Chrome Shelled Regios

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 was 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

In an alternate reality earth overrun with mutated nano-machine-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 (pronounced Di-Te) and harnessing the power of Kei to defend themselves. The truth is that these are people lost in an alternative reality caught between struggling as pawns of the founders of this space and those trying to destroy it. Only upon its destruction can everything revert to the real world. However, many generations have passed since the creation of the world and naturally the citizens who inhabit it fight for their lives. In the Academic City of Zuellni, Layfon Alseif is hoping to start a new life without 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 flashbacks of his life in Glenden as a Heaven's Blade.

Terminology

Regios

Large mobile cities created by unknown forces sheltering the human population from pollutants. Each city is named after the Electronic Spirit that controls the Regios. Most Regios avoid Filth Monsters 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: academic and general. Academic cities such as Myath, Zuellni, and the former Gandoweria are places where students from different areas come to learn and study. General cities are the main cities where most of the population lives. Different types of cities are under the title of general city. These include Trade cities, transport cities and the Proto-City Glendan. Due to a human-made treaty, only Regios of the same type are allowed to have a "war" with each other; although it is unclear if the Electronic Spirits consider the treaty to be binding on them. The "war" is basically a non-lethal capture the flag game with the prize being mineral rights. These minerals are the sole source of power for the Regios thus if a Regios loses too many wars it will lose the ability to function and die.

• Proto-City Spear-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.

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

• Academic City Gandoweria: A former city that was overrun by Contaminoids not long after their victory over Zuellni two years ago. Its electronic spirit takes the form of a 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 Spirit 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.

• Academic City Myath: An academic city like Zuellni, its electronic spirit 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 there was no evidence of resistance from the city's residents when attacked by a mature Contaminoid.

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

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

Electronic Spirit

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 spirit will also die if it does not have Selenium, a special ore that induces the Regios to fight each other for their city's survival. An electronic spirit whose city has been destroyed by filth monsters turns into a Haikizoku, a being which is capable of greatly enhancing a Kei user's power, but the user will be filled with endless hatred towards filth monsters. Obtaining the power of the Haikizoku for use in the final battle for survival of the world is one of the major plots of the story.

Filth Monsters/Pollutant Beasts/Contaminoids

Monsters roaming the polluted earth outside the Regios. In the novels, Layfon and Kalian encountered an enormous and extremely powerful one that speaks the human language, according to it, pollutant beasts are also a creation of humans. Their main food sources are the pollutants they filter from the air as they breathe the atmosphere. This appears to have been their original purpose, to rid the land of the pollutants. If the pollutans can't be obtained, they eat humans and each other. 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 prove to be difficult for the students of Zullini when they first encountered in the novel. It would appear that there are two different types of Larva stage Pollutant Beasts. Some of the Larva stage forms are able to fly, while others seem to only be able to move along the ground. In the anime, it appears as if the larva can shift between the two when Zuellni is attacked from below by Larva stage Pollutant beasts. Some sprout wings and attack the academic city from the air. It is unconfirmed whether or not these mature into different types of queen stage Pollutant Beasts.

• Queen: A Filth Monster that lays eggs that hatch into Larva. This is the second form of Filth Monsters. Based upon the anime, (With the exception of Limbeekun) these Pollutant Beasts live, and lay their eggs underground. It would also appear that when they mature enough, they travel above ground and latch themselves onto a nearby rock or pillar. They then molt inside of their current skin into a mature form, and may wait until a meal passes by.

• Mature: A Filth Monster who has, generally, moved past its ability to procreate (although the transformation types seem to be the exception to this rule since they seem to have found an abnormal way to reproduce^[1]), 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 Limbeekun, though it was defeated by Lintence, Savaris and Layfon when it attacked Santoburug at the beginning of the first episode, it has a counterpart in the Light Novel called Behemoth.^[2]

Note: In the anime, Dainsleif is a powerful Pollutant beast from the Zero realm. It does not appear to be similar to the Pollutant Beasts in the world of Regios because its body is much different. This may be due to an extreme maturity phase or because of Ignacius' design.

DITE

DITEs are the weapons used by Kei users. DITEs are small rectangular devices. When used, these DITEs transfer into the user's weapon of choice. The user activates it by saying "Restoration". DITEs have the ability to transform into the following weapons: 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 Heaven's Blade (sword format) merged to take on a Katana format in the anime. In the novels, the DITEs themselves are passed down from generation to generation, they can withstand the monstrous quantity of kei that a Heaven's Blade receiver produces without breaking like a normal DITE would. Layfon had problems 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

A 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.

• 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 claims that it is bread and butter for the receivers of the Heaven's Blade 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

The series finished with 25 light novel volumes - with 19 volumes of the main story-line and 6 being the side-story novels. The last 25th volume (which is an epilogue of the story) was published in September 2013 in Japan.^[3]

Anime

The anime adaptation started airing in January 2009 and was produced by Zexcs. At Anime Central 2010, North American anime distributor Funimation Entertainment announced that they have acquired the anime series.^[4]

The series made its North American television debut on September 19, 2011 on the Funimation Channel.^[5]

The anime is a departure from the light novels simplifying and juxtaposing plot lines in order to fit more than twelve novels into a twenty-four episode format. As such the story is difficult to follow and not entirely explained. The finale is a complete departure for the series and is unique to the anime only, and possibly changing the entire outcome of the original story.

Opening song:

"Brave your truth" by Daisy × Daisy

Closing songs:

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

"Yasashii 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)

"Yasashii 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)

"Yasashii 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. ↑ See: Chrome Shelled Regios: Volume 8: Post Epilogue: Part 3, also, in the anime, Limbeekun is another example of this exception
2. ↑ Chrome Shelled Regios Light Novel: Volume 7, Chapter 3
3. ↑ According to the Publisher's (Fujimi Shobo's) Official "Koukaku no Regios" Page.
4. ↑ "Funimation Adds Rosario+Vampire Anime And More". Anime News Network. 2010-05-15. 
5. ↑ "Funimation Week 39 of 2011". Funimation. 

External links

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

Works of Zexcs
Television series	Sister Princess (2001) Sister Princess RePure (2002) Kikō Sen'nyo Rouran (2002–2003) Da Capo (2003) Final Approach (2004) Sukisho (2005) Canvas 2: Niji Iro no Sketch (2005–2006) Venus to Mamoru (2006–2007) Rental Magica (2007–2008) H2O: Footprints in the Sand (2008) Our Home's Fox Deity. (2008) Magician's Academy (2008) Chrome Shelled Regios (2009) Umi Monogatari (2009) Omamori Himari (2010) Chu-Bra!! (2010) The Legend of the Legendary Heroes (2010) Fortune Arterial (2010) I Don't Like You at All, Big Brother!! (2011) A Dark Rabbit Has Seven Lives (2011) Say "I love you" (2012) Cuticle Detective Inaba (2013) The Flowers of Evil (2013) Diabolik Lovers (2013) The Comic Artist and His Assistants (2014) Lady Jewelpet (2014–2015) Shōnen Hollywood -Holly Stage for 49- (2014) Shōnen Hollywood -Holly Stage for 50- (2015) Diabolik Lovers More, Blood (2015) Ketsuekigata-kun! 3 (2015) Ketsuekigata-kun! 4 (2016) The Great Passage (2016) Frame Arms Girl (2017)
OVAs/ONAs	10 Tokyo Warriors (1999–2002) Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time ~Ajisai Yumegatari~ (2002–2003) Happy World! (2002–2003) Saishū Shiken Kujira (2007) Da Capo: If (2008–2009) Jewelpet Twinkle☆: A Rainbow of Smiles Doki☆Doki! (2013) The Comic Artist and His Assistants (2014) Kurage no Shokudō (2016) Your Light ~Kase-san and Morning Glories~ (2017)
Films	Aruvu Rezuru: Kikaijikake no Yōseitachi (2013)
Category