Witchblade

*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.

This series is on par with HBO's Spawn:Animated series. The story is well told, the relationships of the characters are strong. The central mother/daughter theme is simple, powerful, and elegant. I enjoyed all the characters, and the changes they go through, because of a mother's love. For me, most anime is almost senseless, due to my ignorance of Asian culture. I don't care much for giant robots they crush cities and everybody seems to be fine with it. That silly mech. But the machines in this series are relevant, if cannon fodder. The fights were often anti- climatic, ending too soon in one way or another, but easily over-looked when taken into context. No sex, lots of bulbous bosoms (yay!), not much violence against humans and what little there is, is shown off screen or implied in some way. Anyway, worth watching.

I read the herione described as "very loving". What??? She is irresponsible and super neglectful. She was to busy getting drunk to notice her child is so sick she needed hospitalized. Her child spent the entire anime shouldering household duties and parenting her train wreck of a mother. If portraying a strong powerful female was the goal it was a miss. She came off as imature and annoying the majority of the time. Herione was a "Look at me! No one can tell me what to do!" cliche. This juvenile behavior is pretty consistent. Should read.

Witchblade: Fun loving semi-alcoholic mom raises young daughter in a homeless shelters 6 years. Mom gets possessed by sword/blade only to continue to neglect young daughter.

It is a bit eccentric when comes to camera angle but otherwise story is in flow and as I'm watching (ep-13). I am not phasing out.

You can watch especially if you are shot on list of anime to watch.

I discovered Witchblade when I happened to catch the first episode on IFC while channel surfing one Friday night. I have been watching it ever since and have seen all the episodes that IFC has shown so far. Witchblade has some stereotypical anime elements to it, but anyone who likes a good drama/action series should look into giving Witchblade a chance.

To provide a little overview the show is set in a future Tokyo and its title comes from the mysterious artifact which is bonded to the show's lead character, Masane Amaha, who doesn't remember anything about her life before an earthquake that devastated Tokyo. Six years have passed and Masane and her daughter Rihoko return to a rebuilt Tokyo to start a new life. It doesn't take long though for numerous incidents (serial killings, interference from a government welfare agency, and subterfuge from mysterious corporations) to converge and reveal to Masane that the artifact is actually an ancient magical weapon, which when danger is near transforms its bearer into a powerful warrior.

Although I like the show so far I have to admit that Witchblade has a few stereotypical anime elements, most obviously that Masane and most of the adult female characters are quite buxom. Though the Japanese writers of Witchblade at least seem to have a sense of humor about this common anime predilection, as the early episodes have more than one in-joke about Masane's looks. Such as when she is at a clothing store looking for a bra and told that the store doesn't carry any big enough for her, and Masane's nickname 'Melanie' comes about when another character takes note of her rather pronounced curves. Of course the criticism of lead female characters being almost impossibly good-looking is certainly not limited to anime, and plenty of live action American movies do the same thing when they cast an Angelina Jolie or Jessica Alba as the lead. Other aspects of the show deserve a bit more criticism though, like the rather complicated storyline and somewhat convoluted plot twists (common to many anime series) which can make Witchblade somewhat difficult to follow for those who don't watch all the episodes. Then there are the instances of characters suddenly acting just plain silly, for no apparent reason other than because the writers wanted to create come additional action in a particular scene (thankfully the silly scenes become less frequent as the series progresses).

Episodes of Witchblade also tend to be somewhat formulaic, generally consisting of some mother/daughter drama with Masane and Rihoko, along with some comic relief from either them (using the tried and true 'daughter is more mature than mother' conceit) or other characters, then some scenes involving the mysterious corporations, and of course one or two fight scenes usually involving Masane in her transformed Witchblade warrior form. In these fight scenes the opponent is typically either a mechanized foe of some kind or a female enemy who has the super powers (and of course the curves) to match the Witchblade transformed Masane. The fight scenes are pretty over the top, too. Not only is there plenty of violence in them but sometimes also sexual overtones (in a not so subtle attempt by the show's writers to compare the thrill Masane feels in battle to sexual excitement), and then there is the outfit of the Witchblade transformed Masane (and the similar outfits of her female enemies) which leaves little to the imagination. There is no nudity in Witchblade, but the fighting outfits of Masane and the other female characters are definitely skimpy (the show was actually censored for Japanese TV to have the female characters' fighting outfits revised to cover more, but the show is in its original uncensored form on DVD and in its U.S. release on IFC).

Somewhat surprisingly though, while the show's creators doubtless intended scenes of a super powered heroin fighting in a barely-there outfit to be the show's signature feature, such scenes have so far taken up just a few minutes in each episode. This is probably just due to the practical limitations of an animated TV series (where the constraints of a weekly TV schedule prevent long complexly animated fight scenes), but whether by necessity or design it leaves more time per episode for story development, and more importantly for the relationship between Masane and Rihoko. It is this mother/daughter relationship that really gives the show a dramatic center and elevates Witchblade above the usual anime fair. After all, lots of anime shows have battle scenes and curvaceous heroines, but eye candy alone isn't enough to keep a viewer's attention if the characters are shallow and the story boring. This is what makes Witchblade a special anime show, that it stays fun to watch even outside of the scenes where Masane is kicking butt in her over the top Witchblade costume.

Witchblade may not change the minds of those who don't like anime, but it definitely hasn't been boring so far, and I am sure many of those who give it a chance will be glad they did.