Wild Arms Anime Review

Wild Arms: Twilight Venom
Wairudo Amuzu
ADV Films
Complete Collection - 5 discs
550 mins. - 22 episodes
$39.98 (2005)
$29.98 (2003) Vol. 1-5/ea.
$39.98 (2003) w/Artbox
ISBN 702727131721
Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Itsuro Kawasaki/Koichi Mashimo
Studio - Bee Train

Synopsis: Dr. Kiel Aronnax is being tortured in a maximum security prison, but his prospects take a turn for the better when two bumbling thieves show up.  They're Loretta and Mirabelle (along with their pet/partner Jerusha) who are trying to find the treasure rumored to be hidden deep below the prison.  The treasure turns out to be Sheyenne Rainstorm who used to be a strapping 25-year-old gunfighter, but is now trapped in the body of a young boy.  He's none too happy and the group manage a daring escape.

Sheyenne is revived and tries to put the moves on Loretta, but he's just a kid

Sheyenne is able to use special weapons called ARMS which are left over from an ancient 'evil race'.  The weapons possess incredibly destructive power, but use the life force of the wielder and can only be used by very special people.  Sheyenne's original body is missing and he's trapped in a kid's body. He and Kiel end up becoming partners and try to find Sheyenne's body.  The pair also happen upon a small creature similar to Jerusha, but named Issac who joins their party.  The creatures are called Popepi Pipepo, are incredibly long-lived (thousands of years), and highly intelligent.  You wouldn't know that by being around them.

Sheyenne can use the powerful ARMS weapon technology

Loretta is a thief and treasure hunter using her stunning good looks to distract potential rubes.  Her partner Mirabelle is a Crimson Noble or vampire.  She drinks blood and can turn into a cute little bat, but is not destroyed by sunlight (or Christianity).  She ran away from her family and is hiding out with Loretta.  The pair are mildly successful and manage to cross paths with the two boys quite often.

Mirabelle tags along on Loretta's greedy schemes

The ARMS are legendary and highly sought after by power-hungry men.  The 'evil race' caused a catastrophe many years ago which earned them their name.  Sheyenne's original body may hold the key to unlocking the forbidden power of the 'evil race' and dooming the world again.  Will Kiel and Sheyenne ever find his original body?  What is Kiel's secret past and how does it threaten the future?  Will Issac ever get Jerusha to give him the time of day?

Kiel and Sheyenne go on a quest to find his original body

Pros: Interesting premise and some fun episodes, the characters were amusing with Kiel's mysterious past, Sheyenne's outrage at his predicament, Loretta's vain beauty, and Mirabelle's innocent bloodsucking, lots of twists and turns to the plot, decent opening theme, good mix of fantasy/sci-fi/western genres, decent ending

Mirabelle is a vampire from the Crimson Nobles race

Cons: Animation is fairly simple, the vampire clan turn into cute little bats and are really weak, the furry little creatures have annoying voices and aren't very funny, ending theme song was loud and obnoxious, what the heck is that magical wolf-creature?

Is Issac comedy relief or a form of sadistic torture for the viewers?

Mike Tells it Straight: Wild Arms: Twilight Venom spun out of the semi-popular video game series Wild Arms released for the Sony Playstation (a total of five full games released on the Playstation and Playstation 2, plus a PSP title).  It's interesting to note the franchise was never a blockbuster (like Final Fantasy), but was consistently good and garnered a decent following.  I found the anime to be decent, but much like the video games not a blockbuster by any means.  The character designs and animation are pretty mediocre while the stories are fairly straightforward.  Most of them are 1-2 episodes with the search for Sheyenne's original body and the secret of the 'evil race' as recurring themes.

Loretta uses magic cards which explode or create a shield

Wild Arms had some funny comedic moments and the characters worked well together.  Sheyenne constantly complains about being in a kid's body and Kiel is a good straight man.  Loretta's greedy scheming always gets her and Mirabelle into trouble.  The two little creatures are mostly annoying.  There are just enough hints about the 'evil race' and ARMS to keep it interesting.  I liked how the ending revealed all the secrets in a fun science fiction way.  I would recommend this show to beginning anime watchers.  There's nothing explicit and the humor is pretty tame.  The furthest it goes is gun violence and a few people die.

From left: Loretta, Jerusha, Issac, Sheyenne, Mirabelle, and Kiel

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Noir Anime Review

Noir
Nowaru
ADV Films
Complete Collection - 7 discs
650 mins. - 26 episodes
$49.98 (2011) 4-disc
$89.98 (2008) Thinpak
$89.98 (2005)
$29.98 (2003) Vol. 1-7/ea.
$44.98 (2003) Vol. 1 w/t-shirt
ISBN 702727195525
Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Koichi Mashimo
Studio - Bee Train

Synopsis: Mireille Bouquet is a skilled assassin living in Paris.  She is drawn to a young Japanese girl named Kirika who possesses an item from Mireille's past - a pocket watch.  Kirika has amnesia and can't remember her past, but possesses uncanny fighting abilities.  The pair are besieged by a group of hitmen and dispatch them with minimal effort.  They form a partnership with Kirika returning with Mireille to Paris.  Mireille searches for the killers of her parents and Kirika searches for her lost past.  The pair begin taking jobs under the codename "Noir".

Mireille and Kirika - the pair who contract assassinations
 under the codename "Noir"

They are a formidable team with deadly skills and an impeachable killing record.  The secret of both their pasts is well-kept and has cost countless lives over the years.  In their travels they encounter another deadly assassin named Chloe who claims to be the true Noir.  A secret organization is uncovered which dates back for centuries and are known as Les Soldats, French for 'the soldiers'.

Mireille in a shootout with underworld henchmen

Mireille and Kirika kill their way across Europe uncovering the secret past of the Soldats yet never finding any definitive answers.  Sometimes the past is best left forgotten, but is doomed to be repeated.  Kirika is a blank canvas and a seemingly natural born killer.  Mireille struggles with the demons of her past which come back to haunt her.  Chloe appears as an antagonist at first yet has a deep spiritual kinship with Kirika.  Will she be swayed to join the Soldats?

The watch Kirika possesses when she meets Mireille.  What is its link to Les Soldats

Chloe was raised by a woman named Altena who wants to change the Soldats. Is she manipulating Mireille and Kirika as pawns in her game?  Will the two women find the answers they seek even if it destroys them?  Mireille has promised to kill Kirika once they uncover the truth.  The relationship of two killers can be ephemeral at best.  One thing is certain - it's going to take a lot of killing to uncover the secret of Noir.

Mireille ponders the watch which belonged to her dead parents

Pros: Great music - both opening and ending themes plus the background music, interesting story premise - ancient organization operating in the shadows, decent ending, some good episodes with intriguing drama/mystery, high point of the 'girls with guns' anime genre, lots of action (although practically no blood)

Chloe - the deadly assassin who claims to be the true Noir

Cons: Bland characters, exceedingly slow-paced plot (particularly in the middle of the series), animation style is simple, original 7-disc release by ADV was excessive and just milked people for their money (seriously, an entire disc for three episodes!), Mireille wears the same impractical clothes throughout the entire series

Who is the true Noir?

Mike Tells It Straight: I watched Noir and can easily say it's the epitome of the 'girls with guns' anime genre.  Koichi Mashimo is a prolific anime director with many series under his belt (Sorcerer Hunters, .hack//Sign, Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE), but may be most well-known for his 'girls with guns' trilogy (Noir, Madlax, El Cazador de la Bruja) and assassin-themed Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom.

Chloe returns home to Altena.  What is her secret link to Les Soldats?

The series has plenty of action - gunfights and the girls killing dozens of Les Soldats henchmen (plus some highly skilled female assassins).  Oddly it shows very little blood and no gore.  Maybe that's a sign of the times when it was produced (2001) where television series were geared for a broader audience (mindful of younger viewers).  Series today are much more graphic in their violence which I theorize is due to the increased gore in video games.

Mireille is not afraid to kill people while wearing an impractical micro-mini skirt

Despite the action the series can be excruciatingly slow-paced and the characters are very bland.  The animation was decent yet the character designs were overly simple.  It's guilty of a lot of 'talking mouth' and gradual camera pans on unmoving faces (both tricks to keep animation budgets down for TV series).  The only saving grace to the story was the gradual reveal of the mysteries surrounding Les Soldats and both the girls' pasts.  Each episode progressed the story and led to a final confrontation.

Chloe gets the briefest moment of downtime.  She harbors an
intense fascination for Kirika

The last few episodes and the ending were pretty decent.  I'm a bit ambivalent on recommending this series.  Don't get me wrong, it's a solid show and can be engaging.  It just felt really long and I got bored at points.  It won't stop me from checking out Mashimo's two follow-ups (these are not sequels, but both are standalone series). Stay tuned for upcoming reviews and please leave your comments about the show!

Final showdown between two friends?

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Murder Princess Anime Review

Murder Princess
Funimation
Complete Collection - 1 disc
150 mins. - 6 episodes
$19.98 (2009)
ISBN 704400085819
Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Tomoyuki Kurokawa/Shinya Kawatsura/Tomoaki Ohta
Studio - Bee Train

Synopsis: The king of Forland is besieged in a bloody coup d'etat by a renegade scientist once employed by the crown.  This scientist's name is Dr. Akamashi and he besieges the castle with an army of synthetic beasts.  During the coup the king is mortally wounded and sends his daughter, Princess Alita, to flee the kingdom to ensure her safety.  Alita's handmaid, Milano, takes her place so the attackers believe the princess has died.  Dr. Akamashi uses two deadly androids made to look like cute little girls to decimate the palace guard and massacre the royal family.

Dr. Akamashi and his army of synthetic beasts

Alita flees through the forest, but runs afoul of a monstrous creature and runs for her life.  Meanwhile a group of three bounty hunters led by a woman named Falis are killing deadly wolves.  She is a deadly fighter using a long sword and joined by two seemingly ghoulish companions - Dominikov is a diminutive skeleton using a scythe and Peter Armstrong is a pink-skinned, Frankenstein-looking biker.  Alita runs into Falis and the two fall off of a cliff together into the trees below.  During the fall the two girls swap souls due to sharing a near-death experience.  Now Alita is in the body of the bounty hunter, Falis, and vice-versa.  The forest monster attacks and Falis, using Alita's body, hacks it to pieces.

They may look sweet, but these androids are sadistic and deadly

Alita (in Falis' body) pledges herself to Falis (in Alita's body) in return for her help saving the kingdom.  Falis agrees and heads back to the castle.  She confronts and defeats Dr. Akamashi thus ending the coup.  He escapes with his two androids and their threat remains a constant danger.  The king's head man-servant, Jodo, is the only survivor of the brutal massacre and he realizes the truth.  Now Falis is to be crowned ruler of Forland because Alita's brother is away on a mission in a neighboring kingdom.  Alita takes the deceased Milano's name to honor her and becomes Falis' handmaid.

Falis realizes she is in Alita's body after looking at the reflection in her sword

Will the power of ruling a kingdom corrupt the bounty hunter Falis?  Can she stop Dr. Akamashi again if he attacks with his deadly androids and synthetic beasts?  What has happened to Prince Kaito - will his return herald good fortune or a deadly turn of events?  The doctor uncovered lost technology which helped him create the androids to almost take over the kingdom - what is the secret of this lost technology and how is Alita linked to it?

Falis (in Alita's body) massacres Dr. Akamashi's synthetic beasts

Pros: Lots of action and monsters/people getting chopped up, monster designs reminded me of Darkstalkers (minus the hot succubi), Falis is a pretty awesome queen, everything gets explained, decent story pacing (they fit everything into 6 episodes), music was good - a little modern heavy metal

From left to right: Jodo, Peter Armstrong, Falis (in Alita's body),
Dominikov, and Alita (in Falis' body)

Cons: Short, story and plot were only so-so, no way Falis could do the same moves in Alita's unconditioned body, practically zero fan-service, the android little girls are really annoying, Dominikov's mouth doesn't move when he talks, Dr. Akamashi's character design was pretty silly, Alita was just too damn forgiving

The goofy monster designs of Peter Armstrong and Dominikov

Mike Tells It Straight: I was expecting Murder Princess to be a much darker series (and longer).  It ended up being a short and rather tame show.  The body swapping of Alita and Falis was interesting - rough around the edges bounty hunter in the body of elegant, composed princess.  Now the poised princess is cutting up monsters and getting blood splashed all over her clothes.  I felt the show was too short and the viewer didn't have enough time to really empathize with the main characters.

The Dark Knight and evil sorceress Cecilia

Although the monster designs reminded me of Darkstalkers, I didn't really like Falis' two companions Dominikov and Peter Armstrong.  They looked like a skeleton and Frankenstein dressed up as goofy bikers.  Dominikov's mouth never moved when he talked which seemed a bit odd.  The other bad guys besides Dr. Akamashi were pretty cool and I liked their angle in the plot.  Those two little psycho android girls were utterly annoying.  I know the writers were trying to emphasize Alita's depth of character as a royal, but she should have been way more disturbed by the body swapping than she appeared.  I still don't get how Falis could pull off all of her moves in Alita's untrained body.

Falis (in Alita's body) gets woken up by Alita (in Falis' body)

Overall I found this show to be somewhat entertaining, but not terribly memorable.  It was barely PG-13 for the violence and that's about it.  If you're looking for a supernatural action-thriller then look elsewhere.  I found a few neat concepts and some good action scenes as Falis (in Alita's body) hacks up a bunch of monsters, but the story and characters just didn't win me over.  

Alita is now known as the Murder Princess!

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Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom Anime Review

Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom
Funimation
Complete Collection - 7 discs
650 mins. - 26 episodes
$74.98 (2012) DVD/Blu-Ray
$59.98 (2011) Parts 1-2/ea.
ISBN 704400087745
Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles
Director - Koichi Mashimo
Studio - GENCO/Bee Train

Synopsis: A young Japanese man awakens in a room with no recollection of who or why he is there.  All he knows for certain is someone is trying to kill him.  He exits the room and is confronted by the attacker - a girl wearing a mask.  She tells him "If you want to live, come at me with everything you've got!" before renewing her attack.  The young man manages to survive her attacks and land an offensive move.  The girl is revealed to be named Ein and the top assassin for a powerful criminal organization called Inferno.  Inferno's top assassin is designated "Phantom" and the young man will now be trained to become a killer.  His memory lost, the young man is named Zwei by the man in charge of the "Phantom" project called the Scythe Master.

Ein gives the future Zwei a little motivation to fight back

Ein begins Zwei's difficult training and it is revealed his survival instincts and innate talents as a killer may even surpass hers.  She is an emotionless killer and brainwashed by Scythe Master to be an obedient puppet.  Zwei goes through the same brainwashing, but still clings to the hope of discovering his missing past.  Inferno is a coalition of criminal organizations and continues to grow by adding new groups.  Inferno uses the Phantom to keep their members in line and frighten opposition.  In the event a group refuses to join then Inferno convinces the second-tier members of the group to join by putting them in power after the Phantom eliminates the first-tier.

Zwei is trained by Ein to become an emotionless tool for killing

A high-ranking member of Inferno, Claudia McCunnen manages the Scythe Master and his Phantom project.  She dislikes and distrusts him due to his conniving and sadistic manner.  She plants the seed in Zwei's mind that he is not just a tool, but has individuality.  It leads to his alignment with her instead of blindly following the Scythe Master's commands as Ein does.  Claudia is attended by a tough woman named Lizzie who grew up and joined Inferno with her.  It is revealed Claudia's brother died as a street thug and she is living out his dream to become a powerful member of a criminal organization.  She plans to someday lead Inferno through cunning and manipulation.

Claudia manipulates Zwei

A power-struggle between Claudia and Scythe Master leaves Ein and Zwei on opposite sides.  Two deadly assassins with skills honed to a razor's edge.  Who will dominate Inferno?  Will Zwei regain his lost memory and can he free Ein from Scythe Master's programming?  Even if he can help Ein, will the two be able to escape from Inferno and live a normal life after spilling so much blood?  

Ein and Zwei pose as a couple to stake out a location

Pros: Slick animation style and backgrounds (thanks to Bee Train), nice CG (computer graphics) effects, music is pretty good, loved the evil masks Ein and Zwei wear during jobs, a few interesting plot twists, some fan-service (Lizzie in the first ep and plenty of Claudia throughout), adequately dark ending

Zwei takes aim during a hit

Cons: Predictable and cliche, main characters are totally apathetic and boring, too long at 26 episodes, the head of Inferno looks like a wussy version of Sephiroth from FF7 and is named McGwire, assassins in high school drama, totally lame LA street gang called the "Bloodies" (a play on the actual LA street gang the "Bloods"), the title of the series - why not just Requiem for the Phantom (instead of having Phantom twice)?, Zwei taking in a little girl

Zwei takes in this little girl after she witnesses a hit

Mike Tells It Straight: Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom is based on a visual novel game (i.e. choose-your-own-adventure) called Phantom: Phantom of Inferno.  Seems kind of silly to use the word Phantom twice in each title, but I guess it's consistent.  Requiem was not the first animated adaptation of Phantom of Inferno - back in 2004 (2006 for the US market) a 3-episode OVA (original video animation) called Phantom: The Animation was released.  The game and OVA must have been fairly well-received to spawn a full animated series.

Ein after a particularly hard day at work

Bee Train (the animation studio) helped produce this series and they previously created a pair of very similar, well-known series - Noir and Madlax which focused on assassins (although those two series starred women assassins). The studio is very good at assassin movies and this series is put together very nicely.  The action flows pretty well and the plot kept me relatively interested through most of it.

Scythe Master and his deadly puppet assassins

Unfortunately for Requiem I feel assassin shows are a bit played out in anime - Noir, Madlax, and Golgo 13 (assassin shows in general due to Hitman, Assassins, and The Specialist) have all come before .  They have all come before and Requiem doesn't add much to the genre.  I don't need to see another slow-motion assassination with classical music playing in the background.  The typical anime assassin's personality is completely apathetic and boring.  I get it - killing makes you an emotionless shell, but these are not characters I can form any emotional attachment towards.

Zwei and Ein as creepy puppet killers

If you loved Noir and Madlax then Requiem is a nice return to this corner of the genre (although no girl-on-girl romance thing happening).  I thought it was passable, but too long for a full 26-episode series.  Let's just cut to the chase and have our heart-wrenching death-duel between Ein & Zwei.  The addition of Drei (btw, ein, zwei, drei = 1, 2, 3 in German) was superfluous to the main story.  Decent action, only semi-decent plot, and pretty visuals, but drags on and nothing new conceptually.

TO BUY and Recommendations: