I like this kind of thing because it is just crazy, the story was quite hard to follow the first time i watched it... lets say i was very tired... & watching the edited English version of the series. Of which i watched episode 1 - 4. So that didn't make much sense, i couldn't really remember much except the action sequences when i came round to watch the whole series just recently. This was an unedited version although i couldn't tell you what was extra and what wasn't unfortunately. Although uncut there is occasionally actually meant to be blurring of 'victims' - lets call this artistic impression as i don't know what you'd actually call it. The artistic impression is quite strong in this series with some strange camera angles and effects. One effect that did look a bit budget was the green rain in a couple of the cut scenes & also the fire effects looked a bit average although they don't play a massive part and probably still added to the series in a way.
The feel of it was quite unearthly and the actual story itself was great as it kept revealing a little bit at a time. You grow to like the comedy element in it, which isn't massive, and get quite involved with the main characters. The violence is there as well, as you might expect from Takashi Miike and yet i feel the story was quite strong and therefore the violence although a massive part of the series only added to the quality of it as a whole.
I also liked the way that there would be a lot of new characters in each episode, and a different new 'psycho' element in each one too. Anyway, so i like it, you get the comment. I would just say that i like a lot of serious anime too, and also a lot of Takashi Miikes films - from films like DOA & Full Metal Yakuza you can tell Miike likes his 'fantasy' - and this series has that element as well.
It's about a detective who is possessed of 3 personalities. One of his personalities escapes and transports between people (barcode carriers) bringing out their worst side as he is in them, then he moves on invariably leaving them to pick up the pieces. Although the 'picking up the pieces' bit is brief as the episodes focus around the 3rd personality of the detective travelling through random people (usually doing something unwholesome), the detective himself and his 'friends' and also Lucy Monostone. We don't know who Lucy is except that somehow he has a part in all this!! This 60's rock musician turned terrorist. Oh and you get to find out if 'Lucy Monostone' is a man or a woman if you watch the series too, although this isn't obvious from the word go. Definitely expect some twists and turns from this series although it does wrap up quite nicely and leave everything pretty much explained. Which doesn't always happen in Takashi Miike stuff.
