Figure 17
Figure 17 - Tsubasa & Hikaru (フィギュア17つばさ＆ヒカル, Figyua Sebuntīn Tsubasa ando Hikaru) is a Japanese anime television series animated at OLM, Inc. and directed by Naohito Takahashi. The series featured character designs by Yuriko Chiba and music by Toshihiko Takamizawa (of the rock band The Alfee). The series is unusual due to it having an hour time slot per episode (46 minutes of actual episode) rather than the standard half hour time slot.
| Figure 17 | |
 Cover of the first DVD volume | |
| フィギュア17つばさ＆ヒカル (Figure 17 Tsubasa & Hikaru) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Drama, Science fiction, Slice of life |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by | Naohito Takahashi |
| Produced by | Koji Morimoto Nobuhiro Osawa Shukichi Kanda |
| Written by | Shōji Yonemura |
| Music by | Toshihiko Takamizawa |
| Studio | OLM, Inc. |
| Licensed by | |
| Original network | AT-X, TV Tokyo |
| English network | |
| Original run | May 27, 2001 – June 26, 2002 |
| Episodes | 13 |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Guy Nakahira |
| Published by | MediaWorks |
| Magazine | Dengeki Daioh |
| Demographic | Shōnen |
| Original run | November 27, 2001 – October 27, 2002 |
| Volumes | 2 |
| Light novel | |
| Written by | Shoji Yonemura |
| Illustrated by | Yuriko Chiba |
| Imprint | Dengeki Bunko |
| Demographic | Male |
| Published | June 10, 2002 |
Plot
The anime covers a small portion of the life of the timid, shy, Tsubasa Shiina, a grade schooler who is forced to move to Hokkaidō from Tokyo with her father as he pursues his dream of becoming a baker in the aftermath of her mother's death. At her new school, she is so shy and unsociable that her classmates ignore her at best, and abuse her inability to defend herself at worst.
Shortly after the two begin to settle in, an alien spaceship comes crashing down to earth in the forest behind her house. Stumbling across the ship with her dog, Tsubasa discovers the pilot, unconscious and wounded, and a monster who is trying to kill him. When the monster attacks, the alien wakes and tries to fight off the monster. Tsubasa, in her fright, runs for the ship to hide from the monster. The monster quickly takes care of the alien, seemingly killing him and in the process releasing him from some sort of transformation, and then tries to reach into the ship to get at Tsubasa.
In its effort to reach her, the monster accidentally cracks a mysterious container, causing its mostly-liquid contents to leak onto the floor next to Tsubasa. Making contact with Tsubasa, it converges on her as a strange substance that transforms her into what appears to be a female, teenage equivalent of the form the man had transformed into while fighting the monster. With the aid of this mysterious 'power-up', Tsubasa is able to defeat the monster, despite it being somewhat accidental on her part.
When the battle is over, Tsubasa reverts to her normal form, but finds the strange substance has turned into an visually identical copy of herself upon separation. This new girl introduces herself, claiming the name of Hikaru. The alien awakens, but does not transform into the appearance he had on Tsubasa's arrival at his ship. Together, all three return to Tsubasa's house and stay the night in her room.
The next day the man introduces himself as D.D. -an alien- and explains that he was transporting the seeds of a monster called a Maguar, when suddenly one of the seeds hatched and attacked him, forcing him into a crash landing on Earth. Unfortunately, the Maguar that Tsubasa defeated was only 1 of 6 that he had been transporting, and D.D. explains that the other 5 have escaped the ship and are each scattered somewhere throughout Hokkaidō. He eventually realizes he needs the girls to help him with destroying the remaining 5 Maguar since the atmosphere of the earth has enhanced both Hikaru- who is a form of combat suit known as a Figure- and the Maguar in a similar way, while he waits for reinforcements.
To facilitate the problem of suddenly having a twin that no one knows about, D.D. decides to modify the memories of Tsubasa's father, making him believe he had twin daughters all along, and that Hikaru was simply living elsewhere with an aunt. Passing himself off as a visiting photographer friend, D.D. proceeds to monitor the Maguar from his ship, while Tsubasa and Hikaru live together at Tsubasa's house, go to school together at Tsubasa's school, fight together as Figure 17 against the Maguar, and essentially become siblings in a more emotional sense.
Each episode consists of about 35–40 minutes of Tsubasa's & Hikaru's school life, and is typically concluded by about 5–10 minutes of Maguar fighting. The main point of this series is more about Tsubasa growing up and learning how to cope with life events- such as the loss of her mother and her familiar environment- than the alien-monster fighting which is present throughout each episode. The plot is driven as much by Tsubasa learning from Hikaru and her experiences with her new sister at school as it is by the presence of the Maguar, and there tends to be less cross-interference of mundane and fantastic life than is typical of 'magical girl' type anime.
Characters
Main characters
- Tsubasa Shiina (椎名つばさ, Shīna Tsubasa)
- Voiced by: Akiko Yajima (Japanese); Kay Jensen (English)
- Hikaru Shiina (椎名ヒカル, Shīna Hikaru)
- Voiced by: Fumiko Orikasa (Japanese); Willow Armstrong (English)
- D.D. / Daisuke Domoto (D・D / 堂本大輔, Dōmoto Daisuke)
- Voiced by: Rikiya Koyama (Japanese); Lex Lang (English)
- Orudina (オルディナ)
- Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue (Japanese); Mia Bradly (English)
School children
- Sho Aizawa (相沢翔, Aizawa Shō)
- Voiced by: Kyoko Tsuruno (Japanese); David Duncan McNeill (English)
- Kenta Hagiwara (萩原健太, Hagiwara Kenta)
- Voiced by: Yuko Kato (Japanese); Cutter Garcia (English)
- Asuka Karasawa (唐沢飛鳥, Karasawa Asuka)
- Voiced by: Ryoka Yuzuki (Japanese); Julie Ann Taylor (English)
- Noriko Itou (伊藤典子, Itō Noriko)
- Voiced by: Naoko Takano (Japanese); Olivia O'Connor (English)
- Shinji Ogawa (小川真二, Ogawa Shinji)
- Voiced by: Takako Honda (Japanese); Dave Lelyveld (English)
- Mina Sawada (沢田美奈, Sawada Mina)
- Voiced by: Rie Kugimiya (Japanese); Sue Beth Arden (English)
- Tokio Aoyama (青山時夫, Aoyama Tokio)
- Voiced by: Yoshiko Kamei (Japanese); David Duncan McNeill (English)
Adults
- Akiko Hibino (日比野明子, Hibino Akiko)
- Voiced by: Yuko Kato (Japanese); Lynn Fischer (English)
- Hideo Shiina (椎名英夫, Shīna Hideo)
- Voiced by: Masamichi Sato (Japanese); Ron Allen (English)
- Shinichi Ibaragi (茨城新一, Ibaragi Shin'ichi)
- Voiced by: Tōru Ōkawa (Japanese); Michael McConnohie (English)
- Kyoko Ibaragi (茨城京子, Ibaragi Kyōko)
- Voiced by: Kyoko Tsuruno (Japanese); Sue Beth Arden (English)
- Sakura Ibaragi (茨城サクラ, Ibaragi Sakura)
- Voiced by: Yui Horie (Japanese); Julie Maddalena (English)
- Rokuro Ibaragi (茨城六郎, Ibaragi Rokurō)
- Voiced by: Eiji Maruyama
- Rin Ibaragi (茨城凛, Ibaragi Rin)
- Voiced by: Ai Satō (Japanese); Barbara Goodson (English)
- Isamu Kuroda (黒田勇, Kuroda Isamu)
- Voiced by: Hōchū Ōtsuka (Japanese); Steve Kramer (English)
Production notes
Figure 17 first aired on TV Tokyo's satellite anime channel AT-X on May 27, 2001. This anime is unusual in that the episodes are about twice as long as most standard TV anime broadcast episodes, at 46 minutes per episode.
In the United States, the series was broadcast on the ImaginAsian network.[1]
The music was composed by Toshihiko Takamizawa of the band The Alfee, which recorded the opening theme "Boy" and the ending theme "Fairy Dance" (both songs available on their 2001 album Glint Beat). In an interview, Takamizawa said that he was told that Figure 17 was a mix of John Carpenter's The Thing and the J-Drama series Kita no Kuni Kara (From a Northern Country).
Media
Anime
Bandai Visual distributed the series on DVD in Japan in single-episode volumes, totaling 13 volumes. It was licensed in North America by Media Blasters (under the AnimeWorks label) and released in six DVD volumes from 2003 to 2004, as well as a boxed set in 2005. This version was also licensed in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment.[2]
Manga
A manga adaptation of the series was illustrated by Guy Nakahira and published in the magazine Dengeki Daioh. Spanning only two volumes, the adaptation is considerably shorter than the TV series, condensing most of the series' storyline, removing some of the supporting characters and shortening the fight scenes to only a few pages. The manga was licensed in North America and translated in English by ADV Manga.
Novel
A novelization of the series was penned by screenplay writer Shoji Yonemura with illustrations by character designer Yuriko Chiba and published by Dengeki Bunko.
Soundtrack
The series' soundtrack, released by Lantis, consists of the background music. The opening and ending themes are not available on this disc. In addition, an image album was released, featuring songs performed by Akiko Yajima and Fumiko Orikasa.
External links
- Figure 17 at GENCO
- Figure 17 at IMDb
- Figure 17 (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
