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Anime Review: The Sacred Blacksmith – Limited Edition
My never-ending quest to find good fantasy anime has its ups and downs. Sometimes I find really great stuff like Berserk, Moribito, or Escaflowne. Then there’s stuff that’s just kind of okay like Romeo X Juliet. Then there’s stuff that just makes me want to give up entirely.
The Sacred Blacksmith tells the story of Cecily Campbell, and her breasts, who became a knight after the sudden death of her father. When looking for a blacksmith to repair her sword she meets the rude and impatient Luke Ainsworth, who wants nothing to do with her, and his young assistant Lisa. After an attack from mysterious monsters, Cecily is tasked with guarding a Demon Sword, and the group try to figure out what could be behind the attack.
The Sacred Blacksmith takes a lot of cues from Slayers. It uses a generic fantasy setting, features a female main character who frequently fights with the male lead, and blends comedy into the storyline. Another thing it has in common with Slayers is that it likes to run jokes straight into the ground. There is literally one joke made throughout The Sacred Blacksmith, which is that Cecily has large breasts. Every single joke revolves around that. People are pointing out how big they are, or wishing their breasts were as big as hers, or her breasts are bursting out of her armour and being on full display for Luke. There’s not a single attempt at humour made in the series that does not revolve around Cecily’s breasts and their apparent largeness. It doesn’t even matter if you’re a fourteen year old boy who just discovered breasts and think they’re the greatest thing in the world, these jokes are insultingly stupid and they never stop. Read the rest of this entry
Anime Review: Romeo X Juliet – Part 2 (Episodes 13-24)
It’s been about two months since I reviewed the first half of Romeo X Juliet. I meant to review the second half sooner, but distractions kept coming up and preventing me from watching it. Well I finally had a few nights without mountains of school work taking up my time, and have decided to halt my quest to unify sengoku period Japan long enough to finally watch it.
This half of the series starts off a little disappointing. That last half left off with Juliet and Romeo being found by Prince Montague’s soldiers, and Juliet being taken prisoner. You would think that this would lead to a large conflict spanning a few episodes where the Capulet loyalists plan an attack to rescue her, but instead the entire issue is wrapped up in one episode. What we do end up getting is several episodes of nothing at all really happening. Romeo works in a mine, Juliet flees to another city, William Shakespeare (who is actually a character in this series) writes a play, but nothing really happens.
Fortunately, things do get better. In my review of the first half I had mentioned that Prince Montague wasn’t a very well written villain. He had no real motivation for anything he was doing, and just seemed to be evil for the sake of being evil. Well there’s an entire episode in this half devoted to his back-story, and his motivation for killing the Capulet’s and taking control of Neo Verona. The story itself is told in an interesting way, constantly cutting between narration by Prince Montague and Tybalt, emphasizing the similarities between the two characters. It gets a little silly once they start getting into who is related to who, but it’s still a good episode.
Anime Review: Moribito – Guardian of the Spirit Part 1 & 2 (Episodes 1-13)
I’ve heard a few times that Kenji Kamiyama is a pretty good director, and when I hear a director is good I like to seek out their work to see for myself. Kamiyama’s most well known work, the one he gets most of his attention for, would be Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Unfortunately I’m just not into sci-fi so I’ve only seen a small part of it. It seemed like I would never really get a chance to see Kamiyama’s work, but then I caught wind of a series called Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, a fantasy series directed by Kamiyama. I don’t think it’s a particularly well known series because I’ve never really heard anyone talking about it, but nonetheless it would be my first real exposure to Kenji Kamiyama’s directorial abilities.
Moribito is based on the first book in a series of novels and tells the story of a bodyguard named Balsa, who has tasked herself with saving eight lives to atone for eight people who were killed because of her, and the young prince Chagum whom she was hired to protect. The young prince has been possessed by a water spirit, and his father, the Mikado, plots to have him killed. In a final desperate attempt to save her son, Chagum’s mother hires Balsa, and she sets out to protect him from the Mikado’s forces.
Anime Review: Corpse Princess (Shikabane Hime) – Part One: Aka
From looking at the cover of Corpse Princess, you can easily tell one thing: this anime is about badass girl who is seriously pissed off. At further look, you’ll also notice that it’s produced by Gainax, and thus can infer that it likely contains crazy over-the-top action and a unique art style. Blend these into a fairly decent fantasy story and you’ve got Corpse Princess. The first season of the Corpse Princess series delivers a good plot with plenty of action, and despite its negative qualities, it’s an enjoyable watch.
When her and her family were murdered, Makina Hoshimura became a Shikabane-Hime – a being whose purpose is to seek out and destroy Shikabane. A Shikabane is the risen corpse of a person who died with great regret in their mind. They are monsters with an uncontrollable hatred of all things living. They wreak havoc in humans’daily lives and are responsible for many strange and horrifying rumors. Shikabane-Hime, such as Makina, are tasked with killing 108 Shikabane. If they fulfill this contract, they are granted passage into heaven. Makina, however, has a different incentive – she seeks revenge on those that murdered her family.
It’s Like I Can See the Future or Something
Remember in my Romeo X Juliet Part 1 review when I mentioned I want more Berserk or things like it? Your reaction to that was probably something along the lines of “Pfft, like that’s going to happen. Moe is the future, and violent murder-porn is so 90′s.” Well, suck it, because violent murder-porn is making a comeback. Details are slim at the moment, as in there are none at all. The new anime project was announced on a wrap-around jacket for the 35th volume of the manga series, and more information will be included in the Young Animal magazine, which Berserk is serialized in. No idea if it’s a new TV series or a movie, or whether it will be a continuation of the previous series or a reboot. None of that matters though, because there’s a new Berserk anime of some sort on the way and I am happy.
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