Battle Programmer Shirase (BPS バトルプログラマーシラセ) is an anime television series aired in 2003 and produced by AIC. The original series spans 5 story arcs across 15 episodes of 12 minutes each.

Plot summary

The story of BPS revolves around a "freelance artist" named Akira Shirase. He is a very talented, yet mysterious computer programmer. Because of his incredible abilities, he is contacted by several individuals (all of them are very similar persons named Akizuki Kaoru) to do all sorts of strange computer-related hacking/security jobs. Akira is a very quiet guy who lives alone in a small apartment near his niece's house. At first, the episodes revolved around some freelance jobs that highlighted his abilities - however, later on in the series, characters came back and offered help or plot twists. The school that Shirase had gone to had been hinted throughout the series, and it finally made an appearance in the last episode, when some of the characters began to show their hidden relationships to the others. However, the series was not continued.

Characters

Music

There are two theme songs used in the series. The opening theme (OP) is called "Suddenly" by Naomi Amagata. The closing theme (ED) is "Pure Enough" by Yuki Matsuura.

Thanking the viewers

The final episode of the show made the unusual step of explicitly apologizing for ending the series, not only to the local Japanese viewers, but also those in the fansub community: It was addressed to "those who enjoy the show on TV, and to those outside the broadcast area who took special measures to watch the show on their PC monitors, and to everyone who watched it subtitled overseas without permission."