Manga
Real Drive (Japanese: RD 潜脳調査室, Hepburn: Āru Dī Sennō Chōsashitsu, literally "RD Mind-Diving Research Division") is an anime TV series created by Production I.G and Masamune Shirow (known for the Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed franchises) under the directorship of Kazuhiro Furuhashi, produced in collaboration with broadcaster Nippon Television (NTV). The series revolves around an information network known as "The Metal", and the series centers on Masamichi Haru, a paraplegic old man who was in a coma for 50 years after a test dive using Meta-Real technology went horribly wrong. After awakening from his coma, he starts searching for the "answer in the sea".
The series aired on NTV and other channels from April 8, 2008, to October 1, 2008. A manga adaptation by Momotarou Miyano was serialized in Magazine Z from April 2008 to January 2009, with two volumes sold between August 22, 2008, and February 23, 2009, by Kodansha. A light novel adaptation by Yoshinobu Akita was published by Kodansha on August 5, 2008.
Plot
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 explore their instincts within the secure environment of the Metal. The unleashed instincts of each individual pushed their consciousness to drown in the sea of information and 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.
Media
Anime
Real Drive is produced by Production I.G under the directorship of Kazuhiro Furuhashi, with series composition by Junichi Fujisaku, music by Hideki Taniuchi and Yoshihisa Hirano, characters by Tetsuo Ueyama, and produced by Takeshi Wada (Production I.G), Toshio Nakatani (NTV), Yasuo Ueda (Vap), and Yousuke Kasahara. The series aired 26 episodes on NTV, with subsequent broadcast runs on GyaO, STV, CTV, Animax, FBS, YTV, TV. Shinshu, and Tochigi TV. Thirteen DVD compilation volumes, each containing two episodes, were released by VAP between August 27, 2008, and August 21, 2009,[1] with four DVD "Collector's Boxes" released between August 27, 2009, and May 22, 2009.[1] The Collector's Boxes includes three to four disks, each containing two episodes, along with other bonus material.
The opening theme for the series is "Wanderland" by 9mm Parabellum Bullet, while the series' ending theme is "Katahiza no Yogore" (片膝の汚れ, "Dirty Knee") by Last Alliance.
Manga
A manga adaptation of Real Drive, illustrated by Momotarou Miyano, was serialized in Magazine Z from the June 2008 issue (Published on April 26, 2008) to the March 2009 issue (Published on January 26, 2009). Two bound volumes were released by Kodansha between August 22, 2008, and February 23, 2009, under their Kodansha Comics Z imprint.[2][3]
Light novel
A light novel adaptation, called Real Drive: Redeemable Dream (RD 潜脳調査室 Redeemable Dream, Āru Dī Sennō Chōsashitsu: Redīmaburu Dorīmu), written by Yoshinobu Akita, was published by Kodansha on August 4, 2008.[4]
