Scarlet Nexus is a Japanese anime television series adaptation of the video game of the same name. It is produced by Sunrise and aired from July to December 2021.
Plot Set in the near future and an alternate reality where humanity develops technology and forms society based on the substances found in human brains. These substances also grant humans extrasensory superpowers. The Other Suppression Force (OSF) recruits members with psionic abilities to protect humanity from the Others, mindless mutants descending from the Extinction Belt.
Characters
The second son of the prestigious Sumeragi family. As a child he was saved by an OSF soldier, which inspired him to join the OSF later on. He possesses the psionic ability of gravikinesis, allowing him to control the movement of all surrounding objects. While his psionic aptitude is pretty low, he compensates for it with cooperation with his teammates and mastery over swordsmanship. He is assigned to Seto Platoon alongside his friend, Nagi. In his first mission, he realizes it was Kasane who saved his life back when he was 5 and decides to help her return her sister Naomi back to her human form after Naomi is turned into an Other. Yuito's psionic powers become unstable and the only way to stay active is by consuming a drug made from human blood and brains. He also learns he was born as a "dud", a person without psionic powers, and was subjected to experiments in order to receive psionic powers in the first place. Unfortunately, repeated use of his psionic powers is causing damage to accumulate in his brain, which explain Yuito's power shortages and memory lapses. Furthermore, the medicine he was prescribed is only a temporary measure and, sooner or later, he will lose both his powers and his memories. He later takes actions against the corruption of New Himuka, which brands him as a traitor and forces him and his platoon to escape from Suoh and make their way to Togetsu. His new mission, however, causes him and his platoon to cross paths with Kasane's platoon yet again and once both platoons escape from Togetsu, they exchange information on what they have learned. He and Kasane agree to try and convince their respective factions to thwart Togetsu's plans. Upon their arrival at Suoh, however, Yuito is forced to fight Nagi yet again, a battle that ends in Nagi's death. Furious, Yuito confronts Kaito about Nagi's brainwashing and his brother reveals that his plan is to turn Yuito into a weapon to destroy the humans still living on the Moon. Yuito realizes that his brother won't change his ways and fully commits to exposing New Himuka's corruption. His plan to expose the government's corruption succeeds in starting up a revolution, but Karen forcibly copies Yuito's gravikinesis and causes him severe brain damage tha threatens to erase him from existence. It's only through the efforts of both his and Kasane's platoons that Yuito is saved. Yuito and Kasane later convince Karen to help them destroy the Kunad Gate, at the expense of Karen's existence. With the crisis finally over, Yuito formally resigns from the OSF and decides to become a politician, like his father and brother before him. An older version of Yuito exists in the future of 2070. After Seiran enacted a coup d'etat against the New Himukan government, Yuito was considered a hero for his efforts to suppress the rebellion, even though his gravikinesis caused the Kunad Gate to grow larger and more dangerous. Although his death would cause the Kunad Gate to close, the government convinced him not to take his own life and he continued the government's research, turning countless humans into Others. Once Kasane arrives into the future, he goads the Others into killing him and begs Kasane to kill his younger self in order to avert this catastrophic future. With the Kunad Gate destroyed in the present, this version of Yuito ceases to exist.
An elite soldier with superb fighting skills and power, she was scouted by the OSF and has graduated at the top of her class. Like Yuito, she possesses the psionic ability of gravikinesis. She is the adopted child of the prestigious Randall family and the younger sister of Naomi, whom Kasane protects with the utmost dedication. Upon graduating, she and Naomi are assigned to the OSF's Kyoka Platoon. Through unknown circumstances, she saved Yuito's life back when he was 5, inspiring him to join the OSF. Over the course of her life, she has been haunted by dreams about a mysterious voice telling her to hold on to the red strings. In the present, she doesn't immediately trust Yuito and attempts to fight him personally to verify if he's worthy of Naomi's love. Unfortunately, during a mission to hunt Others down, Naomi is turned into an Other and forcibly taken away by the group Seiran. When Naomi is officially declared killed in action, Kasane is disowned by her family for her failure to protect Naomi. Even so, Kasane decides to find a way to turn Naomi back into a human. Her latent power of gravikinesis takes her into the dark future of the year 2070, where she meets an older version of Yuito, who reveals the truth about Kasane's powers and begs her to kill his past self in order to avert this dark future from coming to pass. Upon returning to the present, Kasane is drafted into Seiran after Karen promises to find a way to return Naomi to her human form. Unfortunately, she still struggles with the task of killing Yuito and she later discovers that Naomi is only capable of human communication if she consumes a drug made from human blood and brains. She and her group ultimately decide to travel to Togetsu, an independent city outside the jurisdictions of both New Himuka and Seiran, to find a way to save Naomi. Once they reach the entrance, the denizens of Togetsu tell Kasane that she was born in Togetsu and the story of her parents being killed by Others was a fabrication by New Himuka aimed at harvesting her psionic power. Unfortunately, she is captured by Togetsu forces and through a dream, she discovers that she herself is actually one of many Design Children genetically engineered by Togetsu in order to harness the red strings of time and space. Once Yuito's platoon reaches Togetsu, however, both platoons help each other escape and once they reach a shelter, they exchange information on what they have learned. She and Yuito agree to convince their governments to thwart Togetsu's plans, but she is later forced to endure Naomi's death. She later discovers that she and Yuito share the same mother, Wakana Sumeragi, who helps them shut down the Kunad Gate at the cost of her own life. With the Kunad Gate finally closed, Kasane joins a space project to explore the moon.
An OSF soldier and Fubuki's elder sister. She possesses the psionic ability of hypervelocity, allowing her to move at super-speed. While she exerts an energetic public persona, she is actually very lazy, which earned her the nickname "Lazy-Ara".
An OSF soldier who possesses the psionic ability of sclerokinesis, allowing him to harden his body and increase his defensive systems exponentially. In reality, Gemma is actually over 50 despite his young appearance because of the anti-aging drugs all OSF soldiers are required to take to retain their psionic powers.
Yuito's childhood friend and fellow OSF soldier who was scouted into the organization at a young age. She possesses the psionic ability of pyrokinesis, allowing her to conjure and control fire at will. She is assigned into the same platoon as Yuito and Nagi.
An OSF soldier. He possesses the psionic ability of invisibility. He was born on the city of Togetsu and was sent to Suoh as an emissary of Togetsu's faith but later grew disillusioned with it and cut ties with Togetsu. He later reveals himself to a member of the original group of immigrants that came from the Moon 2,000 years ago. He used to know Yakumo Sumeragi, founder of New Himuka, and became one of the founding members of Togetsu, but upon hearing of their plan to rewrite history, he chose to betray them, knowning that if Togetsu's plan succeeded, it would lead to the temporal erasure of his family, which still exists back in the Moon. He was assigned to kill Yuito's father but instead attempted to hide him until the Kunad Gate crisis blew over, but Joe was killed by Others. After the Kunad Gate is closed, Kagero reveals his true name to be Shin Daniel and is re-assigned to help the OSF dismantle the Togetsu faith and join a moon exploration journey.
An OSF Captain and commanding officer of Kasane and Naomi's platoon. She possesses the psionic ability of duplication, allowing her to duplicate objects as well as herself. She is later revealed to be a double agent working for Togetsu and she goads Kasane into travelling to Togetsu for some unspecified purpose. Once Togetsu captures Kasane's platoon, Yuito and his friends discover that Kyoka is a Design Child, created from the cells of Dr. Hitoyo Pope, a scientist associated with Togetsu who died thousands of years ago. When both platoons escape from Togetsu, Kasane convinces her to switch sides and to accept herself as her own person rather than just an embodiment of Pope's will. With the Kunad Gate finally closed, Kyoka is re-assigned to help dismantle
An OSF Septentrion and the younger brother of Karen Travers. He possesses the psionic ability of teleportation. He becomes aware of his brother's terrorist ambitions and decides to help the Seto and Kyoka platoons escape from Karen's ambush. He later joins Yuito's platoons both to stop Togetsu and Karen's plans to abuse the power of the red strings to remake the universe. Luka's friends are able to convince Karen to use the red strings to destroy the Kunad Gate, at the cost of Karen sacrificing his own existence and causing everyone, including Luka, to forget he ever existed. Afterwards, Luka is promoted to regiment commander.
An OSF soldier in Kyoka's platoon. He possesses the psionic ability of electrokinesis, allowing him to conjure and control electricity at will. He looks up to Seto since they both share the same psionic ability, and was gifted a mask similar to Seto's before his death. After the Kunad Gate crisis is solved, he is promoted to commander of his own squad.
An OSF soldier in Seto's platoon and a friend of Kagero. She possesses the psionic ability of clairvoyance, allowing her to detect enemies that are typically unable to be seen by the human eye.
Yuito’s best friend and fellow OSF soldier. He possesses the psionic ability of aerokinesis, allowing him to conjure and control wind at will. He is assigned to Seto Platoon alongside Yuito and develops feelings for Naomi Randall, until he is left traumatized by her transformation into an Other. After a brief stay at the hospital, he returns to active duty, with everyone unaware that he has undergone personality rehabilitation. At Kunad Highway, Nagi's brainwashing ultimately claims Seto's life. New Himuka forces Nagi, who is still struggling to break free from his brainwashing, to fight Yuito multiple times. During their final confrontation, Yuito lures Nagi to the secret place they used to train back when they were cadets and the mental struggle ultimately claims Nagi's life. Yuito mournfully lays Nagi's body to rest in their secret place and fully commits towards exposing the government's corruption.