Alien Nine

The cute art style might suggest otherwise, but Alien 9 is a genuinely unsettling watch that uses a school setting to get under your skin in ways you won't expect. Yuri Otani is a timid sixth-grader who gets elected by her classmates to join the school's 'Alien Party,' a group responsible for capturing aliens that sneak onto campus. She didn't volunteer. She doesn't want to be there. And she is absolutely terrified of aliens. To make things worse, her protective gear includes a living creature called a Borg that latches onto her head. Her two partners, the calm and capable Kumi and the energetic Kasumi, seem far better suited for this than she does, which only deepens the discomfort. The show starts with a deceptively breezy, pastel-colored tone and then slowly lets the dread creep in. Four OVA episodes that feel like they're building toward something the story never quite resolves, which is either frustrating or haunting depending on your patience for ambiguity. If you liked FLCL's surreal take on adolescence or found Bokurano's use of kids-in-over-their-heads horror compelling, this sits in similar territory. It's a short watch from J.C.Staff that rewards people who like psychological weight dressed up in soft colors. Just don't go in expecting closure.