Alien 9
| Alien Nine | |
North American cover of Alien Nine volume 1
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エイリアン9 (Eirian Nain) |
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| Genre | Action, Biopunk, Horror, Science fiction, Thriller |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Hitoshi Tomizawa |
| Published by | Akita Shoten |
| English publisher | |
| Demographic | Seinen |
| Magazine | Young Champion |
| Original run | 1998 – 1999 |
| Volumes | 3 |
| Manga | |
| Alien 9 Emulators | |
| Written by | Hitoshi Tomizawa |
| Published by | Akita Shoten |
| English publisher | |
| Demographic | Shōnen |
| Magazine | Champion Red |
| Published | 2003 |
| Volumes | 1 |
| Original video animation | |
| Directed by |
Jiro Fujimoto (vol. 1) Yasuhiro Irie (vol. 2-4) |
| Written by | Sadayuki Murai |
| Studio | J.C.Staff |
| Licensed by | |
| Released | 25 June 2001 – 25 February 2002 |
| Runtime | 30 minutes |
| Episodes | 4 |
Alien Nine (エイリアン9 Eirian Nain) is a manga series by Hitoshi Tomizawa, which was later adapted into an anime OVA series by J.C.Staff. The manga was serialized in Akita Shoten's Young Champion magazine, spanning 3 volumes. In 2003, Tomizawa released a 1-volume sequel to the series called Alien 9 Emulators. Both the manga and anime are noted for their moe art style contrasting the realistic art style seen in most seinen series at the time and heavy violence despite the young main characters, Pokémon-like monster designs, and initial appearances of a slice-of-life-esque series.
The English adaptation of the series was first licensed by Central Park Media, and has played on Comcast's Anime Selects. Central Park Media released the title under their "US Manga Corps" line, on a single DVD, and later re-released the DVD in a box set with all three manga volumes, which was also licensed by Central Park Media under their "CPM Manga" line. Central Park Media filed for bankruptcy in 2009, and the DVDs and manga volumes subsequently went out of print in North America.
Yuri Otani, a rather melancholic 12-year-old, has just arrived in sixth grade and has (begrudgingly) joined the "Alien Party", a team whose primary objective is to capture any otherworldly aliens that may appear on campus. To make matters even worse for Yuri, the only way that capturing the aliens can be made possible is to adjoin with a "Borg", a symbiotic life-form whose sole purpose is to protect their host, incapacitate, and ultimately capture other aliens, using anything available to their arsenal (which includes, but is not limited to: Borgs, inline roller blades, knee pads, and lacrosse sticks.) Yuri is not alone in her tribulations, for she has two other Alien Party member friends - Kasumi Tōmine and Kumi Kawamura.
The first half of the series (through the middle of Volume 2) was later adapted into an anime OVA series, which was released across four volumes by Bandai Visual from 2001 to 2002, containing one episode each. Animated by J.C.Staff and produced by Genco, the first volume of the series was directed by Jirō Fujimoto, while volumes 2-4 were directed by Yasuhiro Irie, who also handled the entire series' character designs, and was written by Sadayuki Murai. A special TV broadcast was aired prior to the series' DVD release on AT-X. The opening themes are "Flower Psychedelic: Kasumi Tomine Version" by Noriko Shitaya, "Flower Psychedelic: Kumi Kawamura Version" by Kaori Shimizu, and "Flower Psychedelic: Yuri Otani Version" by Juri Ihata, the ending theme is "rebirth" by en avant.
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