Review #99: Gunsmith Cats (and sort of Riding Bean)

• Episodes: 3
• Produced: 95 (JP), 01 (US)

Rally Vincent and her partner May Hopkins are a pair of bounty hunters that own a gun shop called “Gun Smith Cats”. Living in an 80’s vision of Chicago, the pair work together to make whatever money they can with bounty hunting to support themselves, though jobs are few and far between, and there’s always more bills. Rally’s the older of the two, owner of the store and head of their duo. An expert with guns, she shows an amazing talent for recognition and understanding of many different varieties as well. May on the other hand can barely use a gun. She more than makes up for it with her skill with explosives. From grenades of all shapes and sizes to use of C4 and other explosive gels, May ends up causing more damage than she really helps.

Things seem to be looking up when they make a bust on a man named Washington on drug smuggling charges, only to find out the police couldn’t find any. Instead of a nice pay off, they end up running into an agent of the ATF (Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, for you non-US people). Going by the name of Bill, he blackmails the girls with a lack of proper licensing for their shop, getting them to work for the ATF. As it turns out, the guy they busted for drug smuggling was really working with illegal firearms. Bill wants the girls to work with Washington to find out everything they can about the weapons smuggling and how deep it goes. He needs outside help because he suspects someone within the ATF is helping the smugglers, so he needs someone on the outside. Left with little choice, Rally agrees to help him out.

Things quickly get over everyone’s head unfortunately. The ring seems to be much larger than Bill thought, putting the girls along with himself in the line of fire. The girls are attacked in their own home, the smugglers end up hiring an assassin, and the connections end up going to the most unexpected places. There doesn’t promise to be a lot of money in it, making it all a real pain in the ass for Rally, but she ends up too deep to get out without a fight!

At only an hour and a half, Gunsmith Cats is an OVA that feels almost like a movie with small breaks. It’s a highly detailed anime with a lot of work going into the guns, the cars, the city of Chicago, and even the uniforms and clothes. The soundtrack adds to the 80s action feel with an upbeat jazz sound that reminds me a little of Cowboy Bebop or Read or Die. All of that detail adds up to that movie feel, with a plot designed to mirror a cop drama movie in the Die Hard or Lethal Weapon. It’s full of tropes, but they mirror their American movie inspiration as much if not more than the anime tropes that weave their way in.

Because of the old cheesy action flick feel of the anime, the plot has plenty of twists and turns, yet it doesn’t feel very deep. It’s not trying to be of course, focusing more on the constant suspense of intense action to keep your interest. Thankfully, with all the work that went into the production values, along with the tight run time, Gunsmith Cats feels just the right length to keep action packed without being too drawn out. If anything, it leaves you wanting another story in the girl’s lives, something the manga did with a long print run and sequel.

It should be pretty obvious after all said that I’m recommending Gunsmith Cats, and in fact I can’t recommend it enough. It’s not a life changing “experience” that you’ll be debating the complexity of for years, nor is it an epic sprawling story with 2 or 3 seasons of development. It lives off quick suspenseful action, guns, girls, cars, corruption, tragedy, and perseverance. If you like action flicks, if you like the 80s, if you like quick somewhat over the top fun, then this OVA is for you. I’d say it’s even worth paying a little extra for, though you won’t need to.

Now, in the title I also mentioned Riding Bean. Made by the makers of Gunsmith Cats, Riding Bean has the same 80s action feel to it, though more so if anything. Predating Gunsmith Cats, Riding Bean only got one 40 minute episode before it ended, making it hard to justify as a solo buy (or review). Featuring a prototype of Rally as the assistant to Bean Bandit, a courier for hire, Riding Bean kicks up the blood, the corruption, the guns, and the cars. Though the creator Kenichi Sonoda preferred Riding Bean, the producers liked the Gunsmith Cats idea more and worked with that more rather than Riding Bean. In the end, I tend to agree with the choice. Riding Bean may have the disadvantage of being a shorter anime to begin with, but Riding Bean seems to lack the more approachable parts of Gunsmith Cats. Bean Bandit ends up being a lot more of a superhuman bad-ass with little to no personality than the more complex Rally and May. Still, if you end up watching Gunsmith Cats and find Riding Bean on an anime streaming sight, giving it a watch couldn’t hurt.

 

Review #98: Baldr Force EXE Resolution

• Episodes: 4
• Published: 06 (JP) 08 (US)

Sometime in the near future, the world of the internet has become a lot more wonderful… and a lot more dangerous. People are given neural ports that allow them to go into the wired world and do almost anything they want. This also allows hackers to be more bold, including a small group of hackers called Steppen Wolf. After a few minor jobs they decide to disband, though not before having one last big job to go out with a bang; trying to hack into FLAK, the military. Unfortunately the group is caught and as they flee the head of the group, Yuya, is killed by a mysterious Simulacrum of FLAK (being the machine avatars used to fight on the net).

After the rest of the group is arrested, the young Toru finds himself alone and offered a choice; either spend years in jail, or work for FLAK. Toru decides to work for them with the goal of finding out the identity of Yuya’s killer. Introduced to FLAK’s first squad of Simulacrum fighters by their commander Souji, he realizes one of his four teammates must be Yuya’s killer. Minori seems the shy smart type, Yousuke’s a brash womanizer, Kaira’s a man loving blonde, and Ayane is the silent brooding one of the group. Together they work to help secure the important parts of the wired world from hackers, especially the looming threat of a group called Fei Dao, so called cyber terrorists that seem to cause havok on the web.

Soon things get messy and complicated. FLAK is joined by VSS, a technology company lead by Reika Tachibana. They’ve developed a strong group of simulacrum and pilots, a group that includes a former member of Steppen Wolf, Toru’s friend Tsukina. Things turn even more complicated when the last member of Steppen Wolf, Akira, ends up working for Fei Dao. With all those complications, made worse by secret goals, underhanded methods, and corruption, Toru’s life finds one more to top it all off; he logs onto his secure server one day to find a little girl there somehow, able to interact with the digital world with extraordinary skill. She asks him out on a digital date to have fun, finally giving her name as Ren and asking if she can call Toru big brother.

When Toru is shown Ren’s picture by Reika of VSS, things start to spiral out of control. Who is Ren really? For that matter, who is Toru? What are the real purposes of VSS and Fei Dao? Who really killed Yuya and why? It all turns out to be a lot more complicated than it seems on the surface, so much so that even the fate of the world ends up hanging in the balance.

Based on a 2D action shooter video game, Baldr Force EXE is a short but violent little OVA that tries to cover the basic plot of the game (which was released for the PS2, Dreamcast, and PC). The violence pulls very few punches, showing exploding heads, missing fingers, and sprays of blood without a second thought, which is really one of the only truly memorable parts of the anime. The plot itself is fairly standard, with lost memories, betrayals, and saving the world all troupes managed to be worked into the story before the end. It’s all made all the more forgettable from the bland art. The characters themselves are fairly basic, and the CGI used for the simulacrum and the digital world is that cringe worthy early 2000s style that looks plastic and clunky.

Having never played Baldr Force the game, I can’t say the anime makes me want to play it. On a whole, I’m not certain who to recommend the anime FOR, though if you like gore and standard drama, you could do a lot worse. Perhaps those that have played the game first can give the anime a watch for a different perspective, for better or worse. Otherwise though, unless you can watch it for free (or maybe a dollar), there’s no real reason to go out of your way to get this series. It’s either forgettable, objectionable, or both, but never really entertaining.

 

Review #97: Shrine of the Morning Mist

• Produced: 02 (JP), 04 (US)
• Episodes: 26

The Hieda family are shrine keepers at the Shrine of the Morning Mist, specifically three sisters. The eldest, Kurako, is the fill in mother of the family, the head priestess, as well as a high school teacher. The middle sister Yuzu is a high schooler with a strong mystic power, though she can be a bit naive. The youngest is Tama, a younger priestess in training. The three open the series rushing to the train station to meet their cousin Tadahiro, a boy Yuzu has had a crush on but one which Kurako knows is in danger. Kurako’s sense proves true as the three arrive to find Tadahiro under attack from demons, as well as a mysterious man cloaked and wearing a tengu mask.

It turned out that Tadahiro’s right eyes was a red shade, allowing him to see into the spirit world. The man in the mask, Ayatachi, served a god named Yagarena, a god of darkness previously banished from the mortal world by Tadahiro’s grandfather who also possessed his same power. Though Yuzu saves the day on accident by running her bike into Ayatachi, Kurako immediately realizes the danger Tadahiro is in as he stays with them at the shrine and attends high school. As soon as the school year starts, Kurako helps persuade Yuzu into forming a priestess club. While she starts off as the initial member of the club, different girls come for their own reasons as time goes on.

Yuzu’s two best friends are the first to join (mostly to keep an eye on Yuzu after they spy what they believe to be a scandalous tryst between Tadahiro and the school’s resident popular handsome boy Masashi). Chika is the smaller and lazier of the two, looking more like a grade schooler than a high school student. Seiko is much more enthusiastic and outspoken, though she’s barely any less naive than Yuzu is. Those three are joined later by Izumi, a girl in glasses obsessed with aliens, and Shizuka, a rich girl that tries to be the model Japanese woman. Unfortunately, as demons start to attack the school, it quickly becomes apparent only Yuzu actually knows what she’s doing, leading to Kurako’s putting all of the girls through rigorous training regimes to teach them how to be priestesses.

As time goes on, new threats keep appearing. From different forms of demons and spirits, to disagreements within the club, to a new group of priestess’ fighting for Yagarena called the Twilight Priestess, Yuzu and her friends are pushed to their limits, even as they keep trying to live normal high school lives and have fun. Kurako can feel things coming to a head however, and soon enough the dam bursts. Can Tadahiro, Yuzu, and the entire world all survive the best efforts of a god ready to destroy everything and everyone?

Shrine of the Morning Mist is 26 episodes, but it’s really a lot shorter than that because each episode is only 10-12 minutes long since they were meant to be half a show’s time slot. The total run time only really works out like a normal single season show, which actually works out just fine. Though there are parts of the show that could have benefited from 26 full length episodes, the plot and pace of Shrine of the Morning Mist works well for how long it is. That said, what the show is ends up being a bit one dimensional because of the shortened length. Like a lot of single season anime, the characters turn out more one dimensional, back stories are mostly ignored, the ending is a bit rushed, and characters are added with little chance to do much of anything.

That all may sound like I’m quite critical of Shrine of the Morning Mist, but to be honest, all it means is that you shouldn’t go into the anime expecting anything deep or life changing. In fact, I think Shrine is a cute little series that does what it does well enough, that being a quick dramatic plot with a few laughs. The character designs are simple yet effective, the voice acting is well done though not too memorable, and the music is background at best without a large impact. It’s a series, at it’s best, mildly interesting, and at its worst, forgettable. While it does enough for me to enjoy it, the only real memorable things that set it apart are the cousin relationship between Yuzu and Tadahiro, as well as the heavy shinto emphasis on the whole series.

In conclusion then, should you watch it, or buy it even? To the former I say sure. It’s short enough that if you have a day or two and feel like something you’ve never seen before (it’s not a highly known series), it could be a good time waster. As for buying, you can find the complete series on DVD in one collection, a collection I’ve never seen for more than a few dollars. If you’re looking for an older high school anime to add to your collection, you could do a lot worse.

 

Review #96: Ellcia

• Episodes: 4
• Produced: 03 (JP), 06 (US)

The kingdom of Megaronia controls all of the continent of Hulk, as well as the 4 sacred islands, having conquered all opposition thanks to its discovery of powerful ancient technologies. One day the theologian Ganak found the sacred text of the Eijan’s, one of the islands in the south. Inside, he finds a passage talking about the Eijan “chosen one” who would raise the ship of the gods, the Ellcia, and use it to destroy the enemies of the gods. While King Nabosu discounts the prophecy, his daughter Princess Christel decides she wants the ship for herself. Thankfully, they have the Eijan prince in their custody, Elluri, the only surviving member of the Eijin royal family after the Megaronians had killed the old king and queen. Christel takes the prince with her south to force him to bring the ship out of hiding.

Meanwhile, we’re introduced to a ragtag band of pirates surviving by looting merchant ships. The cry includes the Captain Shiru (a large woman with a lot of muscle), Funk and Doner (a fighter and navigator), 4 kids (Flack the lookout, the young selkie Maeyard, Nera the brave girl, and Nupure the crybaby), and finally the spunky Eira. Things start to chance when Maeyard starts to have visions of doom and a future or horror, changing for all the stranger when Eira sees Prince Elluri on a ship that almost runs them over. When the pirate ship finally ends up returning home to Eija, they find it in flames with the Megaronian ships that’d passed them in the harbor. They sail around to the forest of the selkie clan only to find the Princess Christel along with Prince Elluri, learning they want to raise the ship of the gods. After all the selkie are killed by the Megaronian soldiers, including Maeyard’s father, the ship finally rises out of the sea. It becomes a race to find out who the chosen one is, what the secrets of the Ellcia are, and who will control it.

Ellcia is a short 4 episode OVA from the early 90s the reminds me a lot of Legend of Crystania, both in art and in the general feel of the story. It definitely has that 90s feel of strange stylization and over the top wonderment (huge towers, spikey ships, large explosions, etc), making it feel all the more familiar. All the same, it has a lot of its own ideas that help it stand out. While there are swords and bows a plenty, the technology of Megaronia has a more Nausicaa feeling, with flying vessels, large metal ships, and cannons and guns. This also leads to a mix of more fantasy outfits (capes, armor) alongside clothes that look straight out of a newer Final Fantasy.

There are certainly things to like about the series. The story has a lot of interesting points, with characters that change and struggle like real people, ancient mysteries, jilted loves, and hard choices. While the art is that dark simple look that Crystania had (which I’ve never been a fan of), it manages to make the characters distinct and instantly recognizable. The American cast has a lot of older familiar voices, some which work, others that don’t.  For everything that works, something else doesn’t, so what excitement I get for the series is always pushed back down.

The ending is what seals the deal for me in the end. The story was all right, even with it feeling a bit hurried and scaled down, but the ending… well, I won’t spoil it, but they wrap up almost nothing. Whatever you think Ellcia was about, it doesn’t really get resolved. I’m not saying that anime’s have never ended poorly, often for budget reasons, but it doesn’t excuse them, especially in a case like Ellcia where it seems purposeful.

Can I recommend Ellcia then? If you sat down and had the anime DVD in your hand, I’d say to go ahead and watch it. It’s easily watchable in one night, so it’s not a big time waster, though it’s long enough that you might need a break after the second episode. It might even be worth it if you can get it super cheap as I did, or if you find it on a site like Crunchyroll or Hulu. Is it enjoyable enough to go out of your way to find it or buy it? Not at all. Even if the style makes it a bit more memorable than it’d otherwise be, it’s not exciting or well enough constructed to be worth much. As an older anime, it’s an interesting look at an OVA from back in the day, but don’t expect an epiphany from watching it.

 

Review #95 – Jinki: Extend

• Episodes: 13
• Released: 05 (JP), 06 (US)

Aoba was a 13 year old girl that lived alone in Tokyo with her grandmother. She’d never really had any friends, but she was happy spending time with her grandmother and building her model robots. All that changed when her grandmother died and she was kidnapped. When Aoba woke up, she found herself in the back of a truck alone. By the time it stopped and she looked out, she found she’d been taken to an aircraft hanger of some sort. Before the man that could kidnap her could stop her, she bolted out the hanger’s door as it closed and ran away to try to escape.

Once she was out however, Aoba discovered two things that changed her world. The first was that she wasn’t in Tokyo anymore, nor even in Japan (though she wouldn’t find out she was in Venezuela until later). The second, after following a strange set of giant tracks, was finding a real life giant robot. After stopping to look over it in wonder, she quickly hid inside an open panel when she heard people coming after her from behind just as another group was coming to check the robot from in front of her. Unfortunately for Aoba, the robot was sent out on a mission with her stuck inside the arm she was hidden in, only to have her pop out in the middle of the battle, much to the surprise of the pilot, Ryouhei, the man that had kidnapped her. After Ryouhei and his father let Aoba into the cockpit for safety, Aoba helped pilot it in a split second of intuition and helps them win.

Once back to base, Ryouhei’s father Genta helps explain everything. They work for an organization called Angel, a group dedicated to fighting machines like the one they’d fought out in the field earlier, mysterious creations called Ancient Jinki that appear on the table top mountains of La Gran Sabana in Venezuela. The robot Aoba had rode in, called the Moribito Type-02, is also a Jinki, though created by Angel designed after the ancient jinki. Aoba had been kidnapped and brought over seas at the orders of her estranged mother, Shizuka, with the belief that Aoba has something inside her that makes her a perfect pilot for a jinki. Aoba eventually decides to stay and try to become a pilot, despite her hatred for her mother.

Jinki: Extend also has a second storyline that’s woven into the anime as it goes along. This part involves a blonde woman named Akao, living in Japan. Having lived with amnesia, she’s suddenly approached by Ryouhei and other jinki pilots from Angel and told she needs to help them by becoming a plot, that she has the special quality that makes for a good jinki pilot. A group called the Kyomu are attacking Japan in their own jinki with the intent of destroying the world and they need her. Unfortunately, Akao keeps hearing a voice in her head that she musn’t fight, so she refuses.

So… I’m a good ways in, and I’m still trying to explain the BASICS of the plot. Jinki is a single season anime, but its plot is so thick and tangled that there’s a lot more I could say without it making much more sense. Truth told, even after watching it all the way through twice, I still don’t understand half of it. Even the parts actually explained often don’t have any context or deeper explanation, something that left me a little aggravated.

I won’t say all of Jinki’s bad, so let’s just get this part out there. The art style is clean and does a fairly good job of making for interesting characters and robots. The action is well done as far as mecha fights go, and the environments are varied and lovely. That’s really about it however. The ending is inconclusive, made all the more disappointing since so much of the anime is incomprehensible. The villains motives and where they get their resources is never well explained, the ancient jinki in Venezuela are never explained, the power that makes Aoba and Akao good pilots is never explained… and more, though the rest are really deeper plot spoilers, if one could say Jinki HAS any.

It reminds me unfortunately of Brain Powerd, which as I said back when I reviewed that ages ago, hurt my head to even think about. There’s also a good bit of Divergence Eve in Jinki, with troubled young girls piloting robots under a powerful organization. Just like Divergence Eve, Jinki has its own sort of subtle ecchi to it, something that is all the less subtle when you discover the makers of Jinki also made an eroge game out of it. In a sense, I’m not not really certain what market Jinki is going for. It’s a bit “end of the world” scenario, but never really gets there. It’s a bit just “cute girls in big robots”, but it has too serious and dark a tone to fit with a lot of those. I suppose if you like convoluted plots with no good resolution, or just really love seeing girls in giant robots that much, Jinki could be for you. For most those, I can’t recommend. There’s just nothing worth your time here.

 

Review #94: Ouran High School Host Club

• Published: 06 (JP) 08 (US)
• Episodes: 26

Haruhi comes from a humble background, what anyone would consider normal. With good grades and a scholarship, she manages to get into the incredibly prestigious private school Ouran High, a school normally meant for the sons and daughters of politicians, CEO’s, and other movers and shakers. One day while wandering the school to look for a private out of the way to study, Haruhi comes across what she believes to be an abandoned music room tucked up in a back corner of the campus. Once she enters the door however, she’s confronted by a group of pretty young boys calling themselves the Ouran Host Club.

Because of Haruhi’s thin build, loose attire, and boyish attitude and manners, she’s initially mistaken for a boy. After becoming flustered by the club’s attention, Haruhi accidentally knocks over a priceless renaissance vase and breaks it, a vase she has to pay back and that is worth far more than she can afford. To help pay off that debt, she’s roped into working for the host club as an apprentice to work it off. It ends up that Haruhi’s a natural at being a host, having an honest and open friendliness that draws girls in. Even after everyone in the host club finds out that he is really a she, they all agree to keep Haruhi’s secret so she can keep working for the club without any fuss.

The last to find out Haruhi’s identity, and the founder of the Host Club, is second year student Tamaki, the heir to the Suoh Group, a large business conglomerate. He’s also the princely type, overly idealistic and narcissistic, as well as a fool. The second in command of the Host Club, as well as its chief financier, is Kyoya, the third son of the Ootori Zaibatsu, which deals with hospital administration and supply. Kyoya is the opposite of Tamaki in many ways, smart and serious, with what could be called a greedy and result driven look on life. The two twins, Hikaru and Karou, are both first year students in the same class as Haruhi. They are identical. always having trusted only themselves and enjoyed toying with others, only slowly opening up thanks to the host club. The last two, Honey and Mori, are both third year students and accomplished martial artists. Honey looks like a grade schooler and plays up his cute side, loving sweets and stuffed animals, while Mori is the tall silent type that acts overly dotting and protective of Honey, as his family has always served Honey’s.

The Host Club, for the most part, keeps up with decadent parties and trips, visiting resorts, throwing gala, and dressing up in the finest of costumes for their guests. As time goes on we learn more about all the members, from Haruhi’s transvestite father, to Honey’s strong martial arts skills, and Kyoya’s troubles with his father and older brothers. Many of their classmates come and go, from Nekozawa and the black magic club, the elementary schooler Shiro, as well as the all girl’s academy St. Lobelia and its Zuka Club. Through it all, the Host Club drifts along with few cares, a lot of laughs (unintentionally), and Haruhi stuck in the middle.

Ouran takes the rich pretty private school concept that many more serious animes have gone with (Strawberry Panic comes to mind) and parody’s it into the ground. While all the art for the characters keeps them at their ideal most of the time, it establishes early on that looks are only one side of a person, each of the pretty young host club members and guests having their own stupidity, eccentricity, or ego. This is shown both by showing all their weaknesses, but the anime also has a recurring theme of contrasting the privileged lives of the Ouran students against the simple common ways of Haruhi. Those themes of pretty but eccentric and contrast of the classes also form a large part of the series humor, both in the rich seeing Haruhi’s world as well as Haruhi seeing the decadence and splendor of the bored rich.

I’ve always admitted that if an anime can make me laugh, it’ll be hard pressed not to get a good review. From word of mouth (as well as seeing the outtakes ahead of time) I knew Ouran would make me laugh, but my expectations were pleasantly exceeded all the same. In truth, I have a hard time thinking up; anything worth complaining about concerning Ouran. Perhaps the characters could be called one sided, even with their development, but that’s in part their caricature parody aspect. The ending was a bit open ended as well, but in a way that worked well for me. The only thing I remember actually complaining about during the anime was the English dubbed opening; while the English dubbing of the anime was wonderful, the opening song was less than spectacular.

While the anime has a bit of a mature theme with “hosting” (ie, there’s a highly suggestive theme of love and lust), there is a lack of any real fan service or situations that could be called too mature, so in truth I can say the anime can work for most ages. While perhaps a bit vapid at times, there are a lot of laughs to be found in Ouran, the series is long enough to be engaging without feeling TOO long, and the art and voice acting are all top notch. If you don’t mind the pretty stylings and over the top characters, you’ll find a memorable watch.

 

Review #93: Bamboo Blade

• Episodes: 26
• Produced: 07 (JP) 10 (US)

Toraji Ishida is a part time high school teacher that instructs the kendo team at Muroe High. Luckless and penniless, both his life and team are in shambles. In the club, only 4 members remain at the start of the new year, and of those only the captain Kirino shows up regularly. The second member, Sayako, isn’t showing up, and the other two, Toyama and Iwasa, only show up to bully the other members (which is part of why so many were scared away. In Ishida’s life, his part time work at Muroe High isn’t enough to really pay the bills, let alone keep him fed, and he’s constantly skipping meals and walking to save money.

One day while having lunch with an old friend from his old high school’s kendo team, Ishibashi, Ishida learns that not only does his friend have an all girls kendo team that he’s teaching at Machido High, but that they’re very good. In a good natured bet, Ishibashi challenges Muroe’s team to a match against Machido’s team. If his team wins, he gets the trophy Ishida won when he beat Ishibashi in a kendo tournament. If Muroe wins, Ishibashi promises Ishida that he can have all the sushi he wants for a year at his father’s sushi restaurant. This sounds to Ishida like his ticket to prosperity, so he immediately agrees to the bet.

The only problem is, he doesn’t have a girl’s team, and really, only one girl at all that readily shows up. Two boys end up joining; Yuji, who did kendo in junior high, and Danjuro (aka Donny), a short boy with heart out to impress his girlfriend. Still, Ishida needs girls, and even after Kirino convinces Saya to show up at practice again, that’s still 3 short of the 5 he needs. Enter Tamaki Kawazoe. a girl Ishida notices when she bats multiple balls away with a broom and saves the school principle. She doesn’t initially show any interest in joining the club, stating that she does kendo at home already (since she lives in a dojo and her father teaches kendo). One day however, Toyama and Iwasa show up at the dojo in the mood to beat up on Donny and Yuji. Tamaki hears the trouble as she passes the dojo, and with a desire to bring justice to the world, steps in to help, beating Toyama and getting them to leave.

Finally, after having Tamaki talk to her father and showing her how fun practicing with a team can be, Mr. Ishida convinces Tamaki to join the team. Things start to look brighter with the team’s new unbeatable star. Donny convinces his girlfriend Miyako to join (aka Miya-Miya), an unskilled and bipolar girl, and after a longer time they convince a skilled girl with poor grades to joined named Azuma. There’s still an uphill battle however. Other than Tamaki and Yuji, half of the new members have never done kendo, and while Saya and Kirino have, neither have placed in a tournament. With problems involving keeping the bet with Ishibashi a secret, to angering a neighbor of the principle, to trying to train all the new students and keep the team together, Ishida’s left with a long road to prosperity, if he can pull it off at all.

At its heart, Bamboo Blade is a comedy. Every episode has at least a little something to get a laugh, and most have a lot more than that. With that said, Bamboo Blade also delves into different issues, most notably what it means to lose. There are even moments when the anime is down right thought provoking. While not all of the characters get developed to the fullest extent, almost all of them grow as the series goes on. The main focus of the series is Tamaki, starting off a serious, almost unemotional girl that knows only kendo, but learns as the series progresses about what friends really are, how to have fun, and how everyone deals with loss and defeat.

Bamboo Blade in some ways feels like it could blend in with the white noise of anime. After all, there’s no shortage of comedy anime’s out there about a group of high school girl’s learning and growing as the year goes on. Even still, I think there’s enough about Bamboo Blade that stick out, and I recommend it in the end. It’s a rare comedy that can explore deeper issues, and a rare high school anime that can do the same. All of the characters were interesting in my opinion, even if Mr. Ishida had his moments I couldn’t stand him. The growth the characters went through was refreshing, the art was clean and well done, I loved the voice acting, the music was well done… all that taken together, there’s little I feel would be a point against it, other than that slight feeling of genericness hovering behind it. I think any age group can enjoy Bamboo Blade, as well as any gender. Give it a look some time if you want a good anime laugh, plus a bit more.