is a Japanese science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 created by , a.k.a. SYUFO. The story was later adapted into an anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 film, directed by Kōichi Mashimo

Koichi Mashimo

is a well-known Japanese anime director and the founder of the animation studio Bee Train. Since the creation of the studio, Mashimo directed or otherwise participated in all its works, for example, as a member of art or sound department...

 and released on July 26, 1986.

Plot

In 1983, off-duty policeman Reiden picks up a suspicious couple, Kei and Ai, who claim to be father and daughter but appear to be close in age. Reiden thus becomes involved in a fight between them and the female fighter K2 who is chasing them. Kei draws out his latent ability to the maximum by a Legendary "Trigger" and Ai blows away K2. The night sky splits and strange space is shown. Their enemy is the secret society

Secret society

A secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...

 "Fraud" of para-psionics

Psionics

Psionics refers to the practice, study, or psychic ability of using the mind to induce paranormal phenomena. Examples of this include telepathy, telekinesis, and other workings of the outside world through the psyche.-History and terminology:...

, which is commanded by Kuu Ragua Lee. Kei, Ai and Reiden meet the assassins whom Fraud sends out one after another.

Ai's companions

I2 (Ai)

Ai is Headmeters who escaped from Fraud with Kei, but she does not have the operation yet. Her original name is "I2". She is a clone

Cloning

Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...

 of Kei's lover Etsuko (also known as "I") who was killed by Fraud, and adores Kei as a father. Fraud suspects that she is legendary "Trigger" who draws out others' dormant faculties and amplifies them, and so pursues her. "2" of "I2" stands for "the second generation of the clone of Headmeters I". However, nobody of Headmeters knew who "I" or "I2" are, there is no information about the two in the memory bank of Fraud's computer, and "Headmeters I" is a missing number. It is not clear why they recognized "I" and "I2", but the two people did not exist actually.

K (Kei)

Kei is Headmeters who escaped from Fraud to defend Ai. He was anaesthetized suddenly and was made to undergo the operation for Headmeters on his college days. He was given the code name

Code name

A code name or cryptonym is a word or name used clandestinely to refer to another name or word. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage...

 "K". He was proud of being Headmeters, but he became despondent because his lover Etsuko died from the same operation as him. Then, a girl appeared who was just like Etsuko, only ten years younger. She introduced herself as Ai-"I2". "I" was a code name of Etsuko. Kei decided to behave as her father.

Kei has both abilities of Headmeters and Tuned-man exceptionally, because Kuu Ragua Lee, the leader of Fraud, operated on Kei in person. However, he is a defect product as Headmeters and has only the faculty for incomplete mind reading. The number of his headmeter has risen only to level 5 by the shock of Etsuko's death, but the number rises to infinite when Ai draws out his latent abilities. His performance as Tuned-man is less than 1/10 of the output of Yi or Lyan, but Fraud performed the operation which is different from them on Kei. Sensors which are embedded on the 108 vital points of his body control his muscles, internal organs and brain, and he can always utilize his muscles at 100% (people usually use only about 20%).

Cat

The stray cat who touched the topology

Topology

Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...

 wall, and lost the tail. Ai brings along the cat after she treats the injury.

Reiden Yoshioka

The obliging policeman involved in the Kei and Ai versus Fraud fight. He is 34 years old, automania, and his car is an Alpina

Alpina

Alpina Burkard Bovensiepen GmbH is an automobile manufacturing company based in Buchloe, in the Ostallgäu district of Bavaria, Germany selling their own cars, based on BMW cars....

 based on BMW

BMW

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...

 cars. He is in a dilemma between his wife Akemi and K2, currently charmed by him.

K2

K2 is Kei's feminized clone who was born through chromosome

Chromosome

A chromosome is an organized structure of DNA and protein found in cells. It is a single piece of coiled DNA containing many genes, regulatory elements and other nucleotide sequences. Chromosomes also contain DNA-bound proteins, which serve to package the DNA and control its functions.Chromosomes...

 manipulation. She is a high-ranking Headmeters of Fraud who is the same level as Mr. J in capability, and commands the pursuit corps to Kei and Ai. She loves Kei by fervent narcissism

Narcissism

Narcissism is a term with a wide range of meanings, depending on whether it is used to describe a central concept of psychoanalytic theory, a mental illness, a social or cultural problem, or simply a personality trait...

 and demands him to love her. She wants to kill Ai for monopolizing his love. She lost her memory and regressed to an infantile state of mind by touching the topology wall and took to Reiden, who saved her. She recovers her memory later, but she does not change her mind.

Lee

Lee is an old security guard

Security guard

A security guard is a person who is paid to protect property, assets, or people. Security guards are usually privately and formally employed personnel...

 at a supermarket. He looks after Ai for Kei. He is a kind old man, but also mysterious and is revealed to actually be Headmeters of level 100.

Residents of floor 1983

Akemi Yoshioka

Akemi is Reiden's wife and she dominates him. She is possessed by Alloy, who makes her its puppet.

Sugiura

One of the hoodlum group of 3s. He is a little man with suspenders

Suspenders

Suspenders or braces are fabric or leather straps worn over the shoulders to hold up trousers. Straps may be elasticated, either entirely or only at attachment ends and most straps are of woven cloth forming an X or Y shape at the back. Braces are typically attached to trousers with buttons...

. Alloy possesses him and manipulates him any way it wants. They bear a grudge against Reiden for reporting their injustice in the university entrance exam to the police, and they ambush him at his home and attack him. They had parents hush up the rape and the violence till then.

Miyasaka

One of the hoodlum group of 3s. He is a big-boned man. He is pushed away on a road by Sugiura controlled by Alloy and is run over by a car.

Takenaka

One of the hoodlum group of 3s. He is a foppish man who wears sunglasses, dyes his hair brown and has a permanent. He shoots Reiden with a gun, but the bullet is teleported

Teleportation

Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...

 to the inside of his body and he dies.

Residents of floor 2183

Kuu Ragua Lee

The leader of "Fraud", which is the highest consultative body of "Floor 2183" and manages "Floor 1983". Supported by Headmeters with supernatural power, he is in opposition to the chief delegate Lai Lou Chin. He himself is Headmeters, level 100. He is a skinhead and a brawny big man. He equips his head with the metal electronic device which covers his eyes, mouth and forehead. He believed that he was the governing class who managed the human beings of Floor 1983, who will live in 1983 fixed forever, but he notices that he is also a captive himself managed by higher-ranking inspectors. He then decides to challenge them to fight.

J (Mr. J)

Mr. J is a high-ranking Headmeters of Fraud, at level 40. He is a sexless youth of long hair. He is Kuu Ragua Lee's page boy

Page (servant)

A page or page boy is a traditionally young male servant, a messenger at the service of a nobleman or royal.-The medieval page:In medieval times, a page was an attendant to a knight; an apprentice squire...

 and admires and loves him. He always fears that Kuu Ragua Lee will lose his concern about him. He commands the operational unit which pursues Kei and Ai.

A (Miss A)

Miss A is a leader of Headmeters, Kuu Ragua Lee's right-hand woman and a daughter of the Coedes family. She is a muscular woman. Her younger brother "B" is in Headmeters.

Yi

Yi is a secret agent

Secret Agent

Secret Agent is a British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on two stories in Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham. The film starred John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll, and Robert Young...

 of Fraud. He is a Tuned-man who was converted by Fraud with fighting power at the same level as a tank

Tank

A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...

. He can shoot rays from his finger-tip. He dresses in black from head to toe, wearing a Mao suit

Mao suit

The modern Chinese tunic suit is a style of male attire known in China as the Zhongshan suit , and known in the West as the Mao suit...

, round-framed glasses and a black hat. He makes a combination with Lyan and both chase Kei and the others together.

Lyan

Lyan is Yi's partner and a Tuned-man converted by Fraud as well. His clothes are black like Yi's. He is killed by "Cat" who had his power amplified by Ai.

Talkative dolls

"Talkative doll" is a general term for the androids who serve as an operator in Fraud headquarters. Their appearance resembles that of a naked middle-aged man with a skinhead.

Lai Lou Chin

Lai Lou Chin is a chief delegate of "Floor 2183" and is the only person who opposes the leader of Fraud, Kuu Ragua Lee. He is a poor-looking old man with a bobbed hair style. He always soaks in a capsule filled with special solution in the nude. The capsule is set in the position ranging from the body to the head of the large-sized humanoid

Humanoid

A humanoid is something that has an appearance resembling a human being. The term first appeared in 1912 to refer to fossils which were morphologically similar to, but not identical with, those of the human skeleton. Although this usage was common in the sciences for much of the 20th century, it...

 robot. The robot serves as a substitute for the body of Lai Lou Chin and the capsule has the function to prevent "mind reading" of Headmeters. He is called "Enema

Enema

An enema is the procedure of introducing liquids into the rectum and colon via the anus. The increasing volume of the liquid causes rapid expansion of the lower intestinal tract, often resulting in very uncomfortable bloating, cramping, powerful peristalsis, a feeling of extreme urgency and...

 head" by Miss A, because the form of the capsule resembles a disposable syringe.

Residents of the upper floor

Alloy

Alloy is in the floor above where Ai and Kei are, and sends only speculation into lower floors from there. The identity of Alloy is a thing invented based on "Program alloy" which is against Ai and tries to incorporate the gene in itself when it finds the gene that the program does not have. Alloy was invented by incorporating the program in a monster cell

Cell (biology)

The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos....

 discovered by chance. Alloy stores billions of human genes in the cell. Since Alloy is an infinite form, it interferes in the world by getting into an organism and controlling its consciousness. However, the host whose consciousness Alloy influences becomes very suggestible. Alloy possesses "Cat", a staff of Fraud, Sugiura, Yoshioka, Akemi, the artificial body of Lai Lou Chin in sequence, and handles their body. Alloy can draw out potential capacities of those whom Alloy touches and possesses like Ai.

Residents in A.D. 1983

Lee Kuwabara

Kuwabara is the head of Kasuga lab which existed in Izu, Shizuoka

Izu, Shizuoka

is a city located in central Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka, Japan. As of 2009, the city had an estimated population of 35,397 and the density of 97.3 persons per km². The total area as 363.97 km².-Geography:...

 in Japan once. He won fame as a professor of the bionics department of Los Angeles Institute of Technology. However, he was expelled from the bionics

Bionics

Bionics is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology.The word bionic was coined by Jack E...

 society, because he repeated medical experimentation on a living person to artificially create a person with supernatural powers. When he was out of work, Sosuke Kasuga, his best friend and the head of Kasuga lab, gave him a job. Kuwabara assumed the head of the Kasuga lab after Sosuke's death, but Kuwabara betrayed Sosuke and his son after all, and returned to the society thanks to the program that they had studied. He is the original of Kuu Ragua Lee and old Lee. The two are his clones.

Kasuga

Kasuga is the son of Sosuke Kasuga, the former head of Kasuga lab, and is the research worker. He lost his father and wife and daughter in a traffic accident at the same time in 1980. He completed "Program Ai", which Sosuke studied. He is the original of Kei.

Terms

Floor

"Floor" is a cylindrical world with a radius of 440km which extends concentrically from its center at "Fraud Building (The Pillar of God)". It is surrounded by topology walls.

Fraud

"Fraud" is para-psychicers

Parapsychology

The term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...

' group. They are considered to be a national prime consultative body in Floor 2183. Kuu Ragua Lee violated custom and established headquarters

Headquarters

Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...

 inside of "The Pillar of God", which he calls "Fraud Building". He lives in there.

Headmeters

　"Headmeters" are members of Fraud who use para-supernatural power. They analyze others' brain waves with the help of many electronic devices buried in their bodies and read their minds (para-telepathy

Telepathy

Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...

). They can control magnetic field

Magnetic field

A magnetic field is a mathematical description of the magnetic influence of electric currents and magnetic materials. The magnetic field at any given point is specified by both a direction and a magnitude ; as such it is a vector field.Technically, a magnetic field is a pseudo vector;...

s to float in the air and move objects (para-levitation and para-psychokinesis

Psychokinesis

The term psychokinesis , also referred to as telekinesis with respect to strictly describing movement of matter, sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is a term...

), and they can predict what will happen in the near future at high hitting ratio by communicating with the city computer directly (para-precognition

Precognition

In parapsychology, precognition , also called future sight, and second sight, is a type of extrasensory perception that would involve the acquisition or effect of future information that cannot be deduced from presently available and normally acquired sense-based information or laws of physics...

). When they show their ability, their forehead displays the number suitable for the degree. They occasionally equip the power supporter which is the heavy armaments for anti-Tuned-man warfare.

Tuned-man (Cyborg

Cyborg

A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...

)

"Tuned-men" are combat cyborgs to whom artificial muscle, the metal skeleton, etc. are transplanted. They match a tank in fighting power. It is especially easy to read their minds for Headmeters.

Diver

"Diver" is a pet name of new and powerful mobile sky soldier or combat flying boat

Flying boat

A flying boat is a fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a float plane as it uses a purpose-designed fuselage which can float, granting the aircraft buoyancy. Flying boats may be stabilized by under-wing floats or by wing-like projections from the fuselage...

 that Lai Lou Chin lent to Kuu Ragua Lee. Diver is a military escort for Kuu Ragua Lee to counter a new enemy, Alloy. Diver is a disk type and is propelled by a jet engine

Jet engine

A jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet to generate thrust by jet propulsion and in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets...

. Diver divides into 2 parts, and the upper part (Diver1) transforms into a combat humanoid robot. The lower part (Diver2) can be used as a flying boat as it is after separation.

Film adaption

An eponymous OVA was produced in 1986 and was shown at movie theaters affiliated with Toho

Toho

is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group...

 on July 26, 1986.
The film was directed by Kōichi Mashimo

Koichi Mashimo

is a well-known Japanese anime director and the founder of the animation studio Bee Train. Since the creation of the studio, Mashimo directed or otherwise participated in all its works, for example, as a member of art or sound department...

.

Outline

The anime starts off sometime in the future, with Kei and Ai running for their lives. Ai is a girl who holds a terrible secret which could destroy the current world. The world is now populated by Headmeters, people who have psychic powers and whose strength is shown on their forehead when they fight. Kei was an experimental Headmeter subject, whose strength never went above level 5. In desperate moments, though, when Ai is in trouble, Kei can increase his ability to infinity. The one who is after her has a deep secret and is aided by a small dwarflike man who lives in a robotic suit. Eventually Ai is captured and Kei, a detective and another Headmeter who was converted to the good side when Kei unleashed his horrible powers must go and rescue her. Together they must save Ai and the secret she holds.

Characters

Ai
Ai is a girl who holds a terrible secret which could destroy the current world.

Kei
A human who is a test subject for the headmeters. He escapes their grasp.

Reiden
A private detective who helps Kei and Ai. He is a former police officer.

K2
A Headmeter, who becomes an ally of Ai and Kei.

Kuu Ragua Lee
A Headmeters, leader of Fraud.

Lai Lou Chin
An old Headmeter with an artificial body.

Alloy
A gene polymer

Polymer

A polymer is a large molecule composed of repeating structural units. These subunits are typically connected by covalent chemical bonds...

.

Tee

Mr. J
A Headmeter.

Yi
A Tuned-man.

Ryan
A Tuned-man.

Terms

Headmeters
Headmeters are people who are psychics and have supernatural strength which shows on their forehead when they fight.

Tuned-man
Human beings converted for combat.