xamtaro
*note: I do intend to play the devils advocate here in light of all these positive reviews. I'm just stating how i feel about this series*A co-production between American comic book company "top Cow" and anime company Gonzo, Witchblade is loosely based on the famous supernatural genre graphic novel series of the same name. In retrospect, "loosely" might be giving this series way too much credit. As a whole, "Witchblade" feels like a completely un-related anime series with the "Witchblade" title slapped on it just because it happened to feature a gauntlet-like object that binds to a woman thus granting her supernatural powers while replacing her clothes with an overly skimpy combat outfit. Other than that, it has absolutely NOTHING ELSE in common with the comic book it is based on.Whatever intriguing supernatural detective story or down-to-earth characters that are easy to relate to has been thrown out the window and replaced with cliché upon cliché, staple to many science fiction Japanese anime.Our story is set in future Japan. A couple of years ago, a giant disaster ravaged Tokyo leaving one Masane Amaha and a little girl the only survivors at ground zero. Now Masane and the little girl Rihoko, whom she adopted as her daughter, have returned to Tokyo and get involved in A string of events that culminates in an encounter with a strange and dangerous biomechanical creature leading Masane to discover that the little jewel on her wrist is actually "the witchblade", a legendary artifact. Now Masane has become caught in the middle of a power war between the NSWF organization and the "Douji" group, each with their own bio-engineered super soldiers and each desiring to possess the Witchblade for their own ends.Though the characters are tried and tested stereotypical anime characters, their interactions come across as very genuine. Masane and Rihoko especially play out their mother/daughter roles very realistically, thanks to an excellent voice cast both in the original Japanese and the English dub tracks. Both are extremely likable even though the whole "mature young kid" and "bumbling but kind hearted immature adult" stereotype is nothing new in the world of anime.Sadly after a rather promising first few episodes, the series starts to falter. The subsequent characters introduced to the series tend to be rather one dimensional and set firmly in stereotypical roles of "the tough guy protagonist", "sadistic female assassin", "comedy relief gang" etc. The story pacing also takes a nosedive. It feels like a 12 episode story stretched into 24 episodes. There is a bit of Comedy, but comedy is a good thing when played right, not when it is awkwardly written and badly placed. Awkward also translates to the animation and art style. It would be easy to criticize this show's overly sexualized portrayal of Masane and the other "clone-blade" users. On almost every young adult female character, it is either the butt or the.....chest or both that is disproportionately emphasized. Fanservice is at an all time high with scenes of scantly clad blood-lusting females duking it out with blades and bouncing "melons". Even the "bloodlust" is quite literally a "lust"; all in a bid to titillate the male audience. Characters are drawn off-model sometimes with Masane's body proportions seemingly changing size in-between scenes. The animation also suffers in the long run. Only the still shots and close-ups look passably decent but disappointingly stiff. Action shots and many scenes involving movement cause the level of art detail to drop quite a bit. The mother/daughter drama between Masane and Rihoko might have been the saving grace of this series but sadly it is also stretched to breaking point over the course of the 24 episodes (again due to horrible pacing). The story gets more and more convoluted as the series passes into its second half while the art and animation sort of settles into a low-to-medium budget look and feel as the production constantly cuts corners by using one too many animation short-cuts.For all the advertising Funimation and Top Cow did on the Witchblade anime, this series is an utter disappointment. Instead of building on the more original mother/daughter dynamics and character drama, the series decides to play the "sex sells" card and deliver one fan-service laden combat sequence after another, complete with jokes about the main character's over-sized breasts. Lacking even the coherence and cleverness of the original comic books, Witchblade may satisfy those hot blooded young male viewers who love to be teased by anime females in states of semi-nudity. Other than that, it is mediocre fare not worth the time or money, compared to other better series out there.
dee.reid
This is a solidly entertaining sequel/re-imagining of the American comic book series, Witchblade, created by Top Cow. I'm a big Witchblade reader myself (she's probably my favorite super-heroine, or is it Painkiller Jane? I really can't decide), so I know that when I heard there was a Japanese animation show titled "Witchblade," I just had to see what Japan had to offer on a cult-classic comic book title.Top Cow did have a hand in this Japanese production of their most famed supernatural super-heroine, but "Witchblade" somehow or another remains a uniquely Japanese production that contains a lot of the usual elements of most animation from Japan, not limited to sexy females, troublesome, hard-to-follow story, and big corrupt corporations.Set in Tokyo six years after a catastrophic earthquake, well-endowed single-mom Masane Amaha returns to the city with her cute six-year-old daughter Rihoko. Masane is well-meaning but somewhat childish and immature, so Rihoko often seems like the mother, cooking, cleaning, shopping, taking care of the house, and is otherwise taking care of her mother instead of the other way around. For the longest time, it's just been the two of them, but child-welfare services has been after Masane for some time now, since she has no job, no income, and no way to care for Rihoko.If this is starting to sound like some Lifetime family stuff, hang on for just a minute longer because I'm getting into the meat of the story. Masane is also the wielder of the mystical Witchblade, a powerful sentient artifact of extraterrestrial origin that grants her a vast array of supernatural powers that she uses to slice-and-dice the rogue Ex-Cons (shape-changing humans who have the ability to morph into killer machines) that have been responsible for several mysterious murders around the Tokyo area. In the meantime, Masane, of course, keeps her double life as a monster-smashing super-heroine secret from her daughter, fighting to protect her at all costs, even her own life.As I said before, while "Witchblade" bears the name of the American comic book super-heroine, the Japanese have their own spin on the material that differs greatly from its source material. Pretty much, the only elements that remain the same from its American counterpart are the title, the fact that the protagonist is a woman (a well-endowed woman, at that) who understands little to nothing about what it is she has gotten herself into, and that the Witchblade always chooses a female as its host. In "Witchblade," many of the supernatural themes, fantasy and horror elements of the American comic have been largely done away with, replaced with the typical aforementioned elements of Japanese animation and science fiction. The most significant addition, I think, are the Clone-blades, which as they might sound like, are cloned versions of the Witchblade. They are also in abundance and prove to be more-than-worthy adversaries.But many of these changes work. In addition, there is also some crazy comedy here and there, and touching family scenes between Masane and Rihoko that make them really stand out and you believe that they're mother and daughter. More characters are in abundance, like the residents of the apartment building Masane and Rihoko come to live in, none of whom are cardboard cut-outs but add a lot of dimension, drama, and humor to the story. In essence, these societal losers are the perfect family!However, about halfway through the series things suddenly take a much darker and more somber tone as we come to realize that mother and daughter may not be mother and daughter, and the fact that the mother may not live to see this thing through, and the series ends on a note of pessimism as it is. That's really tragic since you've sat through 24 episodes of seeing these two together only to realize that they may not live happily ever after with one another. Also, the confusing back-story (as is typical of most Japanese animation) tends to be a bit of a unwarranted distraction in a series that at least manages to keep you watching.Anyway, "Witchblade" is a more-than-suitable addition to a great supernatural comic book mythology. I still question whether or not this will see a second season, though.(Americans can see "Witchblade" on IFC at 11:30 p.m. on Friday nights.)9/10
