ANIME

ANIME REVIEW . Witchblade Vol. 1 + Starter Set

First off, I must admit I have no prior experience with Witchblade other than a small Tomb Raider and Witchblade comic book I received way back in high school. I remember something regarding her being a treasure hunting aristocrat, somewhat like Lara Croft, and possessing some power that made some funky skimpy armor appear on her body, but other than that I had no idea as to what the character was, how she came to be, or what she stood for.

That said, I’ve learned quite a bit from the liner notes. The Witchblade of the title refers to the heroine as much as the otherworldly weapon she wields. Something of a symbiote, the Witchblade chooses a female bearer and attaches itself to her permanently. When activated, it transforms its female into a skimpily armored death machine, blades covering her entire (covered) person, and her every violent action instilled with raging, animalistic pleasure. Interesting.

Taking place thirty years in the future, the Witchblade anime sees a heroine completely different from that of the comics. The New York setting of the original has been shifted to Tokyo, albeit a Tokyo partially leveled and submerged following a catastrophic earthquake. This disaster has spawned a number of industries, including weapons-making and protections, as well as numerous new governmental departments, including a child welfare office created in order to respond to the large number of children orphaned by the disaster.

As the series opens we are introduced to Masane Amaha, a young mother on the run with her child from this very agency. A victim of the quake, she remembers nothing of the day, save for having woken near the epicenter with her then infant child in her arms, and a mysterious glowing bracelet clasped round her wrist. For the past six years she’s remained completely unaware of her powers — but that’s all about to change. Upon their arrival in Tokyo Masane will see her custody of her daughter threatened by government workers, encounter a series of bloodthirsty biomechanical beasts, and ultimately awaken to the power of the Witchblade.

Frankly, if you’re looking for straight-up action this first disc is a bit of a tease. There’s a brief glimpse of Witchblade fighting a monster in the first episode (which is quite cool, I might add), and a pretty killer tank fight towards the middle, but the rest of the runtime features primarily mother/daughter drama, some rather cutesy comedic setups surrounding apartment hunting, and your basic routine character introductions and narrative housekeeping. Sure, there are the obligatory lecherous transformation sequences, featuring standard anime clothes-explosions, with heaving chests and swirling crotch shots, but otherwise the thing is fairly tame. Enemies, too, are a bit sub par at this point (The liner notes say more imposing ones come along later), reminding me a litte of the robot aliens in Gantz, but far easier to kill. Lastly, some of the setups within episodes were fairly far-fetched. For example, the first episode sees Masane stealing a police car and getting involved in a high speed chase after child services nab her daughter. But, I guess this criticism is null and void, as this is an comic book adaptation.

That said, the animation is undeniably slick. All motion is incredibly fluid, and the character designs are definitely appealing, guys a collection of harsh angles and straight lines, and females with generously proportioned bubbles. It’s worth noting that the Witchblade costume of the Japanese television show has been altered for the DVD release. While the former was something approximating legitimate armor, this one is super-skimpified, with an exposed backside the likes of Fran from Final Fantasy XII. To be honest, I don’t see why the Television costume wasn’t used on the DVD, as it might enable the story to reach a wider female audience. Colors and shading are all equally eye-catching, bright, flashy, and clean. If anything this, combined with the setup at the very end of the fourth episode (might we see an actual knock-down, drag-out fight?) has piqued my interest toward the second disc.

Witchblade is deserving of props in the voice department as well. Both the English and Japanese language cast deliver some genuinely competent and engaging performances, free from the overacting, misplaces emphases, and mispronunciations that plague other (primarily English) tracks. The Japanese voice of Witchblade, Mamiko Noto, also handles the series’s closing credits song, which is quite possibly my favorite tune since Lain’s “Duvet”.

On the one hand, I feel a bit disappointed in the first disc, as nothing much really happened action-wise. However, the mother/daughter drama did feel genuine and held my interest even in the absence of rock-em sock-em action. I realize that many shows take a disc or two of episodes to find their flow, and Witchblade is probably no exception, so I’m reluctant to apply my criticism to the show in its entirety. And hey, taking the time to establish an emotional connection to the characters before throwing them into the midst of battle isn’t exactly a bad thing, right? Disc 2 comes out this week, so I’ll see how that ends up. If I had to deliver a verdict, I would say the series looks promising, but is off to a bit of a slow start.

The DVD .

The Witchblade DVD is presented in a crystal clear fullscreen transfer, with English (5.1) and Japanese (2.0) language tracks, and optional English subtitles. Audio was similarly clear, and sounded great on our surround and mono television setups alike.

Being that this is the DVD Starter Box edition, some mention should be made of the packaging. If there’s one thing that I love about Funimation, it is their packaging. Seriously, these guys have hands down some of the slickest packaging around (Check out the graphic design on the Speedgrapher or Afro Samurai DVDs if you don’t believe me). And Witchblade is no exeception. The Box is illustrated on all sides (top and bottom as well), with a large wrap-around image featuring Witchblade and some other mysterious lady on the vertical sides. The Disc itself comes in an clear amray case nested inside a paper sleeve. The sleeve features art by Mike Choi, and the actual DVD sleeve features completely different art from the Anime art team. The box also contains a spacer with some rather cheesecakey art on the inside, but it’s on some rather nice glossy cardboard. Topping it off is an 8-page insert containing interviews with the production team, as well as character designs and sketches. I recommend reading the interview as it will undoubtedly increase your enjoyment and understanding of the actual show.

On the extras side the Disc features a lengthy tour of the Top Cow offices with Marc Silvestri, a very brief promo trailer for the series, a video interview with Mamiko Noto (the voice of Masane Amaha), Textless versions of the opening and closing credits, and a bunch of Funimation DVD trailers. Of these I found the interview with Mamiko Noto to be the most interesting, as she divulges a lot of information regarding her perceptions of her character, her motivations, and her transformation (both physically and emotionally) over the course of the show. The Silvestri bit is interesting, if a bit low key, and should please fans of Top Cow comics.

The last item included in the set is the Witchblade Soundtrack, titled Sexual Panic (wha?!). The disc totals 32 tracks, which include both the opening “XTC” (pretty grating) and closing “Tomorrow’s Hand” (pretty awesome) themes, as well as various instrumental tracks from the show. The instrumentals are pretty good, but for the most part I just keep listening to “Tomorrow’s Hand” over and over.

All in all, I like the presentation of the disc, as well as the quality of the disc itself. The show is interesting, but I want to see a few more episodes before I deliver a solid verdict. If you’re interested in Witchblade, I would say the starter set is the way to go. Not only does it contain the soundtrack CD with “Tomorrow’s Hand”, but it’s actually cheaper than the single disc on Amazon.com. Good stuff.

About the Author

Chris Nelson has been a film fanatic since age six. A former film and English major, he is now a Software Engineer and contract Technical Writer living in the Silicon Valley.