Anime Review: Witchblade, Volume One

Although I don’t bat an eye at pop culture now, there was a time I was noob to the entire idea. American comics were my first step towards overall popular culture acceptance. In the eighties I would snuggle up with my cousins’ comics when I went to visit my family in Podunk, No Man’s Land and would devour issues during my stay. I watched with glee as comics became increasingly popular in the late eighties and, reveled in the ease at which I could find good titles. Then, it all came crashing down in the 90′s when speculators screwed us over big time, along with the greed and shortsightedness of comic companies trying to make everything a collectible.

There are still many, many titles released during the comic deluge I’ve never been able to read but wanted to. Witchblade was one of those. It combined modern day action with a fantastic twist from another world, plus kick- ass character designs.

In 2006,Gonzoreleased their total re-imagining of one of Top Cow’s bestselling titles, Witchblade, as an anime.

plot summary

Half of Tokyo lies underwater after a disastrous earthquake struck Japan and changed it forever. Despite Tokyo’s sorry state, it’s still well populated and offers many jobs and services to the citizens of Japan. Masane Amaha and her six-year old daughter, Rihoko, journey to Tokyo to take advantage of the opportunities there.

However, mother and daughter are separated by the NSWF’s Child Welfare Division the minute they step foot on Tokyo island. The Division has strict laws governing how parents raise their children and Masane isn’t exactly a role-model parent.

Attempting to reunite with her daughter, Masane hotheadedly tries to take matters into her own hands, and ends up behind bars. There, she encounters a strange bio-mechanical creature that tries to destroy her. But Masane changes when she comes in close proximity with this bizarre machine. Power flows through her and cloaks her in metal and blades; a manifestation of the mysterious bracelet, aka, Witchblade on Masane’s wrist. Masane destroys her feeble opponent with one cut and escapes into the night.

But Masane is captured by Douji Group Industries and offered an ultimatum; fight for us and destroy our wayward weapons or we’ll forcibly remove the Witchblade from your wrist, which by the way belongs to us. She agrees and begins her term as the new vessel of the powerful and coveted Witchblade!

review

The current incarnation of the Witchblade story is NOT an adaptation of the original comic, nor is it an adaptation of the Witchblade manga; the Witchblade anime is Gonzo’s interpretation of the American comic.

The concept for the anime- unwilling wielders of strange weapons with ultimate powers- is reminiscent of post-war, Neo-Tokyo anime; but instead of angsty 15 year olds as the protagonists, we’re offered a new twist of “mother as heroine”.

Though she’s not an intrepid teenager, Masane has spirit and stubbornness that endears her as a sympathetic character. She truly does care for Rihoko- Riko for short- which adds maturity and earnestness to her pact with the Douji Group (the Group promises mother and daughter they’ll live together if Masane works for them.) The relationship between mother and daughter is still too young in the series to tell if it will add or detract from the anime.

Witchblade Anime - Rihoko, Masane's daughter

Masane is a unique nominee for a quasi-magical girl, and has a lot of personality, but thus far, she has no development. We’re introduced to her and Riko and just as fast as you can say “naked”, she’s wearing next to nothing and decimating the opposition. Sad thing is, I get the feeling that we won’t get much character development for Masane beyond her role as “weapon”.

And what a weapon she is; whenever Masane dons- maybe I should actually say doff here- her Witchblade getup, she turns into a cat in heat. The prospect of fighting these odd runaway weapons makes the leading lady quiver with pleasure. It’s actually, really, really distracting.

Just when I’m seeing Masane as a sympathetic human being, I feel like a nudie magazine was flashed in front of my eyes and just as quickly closed. Everything about these “fight scenes” is rife with sexual overtones. Everything. From the bio-mechanical “ooze” leaking from severed flopping appendages; to Masane’s jiggling contours; and Masane licking white juice, belonging to an opponent, off her arm; everything during these brief encounters screams sex.

So what’s the point? Is this an action anime or a borderline hentai anime? A sci-fi anime or a fanservice anime? The studios seem to be promoting the latter with enough innuendo in their marketing to set Hugh Hefner’s eyebrows on fire:

Penetrating the body and soul of a new female vessel: Imbuing the heir with insatiable lust and unthinkable power – The streets will red with the blood of its endless ecstasy.

(From the back of the DVD jacket)

Yet, the story is interesting enough by itself and doesn’t need the added “interest” these “fight” scenes give. Thankfully, these scenes are brief and occur only about once per episode.

The character designs for Witchblade are inventive and have heavy organic influences in regards to the enemies and the Witchblade. I only wish Masane was drawn with less, err, emphasis and less movement of said emphasis. She looks like she has two meat-bags strapped to her chest and when she manifests the Witchblade her meat-bags swing around like tether balls since she has even less support in her Witchblade carnation than in her Masane one. Poor woman.

Gonzo’s had many US releases this past year, all which have decent production. Witchblade is no exception; but like previous releases, is lacking minute details. The overall color schemes and animation is OK with the occasional spectacular shot to make you appreciate that Gonzo is an excellent studio for a reason. The fight scenes have gotten most of the attention from the animators, however, and the animation, on average, is nothing to squeal about.

Fast forward the OP, “XTC” by Psychic Lover; it’s laughable and utterly bad. That’s all I have to say about the OP.

“Ashita no Te”, the ED, by Mamiko Noto acts like a soothing balm after the aural abuse of the ED and scarring instances in the anime. The ED is perhaps the best part of the anime thus far.

I feel pretty neutral about both the English and Japanese voice casts; neither one felt wrong nor right. We still watched Witchblade in Japanese, though.

It’s worth mentioning that the packaging for the DVD is fantastic. The DVD comes in a foil sleeve which hinges opens to reveal stills from the anime, a picture of Masane in the Witchblade, and more graphic info about the series. On the cover is Mike Choi’s take on the animated version of Witchblade. I find it ironic that the DVD sleeve is foil since foil comic book covers helped bring down the American comic empire…

Witchblade, in the first four episodes, has left me with guarded feelings; I don’t know if I can get past all the innuendo and flopping body parts to actually enjoy the story, or even tell if it’s a decent one to enjoy. It’s as if I have to wade through the crap and pick out the bits of story that are decent by themselves, and it’s just not worth the effort so far.