Black Blood Brothers vol. 3 — Baldr Force EXE — Shin Chan season 1 — Hell Girl vol. 4 — anime reviews
Kris and I just got back from a short vacation, and some of the review titles have piled up quite a bit (I just received 4 more titles yesterday). So, in an effort to clean house, here are a few short capsules for Black Blood Brothers vol. 3, Baldr Force EXE, Hell Girl vol. 4, and Shin Chan Season 1, part 1. If you guys like this format, I can continue it for reviews of other anime titles.
Black Blood Brothers vol. 3
And so Black Blood Brothers winds to a close, just as the series reaches its peak. Cassa and her band of Kowloon Children have broken into the special zone and look to be attempting a recreation of the Hong Kong crusade. Jiro makes his way to find the city’s 11th yard, in search of whatever secrets it may hold, while Kotaro meets a series of dangers, having run away from home. (If you haven’t already, read my reviews of volumes 1 and 2). Jiro and crew don’t stay separated for long, and once they reunite the show’s action level goes through the roof. There are a number of excellent showdowns, including Cassa and Jiro’s final fight, which for myself proved far more satisfying than the recently reviewed Witchblade conclusion. That said, in terms of the show’s narrative, the revelations found in these final four episodes don’t really validate the 8 episodes prior. Instead the entire 12 episode series seems to have been a massive teaser for a possible second season. Sad, because the show has a wonderful look to it–eye-catching character designs, gorgeously smooth animation, etc. Still, this was quite the fun show while it lasted, and more than warrants a purchase for fans of Vampire Anime. Heck, I liked this one better than Trinity Blood or Hellsing. The DVD’s extras match those of the previous two volumes. Pick it up.
Baldr Force EXE
And now for something completely retarded. Baldr Force initially intrigued me with its promise of cyberpunk thrills meets Cronenberg splatter, but its story was anything but interesting. The basic tale of Baldr Force sees an elite hacker turned government securities agent, tasked with tracking down and destroying an hostile internet entity with a penchant for exploding people’s heads. And here’s where the coolness stops. In the world of Baldr Force, hacking involves the piloting of virtual mechs. Not just any mechs, mind you, but cheaply rendered cg mechs, quite possibly ripped from those terrible 1990’s CG Transformers shows — or worse yet, that Saturday morning cartoon show, Game Over. Strange, because the The super-elite hacker team from which our hero hails (called Steppen Wolf [ouch]), seem to be able to create whatever virtual tools they want within the cyber realm. Once our hero becomes a member of a government team, he has to face all sorts of dangers, from equally lame gangs of cyber bandits, other hostile government teams, and a little girl ghost in the machine. Action is by and large a tiresome affair, while the story itself is even more yawn inducing. I actually fell asleep during the last episode’s final 10 minutes. There are moments of discomfort, as exhibited by the series’ rather cheap, uninspired, and unpolished visual style, as well as an overly long sequence of cyber rape. Don’t fall for the slick anti-static bag packaging and Funimation’s amusing warning of head-explosions from watching the show. Skip this sucker at all costs.
Shin Chan
For those of you not in the know, Shin Chan follows the adventures of Crayon Shin Chan, a rude little boy with a penchant for trouble, both at home and at school. He loves action heroes, proclaiming the wonders of manhood with his father, making fun of his mom’s small breasts, and shaking his bare ass in front of anyone that will watch. Really, that’s pretty much the whole setup. And after all I had heard about Shin Chan ( I work, so I can’t really watch it on Adult Swim), I was so happy to see this in my mailbox. Only, once I popped the disc into my DVD player, I found that I was stuck with half a season of the English dub. The box-set does feature one episode of the original Japanese language show, but only as an extra on the second disc. The English dub is pretty funny, but had a tendency to wear on me, as most of the humor relies on shocking language and American pop culture references moreso than clever narrative setups. Mind you, these episodes were never quite South Park or Family Guy stupid, but uncomfortably close for me. Anyways, the show was funny, but a bit disappointing. I think Kris liked this more than I did, but I would have rather been allowed the chance to see the show with a more legitimate translation. When it comes to buying this set, I’d say wait around for a dual language edition.
Hell Girl vol 4
I’ve been sitting on this for quite a while, so here goes. As her name would suggest, Hell Girl is a cute little girl from the underworld, that does a valuable service to humans by sending their enemies to hell. You see, humans that have a grudge or suffer at the hands of other humans, but are not themselves able to take vengeance, can petition Hell Girl to take care of their target for them. Hell Girl makes it easy too, providing 24 hour grudge assistance through her Hell Girl website. But her services are pricey. Should the person contacting Hell Girl actually decide to go through with their requested service of demonic banishment, they too must suffer eternal damnation once they pass on to the next world. Sounds pretty good right? Though this too isn’t that exciting. A lot of the episodes were fairly drawn out and uninteresting, relying on a parade of tired genre cliches (lonely “orphans”, circus lovers, jilted siblings) to tell their tales. And, when the episodes weren’t boring me, they were completely repulsing me. Case in point, the disc’s last episode which sees a poor little girl at odds with a fat old woman, who just so happens to have kidnapped her dogs following an accidental biting incident. The girl performs services for the old woman, in the face of constant verbal abuse and threats to her dog’s safety, in hopes of someday freeing the poor souls. Only it doesn’t happen. The woman kills both dogs, and then drowns their puppies! Count me out on this one. It’s a shame too, because the show looks great. Sorry, Hell Girl. I’m afraid you’re just not my type.
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