Many years after "The Great Uprising", many people in the Lost Ground -- a part of Japan cut off from the rest of the nation -- have developed special powers. These people are dubbed Alters. Kazuma is a Native Alter (one who lives outside authority) who continually defies HOLY, a group of Alters who seek to bring order to the Lost Ground. In particular, Kazuma develops a rivalry with Ryuhou, HOLY's top Alter.
Goro Taniguchi's s-CRY-ed works only because it is unashamedly over the top and ridiculous. It's not trying to be thoughtful or deep; the show just wants to put a bunch of crazy mutants together and have them battle it out. The powers in s-CRY-ed completely reflect that -- it's not enough for an Alter to, say, have a gun as his power. No, the gun has to be ABSOLUTELY ENORMOUS and capable of leveling entire buildings with its bullets. That is basically s-CRY-ed's MO: Push everything as far as it can possibly go.
Kazuma and Ryuhou's rivalry is the best example of this. Normally I don't like these sorts of rivalries in anime, because they're usually filled to the brim with annoying bullshit that just bogs everything down. Not so with Kazuma and Ryuhou; for the most part, s-CRY-ed keeps things simple but ratcheted up to 11. Kazuma and Ryuhou basically just don't like each other but are also competitive to the point where they cannot help but push each other as much as possible to reveal the true depths of their powers.
Not to give too much away, but this is what makes the ending so memorable: It is at once utterly stupid, ridiculous and amazing. It's so stereotypically shounen that it almost seems like a genre parody, all loud grunting and over the top masculinity exploding off the screen in easily slashable doses for the fujoshi crowd. In just about any other series, the way s-CRY-ed ends would not work at all, because, you know, the story is technically finished, but with the way that Kazuma and Ryuhou's rivalry is built, it is really the only way that the show could end.
The story itself is just whatever, anyway. I didn't really care about most of the story and character revelations; they're all simply excuses for the characters to kick each others' asses. Does the origin of the Alter powers ultimately matter that much in the grand scheme of things? Not really. It's a nice detail to know, but I wouldn't be too broken up about it if that were never revealed. Might as well end on what really brings people to the party.
Most of the characters are pretty fun though. Kazuma bugged me at first but grew on me eventually, and it's the same with Ryuhou, who is basically the generic super cold powerful dude who lives JUST FOR THE JOB, ONLY FOR THE JOB, etc. Kanami, who pretty much acts as Kazuma's little sister, is mostly just there because every burning shounen hero needs a little sister to protect. At least she's not in a wheelchair or blind (OR BOTH AT ONCE). Mimori was just there for me, too ... s-CRY-ed doesn't really have a great track record with female characters.
The show makes up for that, though, with the thoroughly awesome Straight Cougar, who is basically shounen personified. He always moves as quickly as possible to pack in as much action as humanly possible, jabbers away to the point where he is barely coherent (and yet always makes sense) and his power involves the ability to turn just about anything into a speed demon death machine. But he's also a master at picking and choosing his fighting spots, so if you get to see him in action, it always feels as if something awesome is happening. Plus, isn't someone named Straight Cougar just begging to be loved? Oh, Japan.
(Speaking of, "Oh, Japan!" there's this "GIT OUT, OUTSIDERS/FOREIGNERS" undercurrent to s-CRY-ed that amused me throughout the whole series. It's mostly harmless because the show is so goofy, but it's definitely noticeable.)
But s-CRY-ed isn't perfect, of course. Let's get this out of the way now: There's an amnesia arc, and it's dumb, essentially a lazy excuse to get Kazuma and Ryuhou on the same side. (Not really a huge spoiler, because after a certain point it's obvious that this will happen eventually.) I hated everything to do with this and was glad when it finished. I also hated the big bad, half in a "I hope this douche gets his comeuppance" kind of way, and half in a "Man, this character is just really fucking stupid" kind of way. His power made me roll my eyes, too. "I CAN ABSORB POWERS AND THEREFORE HAVE ALL THE POWERS BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA" no fuck you
Nonetheless, s-CRY-ed is still one of the better shounen series you'll find because it completely embraces its inherent craziness and not really pretending that it is some epic drama or anything. It's just a silly series where people beat each other up, and it delivers just that.
If you like this, then watch ... : It kind of reminds me of the fun parts of Canaan (the parts that don't involve Maria and do involve Alphard). Darker than Black also has a bunch of characters doing battle with crazy powers, although it's much more subdued than s-CRY-ed. Maybe X, too, though the tone is nowhere near s-CRY-ed.
