# A.I.C.O. -Incarnation- (2018)

> A grieving 15-year-old teen joins a new classmate and a team of divers to infiltrate a sealed zone where a research accident released a runaway artificial life form.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/67225

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 12
- Episode runtime: 25 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: animation, science fiction
- Network: Netflix
- Cast: Yusuke Kobayashi, Haruka Shiraishi, Takehito Koyasu, Toru Okawa, Taishi Murata, Mao Ichimichi, Atsuko Tanaka, Makoto Furukawa
- TMDB rating: 6.3/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8116380/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: melancholic, tense, conspiratorial, wistful

## What critics say

Audiences rate this short Netflix anime mixed, with its sci-fi premise and hand-drawn action drawing praise while the overall response remains divided.

## Synopsis

A.I.C.O. -Incarnation- (2018) is a Japanese original net animation science fiction series produced by BONES and released on Netflix. Fifteen-year-old Aiko Tachibana, who lost her family in a catastrophe, learns from new classmate Yuya Kanzaki that a secret is hidden inside her body. The twelve-episode run is a single continuing story rather than a case-of-the-week format. Its engine is a push into a sealed research zone where an out-of-control artificial life form called Matter has spread, with Aiko, Yuya and a team of divers searching for the origin of the disaster while the government keeps the area cordoned off. Each episode builds the mystery through hand drawn animation and tense, quiet moments of infiltration. The setting is a near future Japan in the mid 2030s, with the ruins of a once hopeful research city marking the landscape. The series carries a melancholic, conspiratorial register, with grief and a fragile teen romance threading through its dread. Fans of Psycho-Pass, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Neon Genesis Evangelion will find resonance in its blend of anime science fiction, concealed catastrophe and young protagonists facing a world-altering secret.

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