Anime Post: NieA Under 7
A slice-of-life story, about the day to day life of a young woman and the alien in her closet.
Plot
In the show, sometime in the 21st century, the Aliens have made landfall on Earth and left their mother ship. They look mostly human, with the exception of a couple of features. Such as elf-like ears, and a singular natural antenna on their heads, which are a sign of their social ranks. The exceptions to this are the "Under Sevens", the lowest class who lack such antenna. While the arrival of these aliens initially caused some excitement, over some time it became unremarkable and normal. So normal in fact, that when one character wished to explain away a damaged roof to a repairman, she considered it less embarrassing to say a rampaging elephant did it, instead of just telling him it was from the alien going about building UFO's in the house. Society simply carries on with less disorder or chaos than expected, even if the parties involved aren't completely integrated into the others culture, and neither group can always understand each other.
Characters
The very first character the viewer is introduced to is a young woman named Mayuko Chigasaki. She lives in a small town called Enohana, right by a bathhouse that employs her, works two other part time jobs to scrape together money for food, and is studying at a "Cram School"in order to pass a college entry exam. Yet, she still has little idea what she'll do with her future. Occasionally, at the end of her day, Mayuko writes down the details and thoughts of her day, like the personal lessons she learned, and her feelings around trying to live along side Niea.
Niea is the alien, and she isn't really easy to live with. Hardly a day seems to go by where she's not demanding food from Mayuko (gourmet no less), or collecting random metal scraps and junk in order to cobble together UFO's out of them, or being either lazy or unhelpful. In fact, one other character compares her to a cat, taking a slightly more light-hearted view of her habits. Niea would also like to let you know that you're being “discriminatory and racist” should you point out her general unhelpfulness, or her low status as an "Under Seven", and that you owe her compensation for harming her pride and fragile alien feelings. Speaking of fragile alien feelings, its implied that Niea hides her feelings behind the silly and lazy exterior. In general, Niea's personality stands in contrast to Mayuko, and sometimes winds up costing her roommate more than usual.
But, in spite of the tensions and difficulties involved in living together, and not always being sure of whats on the other's mind, they still care for each other. Even when they don't always and immediately show it.
Details
When it comes to the alien coexistence with humanity, The show itself is much like the universe within it, in that it doesn't make much of the fact of the relationship between humans and aliens. While one could derive the theme of Multiculturalism from it, that seems to play a minor role to Mayuko and Niea's mundane but uneasy relationship.
The deepest the show ventures into that concept, is when a frustrated Mayuko demands to know from Niea, how is it even possible for the alien-girl to live in such a lax and careless way all the time. In response, Niea points out the simplicity with which Mayuko could do this, that is live as an “Under Seven” like her, seeing that she doesn't have an antenna.
Which brings us to the character the show is named after. A possible answer to why Niea acts the way she does might be, in a sense… a sort of racism. Now, this answer doesn't reflect my usual explanation of character motivations, but hear me out: Due to her low status among members of her own species, and the fact that she's an alien in the first place, she's basically an outsider to just about any and all of society. If she went missing she would not appear in the government registry of aliens, unlike her higher status fellows. Basically, this gives her rather little to look forward to in life, other than the people and basic pleasures around her. However, this also gives her very little to lose, and so no better way to spend her time than to do so ridiculously. Its certainly and obviously better than the alternative of just despairing over it.
When other characters see Niea's apparently carefree ways, her general lack of worry and stress, they come to see her life as enviable in some way. Because, in a way, she really is free.
Amusingly, though, it might just be easy for them to say that. Since, unlike Mayuko, they don't live with her.
TL;DR: A striving and conscientious human girl shares a living arrangement with a goofy and cheeky alien girl. Yet, things are not bad, really.
Note: If you ever manage to see this show, skip the opening song. Your ears and musical tastes might just thank you. Also, this show was created by the same guys who worked on Serial Experiments Lain.