is a 2017 cyberpunk Japanese anime television series produced by Sanzigen. The anime was announced through a teaser video on August 7, 2016. followed by the official website on January 26, 2017. The series is produced by Sanzigen and directed by Goro Taniguchi, and aired from April 9, 2017, to June 25, 2017. The series is set when humanity has developed I-Machines, robots that can operate in extreme environments in space, in which the human pilot's consciousness can be transferred into the robot's operating system. An astrogeology student named Maya Mikuri joins the Excavate Company, a crew who illegally mine for the new mineral Orichalt, which is used for interstellar travel. However, Maya soon learns about a crew member with no identity named Ido, and his connection to a little girl named Alice found inside an Orichalt deposit within the core of the wandering planet known as Rajeev.
Plot In the distant future, the discovery of the new mineral has allowed humanity to expand beyond the Sol System. On the constant lookout for Orichalt, humanity has developed , giant robots that can operate in extreme environments. I-Machines function by using Orichalt to transfer the human pilot's consciousness into the robot's operating system; in that sense, the human becomes the machine. While Alliance Academy student Maya Mikuri is in the middle of operating an I-Machine, she gets involved in an incident with mining pirates, and ends up serving as a crew member on their mining spaceship. Soon after, she and the rest of the crew begin to discover that the government has been hiding secrets about destructive forces concerning Orichalt. Worse, these same forces are on the verge of destroying human civilization, and the crew might be the only ones who can stop them.
Characters Excavate Company The is a band of Orichalt miners who often act illegally, being compared to space pirates. Their base of operations is the mining ship (Latin for "foolish"), which is built to accommodate I-Machines and is equipped with four large manipulator arms featuring various tools. The ship is capable of utilizing Orichalt chunks to achieve faster than light warp-based travel through a process known as Miguel Jumping (probably referencing the Alcubierre Drive proposed by Mexican Physicist Miguel Alcubierre). Aside from Maya Mikuri and Clair Hojo, Stultis entire crew consists of , people whose consciousness permanently resides within an I-Machine, having lost or discarded their flesh-and-blood bodies in the past. Existing as an Evertrancer, willingly or otherwise, is noted to be illegal and highly unethical within galactic society.
A student at the Planet Alliance Academy with a knack for astrogeology. After an accident, she finds herself working with the members of Excavate. Keen and sharp-witted, but also a little timid and willing to let events unfold around her. Having been framed for illegally sharing information about a large Orichalt deposit, she is forced to sign on with Excavate until she is able to clear her name. Her personal I-Machine is a generic civilian model, painted yellow, with no special features or weaponry. After the Rajeev incident is resolved, the charges against Maya are dropped and she returns to the Academy, occasionally helping Excavate with jobs.
A stoic and serious individual with a bold and reckless streak. His blue custom I-Machine body is armed with exploding throwing knives and is modeled after a ninja. His virtual avatar is identical to his I-Machine body. It is noted that Ido has no official records, from machine number to consciousness map, meaning he legally does not exist. Ido also suffers from amnesia, with no recollection of his true identity before becoming an Evertrancer. His first concrete memory is as a prisoner on an "exile ship", where highly dangerous criminals are imprisoned in immobile and unconscious I-Machine bodies. He inexplicably awakened with no memory or identity data and was alone with his mind for several years, only escaping when he suddenly Mind Tranced into his current body, which drifted in a capsule near the ship. Ido figures he was a prisoner for at least 20 years and has inhabited his current I-Machine body for seven years. Having no memories before awakening on the prison ship and thus no leads, he had since given up on trying to discover who he really is until Alice arrives. He initially experiences intense feelings of fear and guilt as well as fragments of memories whenever he is in Alice's presence for reasons he is unable to explain until he recalls a memory and recognizes her. From then on, he becomes highly protective of her, as she is the only known link to his past. Searching for Kain Arisugawa to demand answers, Ido encounters Addams, who reveals Ido is in fact Kain Arisugawa himself, stripped of his memories as part of Addams' plans to take his place using a clone body. Addams soon forces Ido into the clone body and returns his memories. Despite having his true identity and past returned to him, Ido rejects the name Kain Arisugawa and insists that he is now "Excavator Ido." While inhabiting the Kain clone body, Ido is shot by Addams. He reaches a Mind Trance pod and returns to his I-Machine body just as the clone dies, regarding the I-Machine as his "true" self and vowing that as Ido, he would stop Addams. Grayman gave him the name Ido from the designation "ID-0," referring to his lack of identity and memories.
A boisterous hotshot and womanizer, Rick was once a professional asteroid racing champion nicknamed the "Speed Star" before being paralyzed in an accident. Befitting his past and personality, his I-Machine body is a custom red model designed for speed and able to assume a jet-like configuration. He eventually reveals to Amanza that his consciousness is a virtual copy of the real Rick Ayer, who was declared brain dead and whose body was disposed of after the accident. He exists because of a backup system installed in asteroid racing vehicles, which allows a racer to calculate and react twice as fast as normal, essentially acting as their own copilot. Because he considers himself little more than a copy and struggles with wondering if he is even truly alive, Rick appears as his I-Machine body in a virtual space. In the aftermath of the Rajeev incident, it is implied that Rick begins a relationship with Amanza.
The group liaison and information broker, Karla inhabits a purple and white custom I-Machine modeled after the female form, featuring molded breasts and powerful scanning and data-gathering systems. Her avatar in a virtual space is that of her former human body, a mature blonde woman. Before joining Excavate, Karla was once a talented but arrogant fund manager in the space resources market and has been an Evertrancer for ten years. Two years prior to joining Excavate, Karla lost her human body in a partial warp event, where it is suddenly Miguel Jumped to an unknown location. Her body somehow ends up in Addams' possession in suspended animation, where he uses it as a bargaining chip to bring Ido and Alice to him. Addams returns her to her human body as promised, but she Mind Trances into her I-Machine one last time to protect Maya and Alice from Addams, where it is soon destroyed. In the final assault against the Rajeev, Karla uses a pink-hued civilian I-Machine, but it is quickly destroyed, returning her to her human body. After the Rajeev incident, Karla becomes the CEO of MT Industries and uses her wealth to help society.
The boss of Excavate and Stultis captain, Grayman's I-Machine is a custom green and gray model with four extra sub-arms hidden in the shoulder armor. His avatar in a virtual space resembles his former human body, a tanned, well-built man. Grayman is a former United Planets Force captain who lost 740 crew members and a state of the art ship in an unknown incident. His real name is . He gave himself the name "Grayman" because he considers "Jake Hojo" to be dead.
Part of the Excavate company and Grayman's daughter, she serves as an operator. She is the only crew member to have a human body and does not seem to have a personal I-Machine.
A member of an endangered species of small quadrupeds from an unknown planet in the Cetus Constellation, Fa-Loser inhabits a pink, rabbit-like I-Machine and behaves much like a dog. Before becoming an Evertrancer, it was used as an experimental animal by Kain Arisugawa. Its virtual avatar resembles its I-Machine body. Fa-Loser dislikes Rick for undisclosed reasons, but they seem to have reconciled in the wake of the Rajeev incident.
United Planets Force
A lieutenant in the United Planets Force Army stationed on the battleship and assigned to the "83rd Reconnaissance-in-Force Company" with the call sign "Recon Zero One," Amanza participates in a shakedown intending to detain Excavate after they recover a peculiar Orichalt deposit. During Stultis escape via a "Miguel Out" while in the Miguel Line, her I-Machine is caught in the area of effect and is separated from Marito. Maya manages to recover the pod containing her human body, which is also taken along in the jump, and brings it on board Stulti. Amanza reluctantly decides to cooperate with Excavate after a brief period of distrust, drawn to the many mysteries that surround them. According to Sam Taylor of the organization Observer, Amanza is wanted for desertion by the United Planets Force military because of the circumstances that led to her allying with Excavate. Amanza's personal I-Machine is a variant of a standard military model, colored purple and armed with a beam rifle. This body is destroyed during the final push to the Rajeev core, but is replaced by an identical model some time afterward. Amanza leaves the Army and remains with Excavate after the Rajeev incident, mostly because of her newfound relationship with Rick.
An admiral in the United Planets Force Army who leads the assault on the Rajeev.
Planet Alliance Academy
A professor of astrogeology and Maya Mikuri's former instructor. He betrays Maya and leaves her for dead when an excavation mission goes wrong and Excavate Company arrives, later framing her for illegally sharing information about the dig site.
Kinsberg's assistant, Romanov assists Kinsberg's plans when they abandon Maya and frame her.
Others
The creator of the Mind Trance system that allows for the use of I-Machines. It is later revealed that Addams Forte Chevalier took on Kain Arisugawa's identity several years ago and that Ido is the true Kain Arisugawa. Kain was an arrogant and egotistical man obsessed with gathering data, willing to intentionally sacrifice 90% of humanity for the sake of researching and controlling Orichalt and the wandering planets known as Rajeev, which are ancient alien constructs that hunt down Orichalt. He secretly uses Alice, the terminally ill daughter of colleague Jennifer Record, as a test subject in order to create an "Orillian" as part of this plan. Kain's utter lack of regard for human life and the revelation that Alice's fate was intentional causes his longtime friend Addams to snap and force him into an intentionally flawed Mind Trance, stripping his memories and imprisoning him in an immobile I-Machine body. However, Kain had a contingency plan in place to deliver a specially designed I-Machine that completely lacked identification data specifically to recover his consciousness with the designation "ID-0." As Ido many years later, he encounters Addams again, who returns his memories, though Ido rejects his past life as Kain Arisugawa. Through Kain's memories, Ido realizes that the Rajeev adapt and evolve, making it impossible to permanently defeat them and that the true solution is mutual understanding.