Rss

Archives for : TNK

Blade Dance of the Elementalers: Complete Collection (anime review)

Review provided by Andrew and Katieblade-dance-of-the-elementalers

Title: Blade Dance of the Elementalers: Complete Collection

Director: Tetsuya Yanagisaw

Studio: TNK

Author: Takao Yoshioka

U.S. Distributor: Sentai Filmworks, Section 23

U.S. Release Date: February 2, 2016

Format and Length: Blu-ray / 12 Episodes / 300 Minutes

Genre: Action, Comedy, Ecchi, Fantasy, Harem, Romance, School, Supernatural

Industry Age Rating: 14 and up

Overall Personal Rating: C

Similar Series or Titles to Check Out: The Familiar of Zero and IS: Infinite Stratos

Synopsis:

In order to enroll at the Areisha Spirit Academy, where young priestesses learn how to form contracts with Spirits, the ideal prospective student must be pure, chaste, and of a superior lineage. They must also be female as only one man has ever made a Spirit contract and He was the Demon King.
The entire Academy is thrown into chaos and confusion when Kamito Kazehaya arrives at the Headmistress’ request because not only is he very obviously a guy, but he also managed to form a Spirit contract in the short time it took him to walk through the woods surrounding the Academy.
And what other secrets might the new enrollee have hidden? The unexpected intrusion of something male is certain to work the female student body into a tizzy as the answers are revealed in Blade Dance of the Elementalers: Complete Collection.

Commentary:

Blade Dance of the Elementalers: Complete Collection is your basic magical harem anime series. There is nothing original about the series and that saddened me. Basically, the plot is full of holes and does not explain much of anything. A great example is how Kamito Kazehaya won a Blade Dance three years prior to the setting of the series, but no one knows that as he was in a robot suit. It seems as if they decided to use the first eleven episodes as filler and the actual series began in the final episode. The battles reminded me of Pokémon battles due to the use of “spirit animals” and the battles lasted far too long for my taste. There was also an over-use of fan-service and there was one scene that bordered on hentai so I personally believe that the age rating should have been higher.

Blade Dance of the Elementalers: Complete Collection included every character archetype, but mostly focused on tsundere, that harem animes use but there was hardly any development done to the characters. Kamito Kazehaya is the only male spirit contractor in the series so naturally the rest of the characters are wary of him. He has a good nature personality but also teases the other characters. Kamito is a competent fighter and uses his head more than his emotions in his fights. Claire Rougeis one of the tsundere’s in the series; however she is heavy on the tsun and light on the dere. Her contracted spirit is a flame cat named Scarlett. Rinslet Laurenfrost is also a tsundere but instead of tsundere to Kamito she is mostly tsundere to Claire, her childhood friend. Her contracted spirit is an ice wolf named Fenrir. Ellis Fahrengart is another tsundere, but she uses the tsundere to protect her school as a Knight. Her contracted spirit is an eagle named Simorgh. Those are the characters that stood out the most to me. There are others including Fianna Ray Ordesia and Est.

The characters were well drawn but the background animation seemed to get lost. The music was standard for this genre and did not stand out in any way. The voice actors did a good job but some left something to be desired.
Extras:
Blade Dance of the Elementalers: Complete Collection includes Japanese Promos, Blade Dance Special Mini OVA’s, Clean Opening and Closing Animations, and Sentai Filmworks Trailers as special features. This series was released with Japanese with English subtitles as the only language option.

Overall Grade: C
While I was somewhat let down by Blade Dance of the Elementalers: Complete Collection I believe that someone who loves the harem genre will enjoy it.

Ikki-Tousen: Xtreme Xecutor (anime review)

Ikki-Tousen: Xtreme Xecutorreview provided by Katie and Andrew

Title: Ikki-Tousen: Xtreme Xecutor-The Complete Series Plus OVA “Shugaku Toshi Keppu-Roku”

Director: Series-Koichi Ohata  OVA-Rion Kujo

Studio: Series-TNK  OVA-Arms

Author: Series-Koichi Ohata  OVA-Koichi Ohata

U.S. Distributor: Funimation Entertainment

U.S. Release Date: March 11, 2014

Format and Length: DVD / 12 Episodes + 1 OVA / 300 Minutes

Genre: Action, Ecchi, Martial Arts, School, Super Power

Industry Age Rating: 17 and up

Overall Personal Rating: C

Similar Series or Titles to Check Out: Ikki-Tousen

Synopsis:

The fourth season of Ikki-Tousen delivers double the ditz when Hakufu gets a disciple. But training a pupil is tiring work and catching some sleep at random times puts a delay on her dreams of combat conquest. Hakufu is ready to rumble when word of a tournament gets around and that is when a sinister force sabotages the rival schools’ into submission. Can Hakufu muscle her way to victory and save all her friends from repeating their fatal past? You will have to watch Ikki-Tousen: Xtreme Xecutor-The Complete Series Plus OVA to find out.

Commentary:

I can only describe Ikki-Tousen: Xtreme Xecutor-The Complete Series Plus OVA as more of the same that you come to expect from the series. The story line, however small it was, moved at a very fast pace and I was lost most of the time. There are many flashbacks right off the bat in the first episode that can confuse you if you have not watched the first season of Ikki-Tousen lately.

However, they did decide to introduce two new characters, Kentei the self-proclaimed “True King” and Mouki Bachou, Hakufu’s disciple.  Kentei is the one planning a new tournament for the Great Fighters so he can force them to fulfill their destiny from eighteen hundred years ago. He lures each fighter with a Magatama to an island under the name of Nanban High School where may hardships await them. Mouki Bachou’s main objective is to fight and win a battle against the person who killed her precious older brother and that person is Sousou Moutoku , the head of Kyoshou Academy. Mouki can be described as being reckless, oblivious to her own limitations, and a leaping and kicking disaster in pink sneakers. I saw her as the comedic relief among the massive amounts of fan-service.

The characters were drawn well and the fight scenes were interesting. However, the fight scenes overpowered everything else in the series because they took up most of the episode time. The rest of the time was spent filling the screen with fan-service aka shirt shredding and looking up skirts for panty shots. The plot is Ikki-Tousen classic, girls from different schools fighting until their clothing shreds apart. Nothing special there but with the two new characters added in this season we do see some character development, but not much.

The OVA, Shugaku Toshi Keppu-Roku, the three major schools are off to Kyoto seeking spiritual energy tokens called Tsubas. You also finally get an explanation for why there are no innocent bystanders hurt during the battles. Shugaku Toshi Keppu-Roku is supposed to be the sequel to Ikki-Tousen: Xtreme Xecutor-The Complete Series but it feels more like an abbreviated retelling of the series.  Nothing special in the plot or characters but it was nice to get a refresher for the series.

Extras:

Ikki-Tousen: Xtreme Xecutor-The Complete Series Plus OVA includes “Six Dreamy Views,” promotional videos, clean opening and closing animations, Japanese commercial, U.S. Trailer, Funimation Entertainment trailers, and episode commentary as Special Features. Ikki-Tousen: Xtreme Xecutor-The Complete Series Plus OVA has English and Japanese languages with Japanese subtitles.

Overall Grade: C

Ikki-Tousen: Xtreme Xecutor-The Complete Series Plus OVA has an extreme amount of fan-service and it takes away from the story line. However, it is an okay anime for what it is.