Black Blood Brothers (Episodes 1-12)

Korean theme songs, fairly good characters, and an interesting plot; sometimes following cliches can lead to a fairly decent series. Plus it's only twelve episodes long. And it doesn't fritter them away, like Rozen Maiden.

PLOT:
The main character, Jirou, uses a silver sword to hunt down evil vampires, known as Kowloon Children. He travels with his younger brother Kotaro, to the Special Zone, an area where humans and vampires live in peaceful co-existance.The humans call themselves Red Bloods and the non-Kowloon vampires are called Black Bloods. When they reach their destination, they are greeted by a human, Mimiko Katsuragi:


She is what is known (in a throw-back to the ol' Getbackers days) as a Compromiser, a human who invites vampires to live in the Special Zone and helps the ones without bloodlines find a place to live. Since Jirou is an Old Blood (meaning he's over a hundred years old) and both Kotaro and Jirou are of unknown bloodines, they wind up relying heavily on Mimiko for shelter and connections. These "connections" are the three major vampire sects of the Special Zone: those from the Continent (i.e. mainland Asia), Europe, and the Darkness (a coalition of everyone else). All is not well here, as no one wants to deal with a vampire killer like Jirou. Plus, the Children of Kowloon are after something hidden inside the Special Zone, and their attack is lead by a former friend of Jirou's, Casa:


Jirou is like a toned down Alucard and Vash in that he provides both comic relief and some good action sequences.

Vash:


Alucard


Jirou



I just finished this series, and I'm actually quite impressed with the tight storytelling and fairly dynamic characters.
The main character is powerful, but not as powerful as some of the other characters. He's also got a few inconvenient weaknesses to water and sunlight, unlike some of the other vampire characters. He's also destined to die, eventually. Alice Eve, the woman who originally turned him into a vampire, was turned to dust and reincarnated into a baby, whom Jirou adopted and named Kotaro. Alice's bloodline possesses the special ability to reabsorb those they have turned into vampires. Thus, Jirou is doomed, and he knows it.
There's still a few cliches, such as Jirou kind of being a rip-off of Alucard and Vash, and the bratty younger brother, the vampires that eat other vampires, the problem of co-existing with your enemies, etc. Another problem I have is with the bratty little kid character, Kotaro, who is Jirou's brother:



There is some relief in that Jirou doesn't really take crap from his little brother, and will usually bash him into walls if he gets too annoying. But where else will you see an anime that features annoying little kids getting the snot beat out 'em? Well....Okay, there's probably a few of those anime out there, too....
In the end all the questions I had seemed to be answered, but I'm hoping for a second season. There's still a major villain to deal with, a few minor henchmen still lurking around, and a secret that is devulged to Jirou about what is being hidden in the legendary Yard 11 of the Special Zone.
Also, the end theme song, "Shingiru" is performed in Korean by the South Korean band, Loveholic. It's very catchy!
Overall, it really is worth a quick look.

Tenjho Tenge (Episodes 1-24)

In the fan made movie/parody "This Is Otakudom," a redubbed Gendou (from Evangelion) accuses American executives in the anime industry of taking well thought out, plot driven anime and turning it "into Pokemon." Tenjho Tenge suffers the same fate of many anime from as far back as Kimba the White Lion to as recently as Naruto and Bleach. Only it didn't need American CEO's to dumb it down. The Japanese did that themselves.

Tenjho Tenge is based on a "seinen" manga, meant to be enjoyed by men in their late twenties to forties. It features quite a few bondage/rape (or near rape) scenes and plenty of violent, bloody fights. The manga is still going, and the anime is faithful up until the eighth volume.

PLOT:
It takes place in a high school devoted to keeping the martial arts in the classroom....literally. This school is controlled by a violent student council known as the Enforcers, who themselves are opposed by the Juuken Club, lead by Maya Natsume. When Nagi Souichiro and Bob Makihara show up and start causing trouble, Maya allows them to join her club. Maya's younger sister, Aya, immediately falls for Nagi and announces her intentions to be his wife. This is a problem because another member of the club, Masataka Takayanagi, has fallen for Aya. Things get complicated when Nagi falls for Maya during his training lessons. Then Masataka's older brother Mitsoumi, the leader of the deadly Enforcers, shows up and asks Maya to return to his side. A large chunk of the plot surrounds the back story of Maya and Aya's older brother, Shin Natsume, a strong warrior who is ultimately consumed by his own uncontrollable power and murdered by the woman who loved him. Aya begins to show signs of this power known as the Dragon Eye, which allows her to see into the past and future. Will she succumb to it as well?



Impression:
This could have been a really great show, or at least more entertaining, if only they had edited it a little better. I don't mind the rape being edited out, but for a fighting anime, it could have been much more violent. The fanservice, which is present in both the manga and anime, is distracting, even if it is toned down compared to other 2000 anime series like Ikki Tousen.

Tenjho Tenge and other anime filled with female warriors and fan service are "Man-ame" taken to it's logical extreme. Since the mid-90's, anime geared towards men, had evolved (or perhaps devolved) into anime based off of fighting games. Fatal Fury, Tekken, and Battle Arena Toshinden all featured masterful fighters with rippling muscles and busty femme fatals, and practically no plot at all. Anime made after 2000, attempted to reintroduce plot lines while retaining the violence and boobs. The problem with the Tenge anime is that the back gorund story isn't concise enough. We're left wondering for several episodes when the plot will return to the present, dire, situation. Why are our heroes sitting around listening to stories instead of going out and fighting Mitsoumi?



Although the back story does provide a lot of needed info about Shin and the formation of the Juuken club, the five or six episodes it takes to tell it, could have been edited down to two or, at most, three. We learn a lot of useless crap like relationships that don't go anywhere and characters that don't really do anything. What we don't learn until the final episode, is the extent of the Takayanagi family's power. We know that a couple of lesser families do their dirty work, including whoring out one of their women to be Mitsoumi's girlfriend. However it is later revealed that twelve families support the Takayanagi family. Half of these fight using traditional weapons and half fight using energy (ki). Any other information about the significance of these familial relations is relegated to the manga, and perhaps the two episode OVA, which I have yet to see. At least some of that time spent on the sub plot could have been used to further the actual story about defeating Mitsoumi. What we got was a lot of chitter chatter, a bunch of distracting fan service, and a few fights.

One of the few things that kept me watching this was Maya. I like her character a lot, as she is able to control her energy and change into a chibi form of herself.
Maya (chibi-form):



Maya (Full-Form):



She's also the strongest fighter, next to Mitsoumi. Plus she refuses his charms:



Well....kind of.....But then it's not like we actually see them hook up. This is about as edgy as the anime gets. It's one of those shows that, unlike the manga, doesn't deliver on what it promises. Where the original source material gives us sex scenes bordering on hentai and violence to churn the stomach, the anime throws jiggling juggernauts at us and unrealistic blood that would make ketchup seem like a better idea, if this were live action. Ladies and gentlemen this is how you turn a tiger into a pussycat.

Berserk (Episodes 1-25)

Ahhhhh......The anime of the late 80's and mid-90's.....Before the entry of the waif-like form, when male anime characters went shirtless, sporting basketball size deltoids and six-pack abs. When Cthulhu roamed free through the darkness, and women knew when to shout the hell up and kill something. It wasn't just anime....it was "Man-ame!" You couldn't watch stuff like this without growing an extra testicle!

There's no better Man-ame than "Berserk." I'd heard about it for years, and the people in the UW Anime Club have always described the bizarre, hallucination inducing ending to me. And so, when I first started watching it, I was looking for some weirdness. The first episode full filled what I was looking for, but pretty much everything up until the 24th episode is your standard Life As War story.

Plot:
Like many Fantasy stories, it seems to take place in a version of Medieval Europe. The main character is Guts (Gatsu?), a swordsman for hire. He catches the eye of Griffith, perhaps the creepiest bishi ("bishonen" = "pretty boy"), you'll ever see in an anime:



A mercenary, as well, Griffith has big plans for himself, and he's willing to sacrifice anyone, even his loyal followers, the Band of the Hawk. The others don't realize this, of course. With the exception of Casca, the female commander, they think he walks on water. She is the only one who sees Griffith as a human being, and a generally good-natured one at that. Howoever, even she can't see the darkness that resides within him.




Yep, there's another one of my favorite anime character types. The heroic warrior female. Casca is strong physically, except for during her menstruation cycle, and doesn't take crap from her male subordinates. I actually didn't like her at first. In fact....I still kind of don't like her character. Although she doesn't actually hang off the arm of Griffith, as Princess Charlotte does:



Casca is still fixed on fulfilling only Griffith's dream, rather than working for her own. Griffith himself makes it clear that those who work to help him achieve his goal are merely his underlings, his servants. He does not see them as friends, or equals.

Compared to the astonishing Griffith, Guts just seems to be an "Average Joe" type character.



Although he is incredibly strong and muscle bound by Average Joe standards, he has a hell of a time trying to fight off demons. In an anime like DBZ, all he'd have to do is power up after getting his butt kicked and blast the thing into oblivion. However, when up against an inhuman foe like the Behelit, Guts usually winds up winning through a combination of luck and cunning. He's an easy character to identify with. He's strong enough to survive in battle against normal, human foes, but not powerful enough to take out a demon in one fell swoop. While we rarely see Grifftith injured, Guts bares the brunt of many attacks and keeps coming back for more. Plus, he's hot! He's got beef-cake written all over him. And yes, he does eventually hook up with Casca, after a history of animosity:



It should also be mentioned that, as with Claymore, the anime for Berserk only covers the first thirteen volumes of the thirty-something volume manga currently being published. There is also no end in sight for the manga, which some think will run to about one hundred plus volumes (Berserk Encyclopedia, FAQ: "When will BERSERK end?"). The anime concludes around "episode" 70 of the manga, although there was supposed to be a 26th episode that was cut due to budget constraints.

A word of warning to those who are a bit squeamish. If you catch the "Eye Candy (Berserk)" section on the main page of this site, the AMV I found on Youtube will give you a discomforting look at the final two episodes of the anime. It ends on a rape scene (which does happen in the manga, only more graphic). The anime pretty much keeps a majority of the plot in tact from the manga, although certain characters and plot elements are missing and the violence is toned down. We are not treated to seeing Guts sold into sexual slavery and anally raped as a child (as also happens in the manga). But still, be prepared for some shocking stuff that borderlines on hentai.

Despite the anime's abrupt and horrifying ending, I plan on reading the manga. Many new characters are introduced, the plot is expanded upon three fold, and Casca is catatonic. There's more female warriors to be had. I'm looking forward to them finding their own dreams. And to seeing Guts again.

Claymore (Episodes 1-26)

Claymore (Episodes 1-26)

Warriors. Female warriors. I've always loved reading/watching their stories, from Black Lagoon's Revy to JLA's Wonder Woman. In fact, the first anime I ever owned was Project A-ko . I then moved on to Sailor Moon and other mahou shoujo anime. Now there's nothing wrong with sailor senshi and whatnot, but I hungered for a bit more action, and introduced myself to the world of Dragonball Z . Afterwad followed Naruto and other action packed Shounen Jump series.

I have to admit, I've been interested in reading the Claymore manga for a while now. The artwork seemed strangely soft compared to other manga, and this unique style is well integrated into the anime. The only problem I do have with the art design is the eyes for the men are too round and dark, giving them and odd, doll like appearance:



Overall, they seem too feminine and stiff. The backgrounds are also painted lightly, making the characters and foreground pop. The "camera" moves with a strange stiffness common in digital animation production. The problem is that it moves too smoothly, and winds up making the animation look a bit rushed and/or cheap.

The story itself is full of cliches, but then just try making a fantasy/horror series that isn't. Pretty much everything in fantasy has been done to the point where even satirizing it is pretty "been there done that." Anime itself has become a bit worn out, so that it's little more than a matter of combining different cliched elements until you come up with something that's different.

I like the main character, Clare, despite the fact that she isn't a hoodlum or a screw-up like other Shounen Jump protagonists. Her lack of emotion is compensated for by the other, minor Claymore and human characters. Indeed, most of the other Claymores, of which Clare is ranked 47th and last, display a varied amount of emotion.

I would have to say Helen is my least favorite. She is one of those smart-asses who bullies the protagonist until he/she is proven wrong about the other's strength. At which point he/she becomes a trusted friend and ally:


I think I'd trust Helen about as far as I could throw her.

I'm really pleased that they could come up with so many different character designs, despite the lack of a color pallet for the Claymores. As you can see from the picture of Helen, the character design consists of almost no color, except for the blond hair. It's easy to design without color in manga, when people can admire the line quality and shading at their own pace, but to do so in anime and still be able to hold the viewer's attention must be very difficult.

Plot Stuff:
Pretty much, the story is about Clare, a half-human, half-yoma, who is assigned by a mysterious organization to hunt out yoma. Along the way, she picks up a young boy, who seems to steadily fall for her (and, yes, they do eventually kiss). Now since she's part yoma, she has to be careful not to go over her power limit, or else she'll transform into a monster. The yoma form of each Claymore is different, and can be anywhere from a serpentine type creature to a mammalian type, a butterfly type, and beyond. All yoma, whether derived from a Claymore or not, eat human guts. Also, a Claymore that has surpassed her limit must transform into a yoma and can never return to either her Claymore state:

Priscilla (Claymore, Awakened, & Human States):






We find out Clare is after a former Claymore turned Awakened Being called Priscilla, who had murdered Clare's mentor, Teresa of the Faint Smile. It should be noted that the manga is ongoing with volume 13 being released in Japan now. The series departs from the manga around episode 20, and starting with the 24th episode, becomes completely divergent. I was worried about this becoming too much like DBZ, what with all the talk about surpassing limits. My fears were somewhat justified when the fight between Clare and Priscilla moved to the side of a volcano in episode 25. And even more so when Clare bellows out in a monstrous voice, "PRISCILLA!" Yeah...cue the flashbacks of the battle on Namek. It ended pretty well, though. You can't drag a fight out too long when there's only two episodes left. Plus, they left the ending open with a lot of the main heroes and villains still alive. I don't know how far off from the manga this strayed, but if it's not too far, then they may be able to continue with another season. In the end, Claymore was a fun series when it followed the fantasy and horror cliches. I just wish it didn't have to rip-off a sub-par anime as well. This leads to only an average product on the whole.

Black Lagoon (First & Second Barrages)

I downloaded Black Lagoon a while ago, and have just recently finished the series. Now we are watching it in the UW Madison Anime Club (University of Wisconsin-Madison). We'll watch the first season dubbed by Geneon, and the second season as a fansub, since Geneon has now gone under.

I'll admit that despite shooting down a helicopter with torpedo in the second episode, I still had my doubts. It really wasn't what I expected, and I didn't think the art really matched the theme. I was looking for the more serious, squinty eyed look you find in a lot of action anime, and a more realistic character design, like that found Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Instead, Black Lagoon employs a medium-to-big eyed facial design, which matches the personality of Rock, the protagonist. However, it's kind of strange when I saw it used on Revy, a cold, merciless killer. After the first couple of episodes, the character design for Revy becomes more cold looking, but the overall feel of the art is still cartoony. It actually reminded me of Hellsing. Yes, I think I have to despute Wikipedia's reference to this as being a realistically drawn anime. When I think of "realism" in anime, I think of Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and Claymore, both of which employ much more detailed art. But then....when is Wikipedia really right about anything? (lol...jk, I actually use it a lot to look up shows)
Examples of "Realistic" Anime:
Vampire Hunter D


Claymore


Examples of "Medium-Big Eyed" Character Designs:
Black Lagoon

Hellsing



Something else I noted, was that the violence seemed to be censored, at least in the first season. There were plenty of gunfights and the bodies did pile up, but a lot of the wounds were inflicted off screen. We then usually see dead bodies lying around in pools of blood. This is a very effective way of portraying violence. Since the earliest horror movies, violence and the fear invoked by it is best experienced through the audience's own imagination. At episode 13, "The Vampire Twins Comen," the on screen killings pick up, however there is still some censorship. This is evident when the twins describe their torture of one of Balalaika's men, rather than actually showing a torture sequence.

Finally....I am going to get my hands on the soundtrack for this series, come Hell or high water. The opening and closing sequences are great, especially the ending, which uses an instrumental piece, rather than vocal. This is something that I rarely come upon in anime. However, it is one piece of background music in particular that keeps going through my mind. I don't know the title, but it's the piece that keeps running when the characters are in a dire situation. For example, it played in the background as Revy and Roberta stared each other down before their gun dual. It's base guitar (I think) with and eerie wind instrument blown in behind the guitar. I love it! And eventually, I grew to love the series.