Year: 2008
Length: 6 Episodes
Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Supernatural, Yuri

Taking place between 1990 and 2055, the story of Mnemosyne covers a lot of ground and tells the tale of Rin Asougi, an immortal woman. The source of her immortality can be attributed to Yggdrasil, a giant tree that releases spores as well as rare “Time Fruits”, orb-like objects that grant special powers to whomever they pass through. Yggdrasil sits in a plane of reality that’s both inside and outside the seen world and isn’t visible by mere humans. The Time Fruits impart abilities based on the gender of the recipient. Females are granted immortality while males are turned into powerful beings called “angels”. The angels may be very powerful, but they have very short lifespans. The immortal women are sexually attracted to angels and can’t resist them. The angels’ sole purpose is to seek out the immortal women, have sex with them, then devour them. This makes angels the mortal enemy of the immortal women.

Six episodes doesn’t seem like very much, but these episodes are supersized, so the show is essentially 12 episodes instead of only 6. I didn’t feel the story felt rushed, so it’s all inconsequential, really. The story starts somewhat pedestrian and grows more fantastical over time, until things seem a bit absurd towards the end. That’s not to say the story is bad, it’s just strange later on (just you wait until the Seraphim Egg). Things aren’t too difficult to follow, especially early on, and the story concludes satisfactorily. At the end of the day, the story is sufficient and does enough to keep you interested.

Before we take a look at some of the other characters, let’s get to know the main duo of Rin and Mimi a little better.

Rin Asougi: Sexy. Smart. Strong. Those are some of the adjectives that could be used to describe Rin Asougi. Thanks to her immortal status, Rin has pretty much no fear diving headfirst into precarious situations. Whenever she dies or is wounded, Rin regenerates back to her unharmed form, although the time varies depending on the severity of her injuries. Rin runs her own detective agency, Asougi Consulting, alongside Mimi and tackles any case, no matter the magnitude. Rin takes it upon herself to look after those who mean a lot to her, such as Mimi and Teruki. Overall, she’s a fantastic heroine who’s just like Mother Teresa. If Mother Teresa killed people. And was immortal. And sexed up both the men and women—okay, check that, she’s not like Mother Teresa at all—but she’s still someone who uses her power for good instead of evil… usually.

Mimi: Mimi is Rin’s trusted companion. Long ago, Rin saved Mimi from being eaten by an angel. Ever since then, Rin has made it her personal responsibility to protect Mimi, who also happens to be an immortal woman. Mimi’s a computer wiz who uses her skills to assist Rin in her adventures. She’s the brains to Rin’s brawn you could say, even though Rin is quite astute herself. Petite in frame, but gigantic in terms of fortitude, Mimi is a very welcome addition to the yuri pantheon.

Here’s a quick look at some of the other characters.

Rin’s foil throughout the series is a female assassin named Laura who hunts her down at every turn. Hired by Apos, Laura does like the Energizer bunny and keeps going and going, not letting any of her previous failures get in the way of her pursuit. Kouki Maeno is a amnesiac who crosses paths with Rin and eventually joins her agency as her ally. His past holds a dark secret that makes him question his very existence. Tamo is Rin’s policeman friend who leaks classified info to her whenever she needs it. Teruki is Kouki’s son who goes from spending upwards of 8 hours a day in the virtual world during his youth, to successful businessman later in life. Mishio is Teruki’s daughter and an average college student. Sayara is a sadistic scientist with very shady ethics and a penchant for medical malpractice. Genta is Rin and Mimi’s immortal dog. Yes, even their dog is immortal.

Not to be forgotten is Apos, a self-proclaimed god who has been pursuing Rin for an unspecified period of time. Apos has aspirations of shaping the world as he sees fit. This utopia of his involves war and the proliferation of Time Fruit-craving humans, who would serve to continue the cycle he’s set in motion. There’s a very interesting tidbit involving Apos, but I’ll leave that for you to discover, if you choose to watch. All in all, the cast of characters is diverse and pretty unique. Being able to see some characters age and grow up was a pretty cool thing to witness. It’s not too often you get to see that. I got a little emotionally attached to some characters and felt for them when something would happen to them, so I felt the creators did a solid job of creating characters that you feel emotions for, regardless of whether those emotions are positive or negative.

For a show that came out in 2008, Mnemosyne looks pretty good, I must say. The visuals are somewhat gloomy and dreary but they fit the tone of the story quite well, so you can’t fault them for that. That’s cleary what they were going for, and they achieve it quite nicely. It would have been odd to have a bright and cheerful vibe interspersed with all the gory imagery. For me, animation is the hardest thing to judge, so let’s just say that Mnemosyne is very competent-looking and thankfully won’t be making you gouge your eyes out in disgust.

Performed by Japanese metal band Galneryus, both the OP, “Alsatia” and ED “Cause Disarray” range from average for the former, to slightly above average for the latter, in my humble opinion. Maybe that’s just my disdain for metal talking, but I thought both were just meh. On the opposite end of the audio spectrum is the background music, which was well done and mirrored the mood of what was happening on screen very nicely. The voice acting doesn’t garner any complaints either. It was an all-around solid performance for the seiyuus involved.

Most of the yuri involved in the show takes shape in the form of sex scenes. I can’t complain about that, but sadly, there isn’t any such scenes involving Rin and Mimi. That’s a huge missed opportunity, if I do say so myself. Meaningless sex between practically strangers? “Sure, here ya go!” Passionate sex between two people who care a great deal for each other? “No soup sex for you!” Despite that error in judgment, there are a few sweet moments between Rin and Mimi, such as when Mimi feeds Rin vodka mouth-to-mouth. That never gets old, no matter how many times it happens. A less noticeable, yet tender, moment is seeing the worried look on Mimi’s face when Rin offers to let Teruki stay at her place. Mimi thinks the worst, and Rin immediately notices it and let’s her know that it’ll be okay. It’s really admirable how Mimi goes the extra mile to help Rin out. A prime example of this is when Mimi exchanges sex for info when Rin has been kidnapped. The info Mimi received in the exchange with her informant then leads to Rin being saved. These kinds of exchanges happen more than once, and go to show how far Mimi will go to aid Rin. Rin engages in these exchanges as well, although hers are tied to cases she’s working on. There are some hetero sex scenes as well, but let’s just ignore those.

If you ever wanted some more torture in your yuri, then this is the show for you. Mnemosyne is like a joyride through the land of sex and violence with yuri comfortably seated in the backseat. You probably already know if a show like this is something that might appeal to you or not. What you see is exactly what you get. It may not for everyone, but it’s still a pretty decent watch, as long as you’re not put off by excessive boobs (and really, who is?). It does most things well enough to make for an entertaining experience and is one of the better examples out there of yuri-flavored action.