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by Carlo Santos,... have to be subjected to either of them. ⏎Level E ⏎ Rating: 3.5 (of 5) ⏎ Review: ⏎ Nuanced, semi-realistic character designs? Carefully rendered backgrounds? A storyline that manages to keep things mysterious without becoming confusing or inane? Yes, against all odds, Level E is one of those series that actually deserves to be taken seriously. Despite being a bit stodgy and old-fashioned in its execution, the overall result is promising. ⏎ Based on a distant mid-90's manga (ever notice how there's always at least one of these every season that just comes out of nowhere?), Level E begins with the supposition that Earth is secretly populated by hundreds of aliens. One of them is about to make with the protagonist, a high school baseball prospect named Tsutsui. Our extraterrestrial visitor is a princely type with delicate features and flowing locks (old-school bishounen stereotype alert!), who just happens to be occupying Tsutsui's new apartment when he moves in. So begins a waaaacky roommate comedy with biting one-liners and zany attempts to romance the girl next door! Actually, no, what begins is a subtle sci-fi mystery as the alien tries to recover an important artefact aboard his crashed spacecraft, while keeping out of the authorities' reach. Because, as Tsutsui later learns, Mr. X-Files here is ... a murderer. ⏎ The funny thing is, there actually are elements of wacky roommate comedy in the first episode, keeping viewers interested while the main storyline gradually takes root. The alien acts like the classic annoying roommate, moving furniture without asking, making unilateral decisions about dinner, and jerking Tsutsui around with snarky asides. Yet when the time comes to get serious, the animation crew steps up with enthralling special effects (just watch the healing sequence) and tense, action-thriller pacing despite a lack of large-scale action scenes. If there's one thing that feels like untapped potential so far, it's the number of blocky, straight-on camera views throughout the episode—there's obviously enough budget to make use of more dynamic visuals, but maybe the time for that hasn't come yet. ⏎ FUN FACT: Chiaki Kuriyama (of Kill Bill fame) sings the opening theme song—and it rocks hard. Hopefully this series will too. ⏎ Level E is available streaming on Crunchyroll. ⏎ Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne ⏎...