Chrome Shelled Regios

Chrome Shelled Regios
Cover of Chrome Shelled Regios volume 1 as published by Fujimi Shobo
鋼殻のレギオス (Kōkaku no Regiosu)
Genre	Fantasy, Adventure, Post-Apocalyptic
Light novel
Written by	Shūsuke Amagi
Illustrated by	Miyū
Published by	Fujimi Shobo
Demographic	Male
Magazine	Dragon Magazine (short stories only)
Original run	March 18, 2006 – ongoing
Volumes	18
Manga
Written by	Shūsuke Amagi
Illustrated by	Miyū
Published by	Fujimi Shobo
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Dragon Age Pure
Original run	April 2007 – ongoing
Volumes	2
Manga
Chrome Shelled Regios: Missing Mail
Written by	Shūsuke Amagiike
Illustrated by	Nodoka Kiyose
Published by	Fujimi Shobo
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Monthly Dragon Age
Original run	June 2007 – ongoing
Volumes	6
Manga
Chrome Shelled Regios: Secret Side
Written by	Shūsuke Amagi
Illustrated by	Watari
Published by	Kadokawa Shoten
Magazine	Beans Ace
Original run	April 10, 2008 – ongoing
Volumes	2
Manga
Kōkaku no Regiosu no 4 Koma Feri no Uta
Written by	Shūsuke Amagi
Illustrated by	Masumi Futaba
Published by	Fujimi Shobo
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Dragon Age Pure (former) Monthly Dragon Age
Original run	November 8, 2008 – ongoing
Volumes	2
Light novel
Legend of Regios
Written by	Shūsuke Amagi
Illustrated by	Miyū
Published by	Fujimi Shobo
Original run	June 29, 2007 – September 20, 2008
Volumes	3
TV anime
Studio	Zexcs
Licensed by	Funimation Entertainment
Original run	January 11, 2009 – June 20, 2009
Episodes	24 (List of episodes)
Light novel
Regios Crusade
Written by	Shūsuke Amagi
Illustrated by	Miyū
Published by	Fujimi Shobo
Original run	March 16, 2009 – ongoing
Volumes	3
Anime and Manga Portal

Chrome Shelled Regios (鋼殻のレギオス, Kōkaku no Regiosu^?) is a Japanese light novel series by Shūsuke Amagi, with illustrations by Miyū. A short story light novel series is serialized in Dragon Magazine. A manga adaptation drawn by Miyū is serialized in the shōnen manga magazine Dragon Age Pure. A second manga adaptation drawn by Nodoka Kiyose is serialized in the shōnen manga magazine Monthly Dragon Age. A third manga adaptation drawn by Watari is serialized in Beans Ace magazine. A four-panel comic strip adaptation drawn by Masumi Futaba started serialization in Monthly Dragon Age on November 8, 2008. A science fiction light novel series titled Legend of Regios is set in the past world of Chrome Shelled Regios series, and published by Fujimi Shobo under its Style-F label. An anime adaptation produced by Zexcs aired on January 11, 2009 to June 20, 2009 and is licensed in North America by Funimation Entertainment.

Story

See also: List of Chrome Shelled Regios characters

In a post-apocalyptic polluted earth overrun with mutated beasts called Filth Monsters (Contaminoids in Funimation's translation), humanity is forced to live in large mobile cities called Regios and learn to use weapons called DITE and harness the power of Kei to defend themselves. In the Academy City of Zuellni, Layfon Alseif is hoping to start a new life with out Martial/Military arts and forget his past. However, his past has caught the attention of Kalian Loss, the Student Council President and Nina Antalk, a Military Arts student and Captain of the 17th Platoon, who instantly recognizes his abilities and decides he's the perfect candidate to join her group. The series follow Layfon's life in Zuellni and occasionally has flash backs of his life in Glenden.

Terminology

Regios

Large Mobile cities created by humans to live after Earth atmosphere became too polluted to live. Each city is named after the Electronic Fairy that controls the Regios. Most Regios avoid Filth Monster as much as possible but with the exception of Glendan, which does the opposite as it constantly finds monsters. There are two different kinds of cities; Academy Cities & General Cities. Academy cities like Myath and Zuellni are places where students from different areas come to learn & study. General cities are the main cities where most of the population lives. Due to a treaty, only Regios of the same type are allowed to have a match with each other.

• Proto-City Lance Shelled Glendan: The most powerful city in the world due to its regular encounters with Filth Monsters of all levels and was the birthplace of the Military Arts, which most other cities practice today. The Twelve Heaven's Blades are found here under the command of the Glendan Royal Family.

• Academy City Zuellni: A University City governed by its students. This is where the manga/light novel/anime takes place. Its Electronic Fairy takes the shape of a pale blue, young girl.

• Academy City Gandoweria: A former city that was overrun by Pollutant Beasts not long after their victory over Zuellni two years ago. Its Electronic Fairy takes the form of an goat-like creature and is currently running amok as a Haikizoku.

• Sheniebel: The city Nina Antalk grew up in, currently the only city with the Fairy Copy System which is capable of making new Electronic Fairies. Like Glendan, Sheniebel also has a royal family, which Nina is the heiress of, as seen in the manga of Chrome Shelled Regios.

• Academy City Myath: An academy city like Zuellni, its electronic fairy takes the form of a red bird. In the anime, the military capabilities of this city are shown to be poor, perhaps even worse than that of Zuellni, as when attacked by a mature filth monster no resistance from the residents of the city is put up.

• Transport City Yoltem: The original home city of Mayshen Torinden, Mifi Rotten and Gerlni Naruki, according to the manga. All roaming buses eventually return to Yoltem and most travelers will encounter it during their travels. Only its Electronic Fairy knows the current location of every regios.

• Trade City Santoburug: The city Kalian Loss and his sister Felli grew up in. Their family helds significant positions and weight in the city.

Electronic Fairy

Special Artificial creatures that control the Regios. Created by scientists as a two-way solution of having an AI performing the many functions of a Regios while having a mind of a human for maintaining and controlling the Regios, they are the most important asset of every city. Without them, the city would die. On the other hand, the Electronic Fairy will also die if it does not have Selenium, a special ore that has many Regios fight each other for their city's survivability. An electronic fairy whose city has been ruined turns into a Haikizoku, a being which is capable of greatly enhancing a Kei users power, but the user will be filled with endless hatred towards pollutant beasts.

Filth Monsters/Pollutant Beasts

Monsters roaming the polluted earth outside the Regios. In the novels, Layfon and Kalian encountered an enourmous and extremely powerful one that speaks the human language, according to it, pollutant beasts are also a creation of human. Their main food sources are the pollutants they breath into the atmosphere, humans and themselves if the former cannot be obtained. They have many forms and sizes:

• Larva: The first state of the Filth Monsters. Ravenous feeders, they will eat any living thing they find. They are overwhelming in number, although easily dispatched by skilled Kei users and expert Military Artists.They proved to be difficult for the students of Zullini when they first encountered in the novel.

• Queen: A Filth monster that lays eggs that hatch into Larva. This is the second form of Filth monsters.

• Mature: A Filth Monster who has moved past its ability to procreate, the longer they live the more powerful they become. In their Mature state, Filth Monsters are able to fly. This is the third form of filth monsters. In Glendan there exists a tradition that if a Mature Level Filth Monster is engaged by the Heaven's Blade Receivers and manages to escape alive, then it is given a name. In the anime, one such example is Limbeekoon, though it was defeated by Lintence, Savaris and Layfon when it attacked Glendan again, it has a counterpart in the Light Novel called Behemoth^[1].

DITE

DITEs are the weapons used by Kei users. DITEs are small transformable devices when unused that turn into a weapon which the user activates it by saying "Restoration". Many types of weapons can transform from DITEs including crushing swords, spears, rifles, staves, katanas, and many more. Some DITEs are capable to switch to many different types of weapons. The color of the DITE ore is not random; different colors give different properties to the weapon. For example, Nina's iron whips uses black DITE ore, which has good density with a decreasing conductive rate. Green and white DITE ore is used for speed-based weapons, which was suggested for Layfon to use. People who work on the development of DITEs are called DITE Technicians in Glendan and DITE Mechanics in Zuellni.

• The Heaven's Blade: The most powerful DITEs wielded by the "Heaven's Blade Receivers" Whom serve under the Royal Family of Glendan. There are twelve in existence at the maximum since there are only twelve dites. They do not have a fixed format, volume or weight as weapons, upon appointment of a new wielder they can be reformatted by Glendan's DITE Technicians to take on the shape and abilities of the weapon the receiver desires. Another instance was when Layfon's Psyharden Katana and Heavens Blade (sword format) merged to take on a Katana format in the anime. In the novels, the dites themselves are past down from generation to generation, they can withstand the monstrous quantity of kei that a heaven's blade receiver produce without breaking like a normal dite would. Layfon had problem wielding a normal dite after using a Heaven's Blade because he has to restrict his flow of kei or else the dite would explode.

Kei

Source of power for Martial Artists. Kei users are special since they have an organ within their bodies that produces this energy and Kei users can use it in many ways. There are different types of Kei each with its own qualities. In the Anime it is said that the "Heaven's Blade Receivers" have "monstrous" amount of Kei that makes even the strongest Kei users look weak (e.g. Layfon beat Haia and Gaherd easily)

• External Type Kei: Used for attack. This Kei is used in the form of a blast to affect surrounding materials.

• Internal Type Kei: Used for defense and regeneration. This Kei is used to strengthen parts of the body during battle or to speed up regeneration. Layfon claim that it's bread and butter for Heaven Blade's Receivers to fight continuously for a period of days without getting tired or unfit for battle.

• Psychokinetic Kei: Users of this Kei (who are also called Nen-I users) are able to communicate telepathically as well as move objects around telekinetically. The downside of this Kei is that those who are able to use it cannot use External Type Kei or Internal Type Kei because their psychokinesis is a fusion of both Internal and External Kei. A person must be born with a special physical constitution to use this Kei, while the other two can be utilized by anyone with training and a certain level of Kei.

Media

Novels

There are currently 16 light novel volumes released in Japan, with 5 volumes already translated and published in Chinese and 14 in Korean.

Anime

See also: List of Chrome Shelled Regios episodes

The anime adaptation started airing in January 2009 and is produced by Zexcs. The anime itself is a reinterpretation of the manga, featuring the same characters with an expanded group of characters. At the season finale, many of the plots within the story remain unresolved, suggesting a possible continuation of the series, but there has yet to be confirmation of a second season. At Anime Central 2010, North American anime distributor Funimation Entertainment announced that they have acquired the anime series.^[2]

Opening song: "Brave your truth" by Daisy × Daisy

Closing songs:

"Yasashii Uso (ヤサシイウソ)" by Chrome Shelled

"Yasahii Uso w/z Felli Loss ｢ヤサシイウソ w/z フェリ・ロス｣" by Chrome Shelled feat. Felli Loss (eps 4,9,11)

"Yasahii Uso w/z Nina Antalk ｢ヤサシイウソ w/z ニーナ・アントーク｣" by Chrome Shelled feat. Nina Antalk (eps 5,7,10)

"Yasahii Uso w/z Leerin Marfes ｢ヤサシイウソ w/z リーリン・マーフェス｣" by Chrome Shelled feat. Leerin Marfes (eps 6,12)

"Ai no Zuellni (愛のツェルニ)" by Chrome Shelled (eps 13-15,17-22,24)

"Ai no Zuellni w/z Mayshen Torinden" (愛のツェルニ w/z メイシェン・トリンデン) by Chrome Shelled feat. Mayshen Torinden (ep 16)

"Ai no Zuellni w/z Leerin Marfes" (愛のツェルニ w/z リーリン・マーフェス) by Chrome Shelled feat. Leerin Marfes (ep 23)

Reception

The light novels have sold over 4,500,000 copies.

References

1. ^ Chrome Shelled Regios Light Novel: Volume 7, Chapter 3
2. ^ "Funimation Adds Rosario+Vampire Anime And More". Anime News Network. 2010-05-15. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-05-15/funimation-adds-rosario+vampire-anime-more. 

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Chrome Shelled Regios at Fujimi Shobo (Japanese)
• Chrome Shelled Regios - The Official Anime Website from FUNimation
• Chrome Shelled Regios (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia