Id: Invaded
Entry updated 20 April 2026. Tagged: TV.
Japanese animated tv series (2020). NAZ. Directed by Ei Aoki. Written by Ōtarō Maijō. Voice cast includes M.A.O., Yume Miyamoto, Manabu Muraji, Ryōta Takeuchi, Nobuo Tobita and Kenjiro Tsuda. Thirteen 25-minute episodes. Colour.
A man awakes to find a City in pieces, floating in a white void; he too breaks apart, but by force of will he reconnects himself, save for a hand and elbow – but can manipulate the hand from afar, joining pieces of the world together like a jigsaw. He finds the body of Kaeru and remembers he is Sakaido (Tsuda), a "brilliant detective" who will solve her murder (see Crime and Punishment).
Some years ago the Scientist Nishio Shirakoma (Tobita), with help from Takuhiko Hayaseura (Muraji), built the Mizuhanome System. This Technology enables the user, sitting in a cockpit, to enter the mental landscape – called the "Id Well" – of serial killers whose "cognition particles" have been retrieved from crime scenes: what the "brilliant detective" witnesses (photographs, bodies etc.) is studied by a team of watching specialists for clues. The System is currently housed in the Kura Unit run by Hayaseura (Shirakoma having disappeared) and is used to identify serial killers. The one currently being sought – the "Perforator" (Takeuchi) – is the fifth where a "John Walker" has been noticed in their Id Well; initially he was thought to be "a shared characteristic of serial killers – something that the Mizuhanome System recoded as a symbol out of convenience", but it is now suspected that he has access to a Mizuhanome and uses it to create serial killers. A little inconveniently, the only people who can enter Id Wells are murderers: Sakaido is extracted from the System and remembers he is Akihito Narihisago, a former police detective whose wife committed Suicide after their daughter was a victim of serial killer "The Challenger". Narihisago murdered the perpetrator and was imprisoned, making him an ideal candidate.
Koharu Hondomachi (M.A.O.), a rookie field analyst for the Kura Unit is kidnapped by the Perforator, who drills holes in people's heads like the one he drilled in his own; he found the experience freeing and wishes to share it. As he talks to Hondomachi prior to drilling, she impales herself on the drill so as to create an Id Well. As planned, this enables Narihisago (as Sakaido) to locate her: she is rescued and the Perforator captured. Recovering, she helps pursue more serial killers – she is an adept detective – and, by shooting one in self-defence, can enter Id-Wells; she is asked to enter Narihisago's to look for any sign of Walker (he cannot enter his own as it would create a dangerous feedback loop). Here she finds and sits in a Mizuhanome cockpit linked to Kiki Asukai (Miyamoto) who had been the Challenger's next intended victim, but disappeared: Hondomachi becomes trapped in her Well because there is no one to extract her.
In some convoluted plotting Sakaido makes his way to Kiki's Well and eventually gets Hondomachi out. This well's world is normal and his wife and daughter are still alive; he kills the Challenger before they can murder his child and settles into domestic bliss, coming to believe this is the real world. He also meets a bedridden Kiki Asukai – who is Kaeru – and she tells him every night a different serial killer comes to murder her in her dreams; he locates and kills them. At one point Nishio Shirakoma enters Kiki's hospital room with some equipment, but Narihisago does not recognize him. There is Time Distortion: Narihisago is in Kiki's Well for a year, but only ten minutes passed in the Well he entered from. Hondomachi has spent her time in Kiki's Well investigating and, when extracted and back at the Kura Unit, announces John Walker is Takuhiko Hayaseura.
Hayaseura responds by releasing Kiki Asukai: she is a Telepath with weak Precognition who is part of the Mizuhanome System – all Id Wells created exist within her own. To refine the Mizuhanome, serial killers were created and allowed to murder her within it (this was not enough for The Challenger who wanted real interaction and so kidnapped her). Following this experience her mental state has deteriorated, which affects the immediate world around her, with people in the Kura falling into comas and entering Wells. Meanwhile Hayaseura, whose justification is that it is all for a good cause, explains he wishes to turn the Kura building into a giant Mizuhanome, then sits in one of the cockpits and shoots himself, intending to inhabit the Id Well as a brilliant detective (he has spent so much time in Kiki's mind that the Id Well is almost as much his as hers). Hondomachi and Narihisago use the other cockpits to pursue him. He is dealt with relatively easily, whilst Kiki is persuaded to return to the Mizuhanome with the promise a way will be found to extract her safely, though it might take years. In the end Hondomachi and Narihisago continue to enter Id Wells to capture serial killers.
Because cognition particles are created by a desire to kill, Kura Unit field staff use a hand-held device called the Wakumusubi that detects if a killer is nearby. The Mizuhanome System performs a kind of Dream Hacking, whilst Perception and Psychology are also important elements in the story. There is a great deal going on in Id: Invaded; the above summary omits much, though this only explains some of the apparent incoherence. The rickety plotting requires the viewer to accept the conceit that serial killers leave cognition particles as though shedding skin flakes, plus much else that exists to prop up the story. Nonetheless, these flaws do not prevent the Anime from being enjoyable and interesting, with much to recommend it; its blurring of reality is reminiscent of the work of Philip K Dick. [SP]
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