The Apocalypse is a topic well explored in the anime world, through series like Evangelion, X, Earthian, Angel Sanctuary, and more. However, all of these series tend to leave you with a basic question: what happens after the world has been destroyed? Kurogane Communication is the answer to that.

Decades later in the future, a final World War has utterly annihilated humanity. The world has been reduced to ruins and rubble, but the ecosystem still prevails. In Japan, a young girl named Haruka is awakened from cryogenic stasis, the single surviving human on Earth. The post apocalyptic state of the world at first comes as a shock to her, but gradually she is able to get used to this life and her new family of Intelligence Robots. The cast of Robots includes Spike, Haruka's overprotective best friend; Reeves, the scariest looking but most parental of the robots; Cleric, the brains of the bunch; Trigger, a veritable psychotic flying ping-pong ball of a robot who likes to go around shooting everybody with his gun; and Angela, a former duelling robot with a dark past who is the only female robot. Together, these five robots are raising Haruka to the best of their abilities, despite the utter lack of other humans on the planet. Together, they endure many hardships and learn that through friendship, they can overcome any problems they may face. It concludes with a rather satisfying ending. This anime is based on the original story by Hosei Takuma and Hideo Kato.

Kurogane Communication is a somewhat baffling series, as its target audience is somewhat ambiguous. Despite having a good bit of violence and some particularly dark parts towards the end, it has just as many heartwarming moments and lessons about the friendship and not discriminating against people, be they human or robot. However, despite the oddness of all that, it meshes together to make a rather enjoyable presentation. I wouldn't call this series a masterpiece, but it's still very enjoyable. It's certainly not everybody's cup of tea though, being odd as it is.

The animation quality of this series is very good, suitable for a recently produced series. There isn't a whole lot of obvious CG involved in it, but it doesn't need it either. It has a very modern feeling, with a bright style of animation that is very pleasant on the eyes. The character designs were done by Shinya Takahashi, who also acted as the animation director. All in all, while the animation won't blow you away, it's still very adequate for a TV series of its time and thus it doesn't disappoint.

The music of Kurogane Communication is very befitting. It has a fairly varied soundtrack, ranging from pieces which match the series' most intense moments to some enstilling pieces with a very "far away" feeling. The latter music really captures the emotion of being the last human alive on Earth. Kenji Kawai did a great job with this series' soundtrack, living up to his reputation as an anime music composer. The opening, "My Best Friend," really conveys the lighter side of the story, focusing on the series' message of the importance of friendship. The instrumentals in the ending theme, "Dear Mama," have sort of a circus-like tone to it, while the singing has a rather childish feel, helping to capture the more innocent side of the series. The song also highlights the more emotional side of the series, particularly the theme of innocent love. Both songs are performed by Yui Horie, who put on a fantastic performance.

Kurogane Communication certainly doesn't disappoint in the extras department either. The disc features creditless opening and ending versions, though only with dubbed audio. Each of the DVDs also had a "mini-comic" feature with a couple of four-panel manga segments involving the characters telling some odd joke or another. This was a rather unique and amusing little extra; I only wish they'd put more than just a couple on each DVD. Production sketches were also included on each of the DVDs as a nice insider's look at the process of designing the series. Additionally, there were some amusing outtakes from the dub on each DVD.

I didn't know what to expect entirely when I picked up the first Kurogane Communication DVD. I just really liked the art style when I saw the packaging and went with my gut in making this purchase. Bottom line: I don't regret it. This is a rather overlooked little gem of an anime series, and I recommend checking it out if it sounded interesting to you. All 24 episodes are 15 minutes each and spread out across 3 DVDs, with 8 episodes on each DVD. That in of itself makes it worth the cost to purchase each DVD. Besides, who wouldn't want to see anime which features a little, psychotic, flying ping-pong ball robot with a gun?

Distributor: Anime Works
Creator: Media Works
Released: 2002

Plot: B
Character Design: A+
Animation Quality: A
Music: A
Overall: A