Innocent Venus

Innocent Venus is a Japanese anime television series that premiered on Japan's Wowow network at midnight on July 26, 2006. The show incorporates some 3D cel-shaded animation, a technique that gives the visuals a more hand-drawn quality compared to standard 3D animation. At Anime Boston in 2007, ADV Films acquired the license for the series for $120,000. However, on July 11, 2008, ADV announced it would stop producing DVD copies of the show.

Plot

The story takes place in the near future, after a series of simultaneous hypercanes devastates the global population and economy, leading to the rise of various factions and fledgling nations. In Japan, an elite class called Logos emerges, controlling special zones that hold most of the country's wealth and resources.

These zones were established using Power Assist Technology, which helped Japan recover—though only to a limited extent—from the worldwide disaster, which included land subsidence, rising sea levels that permanently submerged low-lying areas, and an ice age across much of the Northern Hemisphere. The Logos dominate the Revenus, a lower class living in devastated, poverty-stricken urban and rural areas known as Levinas (such as Levinas Sector Six, Area 18), struggling daily to survive. Revenus are generally barred from entering the special zones, creating tension that fuels a resistance movement against the Logos.

With the tagline "A Near Future Late-Shogunate Action Animation," the series draws parallels to 19th-century Japan at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, just before the Boshin War. The main events occur in 2035 AD. Jō and Jin defect from Phantom, an elite Japanese military special operations group used to control the Revenus, and take a young girl named Sana with them. The series follows their efforts to evade capture by Phantom and the Logos's regular military forces, though deeper mysteries lie beneath the surface.

Episode list

The opening theme is "Noble Roar" by Yōsei Teikoku, and the ending theme is "Brand New Reason" by Fleet. The staff includes director Jun Kawagoe, series composition by Shinsuke Ōnishi, original character design by Shō Kōya, character design by Hideki Nagamachi, mechanical design by Hiroshi Ogawa, art design by Jirō Kōno and Minoru Yasuhara, art direction by Katsuhiro Haji, color design by Kōchi Usui, cinematography direction by Megumi Saitō, 3D direction by Yūichi Gotō, editing by Masaki Sakamoto, audio direction by Yoshikazu Iwanami, sound effects by Yasumasa Koyama, sound production by Half H•P Studio, music by Tomohisa Ishikawa, music production by Lantis, animation production by Brain's Base, and production by Bandai Visual.