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Shangri-La (シャングリ·ラ, Shanguri Ra
?) is a Japanese science fiction
light novel, written
by Eiichi Ikegami and illustrated by Ken'ichi
Yoshida. The novel was initially serialized in Kadokawa
Shoten's Newtype magazine between April
2004 and May 2005. The chapters were collected into a single bound volume on
September 23, 2005, and was later re-released in two volumes by
Kadokawa both released on October 25, 2008. A manga series adaptation drawn by Tasuku Karasuma
started serialization in Kadokawa's Ace Assault in January
2009, but was later transferred to Shōnen Ace. An anime television
series, directed by Makoto Bessho, written by Hiroshi Ōnogi
and featuring animation character designs by Range Murata,
premiered in Japan on April 6, 2009.
Plot
In the mid-21st century, the international committee decided to
forcefully reduce CO2 emission levels to mitigate the global
warming crisis. As a result, the economic market was transferred
mainly into the trade of carbon. A great earthquake destroys much
of Japan, yet the carbon tax placed on the country is not lifted,
so Tokyo is turned into the world’s largest "jungle-polis" that
absorbs carbon dioxide. Project Atlas is commenced to plan the
rebuilding of Tokyo and oversee the government organization, which
the Metal Age group opposes due to its oppressive nature. However,
Atlas is only built with enough room for 3,500,000 people and most
people are not allowed to migrate into the city. The disparity
between the elite within Atlas and the refugees living in the
jungles outside of its walls set up the background of the
story.
Characters
Duomo
- In a city surrounded by killer jungle is where the main
characters live out their lives. Duomo is home for both citizens as
well as the headquarters of the Anti-Government organization;
Metal-Age. It is eventually destroyed during the burning of Tokyo
to eradicate the Daedulus.
- Kuniko Hojo (北条 國子, Hōjō
Kuniko
?)
- Voiced by: Mikako
Takahashi
- Affiliation: Citizen/Metal Age
- A young girl who wields a boomerang in the defense of her town
from the military or anyone who seeks to intervene. She is
extremely athletic and has a rambunctious personality. Kuniko is
affectionately known to the residents of Duomo as Kuni-chan. In the
beginning she is recently released by Atlas in the women's
detention center after a two year stay for being a domestic
terrorist, but is released to Momoko, Miiko, and Takehiko while
still in her old high school uniform. Although not part of Metal
Age, she is the future head of the anti-government organization.
Referred to as "The Sun", she is also known as Digma 2.
- Nagiko Hojo (北条 凪子, Hōjō
Nagiko
?)
- Voiced by: Hisako
Kyōda
- Affiliation: Citizen/Metal Age
- Kuniko's grandmother, the head of Metal Age. She places a firm
emphasis on learning and is much sterner and reserved than Kuniko
is. She wants Kuniko to become the next leader of Metal Age, but
Kuniko does not want to be. She also disagrees with using the
internet for information, and gets her knowledge from the many
books she has. Nagiko is actually the first CEO of Atlas
Corporation and received funds from Sergei Talsian in order to
build the futuristic city for their descendants. After Kuniko
confronts her about this fact and receives no explanation, she is
forced to expel her grandmother from Duomo. However, Nagiko
reappears later on to help Kuniko to negotiate with Ryoko to grant
temporary shelter inside Atlas for the inhabitants on the surface
so that Metal Age can eradicate Daedulus by burning Tokyo
down.
- Yuri Gamagori (蒲郡 由里, Gamagori
Yuri
?)
- Voiced by: Sachika
Misawa
- Kuniko's friend. A slow-paced girl who always tries to see the
bright side of life, often ending up in just not seeing anything at
all. Desperately wanting to free herself from her family name, she
has a strong wish to be married. She is very interested in boys and
dates many guys.
- Tomoka Yamazaki (山崎 友香, Yamazaki
Tomoka
?)
- Voiced by: Yurie
Yamashita
- Kuniko’s friend who goes to all-girls high school. A
girl-next-door type with slightly gloomy air. Though she is
yielding toward Kuniko, she is not afraid of reproving Yuri. She
had stabbed a citizen before, although this was not revealed until
later.
- Momoko (モモコ
?)
- Voiced by: Jouji
Nakata
- Affiliation: Citizen/Metal Age
- A transsexual with a flamboyant personality. Tends to pick on
Miiko but seems to care for Kuniko almost as a daughter. Her weapon
of choice is a whip that is coiled around her arm until she
activates and uses it. She has a liking towards men, and is
displayed attacking them through the use of an uncomfortable
encounters for the soldiers. One of the owners of Tropical
Fish.
- Takehiko (武彦
?)
- Voiced by: Ken'yū
Horiuchi
- Affiliation: Atlas/Citizen/Metal Age
- A driver and a rough and tumble guy. He regulates the
electricity production in the town of Duomo. He is often reckless
but easily dependable. It is revealed that Takehiko was an agent
sent by Atlas to watch over Kuniko, under the code-name #13. He
strongly believes in the construction of Atlas, but this belief was
shattered when he found out that his younger sister Yasuko was
kidnapped by Atlas and used as a sacrifice with other children in
the city's construction. Losing all hope, he attempts to kill
Kuniko in order to ruin Atlas' plans but is stopped by her and
Kunihito. He tells Kuniko her true role as inheritor of Atlas
before seemingly killing himself by jumping into a storm drain. He
reappears at the ending where he tries to destroy Atlas.
- Miiko (ミーコ
?)
- Voiced by: Houchu Ohtsuka
- Affiliation: Former Citizen/Metal Age/Moon
Palace
- A younger guy dressed as a girl. Miiko seems to tend to cry a
lot and tends to be picked on by other members of the group. One of
the owners of Tropical Fish. The winner of the Atlas Lottery, he is
entrusted by Momoko to reopen the Tropical Fish in Atlas, however
he is sent to serve Mikuni in the Moon Palace. Two-thirds through
the anime storyline, Miiko is forcibly turned into Hiruko's newest
vessel, but he is able to fight the lord's personality and
temporarily gain dominance over his body. Sayoko takes him and
Mikuni away from Atlas. He sacrifices himself and Hiruko to save
Sayoko and Mikuni by shielding them during the bombing of Neo
Akihabara. At the end, he reappears in front of Sayoko and Mikuni
to bid Mikuni a final farewell and to cure her of her disease and
ability. He also asks Sayoko to take care of Mikuni like a real
mother before disappearing with the souls of the other children who
are sacrificed to protect Atlas.
Akihabara
Some of the characters met from the Black Market; Akihabara.
- Old Man Army (軍爺,
Gun-ji
?)
- Voiced by: Fumihiko
Tachiki
- An old man who claimed to come from the Army, this person acts
like the main leader of the trio. His characteristics are wearing
Army clothes and uniforms, acting like a commander, as well as his
use of vocabulary, including words like "Arch-rival" and
"ambush".
- Old Man Camera (カメラ爺,
Kamera-ji
?)
- Voiced by: Mitsuo
Iwata
- An old man with a fetish for taking pictures, he carries a
camera around with him all the time, snapping pictures whenever he
can get the chance. He refers to historical examples when he talks,
and wears camouflage clothes.
- Old Man Loli (ロリ爺,
Loli-ji
?)
- Voiced by:
Chafurin
- Probably the weirdest person in the trio, Old Man Loli is a fan
of anime things, and tends to make weird sound effects when he
talks. In fact, sound effects are pretty much the only thing you
will hear from this old guy. He also uses hand gestures and facial
expressions to explain what he wants to say. He wears girly
clothes, long hair, and cat ears, which, when paired with a
mustache, provides comical relief for watchers.
Atlas
The following list of people are rich and privileged, and are
living in Atlas tower because they either live there or work to
assist someone who lives there.
- Mikuni (美邦
?)
- Voiced by: Yui
Ariga
- A very pale, little girl. She is referred to as "The Moon" and
suffers from a collagen disease and thus cannot bear sunlight. She
also has the uncanny ability to see through lies and subsequently
puts liars to death by some unexplained ability to manipulate and
crush the offenders body. Carries a sacred dagger identical to the
ones Kunihito Kusanagi and Kuniko have as well as an ear ring
matching the one Momoko wears. She is also called Digma 1.
- Sayoko (小夜子
?)
- Voiced by: Rie
Ishizuka
- Mikuni's protector. She watches in delight as Mikuni sees
through the lies of people and puts them to death. She also
experiments on people to her delight and loves to be insulted by
them while she does it. At one point, Momoko refers to as a sadist.
She tries to end her live to enable Mikuni to become the successor
of Atlas but is rescued by Momoko.
- Ryoko Naruse (鳴瀬 涼子, Naruse
Ryōko
?)
- Voiced by: Rei
Igarashi
- Affiliation: Atlas Corporation
- A domineering woman who wants to control everything around her.
She seems to possess a bad temperament and lashes out at others but
mostly towards Sion, a boy who serves her whom she treats as a
slave. She also seems to only care about the development and
advancement of Atlas. She is the human interface of Zeus, the
supercomputer that controls Atlas.
- Soichiro Hata (秦総 一郎, Hata
Soichirō
?)
- Voiced by: Daisuke
Hirakawa
- Affiliation: Atlas Corporation
- One of the people working for Ryoko, he looks after information
and updates for Lady Ryoko.
- Shogo Kudo (九土 省吾, Kudo
Shogo
?)
- Voiced by: Takahiro
Sakurai
- Affiliation: Atlas Corporation
- The main analyst for Atlas Corporation, Shogo works for Lady
Ryoko.
- Leon Imaki (今木 烈音, Imaki
Leon
?)
- Voiced by: Yūichi
Nakamura
- Affiliation: Atlas Corporation
- Working for Lady Ryoko, Leon is the older brother of Sion and
leads the military for Atlas Corporation.
- Sion Imaki (今木 紫音, Imaki
Sion
?)
- Voiced by: Jun
Fukuyama
- Affiliation: Atlas Corporation
- The younger brother of Leon and one of the workers for Ryoko,
his main job is to care for Lady Ryoko's needs, which includes
serving food and drying her off after a bath. He is the victim of
most of Ryoko's temper, but he seems to hold a crush for Lady Ryoko
and enjoys these punishments.
- Kunihito Kusanagi (草薙 国仁, Kusanagi
Kunihito
?)
- Voiced by: Makoto
Ishii
- Affiliation: Atlas Corporation
- A military officer who does not want to hurt others as much as
the Atlas military wants to. Works for Atlas Corporation under
Leon's lead. Carries a sacred dagger identical to Kuniko's and
Mikuni's, except that the tip of his dagger is broken. He is
referred to as "The Land" and is Digma 3.
- Karin Ishida (石田 香凜, Ishida
Karin
?)
- Voiced by: Yuka Iguchi
- Affiliation: Ishida Finance
- A little girl who is interested in the world economy and how
she is able to control the carbon credit market, and one of the
creators of MEDUSA. She hides her true face when talking to others
through her computer console because she doesn't like people. She
possesses a teddy bear (named Pudding) which she talks to as if it
were a real person. Pudding "responds" to Karin's comments though
one would assume it is actually Karin talking to herself in a funny
voice. Her parents are actually dead during an air crash, but she
is made to believe that they are very busy with work, leaving her
alone all the time. Karin buys out the entire Akihabara for her own
after getting tired from shopping around. After she tries to hack
into Zeus, she is pursued by Atlas authority. She escapes arrest by
escaping to Akihabara. As the story progresses, her personality
becomes slightly accepting of people as she only hides her eyes
with sunglasses when she talks to them. She tries to make Mikuni
the successor of Atlas when Mikuni seeks refuge in Akihabara
- Klaris Lutz (クラリス·ルッツ, Kararisu Ruttsu
?)
- Voiced by: Kumiko
Watanabe
- Affiliation: Ishida Finance
- A friend of Karin's, she works for Ishida Finance. A woman who
loves money, hates being poor, and buys lavish things (including a
Ferrari company). She is only known from instant message
conversations with Karin until the ending where she visits Karin.
She actually looks more mature than what her instant messenger
protrays.
- Zhang (張,
Chan
?)
- Voiced by: Hiroyuki
Yoshino
- Affiliation: Ishida Finance
- Another friend of Karin's. He is believed to be the creator of
MEDUSA. He is known only from instant message conversations with
Karin until the ending where he takes a private jet to visit
Karin..
- Sergei Talsian (セルゲイ·タルシャン, Serugei Tarushan
?)
- Voiced by: Hidetori
Nakamura
- Affiliation: Ishida Finance
- A friend of Karin's, Talsian seems to have a connection to
Karin's parents, and doesn't talk during instant message
conversations. Talsian makes a physical appearance from halfway
through the series. He is chairman of Atlas Corporation, and
apparently knows Ryoko well. It is revealed that Talsian and
Nagiko, the first CEO of Atlas, both helped create Atlas for a
better future for their descendants. He is placed under arrest by
Ryoko under allegations of having assisted an unknowing Karin to
shut down Atlas' critical systems.
- MEDUSA (メデューサ,
Medūsa
?)
- Voiced by: Tetsuya
Kakihara
- Affiliation: Ishida Finance
- A snake like animal, MEDUSA is a computer program built for
Ishida Finance and used to find debts around the world in countries
who's CO2 Emissions and Carbon Credits are not equal. Using these
"debts," MEDUSA generates vast amounts of money for Ishida Finance
through various manipulations of the Carbon Market (similar to the
Stock Market). MEDUSA is originally believed to be the only program
in the world that can perform these manipulations of Carbon
Credits, but it seems that there are other programs similar to it
operating across the globe. MEDUSA is hidden in the Marshall Island
and is protected by a typhoon created by a weather satellite..
Others
- Canary (カナリア,
Kanaria
?)
- Voiced by: Miyu Irino
- A mysterious boy in his teens who first appears to Karin and
tries to communicate with her and persuades her to leave her office
and go outside. His intentions seemingly is to let Karin remember
the world outside and the lullaby her mother sang to her when she
was an infant. After accomplishing this goal, he disappears. It is
revealed that the boy is codenamed Canary (with no real name) and
was called Digma Zero, a prototype to the other Digmas (Mikuni,
Kuniko and Kunihito). However he was never allowed to step into the
world outside, having lived his whole life inside a facility, and
died five years before the start of the series. This information
also confirms that Canary lives on as a spirit of sorts. In the
profile pertaining to him, his appearance is that of a blonde
long-haired youth in a white jumpsuit, and keeps a black cat (which
is presumably deceased as well) with a yellow bow tied around its
neck as a pet.
- Hiruko/Lord of Atlas (水蛭子,
Hiruko
?)
- Voiced by: Tomoko
Kaneda
- A young boy whom Ryoko refers to as the Lord of Atlas, the
highest authority in the city. He is partially covered in what look
like bandages, with a strange glow in his left eye. Hiruko resides
in his throne room deep below Atlas, with eerie-looking eyes
decorating the walls. He appears to be immortal, however his method
of attaining it comes at a price: the body he uses often breaks
down after a short while, requiring the use of new vessels to
maintain his spirit before it dissipates permanently. The unwilling
vessel is pushed into a pool, and floating talismans partially
cover the body. After a while, the memories and personality of the
original body will be destroyed, and Hiruko's spirit will take the
place of the vessel, changing the body's appearance to his original
self. According to Ryoko, Hiruko made a prediction twelve
generations ago, that the Sun and Moon (Kuniko and Mikuni) will
meet, and as the children of God, the pair will bring harmony to
the world. While predicting the prophecy, he often goes into
hysterical fits. Sayoko reveals that Hiruko was used by Talsian to
control the oscillation of the spiritual forces around Atlas, and
once removed from his abode, the area around Atlas will start to
destabilize. After Miiko is made his next vessel, Miiko is able to
suppress his personality temporarily. Sayoko takes Hiruko/Miiko
away with Mikuni in tow and escape Atlas.
Locations
- Atlas
- A tower filling the horizon, Atlas is a project promoted by the
Japanese Government and run by Atlas Corporation. This tower was
built to relocate the rich and privileged, away from the
Jungle-polis covering much of Japan. However, the government had
lied to the citizens, promising everyone a place on Atlas once the
construction finishes. The only citizens allowed in Atlas are
winners of a famous "Atlas Lottery".
- Duomo
- The city where Kuniko hails from. Surrounded by old ruins of
Tokyo now overgrown with much vegetation. The city is very
ramshackle, and is the home to the Metal Age group. The people of
the Metal Age group seem to put more of a focus on nature and
learning, rather than depending on the Internet.
- Ikebukuro
- A forbidden forest surrounding Duomo, this jungle can be
accessed by an old abandoned railway track. Ikebukuro is filled
with dense oxygen and poisonous swampland, and can not be safely
entered without wearing protective gear and air masks to protect
the skin and lungs.
- Akihabara
- The "Market" City, Akihabara is famous for its "Black Markets"
and is filled with many people from different cities who operate
the many businesses there. This is where Kuniko decides to sell
Graphite and also homes the three old otaku who make the fake IDs
Metal Age uses to enter Atlas.
Media
Light
novel
Shangri-La began as a light novel which was initially serialized
in Kadokawa
Shoten's Newtype magazine between the
April 2004 and May 2005 issues. A single 592-page volume was
released on September 23, 2005. The novel was re-released in two bunkobon volumes both
released on October 25, 2008.[1]
Manga
A manga adaptation
illustrated by Karasuma Tasuku began serialization in Kadokawa
Shoten's Ace Assault magazine in January 2009. After
that magazine was discontinued in March 2009, the manga was
transferred over to Kadokawa's Shōnen Ace magazine. The first bound volume was
released on November 26, 2008, followed by the second on April 25,
2009.
Anime
An anime adaptation of the
novel was produced by the animation studio Gonzo, and was
the first Newtype work to be animated for
television. The series was directed by Makoto Bessho, written by Hiroshi Ōnogi,
and featured character designs by Range Murata. The series premiered on
April 6, 2009 on Chiba TV.[1] The
first DVD compilation volume was released by Kadokawa
Entertainment on July 24, 2009.[2] The
Internet streaming media service Crunchyroll also aired
the series on simulcast
with episodes airing one hour after they were released in
Japan.[3]
The anime has three pieces of theme music; one opening theme and two
ending themes. The opening theme is "Kimi Shinitamō Koto Nakare"
(キミシニタモウコトナカレ
?) by May'n. The first ending theme is "Hajimari
no Asa ni Hikari Are." (はじまりの朝に光あれ.
?) by Midori, and the second ending
theme is "Tsuki ni Kakuseshi Chō no Yume" (月に隠せし蝶の夢
?) by Midori.
References
- General
- Specific
External
links
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