Alien 9 is a 2001 OVA adaptation of the manga of the same name by Hitoshi Tomizawa brought to us by the studios J.C. Staff and Genco. I personally had very little knowledge of Alien 9 prior to first watching the OVA and I would recommend that if you are interested in it, to just go ahead and watch it without reading this review. Because this is just one of those series that I think the less you know, the better.

Before I delve into the specifics, I’ll hit you with the ultra short version. I fucking love this series. I did know going into it that it was tagged as horror, but I really didn’t imagine it was going to be as effective as it was.

THIS IS DEFINITELY GOING TO BE A FULL SPOILERS REVIEW. WATCH/READ ALIEN 9 RIGHT NOW IF YOU HAVEN'T. ALSO ~~ALIEN~~ GORE WARNING.

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#Heaps of Horror#

Impossibly, Alien 9 somehow struck through and pinpointed some of the exact flavors of horror I love all while on the surface not appearing to be horror. If I’m being generous, I want to say my thoughts upon reading the description and seeing the cover were something along the lines of

“Well okay maybe the aliens have a good and creepy or monstrous design.”

Which if by itself would have been cool but you know, creature designs aren’t everything. What I wasn’t expecting was how creepy the world building was going to be. Like there’s something really upsetting about how all the characters beyond the main protagonist are acting.

It’s way creepier if not only do these monstrous and horrifying aliens exists, but humanity is perfectly aware of their presence and treats them as normal.

If anything, in this world, it’s odder to be upset by or fearful of them… and that’s where I primarily drew the horror from.

And yet somehow in this universe, Ridley Scott was still allowed to make his disgusting anti-alien propaganda movies. Ugh.

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#Yuri Otani#

I haven’t quite felt genuinely as bad for a character as I did for the protagonist of Alien 9 in a while. Merely an elementary schooler, Yuri Otani drew the short straw or rather was sold out by her entire class and chosen to join the “Alien Counter-Measure Party.”

The purpose of which is to capture any aliens that show up on the grounds of the school. Yuri Otani very much did not want to join. She did not volunteer herself, literally the rest of her class wanted no part of it and thus collectively threw her under the bus. She wanted to join even less when she found out that she would be required to wear a hat while fulfilling her Alien Party duties.

The hat of course being a sentient alien capable of conversation and also understanding the ~~host~~ wearer’s thoughts and feelings. And these hats or Borgs rather, feed off of the DNA of their wearer. They consume the DNA through tongue like appendages which lick the naked bodi--okay holy fucking shit this is creepy.

For the record, as I must underline this, this would still be horribly creepy even if the characters weren’t elementary schoolers. Or if they were male.

“Okay, everybody. It’s time for extracurricular activities, NOW PUT ON THIS TALKING SENTIENT ALIEN HAT THAT IS GOING TO LICK YOU WITH TENTACLES WHENEVER YOU BATHE.”

So whereas in a bunch of other horror series, I would have been frustrated as shit with a character like Yuri, I completely sympathized with her. Like no shit she doesn’t want to have any part in this. Of the other Alien Party members, you have Kumi who while not exactly thrilled about being in the Alien Party, has accepted her duties as a member. And there’s Kasumi who seems bizarrely skilled at capturing and handling the aliens.

So they’re continuously having to try and get Yuri to pull her weight in their team or trying to get her spirits up because she is constantly on the brink of having a panic attack due to how fucking scared she is of these aliens. Then after a particular traumatic experience with the aliens and summer vacation begins, Yuri starts having nightmares of just even returning to school.

And pretty much all the adults including her parents are frustrated with her. You have to go to school! It’s a part of growing up! YOU WERE ~~BULLIED BY THE ENTIRETY OF YOUR CLASS~~ FAIRLY ELECTED TO DO THIS.

Joining the Alien Party has quite literally made her daily life a living hell because whenever she’s in school she’s constantly worried that the alarm is going to go off and she’s going to be forced to go and capture some nightmarish alien creature. When in actuality, all Yuri wants to do is complete her schoolwork and spend time with her friend who isn’t in the Alien Party.

Meanwhile, this horrible horrible pro-Alien teacher who is leading the Alien Party’s all like, “okay Yuri, I’ve seen this in plenty of works of fiction. I’m going to purposely put you in a spot of trouble and you’re going to undergo character development and use your Borg which will help you overcome your fear of the Aliens!”

...Oh.

I guess just forcing someone to get over their fear only works in fiction. Whoops!

...I feel like an absolute monster because I was basically almost cheering at this scene. It's just so good. From Yuri just finally suffering a complete mental break that like even Kumi and Kasumi telepathically felt even though they were nowhere near to her when she was slaughtering literally every single alien they had captured.

"No, Otani-san. Don't kill the aliens. Don't be scared of the aliens, you'll get used to them."

"No, fuck you. They're scary."

"Okay fine, I'm gonna make you go feed them alone and send a bunch of boys controlled with other alien hats to attack you."

"Okay, I'm going to fucking murder all of the aliens all while hysterically crying because my life is terrible ever since I got put in your goddamned pro-alien group."

"Oh, you little shit... do you even have ANY idea of how much trouble I'm going to be in with my alien employers??? I mean uh... KILLING IS WRONG NO MATTER WHAT. HUMAN OR ALIEN. PLEASE STOP KILLING MY ALIENS, THOUGH. I'M GONNA GET FIRED GOD DAMN IT"

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#The Aliens#

Also, did I mention how cool the aliens are? They’re genuinely horrifying and just absolutely disgusting. Like I just think about that scene when Yuri’s going alone into where the school keeps all of the captured aliens caged up and the room is even purposely kept dark and… it’s just so great.

The entire concept of the series would immediately fall right on its face if the aliens didn’t look truly horrifying. And that’s not even to say that there are only aliens that are mindlessly aggressive.

There’s one that shows up in the final half of the OVA called Yellow Knife that just gets dropped right onto the school’s roof and then starts psychologically dominating one of the girls telepathically and it’s fucking terrifying.

Then you have the other alien hats that a couple of boys "randomly" find and start putting on that makes them feel really happy as it takes control of their minds and makes them go attack Yuri and her Borg. Even when they get freed of them once, they realize that life sucks when you don’t have an alien parasite literally hooking its way into your brain.

I’ll always find dumb blunt horror of someone just lunging at the viewer with a knife fun, but it’s nothing compared to like witnessing a person’s behaviors and minds be altered or taken control of by an external force.

And I just typed that sentence about a series where all of the characters are elementary schoolers.

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#Conclusion#

The only true negative thing I have to say about the Alien 9 OVA is of course it’s only a partial adaptation of the manga (which I will now assuredly finally read the rest of now that I’ve finally done this review). But that’s not really a flaw that’s worth dwelling on.

As a fan of horror, whenever I encounter a genuinely good anime with even a scrap of horror (let alone if it’s actually good) in it, it literally feels like coming across gold. In this case, it was of course gold that I had already previously been told of but chose to hoard for as long as I possibly could.

Alien 9 is a 10 out of 10.