Short Synopsis: A girl whose parents were murdered asks Manji to help her with her revenge.
Highlights: If you weren’t already convinced that this was a Bee-Train series, then this episode will.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Okay, so I think that it was pretty obvious that I’d end up blogging this series. After years, I’m still not sure what’s so appealing about their distinctive style, and yet I absolutely love it. I haven’t read one page of the manga so far, though I might read it once this series is finished. I believe that there were some changes made here and there that made the manga-readers overall disappointed, but for now, I won’t care about that.
In any case, it turns out that the frantic pacing of the first episode was just used by means of an introduction. I should have known: Bee-Train really likes to kick off its series as mysteriously as possible, only to go for a slow pacing with episode two. We’ve seen it in El Cazador, .Hack//Sign, Tsubasa Chronicle, and probably some more that I forgot about now. Still, a slow pacing is really what fits Bee-Train the best. It really allows the story to take its time and the characters to develop properly.
I also keep getting impressed by the music, and it’s surprisingly varied. One track bears a clear reference to Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi, while the next is a spunky modern jazzy piece of music, the next is a quiet harp song, the next gives off horror-vibes. Kou Outani really was given a lot of freedom for this series. I must say that I really like the vocals that were used. Call it wailing, but I think that whoever is singing it has a great voice.
Also, what’s up with the episode count for this series? MyAnimeList is the only site which has this series listed at 13 episodes, and yet neither AniDB nor Animenewsnetwork, which strike me as the more reliable, have anything about the total amount of episodes. And yet, there’s also talk going on about a second season. In any case, next week there’s another hiatus, but after that, the releases seem to continue weekly instead of semi-weekly.
Without Yuki Kajiura who had always been a staple of their best series, the music is worth nothing IMHO.
I want to know whats up with the scenes shown in the OP/ED!?
Why is Manji shown in a modern city,with skyscrapers ! WTF ??!!
WTH is BT doing with this series.IMHO,the music is excellent,and I can’t wait to get the OST into my hands.Especially the female vocals in the OP.
Well, I decided to drop Blade of the Immortal.
The manga is quite possibly my favourite manga of all time. I was so disappointed when Studio Bee Train acquired the rights to this. First they screw up Tsubasa, now it looks like they’ll screw up Blade of the Immortal as well. The pacing is absolutely terrible, the music is horrid, out of place, weakly composed, and doesn’t fit the series at all, and with the exception of the OP, the animation is dull and plain weak. They’ve changed up dialogue, the main characters personality (for the worse) and fucked around with a perfectly good story. The execution felt all over the place (in both episodes)and was awkward. I should of known this would happen–Bee Train can’t make anything good, or at least it seems so.
Studio Bee Train = Worst studio ever?
/endrant
“Studio Bee Train = Worst studio ever?”
Yeah, probably. Along, of course, with Gonzo.
BOIT is maybe the worst manga-to-anime adaptation I’ve ever seen.
I can write this one up there with Tsubasa as one of the biggest pieces of crap made from a wonderful manga. Thank you Bee Train, you’ve done it again. May you and the teams who worked on this and Tsubasa brun in the depths of hellfire for eternity
Yeah, I’m kinda dissapointed too. Especially with the music. I think I’ll start to hate Ko Otani for what he’s done here 😛 .
Oh well, the manga gets way better later on, so maybe it’ll be the same with the anime…