast, unable to talk even normally in front of people, who discovers that he’s got huge psychic powers. Through pressure of one of his few friends, he ends up in his own tv-show, called “Sci-Fi Harry” because people are so enthusiastic about him. The thing is, however, that he doesn’t know how to control his powers, which causes quite an incident. Ever since then, different people try to obtain his powers.
First, let me say that this anime features some great moments. It isn’t afraid to show some disturbing scenes (like people with their necks all twisted around), and Harry works as a great main character, due to his constant worries and inabilities. To add to this, Sci-Fi Harry comes with a multi-layered plot, where nearly every episode reveals a bit about a huge complot which is going on. Lots of storylines happen at the same time, ranging from decent to excellent.
A huge theme in the anime is betrayal. Nearly everyone who runs into Harry tries to manipulate him. Because he’s such a weak character, this actually succeeds most of the times. In addition to that, the other members of the rich side-cast also all have one or more instances where they betray, and are betrayed themselves. Especially Mother and Chinori turned into awesome characters because of this.
I liked the fact how this anime follows so many different storylines, but there lies also the problem. Managing all these different storylines which split up and get combined frequently is extremely difficult, and in the end, the creators of Sci-Fi Harry didn’t manage to do this perfectly. Because of this, some of the storylines are more interesting than others, and it’s annoying to see the more interesting ones get interrupted by the less interesting ones. John, an interesting main character in the beginning also gets condemned to the role of a mere unimportant side-character after the first half of the anime, which was a pity, actually.
The fact also remains that this anime took a bit more on its plate than it could take. Especially the final two or three episodes lose a bit of steam when compared to their predecessors, and yet they continue to introduce more plot-elements which could have been easily omitted. Because of this, the ending left a bit too many questions unanswered, and some answers that were given weren’t really satisfying. The identity of “Accuser” just didn’t fit right, and we never know who keeps sending the text-messages through the computer. The final episode itself also was a bit disappointing. Not because it was rushed, but it lacked a decent aftermath. Something very interesting happens at the end of the episode, and I would so have loved to see how people reacted to this, but instead the anime ends and left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
Still, despite this, I really enjoyed this anime. If you like dark mystery-stories, then this is definitely an anime that you should check out. Just be aware that Harry’s art style may be a bit annoying at times, but I think that that was what the creators had in mind. He really looks like a worthless person. And Chinori looked too scary at times.]]>
Sci-Fi Harry Review – 80/100
I believe Fatman was the one who sent the text messages to the computer. Remember his conversation with John on the phone? I’m pretty sure that he basically admitted that he helped him before with those messages, which is the entire reason John decides to believe him (twice, even).
And, yeah, the ending confused me a bit.
I totally agree with You – there should be at least one additional episode to show the result of their “last action”. The whole “Accuser” storyline is totally incoherent – Fatman’s explanation is just absurd (why would Harry want to make such a massacre). One thing I wanted to see is how hary copes with the implications of his actions on a moral plane.
Well…I am still confused about one thing.. who the hell was that person in the last scene?
Plus, the anime was very interesting in many parts…
That was basically Harry and the other girl fused together. Hence why the ending felt so sudden.
(SPOILER!!!!!!!)
I liked the anime a lot, but so many things about it just made me crack up about how unrealistically silly it was! I’m not talking about the psychic stuff, cause obviously it’ll have stuff like that being that it’s a Sci-Fi work, but more on the terms of reactions. The most hilarious example was the end with the military!!! DID YOU SEE ALL OF THOSE TANKS!? FIGHTER PLANES!?! Lol and the stupidity of the military itself. For one, not only would that have been an operation worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but also…. What kinda overkill is that? That was a force worthy of invading a country! A terrorist HQ would be dealt with with something more close to a team of special forces rather than an army of tanks rolling down the hill firing a million shots at a building and then air strikes called on it… (Which even after that I don’t understand how anyone in the building survived or how any part of the building was still standing)…… But after that they sent like 20 more tanks to take out the little cottage over the hill!!! AND EVEN AT THAT POINT! The guy in the tank yelled that the little kid sitting in the smoke was a target!? are they robots? Wouldn’t anyone stop with some common sense (or morals) and say “Hey, let’s capture the unarmed boy sitting there instead of blowing him away with a tank!”. I don’t know about anyone else, but I took the entire anime seriously as a well thought out show until the last few episodes turned into a joke! It definitely didn’t feel rushed, but it LOOKED rushed!
I agree with the rushed ending; I got the impression the series had to have originally something like the canonical 26 eps, but then, midway, they decided to cut it down, leaving some plot thread as it was…
A shame it never got a sequel, it could have been a valid alternative to the psychological horror/thriller à la Higurashi…
This anime is one of the reasons I love this blog… This is a true hidden gem right here, completely unknown/underrated and yet one of the best mystery/thriller series out there
I marathoned the whole thing today from day to night and loved it
Theres to many problems with that anime…to many questions left unanswered. And the whole anime is about a kid having confidence issues or going through puberty. If you watch this all episoded are like that 1-20 I’m worthless, I’m worthless, I’m worthless each and every episode…and the last episode is even more “worthless”. Finally u expect some questions to be answered in last episode…something more to the point to happen, but nothing happens.
I finally finished it after 20 years of pausing it. When they explained that all of humanity are just lazy people doing nothing but observe and blame each other, without trying to change anything… it resonated with my dissapointment in humanity. Saying that Harry was the only one who wasn’t like that was fascinating. His superpowers were the result of his immence power to… change. He killed people by accident because he influences all the people around him with his power of change, and he wished to twist a spoon’s head. Humans are kinda shaped like spoons… His will did an echo in the universe, like an immortal god able to create a new world. The organisation’s true goal was to create immortality, but it went wrong, so they decided to try to prevent the birth of an immortal? It’s ironic that they unlocked Harry’s powers of immortality by trying to kill him. I think Chinori died at the end the way she wished, but she died happy that she was loved by Harry, and not abandonned. She would have died either way, her body was tired. (I think mother merged with her and became a projection of her mind, and would die if she died. I think that her regret that he never understood until the end (Harry probably had the power to kill him inside his mind). I think what she wanted him to understand is that all she ever wanted was to love him, but he twisted and used that in an ugly way. But Harry understood.) Sadly I think she died, maybe he let him merge with her at the end, but she wasn’t wish him in the last frame… I think it’s him much older, wandering the earth, as an immortal.
Also, I think that Chinori love story is a metaphor for codependency. Trying to become one and cling ternally to a person, even if they are bad to you. She tried to make the same mistake by trying to merge with Harry hoping that this time it’d be someone who love her. But when she has accepted her death, she felt true joy in the fleeting moment that Harry hugged her before she gets blowned up, as she wished. I think mother also had his wish since his soul was now linked to her mortal body, so he finally overcame his mistake to become immortal.
Harry was such a push over weak wimp… I’ve been bullied and am against it, but his extreme terror at all times made me want to kick him. But in the end, when you realise that he’s not an accuser, a lazy person who only blame others without efforts… but an influencer… someone who can change the world with his will and even others… and grant wishes… then he has to be really worried at his every thoughts… because just bending a spoon caused a massacre from the echo of his influence and will… maybe he became a wimp because it happened before, so he became scared to do any actions at all, eeven a simple pass at sport. But he got encouraged to trust himself and try.
Nowadays, telling influencers that they should think wisely before they act… is even more true than decades ago.
That anime was a wisdom.
Oh, and also another morale: beware when you flirt with girls online, especially predators having a power trip preying on kids… because you might not be the only gross person in that story, maybe you’re actually talking to an old obese guy with a tube up his butt.
And about the blond jock… if you don’t protect your girlfriend against raape… someone else will… and you will lose her. I can’t believe that after all the many death, the rape trio are still alive… I was hoping to see Harry go berserk like Carrie by Stephen King. But it was still fun.
I thought that the last frame was Harry who gained self confidence as an adult. But maybe he did merge with Chinori. He wanted to save her, so why didn’t he destroy the tanks. Was he really dumb enough to think that just watching her die by his side was enough? Maybe he protected her from the blast, but why isn’t she with him at the end. Maybe he let her take over his body, or became one, because he chose her at the end, so maybe the other girl in his mind would no longer stop her. Maybe his smirk at the end was Chinori’s. But I don’t think she’d be satisfied with living forever alone. She wanted to die, her wish was never to be immortal, but to be loved… so maybe she got both her wishes. Maybe that’s why Harry didn’t stop the tanks. And he’s someone who is basically god incarnated, a SWAT team wouldn’t be enough. Even a tank wasn’t enough to blast him to pieces.
I wish someone better explaained what the author meant. But I think in the 90s they deliberately made vague endings so people could think of their favorite. So my guess might be as good as any.
Maybe I should rewatch Akira. Maybe I’d finally understand it with the wisdom of decades of torment.