Coppelion

At first glance, Ibara Naruse and her friends Aoi Fukasaku and Taeko Nomura look like average, carefree high school students. But the streets they walk on, their destination, and their surroundings are anything but normal. As they continue forward, the trio find themselves stepping deeper into an uninhabitable version of Tokyo, one that has been ravaged by a nuclear disaster 20 years ago.

As part of the Dispatch 3rd Special Force Coppelion, known as the Health Care team, Ibara, Aoi, and Taeko are supported by the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) and Colonel Onihei Mishima as they scour the eerily silent streets for survivors. Finding the last remaining humans and having them evacuated by the JGSDF's helicopters is a daily occurrence for the girls. But as their work progresses, Ibara and her friends start to question their own humanity—namely, how they themselves are able to survive in Tokyo without any protective gear.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Naruse, Ibara Main

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

Fukasaku, Aoi Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Nomura, Taeko Main

Akesaka, Satomi Japanese

Kurosawa, Haruto Supporting

Suzumura, Kenichi Japanese

Ozu, Kanon Supporting

Horie, Yui Japanese

Ozu, Shion Supporting

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

No Sense Supporting

Nogawa, Masashi Japanese

Kunikida Supporting

Akimoto, Yousuke Japanese

Dr. Edogawa Supporting

Miyazawa, Tadashi Japanese

Shiba, Denjirou Supporting

Yara, Yuusaku Japanese

Kishimoto, Reigo Producer

Suzuki, Shingo Director, Character Design

Kanazawa, Hiromitsu Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Takahashi, Hideo Sound Director

Reviews

May 16, 2022

ShionU27

Recommended

Now I have read so many different options on this anime and people seem to love it or trash it. In my option many people go in thinking its gonna be one thing when its not. the story's not really apocalyptic as in zombies and monsters but as in a modern day dystopia. The manga is also pretty every on the si-fi close to where the anime ends.

The problem I see people talk about with Coppelion the most is it's pacing. The first 3-5 episodes focuses are single stories to help create world building and I can understand how you go from that to the ... main plot and feel kinda weird. But its not as bad as other popular anime's (Tokyo ghoul not a bad show but the pacing for the first season is weird) Now the other problem I find with the show is the 3 main female characters. Aoi is especially I understand why she's winy (because she doesn't know what her power is) But people who only watch the anime and haven't/don't want to read the manga won't know that and that's a problem with any anime that tries to build characters but runs out of time due to episode restrictions.

Now the good stuff I love the look to this anime, every review I've read says the animation is amazing and its true! It feels very trunoble. The Next thing is the story. Its feels like if the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster happened but in Tokyo; And instead of it being "contained" Things just got out of hand leaving the whole city to become a toxic waste land The thought that went into the story is very fun. The manga does have the problem of feeling kinda slow because they add so much info on why things are happing, but the anime fixed that right up. (too much world building but also kinda needed) idk if this is why people say the pacing for the show is weird idk it seems fine to me.

In all I have given it a high mark because its a unique story (hard to come by nowadays with every anime feeling so similar) But also because I really enjoyed it. Yes it has some problems but nothing big enough to wreck the viewing experience.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by ShionU27 (7)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Nov 7, 2025

Joe_Devaney

Mixed Feelings

Overview:
"Coppelion" is an interesting anime to be sure, combining elements from the post-apocalyptic and magical girl genres among others to create something that appears like nothing you've ever seen before. Unfortunately, good ideas are little more than novelties without someone who can actually make the most out of them, and "Coppelion"'s execution of its ideas never manages to be anything more than middling, resulting in an anime that has a lot of issues and untapped potential.

Story (6.5/10):
"Coppelion" is set in the year 2036, 20 years after a nuclear meltdown made Tokyo uninhabitable due to the increased radioactivity making it impossible for normal people to survive ... without adequate protection. Understandably, this means that the city is now treated as a quarantine zone, with the government banning anyone from entering the city without proper authorization. The story is centred around the titular Coppelion, genetically engineered teenagers who are usually, but not always, female and were enhanced specifically to be able to survive in Tokyo's atmosphere without the need for a radiation suit, and each have a special ability that's unique to them. One such person is our protagonist and heroine Ibara Naruse, the leader of the Coppelion Rescue Unit who, along with her two best friends Aoi Fukasaku and Taeko Nomura, is sent to Tokyo in order to search for and rescue any people unlucky enough to still be caught within Tokyo's walls.

The story starts off well enough, as we gradually learn various bits and pieces about the world and Coppelion. For example, the academy that trains Coppelion functions a lot like a normal high school, with Ibara being a third-year student, Aoi and Taeko being first-years and their main contact being referred to as the vice-principal. Furthermore, as artificially created beings, Coppelion are generally treated as a separate species from humans, with their name being derived from the real-life French play "Coppelia", which is a story about a living doll, which the Coppelions are often referred to as. Naturally, this means that several Coppelion, like Ibara and Aoi, have serious insecurities in regards to their origins, which helps flesh out their characters. While the series starts off episodic, a story arc begins in the fifth episode, and while that would usually result in a series getting better, that is unfortunately not the case here, as said arc ends up lasting the entirety of the remaining nine episodes. The reason this is a problem is because the plot is thin enough that it could easily have been wrapped up in three or four episodes at most, with it only lasting as long as it does because a bunch of subplots happen in-between, resulting in a story that's both slow and seriously lacks focus, which is especially bad for an anime that's only 13 episodes long. What's more is that arguably the most emotional episode is the second, with no subsequent episode quite matching the gut-punches of that one.

Besides the poor pacing, the story is dragged down further by some of the corniest writing ever. Seriously, there are times when I found myself throwing my hands up in the air at how utterly trite and clichéd some of the lines were, especially when they came out of the mouths of characters I generally liked. Even worse is that these lines are sometimes said completely out of context, when absolutely nothing has happened to warrant them being said. Additionally, while the arc is ultimately wrapped up fairly decently, you nevertheless get the impression that the Coppelion's overall journey is still just getting started, which may have more than a bit to do with the fact that the anime only adapts the first few of 26 volumes of manga. All in all, the story has its high points and low points, but is pretty average overall.

Art & Animation (7/10):
"Coppelion" looks pretty much unlike any other anime out there, and not in a good way. While the environments are nice-looking enough, the character models are seriously lacking, having the bare minimum of detail and plenty of rough edges, not to mention they don't fit in with the environments at all. Some of the objects also look like they were just sketched on and the animation is pretty lacking in places too. Overall, the visuals are highly inconsistent in quality, with some shots looking great while others look awful.

Sound & Dialogue (8.5/10):
"Coppelion"'s sound design is, by a wide margin, the best thing about it. While the music that plays during the episodes themselves isn't all that notable, the opening "Angel" is great and the ending theme "Far" is absolutely fantastic, to the point that I found myself listening to the latter at the end of every episode. What's consistently great, however, is the voice acting. In fact, if there's one thing this anime is worth noting for, it's helping kickstart the careers of Erica Lindbeck and Max Mittelman, who provide the voices of Ibara and Haruto respectively, and nowadays are far better known as Futaba Sakura and Ryuji Sakamoto in "Persona 5", amongst many other roles. Add in a number of other great talents including Cherami Leigh, Cassandra Lee Morris, Richard Epcar, Sarah Williams and Keith Silverstein, and you have yourself a surprisingly solid cast, which goes a long way to alleviate the often corny script.

Characters (6.5/10):
If I were to describe Ibara Naruse in one word, that word would be “kind”. While she can be rather stiff and formal, she is overall a very friendly and compassionate girl who cares deeply for others and always willing to help anyone in need. And while she won’t hesitate to fight when it’s necessary, which she does so very well with her super strength and enhanced reflexes, she will always draw the line when it comes to killing anyone, and refuses to let anyone else kill either, which makes sense considering she’s part of a rescue team, so her mission is to save lives, not take them. However, while her desire to save everyone is undeniably noble, there’s also a rather tragic side to it; as an artificially created being who’s been training her whole life to save people, Ibara believes that saving people is her whole reason for living. Essentially, she helps people partially because it’s the right thing to do and partially because she believes she otherwise has no purpose in life, and so whenever someone tells her they don’t need her help or that they don’t want to be saved (which actually happens more often than you’d think), she feels as though she’s being denied the purpose she’s been given. Overall, while I did feel she could be annoyingly self-righteous at times, and there’s ultimately nothing remarkable about her character, she nevertheless stood out as my favourite, not that there’s much competition.

My second favourite character would have to be Aoi Fukasaku. On the surface, she seems to be the cheerful, happy-go-lucky member of the trio, and doesn’t seem to be particularly bothered by the fact that she’s an artificial human who was raised in what’s essentially a military academy, even saying there are some benefits to it. Overtime, however, we see that this carefree attitude is really just a façade, and she’s actually the most insecure of the three girls, more so even than Ibara. This stems from the fact that, at first glance, she seems to be the only one unable to do anything; while Ibara has enhanced strength and athletics and Taeko has heightened senses (with the glasses she wears being used to tone down her enhanced eyesight), Aoi doesn’t seem to have any special abilities beyond being able to breath Tokyo’s radioactive atmosphere (which is an ability all Coppelion possess). This causes her to have an identity crisis mid-season, believing that she does nothing but drag down everyone around her, which naturally leads to a character arc where she gradually realises her own self-worth and what she can contribute to the group as a whole. It’s a development that’s been done to death in Japanese media in particular, but it’s nevertheless done quite well here, and it certainly helps that Aoi provides some much-needed comic relief too.

As good as Ibara and Aoi are, I had a lot of problems with the rest of the cast. A few episodes in, we’re introduced to Haruto Kurosawa, Ibara’s childhood friend and a third-year like her. Unlike Ibara, however, he’s a member of the Coppelion Cleanup Crew, which basically means that he has no qualms with killing people, which puts him at odds with Ibara despite their history together. He also has a strong hatred for ordinary humans due to what he went through when he was younger, and as such can’t understand why Ibara cares about them so much, with him only really helping them because it’s his job. Unfortunately, his rather late introduction and sparse screentime throughout means he isn’t given that many moments to shine, which is a shame as I found the dynamic between him and Ibara to be the most interesting in the series. Additionally, Taeko, despite being part of the core trio, doesn’t do much of note either, as while she plays an important role in the first few episodes, she gets sidelined pretty much as soon as the main story begins and remains such for the rest of the series. What’s more is that unlike her fellow Coppelion, Taeko doesn’t show any real insecurity over her origins, meaning her character isn’t as developed as Ibara, Aoi or even Haruto. And speaking of underdeveloped characters, most of the ordinary human characters are fairly bland, mostly serving either as confidants for the Coppelion or people for them to save, with very few notable personality traits or quirks. The main villains are also a bit of a bore, as while they do have a tragic reason for their actions, said reason is only mentioned once in the whole series, and apart from that they act no different from your typical cackling, misanthropic psychopaths with no motivation beyond chaos for its own sake.

Enjoyment (7/10):
I must admit that there are times when “Coppelion” can be pretty boring, as it’s not uncommon for there to be long periods without any real action, which isn’t helped by the show’s poor pacing. When action scenes do happen, however, they are definitely entertaining, if by no means spectacular to due the rather average animation. Being a post-apocalyptic series, it can also be rather grim at times, particularly when the Coppelion fail to save someone. Still, it’s never to the point where you feel like puking, which is helped by the fact that Ibara and Aoi both lighten the mood in their own ways.

Overall:
“Coppelion” is an anime that could have been brilliant, but barely even scratches the surface of its potential. Sound-wise, it’s very pleasant to the ears, but it also has numerous underdeveloped characters, highly inconsistent visuals and a story that still feels like it’s just getting started even towards the end. Ultimately, this is a series that’s best saved for a day where you have nothing else to watch, and you’ve had your fill of the post-apocalyptic genre, you’re better off just avoiding it completely.

Score:
6.5+7+8.5+6.5+7=35.5/50=7.1/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Joe_Devaney (144)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Oct 3, 2019

mouthpiece

Not Recommended

At this point Go Hands has lost all credibility as a new animation studio. They have amazing production values to offer a level of eye candy very few are capable of, and they are always wasting it on subpar titles that offer nothing besides cool premises and lots of fan service (Seitokai Yakuindomo, Mardock Scramble, K Project). Their latest work of bad art is this Coppelion, which is about some schoolgirls looking for survivors in a radioactive area of Japan. Many were mesmerized by the very good animation and artwork, which was creating a most creepy post-apocalyptic setting and thought it would be a very ... mature and thought-provoking series.

Me? Just looking at the premise I knew right away it will be a big failure. I mean, SCHOOLGIRLS IN THE ROLE OF RESCUE RANGERS! How much more obvious could it be to smell the BS from ten miles away? Something about the voice actors being amazing, or that they delayed the creation of this show for a year because of that tsunami that struck Japan, so it has to be great for having all this time to work on it. If you ask me, they should have canceled it the second someone proposed the idea of actually making a show out of this anecdote of a premise.

Oh, but wait, maybe I was just being too biased and the show is actually good! Maybe they actually did something with the premise later on and I was wrong to condemn it immediately! So what if we have schoolgirls instead of properly trained military personnel sent to do these rescue missions? This way we will have far more emotional responses out of them and each mission will be more about survival/horror than just guns blazing.

… Nope, the obvious failure was obvious after all. All these attempts to make the series more “humane” as some hoped it would be, ended up being its undoing. You think there is any other reason than fan service for these girls to be sent in school uniforms and not proper military uniforms?

“Maybe this way the survivors will find them cute and trust them easier than if they were scary looking soldiers.”

… Nope, it was the usual bullshit that plagues modern anime and nothing else.

“Oh come on, there is definitely a lot more going on that this. The girls are not normal! They are immune to radiation, and their skin is very pale, and they are probably part of some sinister human experiment.”

Even if they are, does it even mean anything? All we see them doing is acting completely inappropriately for the mission they have, like typical immature schoolgirls instead of the specially bred and trained super soldiers they are supposed to be. The whole mystery and conspiracy theories are just background noise if all we see is that nonsense. There is absolutely no immersion to the themes of the story. Something about being treated as objects and not as people? Who cares? Not even the girls do; they cry for a few minutes and then forget it and move on before they remember they have to cry again about it. It would be lovely if they were actually doing something about it, but no, it all amounts to ephemeral mood swings. Said mood swings just come out of nowhere and there is no time invested on their doll issue. Even if you get a gasping revelation later on, you just don’t give a damn because you were never made to take anything seriously. And the worst part is how the series is not supposed to be comedy but a sociopolitical drama.

“Well, at least the girls are cute this way and not some uninteresting military brutes. And you must keep in mind how they don’t have radiation-immune adult soldiers yet, and they were forced to send these teenage girls who are at a very sensitive age. It is normal for them to be acting a bit emotional and not following orders.”

Whatever, all I see is inappropriately behaving (and dressed) people sent to the wrong mission. All that fuss about they have no time to send others or that the government is pressuring the military to take action, or that thousands may die if they don’t act now, THEY MEAN NOTHING! I can’t take it seriously! I mean can you imagine a news reporter trying to describe this situation without laughing his ass off? And it’s also supposed to be a serious situation!

Even if you don’t mind the ludicrous plot, you can’t even enjoy it for the characters. Not only is the characterization bare bones, not only you are facepalming with the way the heroines are dressed, not only you are cringing your teeth every time they cry for close to no reason (that is, all the time), but you are also left with essentially ONE girl doing all the work, while the other two are just crying in a corner, or eat rice cakes and comment on how pretty the lake looks. There aren’t even any other interesting secondary characters to take notice; most disappear after a single episode. Throw in some plot twists that make no sense, such as creating rescue rangers out of clones of psychotic mass murderers, and huge mecha hiding inside a city. Why did they throw such thing in there? Because it would make things more interesting, and not because it makes sense whatsoever. And as always YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO TAKE ALL THAT SERIOUSLY!

Well, I can’t. I couldn’t do it ever since I saw the entry picture and red the synopsis of the story. And so should anyone who even attempts to watch it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by mouthpiece (188)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Post Apocalyptic World

by spiritdudegamer

23 Entries · 16 Restacks

Apocalype/Survival Anime

by Lia-chi

40 Entries · 8 Restacks

Real Is Brown

by stefanoiulli1999

13 Entries · 3 Restacks

Q3 2015 Anime & Manga Licenses [Update 9/17]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of anime and manga licensed in the third quarter (Jul-Sep) of 2015. Summer anime which were licensed before the...read more

Jun 29, 2015 12:52 PM by Snow | Discuss (79 comments)

North American Anime & Manga Releases for February

Here are the North American Anime & Manga releases for February 2015. Week 1: February 3rd - 9th Anime Releases Ben-To Complete Collection Blu-ray & DVD Comb...read more

Feb 3, 2015 9:26 AM by Snow | Discuss (20 comments)

	Poll: Coppelion Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Dec 25, 2013	157 replies	by WolfWood37 »» Jul 5, 12:21 AM
	Poll: Coppelion Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 18, 2013	71 replies	by WolfWood37 »» Jul 4, 11:50 PM
	Poll: Coppelion Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 11, 2013	86 replies	by WolfWood37 »» Jul 4, 11:26 PM
	Poll: Coppelion Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Dec 4, 2013	73 replies	by WolfWood37 »» Jul 4, 11:02 PM
	Poll: Coppelion Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Nov 27, 2013	70 replies	by WolfWood37 »» Jun 28, 1:05 AM

The Many Expressions of Anime Faces

Anime faces come with a huge variety of expressions. From the bizarre to the realistic, feel the depth of emotion you can achieve when you throw physical restrictions out the window.

by Littoface

316,860 views

CollectionArt

15 Post-Apocalyptic Anime To See Before The World Ends

The Doomsday Clock - a metaphor designed to represent how close humanity is to destruction - is at 3 minutes to midnight. To help you prepare for our rapidly approaching destruction, we've got you covered with some top-notch post-apocalyptic anime.

by MisterD98

382,246 views

CollectionActionSci-fi