Mekakucity Actors - Episode 01

Artificial Enemy (人造エネミー Jinzō Enemī) is the first episode of the Kagerou Project animation, called Mekakucity Actors. It first aired in Japan, on April 12, 2014.

Summary

 * The story begins with Shintaro Kisaragi, a NEET who has not left his house for about two years, and who is surfing the internet like usual on a hot summer day, August 14. While he is listening to the weather report, a mysterious humanoid program called Ene, who was sent to him through an anonymous mail, and who currently resides in his computer, starts complaining about the heat and her boredom. Eventually annoyed by her, Shintaro gets up from his computer chair and accidentally pushes over a bottle of coke that was standing next to his keyboard. The liquid gets spilled all over the keyboard, resulting in Shintaro flipping out about it. He orders Ene to look for a new keyboard online, but Ene soon states that due to the Obon Festival, there is no online shop that would deliver during the next few days. Shintaro again starts to panic, as he believes he cannot survive without being able to use the computer. The last chance for them turns out to be a small advertisement from the city mall, which is fortunately open, even during the time of the festival.


 * Suffering from the summer heat, Shintaro wanders through the city, heading to the mall while constantly complaining that the temperature will end his life on the spot. Ene comes to mention a folder of "ill repute" on his computer that he might want to delete before saying goodbye to this world, since it would make his death even more uncomfortable for his relatives. She then mentions that the department store they are heading to has an amusement park on the roof and promises she will forget about this folder if Shintaro takes her there. The latter is a bit skeptical about it first, but ultimately agrees that they can go there for a bit.


 * The two of them finally arrive at the store, running into a huge crowd of people. While being distracted by Ene, Shintaro accidentally bumps into a girl with a purple hoodie, green hair and stinging red eyes. Her eyes suddenly change color, without him taking notice of it, as he quickly apologizes. The girl responds that it was her fault and puts her hood, which had previously slipped down from her head, back on. Again, the color of her eyes dissolves into the deep red, when all of a sudden the girl disappears from the spot, leaving Shintaro to wonder why she was staring at him to intensely. The moment Shintaro starts moving again, a smoke-bomb is thrown into the hall of the store. Surprised, he turns around and faces a man with a clown's mask, who punches him into the stomach to make him unconscious. The people around them start screaming and an alarm is hearable.


 * Shintaro wakes up some time later, realizing that he is a hostage in a terrorist attack on the department store. The leader of the terrorist gang calls the police officers in charge and demands a billion yen in ransom money during the next thirty minutes, which will be given to him on the roof, and tells them that "No" is not an option. Shintaro starts to consider making up a plan to escape, but thinks of it as too risky, considering their life-threatening situation.


 * A blonde boy, who is sitting next to him, begins to make fun of the situation and says that although he looks scared, he also has a feeling that Shintaro is thinking of a plan to get out of this scene. Despite that being somewhat correct, he answers that it seems impossible to escape. The boy speculates by asking how many percent of a chance Shintaro thinks they would have of succeeding if the terrorists were to be distracted. The reply of "100%" surprises him, but Shintaro is completely confident in this percentage. Having his interest sparked by that, the boy asks another boy, who is sitting next to him and responds to the name Seto, about his opinion. Seto agrees with him, then falls into a short silence after his eyes as well fade into the same red the girl from before had. He then assures Shintaro that a distraction will be given to him before long. The latter ends up a little perplex, so he wants to know who these people are, but the first boy states that they are only ordinary hostages like him, with the difference of a certain love for interesting things.


 * Unexpectedly, one of the terrorists starts a fight with another for supposedly hitting his head. The blonde boy starts to laugh, considering this situation fun, which makes Shintaro yell at him. The leader of the terrorists grabs Shintaro by the collar for being too noisy, then ends up making fun of his fear towards him. All of a sudden, the TVs in the room suddenly start falling off the walls and chaos emerges. The other hostage tells Shintaro that his distraction has come and that they rely on him from now on.


 * A small flashback shows that Ene has been telling Shintaro the whole time that she would take care of the terrorists, if he would plug her into a terminal. Naturally, he starts running to the closest terminal and plugs her in. Ene instantly does her duty, hoping she would soon get to go to the amusement park, as Shintaro abruptly falls to the ground. The computer screen behind him is cracked from a bullet, implying that he got shot. Closing his eyes, Shintaro ends up unconscious.

Trivia

 * Differently from the manga version, Shintaro accidentally destroys his keyboard out of annoyance instead of fear about Ene threatening to delete his newly written song.
 * Shintaro's room looks different to his room in the manga and novel, as it is way bigger and has a high-tech touch to it, while his room is usually rather common looking.
 * In the other media, Seto does not actually appear during the terrorist scene, but instead makes his first appearance some time afterwards.