Karas: The Prophecy

Pros: This movie will blow your socks off in terms of visuals. Karas: The Prophecy is very fast paced and the character designs are very unique and nothing like anything you've seen stateside. The story is coherent enough for the viewer to understand and the dubbing is far better than expected. The music and sound effects are spectacular and coupled with the great visuals, it is a feast for the eyes and ears.

Cons: Unfortunately, this animated feature flows more like a TV show than a movie and the pace of this feature can get a little broken at times. Secondly, my 2nd gripe about Karas is that the visuals are so mind-blowing and fast, it's sometimes hard to follow the animation. You almost have to watch some of the fights in slow-mo to see exactly how the fight progresses.

This is a great movie to rent or to buy for anime lovers, and as a comic fan, this movie feels like it jumped out of a graphic novel. A new Hero is born!

The DVD summary box says: In a futuristic Tokyo, humans and spirits are sharing the same living space without realizing it, thanks in part to the guardian raven Karas and his masters, who maintain the precarious balance between both dimensions. But when a former Karas named Eko decides to challenge the system by seizing control, it's up to the entity Yurine, who represents the will of the Japanese people, to secure the future for humanity.

This animation is a first-class piece of artwork. Visuals are stunning, and the audio (and audio options) on the DVD is as good as it can get. However if you don't know much about the anime, you WILL be lost in the first few minutes of the movie. On the plus side, you won't mind watching it again just because of all the cool CGI and fight sequences. I promise it makes more sense the second time around.

Just keep in mind that the ending of this movie leaves something to be desired because this is supposed to be a two or three part production. Hopefully there won't be too long a wait for the sequel.

i'm sorry if you guys didn't understand it, but it made prefect sense to me. but i totally get where your coming from, my boyfriend had to watch it a couple of times before he got it. i thought the animation was well done, and don't get me started on the action. to be honest the movie really did't call out to me in the store but my BF talked me into it. And i'm glad he did cuz i fell in love with this movie.i would be glad to explain the movie to anybody. i was jumping for joy when i found out it was part of a six part series. and i can't wait for the next installment. if anybody knows where i can buy any for cheap, that would be awesome.

This movie is sick. The animation is some of the best I've seen. That being said the first time through I missed a lot of the story so it didn't make much sense. Watch it again! The story is really good once you can see past the amazing visuals, the colors and different approach to storytelling is so good I can't speak enough about this DVD. One of the few DVD's I can watch multiple times with out ever getting bored, it's like watching art in motion, you don't have to understand it to appreciate it.

The better the system you run Karas on the more you will enjoy it. This was made to push the limits of your audio and video equipment get ready to be blown away.

First of all, do not watch the movie without having Karas: The Revelation, too. It basically ends abruptly and Revelation starts abruptly at the same point in the story.

The film is a Japanese anime, but in a style that is not often met. The characters are designed in an original way and the usual great Japanese animation is complimented with 3D-like, very fast, action sequences. And, before you say it out loud, it looks good, not like the usual 3D crap, and it blends very well, without that feeling of changing art style.

The plot is a bit weird and not easily grasped and felt, however once you get it, it's OK. Every city is alive and it creates a creature that looks like a punkish little girl to blend with a human soul and create a Karas, which is raven in Japanese, not a golden fish. The Karas is the city protector, both in physical and spiritual senses. Also, the city is full of demons that normal people cannot see, but that are essential to the functioning of the city. The demons do feed off human blood, but usually in a non violent way, and they gain strength from the human belief in them.

Now, the bad guy comes, a disgruntled former Karas, bent on destroying all humans, which he sees as spoilers of the city. The demons can't do much about it, since people have stopped believing in them and so are weak to the point of dissolution. The bad Karas is merging demons with machines to create monsters that eat humans and obey his commands.

The premise is pretty fun, the characters are also interesting, and the conflicts, while being pretty obvious and a bit childish, are also with enough complexity to add to the film. Where Karas chines is the action sequences, which are great in term of design and scale and animation. You often get these slow motion scenes where humans just seem to freeze in time, while supernatural creatures take long conversations and battle at ridiculous speeds and power levels.

Bottom line: not as complex as many anime that I've seen, but with great animation. It's like a Japanese blockbuster anime movie: simple plot, great special effects.