Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning

Not to be confused with the manga series Uzumaki, which translates as "Spiral".

Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning
File:Spiral cover.jpg
Genre	Drama, Mystery,
Manga
Written by	Kyou Shirodaira (story) Eita Mizuno (art)
Published by	Gangan Comics
Anime
Directed by	Shingo Kaneko
Studio	J.C. Staff

Spiral: Suiri no Kizuna (スパイラル～推理の絆) is a mystery manga which was later turned into an anime by TV Tokyo.

Spiral is a shonen manga by Kyou Shirodaira (writer) and Eita Mizuno (art). It was published in Monthly Shonen Gangan, animated into a 25 episode series, and dubbed into English by FUNimation. Both the anime and manga are completed, the manga lasting fifteen volumes. The anime is at best an incomplete work in that it ceased production before any of the mysteries of the story were resolved. The anime has also debuted on American TV in a syndicated FUNimation Channel programming block airing on CoLours TV beginning on Monday, June 19, 2006.

Spiral is a mystery story the focal point of which is the nature of the Blade Children, those who have cat-like eyes and are missing a seventh rib bone.

The Spiral manga was licensed by TokyoPop, but was later dropped. A new manga publisher, Yen Press, has picked up Spiral; the first volume was released in October 2007.

Background story

Ayumu Narumi's older brother Kiyotaka, a famous detective and pianist, disappears without a trace. The only clue as to his whereabouts is the "Blade Children", the only words Ayumu managed to catch in a final phone call from Kiyotaka. Two years later, a row of murders and incidents begin, all related to the Blade Children. Together with the infamous (and only) school journalist, Hiyono Yuizaki, Ayumu tries to figure out their destiny and the mystery shrouding their past.

Characters

Main article: List of Spiral characters

Ayumu Narumi (鳴海歩, Narumi Ayumu)

The protagonist of Spiral, Ayumu is very intelligent, but is very introverted and has a lot of self-doubt. He fears that he cannot surpass his own perfect older brother and doubts himself to the point where he no longer believes he can do anything anymore without acting like his brother. He is a talented pianist like Kiyotaka, an excellent cook, and cares a lot for his sister-in-law Madoka. His affection for Madoka (now as a "nee-chan") might also be because of formerly loving her, but stopped when Kiyotaka married Madoka. Ayumu is also the supposed only hope for the Blade Children and their survival. Soon in the manga it is found out that he is suppose to be a god to the blade children. his fate is to kill the devil. In the manga it is also found out that Ayumu is Kiyotaka's clone.

Hiyono Yuizaki (結崎ひよの, Yuizaki Hiyono)

The infamous school journalist, Hiyono is the bubbly and energetic sidekick of Ayumu, always stuck to his side. Very clever and a quick-thinker, her confidence borders dangerously on overconfidence. She is extroverted and is Ayumu's polar opposite, serving as one of the series' few comic-relief characters. Her skill with computers are as amazing as her hacking abilities and she has access to over one hundred resources. She blackmails Wataya often, and is very fond of Ayumu's cooking. Hiyono is also one of the few who whole-heartedly believe in Ayumu; she also has a great deal of faith and loyalty in him that carries on for the whole series. She attends Tsukiomi High School alongside with Ayumu Narumi.

Eyes Rutherford (アイズ・ラザフォード)

The 17 years old world-class pianist, he is second only to Kiyotaka Narumi, Ayumu Narumi's older brother. He is seemingly cold-hearted but definitely not heartless (he brought Rio melons when she was stuck in the hospital). Eyes is quarter English and debuted in the musical world at the age of 14. He cares a great deal about the Blade Children and would do anything for them to survive at all costs. He is exceedingly loyal to Kiyotaka's words and seems to believe in Ayumu the most out of all the Blade Children. Eyes knows much more than the other Blade Children do, holding secrets he keeps to himself. He is one of the first targets of assassination by the Hunters (after Sayoko) but outwits them at a charity concert with the help of Ayumu and Kousuke. He and Kanone have a some sort of bond, even though the friendship between Eyes and Kanone seems to shatter once he learned of Kanone's betrayal of the Blade Children. Eyes appears to be the leader of the Blade Children but he treats Kanone as either an equal or even an older brother.

Kanone Hilbert (カノン・ヒルベルト)

A Blade Child with a dual personality. He could be cute and friendly or manipulative and insane. He was very close to Eyes. He would cry for Eyes when Eyes could not when they were young, but their friendship fell apart as they grew older and developed vastly different opinions on the fate of the Blade Children. In the manga, it also mentions that Kanone and Eyes are brothers. Kanone will go as far as he can to kill the people who give the Blade Children false hope, to prove to Eyes and the Blade Children they have no hope. He is capable of terrible things and is interested in killing Ayumu because he is the Blade Children's only hope that they can actually be saved. Kanone is even willing to work with the Hunters to prove to the Blade Children that they have no hope.

Hizumi Mizushiro

He only appears in the manga; and is the 'younger brother' of the father of the Blade Children. Hizumi is the complete opposite of Ayumu in many ways. He is sinister and manipulative, though he and Ayumu got along very well upon their initial meeting. Supposedly he is a very dangerous adversary for Ayumu. He has a personality similar to that of Kanone. He is energetic and seems to have an innocent nature about him. He always smiles and seems well-liked. But that is actually a cover-up for his true personality. Hizumi is a deadly killer and seems to be distraught. He enjoys playing the harmonica and playing basketball. It also seems that he enjoys annoying Ayumu. He is often classified as one of the Blade Children alhough he is not. This may be assumed by his cat-like eyes.

[b]This next section contains explicit spoilers that detail and solve every major mystery of the series. [/b]

Blade Children

The Blade Children are the central mystery of the series, known only as cursed children that few know about and are being pursued by so-called Hunters. One of their main facial features of the Blade Children is their cat-like glowing eyes and a missing a seventh rib bone on the right of the rib cage. All their fathers are unknown.

The story presented in the anime never reaches a point where the nature of the Blade Children is explained. The anime only offers a comparison to cuckoo birds. The implication being that something not human deposited the Blade Children in human "nests" to be raised, similar to how Cuckoo birds deposit their eggs in the nests of other birds. The anime also suggests that Cuckoos go destructively and violently crazy toward the end of their lives.

The manga explains why the Blade Children are cursed and their origins:

A man called Yaiba Mizushiro was born sixteen years before Narumi's older brother, Kiyotaka. He was born with one rib missing from his right ribcage. Like Kiyotaka, he excelled at everything he chose to put his mind to and was the darling of the world for the first twenty-odd years of his life. When he turned twenty-three, Yaiba started his own secret society, which swiftly grew to gigantic proportions, able to manipulate world events. Citing boredom, Yaiba initiated the "Blade Children Project".

Using in vitro techniques, he seeded his DNA and created a total of eighty children. These children all had a rib removed at birth to signify them being of Yaiba's blood. They were cursed in the same way Yaiba was: they would grow up as geniuses in their own right, but one day their blood would awaken murderously and take over their self-will, becoming avatars of Yaiba.

Yaiba's organization was split into three camps over the Blade Children Project:

• Savers. The first group, Savers, were supportive of Yaiba and desired to create more Blade Children. With the failure of the project, they sought to protect the fact the future had not been determined yet.
• Watchers. The second group, Watchers, were neutral. They wanted to observe the first batch of Children and gather results first.
• Hunters. The last camp were called the Hunters. They were against Yaiba, and tried multiple times to assassinate him. Yaiba had the devil's luck, and everything failed, from bullets to bombs. With Yaiba's eventual death, they continued their work to eliminate the Blade Children because of their potentially dangerous natures.

When Yaiba was thirty-six, one Japanese man came out of nowhere and easily killed him: Kiyotaka Narumi. He was the counterpart to Yaiba: if Yaiba had been a destroyer, Kiyotaka was a creator. Yaiba had intended to remake the world literally in his own image; with his death, the Blade Children project was halted. Kiyotaka had his hands full trying to stop the Hunters from killing all the Children, while trying to check the Savers at the same time.

The counterpart metaphor does not end there. Since Kiyotaka had a brother who was like him but not him (another creator), Yaiba also had a sibling: Hizumi Mizushiro, Ayumu's mirror image, the one who will awaken the blood of the remaining Blade Children.

The prequel, "Spiral - Alive" reveals that the eighty Blade Children are kept under surveillance by the Hunters, Savers, and Watchers. Of those eighty, thirteen have been completely erased from the list of Blade Children held by the three factions. The one responsible for this had been a neutral party who committed suicide after accomplishing this. The only information about the thirteen missing children is contained in the Mikanagi File, named after Professor Isabel Mikanagi, who was responsible for the removal of the thirteen children from the list of eighty Blade Children. With Professor Mikanagi's death, the file was entrusted to her associates, Amanae Fusai and his wife, who disappeared with their daughter Yukine and one of the Blade Children, Charlotte. When one of the Hunters and another former associate of Mikanagi, Professor Sheffield, caused Charlotte's blood to awaken murderously, the child stabbed Yukine and caused the deaths of her adoptive parents. Yukine survived and currently holds the only record of the Mikanagi File within her memory - no other concrete records of the file exists.

Anime cast

Japanese

• Kenichi Suzumura: Ayumu Narumi
• Kazuhiko Inoue: Kiyotaka Narumi
• Masumi Asano: Hiyono Yuizaki
• Akira Ishida: Eyes Rutherford
• Takeshi Kusao: Kousuke Asazuki
• Yui Horie: Rio Takeuchi
• Hitomi Kato: Ryouko Takamachi
• Kenji Nojima: Kanone Hilbert
• Kotono Mitsuishi: Madoka Narumi
• Bin Shimada: Suemaru Wataya
• Hajime Kubota: Yuuta Nakamoto
• Hirofumi Nojima: Imasato
• Ichirō Nagai: Taniraizo Shiranaga
• Kanako Okada: Suzuki
• Kyoko Hikami: Reiko Hatsuyama
• Mai Nakahara: Sayoko Shiranagatani
• Masaya Onosaka: Takashi Sonobe
• Miho Yamada: Takako Adachi
• Mika Outake: Tanikei Shiranaga
• Myu: Young Nero
• Ryuji Mizuno: Keishisei Kanzaka

English

• Daniel Katsük: Ayumu Narumi
• Christopher R. Sabat: Kiyotaka Narumi
• Gwendolyn Lau: Madoka Narumi
• Caitlin Glass: Hiyono Yuizaki
• John Burgmeier: Eyes Rutherford
• Christopher Bevins: Kanone Hilbert
• Greg Ayres: Kousuke Asazuki
• Monica Rial: Rio Takeuchi
• Laura Bailey: Ryouko Takamachi
• Colleen Clinkenbeard: Suzuki
• Cynthia Cranz: Reiko Hatsuyama
• Elise Baughman: Sayoko Shiranagatani
• Kristin McCollum: as Kei Shiranagatani
• R Bruce Elliott: as Raizou Shiranagatani
• Robert McCollum: as Suemaru Wataya
• Sean Schemmel: as Takashi Sonobe
• Sean Teague: as Lucky
• Sonny Strait: as Mr. Imazato
• Clarine Harp: Takako Adachi

English episode list

No.	Episode Title	U.S. Airdate
01	Spiral of Destiny	June 19, 2006
02	Manor of Death	June 20, 2006
03	Cursed Children	June 21, 2006
04	The Happiness of Those Who Believe	June 22, 2006
05	Misty Gallows	June 23, 2006
06	Blind Spot in the Web	June 26, 2006
07	The Choice of the Nonbeliever	June 27, 2006
08	Day of the Defeated	June 28, 2006
09	All Things That Are Possible To You	June 29, 2006
10	Only One Wise Action	June 30, 2006
11	Goodnight Sweetheart	July 3, 2006
12	Dry Eyes	July 4, 2006
13	Overture	July 5, 2006
14	Shimmering Fragrance	July 25, 2006
15	Like a Swan	July 26, 2006
16	Moving Targets	July 27, 2006
17	The Watcher in the Darkness	July 28, 2006
18	The Lamenting Angel	July 31, 2006
19	Mirror of the Heart	August 1, 2006
20	Whispering Shadows	August 2, 2006
21	The Sound of a Breaking Heart	August 3, 2006
22	The Confession	August 4, 2006
23	Relentless Rain	August 18, 2006
24	The Man in the High Castle	August 21, 2006
25	The Sound of an Iris Freezing and Melting	August 22, 2006

Media

• Opening Theme: "Kibouhou" ("Cape of Hope") by Strawberry Jam
• Ending Theme: "Kokuteru" ("Cocktail") by Hysteric Blue
• Insert: "Twinkle My Heart" by Mitake Akira (note: sung by Hiyono in the series itself)
• Piano Music:
  • Maurice Ravel: Jeux d’eau, played by Brian Verhoye — interspersed throughout episode 3; first heard at approximately 2:45.
  • Franz Liszt: Liebestraume No. 3 — episode 13, most prominently during Eyes' concert (approximately 17:30-end); can also be heard at the beginning of the episode.
  • Franz Liszt: Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude — in episode 21, during Eyes' flashback to his conversation with Kanone, and Ayumu's conversation with Kanzaka (approximately 13:02-16:13). In the Kanone arc of the manga, the piece becomes a plot point: Kanone tells Ayumu that Eyes always used to play this piece when he was alone, but always stopped playing when he noticed that Kanone was listening, and he never told Kanone the title (which translates as "Benediction of God in Solitude"). Ayumu tells the title to Kanone, thus revealing Eyes' feelings, which becomes another motivation for Kanone. In the end Ayumu uses the piece to lure both Kanone and Eyes into the music room where the final confrontation takes place. Kanone also plays the piece (albeit badly).
  • Claude Debussy: Arabesque No. 1 — the conclusion of episode 25, beginning from Ryouko and Kousuke's last conversation, and continuing until Ayumu's final scene at the train station (approximately 14:00-18:30)).

Spiral - Alive

After the completion of Spiral - Suiri no Kizuna, author Kyou Shirodaira and artist Eita Mizuno began Spiral - Alive, a prequel and spin off of the original series. It is currently on-going. Several characters from the original series return, including Kiyotaka, Kousuke, Ryoko, Kanone, and Madoka.

Spiral - Alive is centred around a girl named Imari Sekiguchi, who falls in love with Shirou Sawamura, a boy who wants to become a detective. However, before Imari can confess her love to him, he unexpectedly quits school in order to pursue Kiyotaka Narumi. Things become complicated when she discovers he is currently dating Yukine Amanae, a beautiful girl at school, and both are unaware that Amanae is actually a reluctant murderer. Meanwhile, Toru Saiki, a member of the Police Department's First Investigations Department, investigates the mysterious murders connected with Amanae and is unwilling to bring in Kiyotaka, believing that Tokyo's greatest detective is more demonic than divine. The three become involved in events that are mysteriously connected to the Blade Children.

External links

• Official Aniplex Website Template:Ja icon
• Spiral Official Dub Website Template:En icon
• ANN TV Profile
• ANN Manga Profile