Innocent Venus

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It's 2010 AD. Nature has destroyed a good portion of civilization as we know it. To maintain order, society is segregated into the rich Logos and the miserably poor Levinas, and the law is enforced by the militaristic upper class. The Logos enjoy easy life in relatively nice areas, while the impoverished masses of the Levinas struggle to survive in the slums, aka everywhere else.

The Government has Phantom, a special forces division that uses mechas called Gladiators. They specialize in putting down rebellions and generally being jerkasses.

Two guys and a girl are on the run from the evil government, in the process participating in cool mecha battles and blowing stuff up. Jo and Jin are former Phantom members who appear to be polar opposites in personality. Sana, the mysterious pink-haired girl, is somehow linked to Phantom.

They spend a while on the run, meeting up with various rebel factions including the self-styled "pirate captain" Toraji, who is actually the defected vice-commander of Phantom; the story continues thus until Jin is revealed to be a backstabbing fiend who wants to use Sana just as much as Phantom do. Meanwhile Toraji decides to lead the rebellion. The director of Phantom is also working on some sort of Weapon of Mass Destruction involving the mechas and their power source. This is where Sana finally learns her origin and her significance to the project.

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This Anime provides examples of:

• Amazonian Beauty: Hijin
• After the End
• Badass Normal: Toraji
• Berserker Tears: Jo after using his mecha. It's actually a plot point.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Jin
• Brown Note: But it only works on Sana.
• Capulet Counterpart: Renee
• Convenient Decoy Cat: The intro scene at the first episode.
• Cheerful Child: Sana is cute and innocent, traits that make her stand out in comparison to the dark and chaotic environment.
• Conspicuous CGI: Most of the series is beautifully animated. The mechas, however, are not.
  • Though as CGI goes, they're not badly done.
• Crapsack World
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: A post-apocalyptic future in which geography and humanity have been reduced by some cataclysmic event. Brutal futuristic police states that put down the poor with mecha. Violent forces in pursuit of a young girl of unknown but obviously immense importance. The mechas are powered by the souls of little children.
• Dramatic Chase Opening (executed as a textbook example)
• Duel to the Death: Jin versus Jo, at the end - though like most fights in Innocent Venus, it's short, sharp, and very one sided.
• Et Tu, Brute?
• Evil Albino: Jin
• Eyeless Face / Uncanny Valley: The children's souls in the Gladiators
• Fan Disservice: Episode 11. 'Nuff said.
• Heroic RROD: Prolonged use of the mechas causes this, unless you're a Complete Monster.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Jo
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Jin, whose death is apparently caused by pushing his mecha's power too far, which provokes the children's souls in his Gladiator. Similarly with Drake, whose own gladiators turn on him and kill him. This is something of a theme in the series, as a form of Laser-Guided Karma for those who have implanted children's brains to drive their war machines.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Jin managed to fool most people, including Jo, who seems to have been his friend for years. Though since he fools most the audience too (but for the obscure Spoiler Opening there would be no clue at all), Jo and Sana can probably be excused for thinking he was a nice guy.
• Humongous Mecha
• Katanas Are Just Better: Toraji takes out a bunch of mooks armed with assault rifles with a katana. In approximately 3 seconds.
• Knife Nut: Riki. Just... Riki.
• Large Ham: This is Toraji's hat, when he first appears. Also, Jin in his last moments
• Laser-Guided Karma: Jin and Drake, both killed by the war-machine project they caused so much suffering for.
• The Load: Sana, predictably. Also the scraptastic Chew Toy Gora.
• Nice Guy: Subverted. Jin acts really sweet to Sana, before a complete Face Heel Turn in which he appears to have been a bastard from the start.
• Psychic Link
  • Also Psychic Nosebleed - lethally so.
• The Quiet One: Jo
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: Phantom's special attack unit
• Redemption Equals Death: Poor Steve.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Jin and Jo.
• Revenge
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Toraji's rebellion is not neat or pretty, but he can get a job done.
• Spoiler Opening: Somewhat. Jin's segment strongly suggests illusion and deception. Hmm.
• State Sec: Phantom
• Supporting Leader: Toraji
• Tarot Motifs: Qing Ling carries around a tarot deck, often used to foreshadow the episode's events Death, The Moon, and The World. He also uses the cards themselves to kill people.
• Villainous Breakdown : Jin, mostly as a result of getting his brain fried and realizing that all his efforts were for nothing.
• Was It All a Lie? - Shades of this.
• Weapon of Mass Destruction - Phantom's secret project
• When He Smiles: Jo at the end
• White-Haired Pretty Boy - Jin