Level E is a science fiction manga series written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi. With only 16 chapters, the short and concise story, its sense of humor and realistic art style set Level E apart from Togashi’s other famous works like Yu Yu Hakusho or Hunter x Hunter. Togashi was heavily influenced by the humor of gag manga Gaki Deka and used it as inspiration for Level E.

The manga was originally serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from October 1995 to January 1997 by Shueisha. All 16 chapters have since been collected into 3 volumes, and later re-leased as part of the Shueisha Jump Remix series of magazine-style books with 2 volumes in 2009.

In 2011, Level E was adapted into a 13-episode anime series, directed by Toshiyuki Kato and produced by Pierrot, David Production and TV Tokyo. The series originally aired on TV Tokyo from January to April 2011. However, the anime sets the story in a more modern time with flat-screen TVs and smartphones, which were not yet available when the original manga was released.

In the beginning of Level E, human and several hundred of species of aliens were co-existing and roaming the Earth. However, the only ones that were unaware of this fact was the human. Two days ago, a UFO crash-landed on Earth and when the human discovered it, the UFO was empty.

Back to the present, high school student and baseball player Yukitaka Tsutsui was moving into his new apartment room. It took Yukitaka a long while to convince his parents into letting him live alone. When Yukitaka finally got up to his room, he realized that all his stuffs have already been unpacked and there was a strange guy sitting in his chair.

The guy’s name was Prince Baka Ki El Dogra, or Prince Baka for short. He broke into the room through the window and helped himself to Yukitaka’s clothes. Yukitaka went through a full-blown panic attack while Prince Baka calmly explained that he was an alien and his escape pod crash-landed nearby only two nights ago. He seemed to lost all memories due to the crash.

Even though he told Yukitaka that he was an alien, Prince Baka showed great understanding for Japanese culture. He told Yukitaka to turn on the news because he liked the newscaster – Ms. Kusano.

On the news, Prince Baka’s escape pod was shown as an enormous, seed-like object with cracks down its surface. Inside, there were many instruments and an empty pilot’s seat. It was believed that this escape pod had to be deployed due to unknown troubles occurring on the mothership.

Prince Baka couldn’t show Yukitaka any proof that he was an alien besides a strange object that looked like a controller that he found in his spacesuit. When Yukitaka fiddled with the controller, he accidently pushed a button that make the escape pod exploded from a distance. It appeared to be a self-destruct mechanism.

Right at that moment, a girl staying in the room next to Yukitaka, named Miho Edogawa, came over to give him a welcoming gift. She moved here because of her father’s job as a scientist conducting research on the newly discovered UFO.

When Miho left, Yukitaka came back inside the room and told Prince Baka to get out. Prince Baka asked to stay since he had nowhere else to go but Yukitaka refused. Prince Baka then threatened Yukitaka that he would reveal the truth about the UFO explosion that caused several casualties. Yukitaka had no choice but to let him stay.

Later, Miho’s father – Doctor Edogawa Ranzo, appeared on TV and tried to calm the public by diminishing rumors about the UFO and its occupant. The news also stated that there was no casualty involved in the explosion, only a few injuries and none was serious.

Yukitaka was overjoyed and said that Prince Baka’s threat was empty and he had to leave. Hearing that, Prince Baka looked sad and walked away, only to came back right after when hearing about an artificial object being removed from the UFO. The sketch of the object showed the same material as the controller Prince Baka was showing Yukitaka earlier that day. Prince Baka’s face turned serious and he said that he must get it back because he had a feeling that object was extremely dangerous.

Then, Prince Baka jumped down from the balcony. Even though it was the 5th floor, his feet touched the ground and he started running.

Shortly afterwards, Yukitaka heard the screeching sound of a car crash and ran downstair. Prince Baka came back, his face and body were covered in wounds with blood trickling down his face. Seeing Prince Baka’s drops of blue blood, Yukitaka was finally convinced that he was an alien.

Prince Baka sat down and healed his own wounds, with strange orbs of lights flowing out of him. Inside Prince Baka’s shirt, there was a tiny kitten.

The next morning, Prince Baka’s wounds were all healed and he showed Yukitaka the scene of the car crash. It appeared that Prince Baka saw the dead mother cat and a kitten sitting next to it. Afraid that the kitten would be ran over too, he sat down and took the cat, thus crashing into the incoming car.

Yukitaka finally realized that Prince Baka wasn’t that bad after all.

How will the story unfold? Will Yukitaka help Prince Baka find his way back home or deal with the upcoming challenges on Earth?