I cannot help but think that this anime’s title sounds like the name of a flower. Must be quite a toxic one.
That being said, the story of Coppelion is set in a post-apocalyptic future. A big nuclear disaster occurred and the whole city of Tokyo has been contaminated. We follow three genetically engineered high school girls, the Coppelions, unharmed by radioactivity as they venture into the ghost town of Tokyo looking for survivors.
As far as the first episode is concerned I think it did a pretty good job of laying out the setting. We know more or less what happened to Tokyo, we know who are these girls, what they’re looking for, why they are born and many other things. We also have hints of how the new society that had to be built after the disaster now works. This is an aspect I really hope we are going to have more information on. Many anime only focus on their special heroes trying to save the world and totally forget that there are many more normal people around, so I really hope Coppelion will not do that as I am more interested in this new society than I am in these three girls.
For now, we only discovered four characters, which is a pretty good thing for a first episode, you have time to get used to them and remember their names. The main girl seems to be Ibara Naruse, a dependable high school girl with a strong tendency to try to save everyone. Fukasaku Aoi is another Coppelion, the seemingly cute and airhead type but I am sure she has more to show than that. The last of our three high school girls is Nomura Taeko, and nothing much is known about her, except that her senses have been genetically enhanced.
The last character is their vice-principal (hinting there is a principal, I am pretty curious about him), his name is Mishima Onihei, he is a military man and we then learns that the girls are in a military school, another hint about how society works.
To be honest, nothing much happened during the first episode, just enough for us to really get a taste of Coppelion, just a few events that seem unimportant in the grand scheme of things but the anime has such an atmosphere that you can never know.
In short, this anime drops hints of everything everywhere, making me want to know more about their world, how Coppelions went to be and Coppelions themselves. And I loved the decor.
I am quite excited by this anime and will love to get excited with you!
