(26 episodes)
What’s it about ?
A high school student is stalked by both a creepy transfer student and a team of men in black. Maybe this is linked to his weird right arm (which hasn’t been the same since a mysterious incident years ago)…
Characters
Ryo, our protagonist. Kind-hearted, a bit of a slacker… and owner of incredibly 80s sideburns. His right arm is definitely not normal, what with healing ridiculously fast and transforming into something else at the end of the episode.
Katsumi, totally not his girlfriend, and typical bossy tsundere material. Spends most of the episode either in distress… or with Ryo thinking she’s in distress (while his opponents couldn’t care less about her). She’s actually less annoying than this sounds.
Hayato, the creepy transfer student with his left arm bandaged. The kind who single-handedly defeats a dozen bullies offscreen. His left arm is actually a weird claw-with-blades thing, and he’s somehow able to make Ryo’s arm vibrate by “resonance”.
There are quite a few men in black circling around Ryo and Hayato while delivering cryptic exposition. They want to capture the two ARMS subjects, but there’s probably more to it.
Production Values
Not a lot of budget, but enough directing tricks to somewhat disguise it as artistically-motivated. Good use of colour to build the atmosphere, too.
Overall impression
This is actually quite decent : the characters have a lot of chemistry, the atmosphere is well set, and it moves at a decent clip. The character design’s a bit retro, but you get used to it quickly.
The problem is that I don’t care about the story. At all. It’s a bit of a cliché, and despite the quality of the execution I can’t see this series going anywhere interesting.
