Ridaibu

Haru witnesses the fifty-year history of the artificial island created by Eichiro Kushima. After he saw the new "sea" in the Meta-Real Network, he decides to take the "brain dive" test conducted by Kushima so that he would feel the sea again. But Haru is too dominated by the anxiety of loosing the sea again, and the test turns into disaster just because of his persistence. What is required of a "diver"? Haru learns the answer to this question through Minamo, but as he tries to take the final test, "braindown" occurs.

Masamichi Haru, Minamo Aoi, Sota Aoi, Holon, Eichiro Kushima, Secretary General, Sayaka, Yukino

After the world-hit "Ghost in the Shell" animation franchise and following the highly anticipated "Ghost Hound," Production I.G and manga artist Shirow Masamune collaborated once more in creating the world of "Real Drive" (original title: "RD Senno Chosashitsu").

This neo-futuristic SF suspense animation TV series was directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi of "Le Chevalier D'Eon" fame, while the screenplay was entrusted to Junichi Fujisaku, director of "Blood+" and scriptwriter for many episodes of the "Ghost in the Shell S.A.C." series. Manga artist Tetsuro Ueyama ("Metal Guardian Faust") was in charge for the character designs.

2061 AD. Fifty years have passed since mankind developed the Network society. It was anticipated that this new infrastructure would realize a utopia where people connected with each other at the level of consciousness. However, new social problems such as personal data leaks and proliferation of manipulated information began to surface. Nevertheless, people still relied on the Network to exchange information, and proved unable to opt to abandon it.

In due course, a new Network realm with more effective security measures was developed. This was called Meta-Real Network, usually abbreviated as "the Metal."

The Metal accommodated personal memory data within protected virtual stand-alone organic cyber enclaves called bubble shells and eventually pervaded the everyday lives of people.

However, people gradually learned to release and explode their instincts within the secure environment of the Metal. The unleashed instincts pushed each individual's consciousness to drown in the sea of information and to be exposed to the pressures of desire. Meanwhile, norms and regulations continued to bind their real world lives. Thus, strange friction between the two worlds began to manifest themselves as aberrations beyond the bounds of the imaginable.

Experts who challenged the deep sea of the Metal to investigate and decipher such aberrations were called cyber divers.

This is a story of a cyber diver, Masamichi Haru, who investigates the incidents that lie between Reality and the Metal.