It’s really hard to tell an epic story in this medium, anime, in only six episodes; it’s even harder to do it well. Karas is a six episode anime series which strove to tell an age old story of the battle between good and evil and the consequences which happen when the balance between the two is off. Karas not only tried to convey this message, it attempted to cram massive amounts of info and background into a very short series which needed the customary twenty six episodes.
PLot summary
Tokyo’s chosen protector, the Karas known as Otoha, has lost his master, Yurine, to the former Karas turned embittered tyrant, Eko. Otoha had awoken from his coma in the city hospital in order to stop Eko from destroying Otoha’s corporal form. Too late he realized he was not Eko’s target; Yurine was.
Without their Yurine, the Karas of the cities are powerless to transform into their guardian forms. Now Otoha wanders the streets, trying to discover a purpose without his Yurine. In a twist of cruel fate, what little was left to Otoha before his coma was riven from him by his former gang member brothers.
Eko, meanwhile, finally has all the pieces he needs to turn Tokyo into a charnel house, devoid of humans but a haven for demons. Karas is unable to stop Eko as he sacrifices his minions in order to realize his ambitions. Tokyo now becomes a blood drenched battle ground between the now powerless Otoha and the nigh indestructible Eko. But Tokyo chooses its Karas; who will this city now pick as its protector?
review
Readers familiar with this site know how I feel about the previous Karas. To those unfamiliar: Karas: The Prophecy had too much flash and not enough substance. Too little information was given about the Karas and the role they play in protecting various cities. Tidbits were thrown out to the general public, but most people were forced to re-watch the first volume multiple times in order to gain some modicum of understanding. Wikipedia also became a popular source of external information for the series instead of the series itself.
Karas: The Revelation, while being a massive improvement over the first volume, was still lacking major plot points and depth. Otoha had the potential to be a highly sympathetic character, and I began to be drawn to him, but the development fell short. This was aggravating. There were far too many holes in his story, his personality, his background, his role as Karas; the list is long in that regard. Whole episodes should have been devoted to Otoha if the studio wanted to flesh him out. And it felt like the studio actually did want to flesh him out but ran out of time. Instead, we’re given this hollowed out shell of a man who looks fantastic on the surface but is empty on closer inspection.
The same goes for Eko. This guy wants to destroy Tokyo for the countless years of pain he endured as he watched it degrade under his protection. This is a huge plot point but there wasn’t much background on how Eko has attracted demons to his cause or how his Yurine grew so weak or who he was before he was a Karas. Even briefly touching on any of these points would have made Eko more sympathetic which would have added to the story’s overall depth.
As it was, the story felt incomplete and shallow. The Yurine’s control the Karas, but how and why? The city creates the Yurine but how are the Karas chosen? Why is Otoha called “Doctor Karas”? What is a Karas’ duration as protector? All these interesting questions, which viewers ask themselves, add a spark to the series which never developed into a flame. Everything fell short except the visuals and the voice acting.
Karas has some of the absolute best character designs to date. Homura, a Karas visiting Tokyo, takes the cake as the best design in the series. Her armor and Karas persona have a sensuous yet warrior-like feel; the balance between the two is perfect. Even the absolutely laughable Karas-jet planes had great design work. All the Mikura (machine demons) were horrific in appearance and had the desired affect of creeping me the hell out. Both Otoha and Eko were given the super-bishishounen treatment and looked fantastic on the screen. The Yurine are adorable with their glowing hair and cat-girlish mannerisms. Visually, it seems as if nothing was overlooked, with the exception of the editing.
In some scenes, the editing made it confusing as to what was actually happening; is the fight over or did it move somewhere else? Is this a flashback or is a character’s response real time? Did this character die or not? Poor editing made a movie which was already dreadfully confusing, needlessly more so.
Karas: The Revelation was Tatsunoko Production’s 40th Anniversary work. The animation is indeed a celebration of superb craftsmanship, super-detailing, realistic movements, and inspired character designs. “Impressive” is actually too mundane a word to describe the animation. Details abound and the rich palette for the series almost drips from the screen. The story for Karas, however, was the Achille’s Heel for what could have been Tatsunoko Production’s finest work to date.
The English voice cast, though much touted, paled in comparison to the Japanese voice cast. The Japanese voice cast emoted well and blended in beautifully with the visuals. The music suited the animation and was epic to match the high reaching feeling of the anime.
Karas had the potential to be a masterpiece beyond its jaw-dropping visuals. Story, plot, and character development, however, were sacrificed in favor of beautiful animation and inventive character designs. It’s easy to make something look good; it’s much more difficult to develop an anime that will stick with someone long after they forget what the series or movie looked like. Karas was a beautiful anime, but I’ve already forgotten what it was about, if I ever knew to begin with.
out of a possible four gummies.
anyone has idea where to buy the six episode Karas collection?
the best character for me has to be a tie between otaha(non-karas) or the snail girl lol
i agreee i wanted more info on eko so i can make a final judgement but hroughout the 2 movies i just felt like he was a bad guy in need of a beat down
@ mike
You can try rightstuf.com or animenation.com. Both sell the series as two separate DVDs (The Prophecy and The Revelation) or as a box set (The Complete Collection). However, the box set won’t be released until November 20…both sites are taking pre-orders,though.
Also, you may be interested in entering a contest being held by AnimeOnDVD. They will be giving away 10 copies of The Revelation. The deadline for entry is November 9. You can enter here:
http://www.animeondvd.com/interactive/contests/aodcontest.php?id=168
You see, this happens when people let fucktards like you write about something they know jackshit.
Fuck you, fuck you and fuck you. yo hell with your shity review.
reader – So does that mean you liked Karas: The Revelation or not?
I can somewhat agree with you on the character department…
But indeed, this kind of directing is very tokusatsu-like; where the main focus might not be the characters but the dynamics of the crooked ideal of Ekou and the apathetic city of Shinjuku… and the whole surreality of the world of Karas itself.
Not every directors chose to thicken the sympathy to the main character… for many reasons. But personally, I think the better director can give the “that’s it” character development moment, while keeping the intensity of viewer’s anticipation to see the plot progression, even in limited time (or budget, or whatever it might be).
Not like emo sci-fi anime drama (i.e. Eva, Fafner, Rahxephon), this one might be decided from the first time to be a 6-episode OVA… and so the ‘emo’ did not take part even half of it.
When I watched Karas, the feel of Japanese-style directing is very apparent… it is like watching Akira. Even in the face of all the gore, you still want to know what’s happening. The directors have to learn Western-style directing, if I have to say, just like what have been executed wonderfully in Gankutsuou.
@rv, I could see how Karas would have been something different and more palatable if the whole series was, as you mention of the Karas world, surreal. If the entire series adhered to a surreal approach, the outcome would have been more positive, believe it or not, than if they mixed surrealism with realism and fantasy (which they did).
And I fully agree with you on the sympathy towards characters bit. Many times I’ve actually sided with the bad guy simply because he was initially the victim and we the audience learn this through character development. However, Eko wasn’t fleshed out enough for me to care. There was simply no investment.
That’s a great example (The Count of Monte Cristo) you brought up rv, of the baddie being the most developed, fleshed out, and therefore, potentially, most sympathetic character. The Count in Gankutsuo was indeed very sympathetic and had my full support, at least for a while, due solely to the my investment in his character.
This was a superb OVA series – IMO, your review shows poor understanding and that you have poor taste. That you don’t know what it was about is a reflection of your own inadequacies.
@holz, “your review shows poor understanding and that you have poor taste” How do I have poor taste? Because my opinion differs from yours? You give zero reasons as to why you feel Karas is superb, IYO.
How is your understanding of this cobbled together, but beautifully animated, OVA more refined than mine? Please enlighten us with a thorough breakdown of the anime (feel free to give a lengthy dissertation).
“That you don’t know what it was about is a reflection of your own inadequacies.”
Riiiggghhht.
SPOILERS!!!!
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
This would have to have 2 of the greatest fight scenes in an anime ever. Also a great plot but I have to disagree why because even though they shoved like 26 eps worth of info in2 6 it actually made me watch it 3 times over and go wow I totally missed that in the first one that is truely amazing take one of the early scenes for example when the 1st good karas dies to eko and they are at the hospital and the yurine *cat form* walks over from the now dead karas and pass’s it on to the new one who is a coma… like so easy to miss but makes u feel special the 2nd time thru when u pick up on these things. I loved it becoz i have seen it 3 times and that is the 1st anime to really do that to me normally I only watch a series once maybe twice in a blue moon but with this one id be happy to watch it over and over!
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
END SPOILERS!
@SiggyBrah, The fight scenes in Karas are spectacular and are about the only thing worth watching in either movie.
I believe i am not the only person who find your review shallow. You find the plot confusing because you have not paid enough attention to the details.
I watched the anime 3 times and am still enjoying it. There are so many things to ‘catch up’ that i have missed during the previous two times. No doubt the fourth time would be as enjoyable. I personally have not watched any anime for more than two times. No other production house will be able to acheive this standard of animation for a long time to come.
There are definitely many more spectacular scenes than the first fight scene which you picked up only. May I suggest you the watch the anime a couple more times before you write your review.