Thus far, Glass Fleet has been a less than stellar example of a space opera anime. In my previous review, I stated my low opinion of the series and how I “…wish, fervently and often that the Glass Fleet universe gets sucked into a black hole. Now that I’d watch.” Turns out, someone was listening….

plot summary

The Holy Emperor, Vetti Sforza, now has all the pieces in place to fulfill his secret purpose. All the pieces except for Cleo, who languishes in a dungeon, unbeknown to Vetti.

Cleo was captured and imprisoned after the end of the treacherous battle with Vetti’s fleet, which crippled the glass ship and left Michel a prisoner of Vetti. Michel waits patiently for rescue or death, whichever comes first, and Cleo fights to gain his freedom from his jailers and his shrouded past.

But Cleo’s past catches up to him and he’s forced to face the truth about his birth and his destiny. Will Cleo be able to embrace the past and live up to his family’s name?

review

I’m so used to how bad this series is, I barely noticed it stopped its downward free fall and is now circling the drain rather than going directly down it. The series by no means improved, but there was less blatant badness. Bad dialog and crappy animation still floated around, but to a slightly lesser degree. The gods of anime have granted me a temporary reprieve! Whoohoo!

Character Development

I have zero connection with any of these characters and couldn’t care less if they spontaneously poofed outta existence, which is a very real possibility given the bizarre laws of physics in this series. Yet, in one episode, there’s something approximating human interest. Enough so I, wanted to learn where this particular story would lead. After the episode ended, I decided, I still don’t care about theses characters, but I’m a tiny bit more inclined to learn what the end result of the series will be. Too bad I have to watch the whole thing to see how it’ll end. I did say I’d watch the series get sucked into a black hole.

Even though Cleo is given a brief bit of background, he’s still a shallow character, just like the rest of the cast. On an opposite note, a character appears in this volume, who in less than one episode has more interest and depth than every single previously introduced character combined and squared.

Character Design

Keeping up the consistently bad character designs, Volume Four flaunts its poor fashion sense on the very cover of the DVD! The designs defy anyone with taste to take them seriously. C’mon, I dare you to take these designs seriously, double dare you! Sadly, the cast of this anime, and the studio who penned them, take these horrible designs dead serious. Gimme a break, how can I not laugh at a guy with a clock on his crotch?

Animation

I don’t know if Gonzo fired the guy who made the bulk of the wretched shots in previous volumes, but the animation is the one facet of the anime which has improved a teensy, minuscule, microscopic fraction.

There’s still a handful of shots which left me going, WTF?! The one shot which stands out the most as horrific, is the shot where Hysak is running and shouting “Don’t sell the royal family’s secret dashing ability short!”He looks like the frick’n road runner in that scene.

Cleo and Vetti seem to be morphing into plastic dolls, at least as far as I can tell from the animation. They reflect light where normal people wouldn’t, making them appear to be plastic. Or is this the studios sly way of bishi-fying these characters? Is this how we tell a character is supposed to be sexy, by their shiny plasticine heads?

Music

Note to studio: Just because it sounds like a space opera, doesn’t make it a space opera. Once again I was stupefied by the grandness of the soundtrack for this tiny little anime.

Conclusion

This volume of Glass Fleet was bad, but wasn’t as horrible the previous three volumes. I’m not saying it improved, but it’s become easier to bear. Even if I try to look at this anime from the angle of pure camp, it still overshoots camp and goes straight to bad; Plan 9 From Outer Space bad. However, trying to see this anime in a different light does take the edge off.

Rating

Glass Fleet, Volume Four gets 0.5 outta 4 Hammies!

Retail Info

• Publisher: Funimation
• Release Date:February 12, 2008
• Retail Price: $29.98
• Number of discs:1
• Episodes:15-18
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Rating: TV-PG
• Language: English, Japanese
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Format: Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen

Speculative sci-fi is one of my all time fave sub genres, don’t get me wrong, but it can be kind of bland at times. Ah, my anime blog for a good blood stirring sci-fi anime that isn’t lame!

Xenosaga: The Animation has all the elements of a space opera. Based off the hit Playstation 2 games of the same title, Xenosaga: The Animation is a retelling of the first installment in the game series, Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht.

plot summary

T.C. 4768. The far future. Its landscape is vastly different from the one of today. Mankind has abandoned its cradle, Earth, and has successfully conquered and colonized space. Technologies that once seemed impossible are now common place: Artificial humans, Realians, work side by side with their flesh and blood counter parts. Gigantic ships hurtle effortlessly through hyperspace. And a dire threat, the Gnosis, is randomly wiping out mankind’s intergalactic strongholds.

Vector, a gigantic mega-corporation, is at the forefront of devising new ways to combat the Gnosis threat. Vector has created KOS-MOS, a powerful female android who holds the promise of being the ultimate anti-Gnosis weapon.

The scientist who helped create KOS-MOS, Shion Uzuki, is testing KOS-MOS’ abilities on board the battle cruiser, Woglinde when the cruiser comes under an overwhelming assault by the Gnosis. The Gnosis are after the mysterious artifact, the Zohar, which is onboard the Woglinde the time of the attack.

KOS-MOS rescues Shion, Lt. Luis Virgil, and Alan from the onslaught, but unfortunately, the rest of the fleet is wiped off the star maps.

Shion and company are rescued from death by suffocation when their escape pod is picked up by the salvage ship, Elsa. The crew of the Elsa numbers among itself the android Ziggurat 8, aka, Ziggy, and the Realian 100-series prototype, MOMO. Shion and her companions’ fates are now intertwined with those of the Elsa. There’s more to Elsa’s crew than meets the eye and intrigue is heavy in the air as the Woglinde’s survivors and their new shipmates take on the Gnosis.

Review

I’m going to state for the record that I’ve never heard of Xenosaga, the game, before I watched this anime. Thus you can infer that I’ve never played the game. I came to this anime with absolutely no expectations, no preconceived notions, nothing to compare and contrast the anime with.

So far, I like Xenosaga. It’s a fast paced story set in the far future that doesn’t dawdle around with excessive explanations. Information is dumped into the viewer’s head in large chunks; leaving the responsibility of sorting said info with the viewer. Whether or not a person can process any of these info-dumps coherently is solely up to them, I happened to have an empty head after a long day and had plenty of room for said info.

The downside to this is that some of the info seems to be missing components. I was scratching my head in a few scenes in which it seemed many details or background were missing. For example: Whose this Gatachman ripoff and why does he know this Realian? What are the Gnosis, and why is everyone ready to die for this Zohar thingy?

I wasn’t too miffed about these scenes, which left me wondering what the hell just happened, since some of them were explained in later episodes. If I watch the entire series, I figure much will be revealed and explained.

The story itself, so far, is very compelling. Writers have so many options and a lot of wiggle room available to them when they go this far into humanity’s future. The creators of the Xenosaga games have crafted a series that not only takes a look at where we’re at in the future, but addresses the issues of non-human rights; space territorialism, or should I say galactitorialism; mankind’s significance in the universe; and the repercussions that happen when we overstep ourselves. The studio then wrapped these heavy hitting concepts up in an attractive package and delivered them in an entertaining fashion.

Character Design

While I wasn’t too terribly fond of many of the character designs- the Gatchman guy; the loud, bright uniforms of the star fleet; the antennal hair, to name a few instances- they interjected some fun into the series. The technology in Xenosaga was well designed. The sleek ships and bulky A.G.W.S. had a realistic feel to them that some of the wardrobe lacked. I particularly liked the fusion of organic and synthetic design aesthetic for the Gnosis.

The color palette for Xenosaga was a bit loud in some places. The garish colors liberally used in the clothing would have been better utilized in smaller doses. Personally, I would have designed KOS-MOS a bit less conspicuously- white shows up really well against the black of space, F.Y.I. Yet, garishness and lack of color-sense aside, the colors did add an extra bit of excitement.

Animation

Xenosaga’s animation, done by Namco, was average. There weren’t many details added to it, nor was it highly polished. There were some shots that were just plain bad as well.

Technology, such as spaceships and A.G.W.S., were sometimes rendered in CG for wide shots. The CG scenes didn’t clash as much as they could have with the animation, and by themselves would be considered well done. I think it’s difficult to marry these two digital art forms together in a way that doesn’t detract or overwhelm one or the other.

Voice Acting

The Japanese voice cast was excellent. We tried the English dub but I found it to be overacted and almost comical. KOS-MOS’ seiyuu, Mariko Suzuki, delivered her lines in a flat monotone, which was perfect for an unfeeling android.

Music

The music for the series had a very gaming aura about it. While I haven’t played Xenosaga specifically, I’ve played enough games similar to this one to have a feel for video game music. Xenosaga: The Animation sounded like an RPG in “battle mode”. The ED, “In This Serenity” by Mayumi Gojo, was difficult to listen to since the singer’s English annunciation was noticeable.

Xenosaga has potential as an anime series to be a highly entertaining romp. The first four episodes have laid out the promise of more action, more intrigue, more mysteries, and more unique story. Enough so, that all four episodes whizzed by so quickly that I was left dazed and saddened that Volume Two wasn’t released.

If Xenosaga’s drawbacks are the omission of certain details, its unforgivingly fast delivery of info, and the redundancy of being an anime patchwork of the game, its strengths still outweigh its weaknesses. It’s an entertaining anime of the swashbuckling variety, perfect for those times you want to leave the mundane light-years behind you.

Rating

Xenosaga, Volume One gets three out of four Hammies!

In a bizarre twist, Volume Four in the Witchblade anime manages to turn the series on its head by being thoughtful, engaging, and good. Weird.

plot summary

Masane has recently learned Rihoko is not her biological daughter. The Cloneblade known as Lady is the woman who gave birth to Masane’s charge, and Lady wants Rihoko back.

Riko and Masane, however, want to stick together and run away, yet again, with some help from their neighbors. But Father sends one of his Cloneblades to collect Rihoko for his own sinister purposes. Lady’s maternal instincts kick into overdrive and she intercepts the would-be kidnapper, saving her offspring from a mysterious fate.

Masane now sees she isn’t fit to raise Riko, and reluctantly gives her over to her true mother. Lady’s reunion with Riko doesn’t go as expected, though, as another of her brood shows up unannounced and unwanted.

Now, Reiji is faced with the prospect of having a defunct Witchblade, since Masane is too depressed to fight the X-cons. In an attempt to cheer her, he takes her on a tour of her past.

In the fleeting moments of her past, Masane learns to relish the present, and becomes determined to fight for her daughter for their future together.

review

Is this the same anime? Is this the same sexually charged, softcore porn-ish series which started off on the absolutely wrong foot? I couldn’t believe this was the same series after watching this volume. If I hadn’t put the DVD in the player myself, I’d of sworn this wasn’t the same Witchblade.

I’ve so loathed this series so far, I couldn’t stand the prospect of watching another episode filled with boobs and white stuff. But this volume didn’t have a ton of fanservice. Instead, each episode actually built on the former to create sympathy for Masane and the Cloneblades.

Character Development

Masane’s character is finally given some insight as to why she acts the way she does. Reina, aka, Lady is also fleshed out and defined. The psychotic, but extremely interesting Maria, has some backstory and explanation of motives as well. Almost every character, except for a few of the minor ones, are given a fair amount of attention in this volume and it’s about time!

The entire focus of the series has finally shifted away from Masane’s boobs and onto the story of the Cloneblades. The Cloneblades are the main thrust in this volume, even though they’re nothing more than inferior copies of the Witchblade. So far, there’s still no explanation of what the Witchblade really is or where it came from. The Cloneblades, however, are given some background and are explained as to how they exist, if not exactly why.

Witchblade also has a different tone and feel to go with the different focus. It’s no longer as sexual or gratuitously violent. The series has seemingly morphed from a jiggly tit-fest into an anime about priorities, family ties, and the bonds we artificially create for ourselves.

Music

Everything about Witchblade is different this Volume, including the OP and ED. The new OP, “Dear Bob” is actually way better than the former one. Even the graphics for the OP are better. “Kutsuhimo” is the new ED, but the bad English interjected in the lyrics makes the ED worse than the former ED.

Production

This volume’s artwork is inked by Stejepan Sejic. It’s interesting, to say the least, but I don’t think I like this cover as much as some of the previous ones.

I’m confused as to why this massive sea change took three volumes to kick in. I have a theory that there’s only three volumes worth of actual story in the series and the three volumes prior to this one were fanservice fluff meant to extend the series. I am glad this change did finally take place; the anime now has its direction and drive and feels as if the promise of a good plot is finally coming to the light.

Rating

Witchblade, Volume Four gets 3 outta 4 Hammies!

Retail Info

• Publisher: Funimation
• Release Date: January 29, 2008
• Retail Price: $29.98
• Number of discs:1
• Episodes: 13-16
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Language: English, Japanese
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Format: Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen

Gaah! I spoke too soon! It’s Glass Fleet, Volume 3!! I didn’t mean “Do your worst,” literally! Noooooo!!

In volume three of this craptacular downward-spiral of a series, Vetti proves he really is a mother-humper, golden showers rain down on Cleo, and Michel proves “he” has what it takes it make Vetti go gaga over “him”.

plot summary

The People’s Army takes the fight for freedom straight to Vetti and his armada. With the help of the Baroness, Bebe, Michel and his army decimate the opposing fleet.

Cleo lends a hand with his powerful glass ship, but he has an ulterior motive for helping Michel; a fight to the death with Vetti. In a last minute twist, everything Michel had worked for his torn from his grasp. Now he must fight a wholly different battle, as does Cleo.

Will the two survive their upcoming trials to triumph over tyranny?

review

If I could scrub my eyes right now I would. If I had the capability of popping these traumatized orbs outta my skull and sticking them in bleach to wash away the taint of this Volume, I’d do it in a heartbeat. This stunk so bad, it has an actual aroma of failure. But enough about what I felt.

Character Development

We’re given much more insight into Vetti, this volume ’round. The tyrant had a wretched childhood, and it shaped him into the bastard he is today. We’re shown in flashbacks how Vetti was abused and in turn became an abuser. The scene was sick, but didn’t feel attached to the anime. Since nothing is consistent in the series, I’m not surprised that the scene was thrown in for shock value. The ploy of demonizing Vetti’s foster father seemed stuck onto the episode. Then again, everything about Glass Fleet feels like someone took a bucket of random garbage and tossed it on the screen.

Rachel turned out be someone I shouldn’t have put my money on. The way she folded and became weak was disappointing in a sea of disappointments. She was the only character I showed any interest in as she always managed to insult Vetti in clever, subtle ways. Damn, now what am I going to look forward to in Volume Four?

The sick shotacon-ness between Vetti and Ralph was thankfully played down, but nonetheless there.

Cleo is about as interesting as a cinder block, and just as smart. I don’t care about any of these characters and wish, fervently and often that the Glass Fleet universe gets sucked into a black hole. Now that I’d watch.

Unfortunately, the Glass Fleet universe has a “Black Hole Negate Button“, just like they have a “Vacuum On/Off Switch“. The laws of physics were voted down in this anime, during a filibuster of bad taste.

Character Design

Good. Lord. There are now no longer any bad character designs left in the world; Glass Fleet has officially used them all up. I couldn’t believe the character designs could get any worse, but whaddya know, they managed to up the crappiness!

I don’t know where to start critiquing the garish designs Gonzo churned out for Glass Fleet. I can’t fathom who or what inspired the studio to create such blatant ugliness, but I wouldn’t want to meet it in a dark alley, that’s for sure.

Animation

Amazingly, the animation is in a holding pattern of “bad”, whereas everything else has gotten worse, impossible though I thought that was.

Gonzo, Gonzo, what’re we gonna do with you after everyone’s seen this? How can anyone ever look you in the eye again? You’re like the hot co-worker who gets drunk at the company Christmas party and makes a complete ass of herself, and everyone has video of it-on YouTube.

I had predicted this series would keep going down, and it didn’t disappoint. Wow, the one thing Glass Fleet has lived up to so far is its own badness…

Rating

Glass Fleet, Volume Three gets 0 outta 4 Hammies!

Things get more complex in Volume Two of Xenosaga as comrades’ pasts and motives are slowly revealed to Shion and her friends.

plot summary

Shion and the crew of the Elsa are taken aboard the Durandal by Junior (Jr.). Jr. is the pint-sized commander of the mega-ship, and though he appears young, his competent leadership betrays his true age.

After rescuing Shion and her companions, Jr. takes an interest in the Realian, MOMO, and sees she’s well cared for. His true motives for his interest in MOMO aren’t readily apparent as yet, but they involve who Jr. was in the past and his relationship to MOMO’s creator, Dr. Joachim Mizrahi.

Shortly after their arrival at the Kukai Foundation, the group is accused by the Galaxy Federation of taking part in the attack which destroyed part of the Galaxy Federation fleet, and the Woglinde, along with it. In order to clear their names of any wrong doing, the group must dive into the Encephalon to retrieve KOS-MOS’ memories of their battle with the Gnosis. Before they can do that however, they must overcome virtual foes and confront their painful pasts.

review

Xenosaga, Volume Two kept up the fast pace of the initial volume and included more development. Volume Two also took on a playful, gaming note in Episode Seven, Encephalon which highlighted Xenosaga’s video game roots. Fans of the game will be (or not) happy to see many of the characters displaying a few of their tech attacks from the game. Sheer fanservice, but fun nonetheless.

Character Development

Shion is revealed to have had a tragic childhood, which helped shape her current fears. She must face these fears before tackling the new obstacles placed in front of her and her friends. Jr. must also confront his painful past, and through this flash back, hints of Jr.’s relationship with Gaigon and even his connection with Albedo, are revealed. Even Shion’s brother, Jin, makes an appearance to further fill in the back stories and develop relationships between the characters.

All this character development flew by in the episodes, but it added more depth to the series. It showed that the characters are human, or possess the characteristics of humanity. Weaknesses were laid bare in stark contrast to the strengths which have been showcased up to now. Good contrasts make interesting characters, and the characters in Xenosaga are all interesting; except Allen. That guy’s gotta go…

Character Design

I’ve begun to notice how everyone in this anime is shiny. Everybody has a plastic sheen to them which reminds me of freshly made Barbies. After I noticed it, I couldn’t help but pay attention to how new everything seems in this anime. Does the history of the series not allow for dingy, dirty props? The newness of the designs gave the series an almost bubble gum feel, as if it were happy and glad to be animated. It was hard not to smile at the squeaky glow of the anime, even when blood was flying and robots were being obliterated.

The colors are still too loud for my taste, but I can’t fault the anime too much for it’s color choice. After all, the colors compliment the newness of the series perfectly.

Music

I really like the ED of the series, “In This Serenity“, by Mayumi Gojo. Her performance is great and one would be hard pressed to say the singer isn’t a native speaker of English.

Xenosaga, Volume Two went by as quickly as Volume One, but managed to cram in some background info and character development for a bit of depth. The series is going by almost too fast but I guess that’s what happens when the entire story from the game has to be told in twelve episodes. I’ve liked the series so far, from its shiny newness to its off beat designs. The next volume will no doubt fly by as quickly and enjoyably as Volume Two.

Rating

Xenosaga, Volume Two gets three out of four Hammies!

Things get interesting as Masane proves she is dumber than a pile of rocks and the series finally takes a cold shower…

plot summary

Masane has tentatively teamed up with her neighbor and freelance journalist, Tozawa. Tozawa wants to exploit Masane and her work to turn both into a high-priced story, but he needs her help in doing so. Masane agrees to the deal; otherwise her daughter Rihoko would be exposed by Tozawa himself to her mother’s less than maternal doings.

The two scour the city for clues to the true nature of the I-Weapons. Masane eventually discovers the truth behind the weapons, and is disgusted by it and the Douji Group who manufactures them. She continues to work for her employer, however, despite her misgivings about the company.

I Weapons aren’t the only problem ahead of Masane; Cloneblade attacks are becoming more serious. The NSWF has been working on the Cloneblades ever since the Quake six years ago. But in order to truly perfect their work, they need the original Witchblade, and its host, to copy their ideas from.

Masane’s strength and will are severely tested again as the fight for possession of the Witchblade grows more violent.

review

This volume was more interesting than previous volumes. There’s some noteworthy additions in the way of a young, psychotic Cloneblade; a sympathetic (but short-lived) character; a look into Reiji Takayama’s past and personality; character development for Lady; and much more.

However, Masane is actually stupider in this volume than in any other. She’s louder, more sodden, more obnoxious, dumber, more uncouth, less diplomatic, and relies solely on brute force in her Witchblade incarnation. In short, Masane is a frat boy with boobs; gigantic mega-boobs.

She’s so stupid, I shudder when she opens her mouth. Her belligerent manner is irritating, and one would almost think she traded in all her chances at intelligence when she was endowed with her megalith breasts. And to top it off, she’s paired up with Tozawa; someone almost as dumb as she is.

This guy is supposed to be an investigative freelance journalist but has zero street smarts. Not only that, he has no morals and is one step above pond scum. Together, Masane and Tozawa are this melange of stupidity, lawlessness, and violence. Whenever either one of them talk, what they say is bound to be something stupid or selfish.

The other developments in the series have given Witchblade more depth, if not improved it. One improvement, though, was the absence of Masane’s over-excitement whenever she fights. The fight scenes in Volume Three were toned waaayyyy down and had actual choreography. This is a massive change from the first two volumes, in which the fights were very sexually charged, needlessly so. Minus these distractions made watching Witchblade less obnoxious, but still didn’t make up for Masane or the slow plot development.

However, there’s finally signs of plot progress! After three volumes, Witchblade has direction and if it sticks with it, the series might have a chance of being decent if not good.

Production

The DVD cover for Witchblade, Volume Three is done by artist Keu Cha. To date, it is the most vibrant and intense execution of Makoto Uno’s original character designs for the series. If Keu Cha had designed the anime, I think it would have looked far better than the hokey way it does now.

Witchblade Volume Three, has improved a bit by reshuffling the focus of the anime from Masane’s boobs to the story of the Witchblade. It finally has the feel as if someone is helming this series and may actually steer it towards a decent plot and story. Maybe Witchblade can be salvaged, at least a little instead of being the waste of time it’s been the past two volumes.

Rating

Witchblade, Volume Three gets 2 outtta 4 Hammies

Hideyuki first began writing the Vampire Hunter D series in 1983. Yoshitaka Amano illustrated the covers for the books and drew illustrated pages for Hideyuki’s books, as well. The novels were hugely popular and led to a Vampire Hunter D anime feature in 1985, based off the first novel, Vampire Hunter D.

The movie was considered a success and in 2000, a second Vampire Hunter D feature was released, Bloodlust.

Bloodlust was based off the third of the D novels, Demon Deathchase. This sequel was also considered a success, and Hideyuki continued to write the popular Vampire Hunter D novels.

Nineteen D novels have been published so far, with the first of nine being translated into English in 2005. The latest novel, Throng of Heretics, was released in Japan this past October.

In November of 2007, a Vampire Hunter D manga was released for the first time ever by Digital Manga Publishing. The manga was drawn and written under the direct supervision of Hideyuki, by a mangaka the author personally handpicked; Saiko Takaki.

Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Vampire Hunter D, as the manga is known, was released first in English. A Japanese language release will follow after the manga has been translated into German, Finnish, and Hungarian.

The manga closely follows the first novel…

plot summary

10,091 years after the world’s governments unleashed atomic doom upon the earth, a strange nobility is teetering on the brink of obsolescence. Vampires stepped onto the world stage after the nuclear dust cleared, and declared themselves rulers of a post-apocalyptic planet. The Nobility, as the vampiric ruling class is known, has governed the world from the safety of night for the past 100 centuries. But they have become decadent and outdated.

Mutants and supermen have risen from the peasant ranks to overthrow their vampire suppressors. They are the vampire hunters. The most renown vampire hunter, D, has dedicated his life to eradicating the Nobility. D gets his formidable strength from his lineage as a dhampir; a creature half human and half vampire.

As D is roaming the countryside one day, a young girl flings herself into his path and challenges the vampire hunter to a fight. After gaging the dhampir’s powers, the girl, Doris Lang, hires D to help her. Doris has been bitten by a Noble and needs D’s help to rid the countryside of the vampire who has chosen Doris as his unwilling bride.

D agrees, and becomes entangled in the girl’s plight and his needs as both man and dhampir.

review

I loved the original Vampire Hunter D anime. I loved it so much, that when the novels were first released in English, I rushed out and bought the first two. The novels were slightly disappointing, though, since it felt that the translation was poorly done.

I got tired of reading “the gorgeous youth/man” over and over and over. It seemed something integral was lost when the text was turned into English. But the gist of the story was still interesting enough for me to soldier through the book.

A manga format is a much better fit for an English rendition of the famous novels. The visuals which don’t translate well into boring prose, are painstakingly drawn out in the manga. The wordiness of the novels is changed from hard to read book, into beautifully illustrated manga, which needs little translation.

Character Development

There isn’t much development at all in the first Vampire Hunter D novel and there wasn’t much character development in the manga, either. Within the first four pages, Doris gets naked, fights D, and then begs him to work for her. This scene was ripped from the book, nearly word for word.

I can’t fault the manga for what the novel failed to do since the manga is following the novel so closely. It would have been nice, however, for the manga to strengthen the story with a bit more insight into D and Doris.

The Nobility is given some amount of character development in the way of motivations and background. D isn’t given any back story, but there’s some hint at his origins. The other books in the Vampire Hunter D series flesh the hunter out by degrees; however, this manga was a great opportunity to really develop D for Western audiences.

I felt no connection with Doris and her little brother, Dan, beyond superficial pieces of the story. D was the main draw, no pun intended, of the series, and the manga didn’t disappoint.

Story

The story is actually compelling, if not a little overwrought at times. I had a hard time getting into a few parts of the manga, just as I had a hard time getting into parts of the book, as well.

The beauty of crafting a world so far into the future, is that an author can be as far-fetched as they please and not have to worry about timely contradictions or unbelieving naysayers. There are many “out there” instances in the manga which I couldn’t connect with but still enjoyed: cyber-horses, mutants, scientifically-advanced vampiric nobility. Yet there were some examples which left me scratching my head: time-bewitching incense seems more like a parlor trick than an advanced feat of science by the ruling class.

Part of the story involves D and Doris. Their “relationship” seemed forced, if not downright fanservice for those wanting to see two gorgeous people hook up. It did work wonderfully as a fanservice device. I don’t mind admitting I was smitten with the vampire hunter way back, when I first saw him animated, and wasn’t averse to the thought of D in love.

Character Design

The mangaka, Saiko Takaki, did a wonderful job in following and developing Amanao’s initial direction of the character designs. Much of Amano’s trademark style is evident in the manga; the long eyes, sharp noses, and organic lines have all been worked into Saiko’s art.

D never looked better, nor could I have imagined him to look better, than how he appears in the manga. He truly does live up to the description, “gorgeous youth”, but without the youth bit. In the novel, both D and Doris are described to be around the age of 17-18. In the manga, they look to be more around the age of 23-25.

All the characters in the manga look exactly as they’ve been described in the novels and they also resemble Amano’s brief illustrations. However, the art does retain some of Saiko’s own style.

Art

Too many busy lines, though, tend to distract from the work. The overall heavy organic feel of the art becomes tangled up in all the detailing and shorts the flow of the manga. The shading also tends to be a bit muddy. Aside from a few distracting instances, the art for Vampire Hunter D is strong and beautifully rendered.

Production

The cover for Vampire Hunter D is richly done in dark purples with crimson embossing. The edges of the pages are tinted a matching reddish-purple which compliments the gorgeous cover. However, the paper of the pages themselves is only a step above newsprint.

The roughness and off-white cast of the pages detract from Saiko’s artwork. Paper quality counts, and sadly, Vampire Hunter D’s pages don’t add up to the effort inked onto them.

Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Vampire Hunter D is a must read for any Vampire Hunter D fan, but it’s also a must read for fans of the truly unique and creative.

Rating

Hideyuki Kikuchi’s Vampire Hunter D gets 3 outta 4 Hammies™.

Looks like calling kittens foul names has finally caught up with me; it’s penance time in the form of Glass Fleet, Volume Two!

plot summary

Michel has just joined forces with Cleo, when the ship’s crew receives a hail from an ailing cargo vessel. The glass ship answers the SOS and lends a hand to the wounded crew. While helping the cargo crew aboard the ship, Michel finds someone he thinks may be his brother.

Vetti, the Holy Emperor, meanwhile, begins to woo Rachel, the daughter of the leader of the Cross Star religion. He uses honeyed words and eloquent poetry to try and win her hand. Rachel, though, is having none of Vett’s courtship, and continually rebukes the tyrant.

Vetti’s young royal guard, Ralph, has grown jealous of the attention Vetti lavishes on Rachel. Ralph tries to dissuade Vetti’s interest in the girl, only to learn the true reason behind Vetti’s courtship.

After their encounter with the cargo vessel, Michel and Cleo have returned to the People’s Army to lead them to victory. The road to true victory, however, needs funding and the road to funds leads to the Duchess of Bordeaux, Bebe. As Michel and Cleo rush to the Bordeaux Territory, they discover someone else is already trying to win the Duchess to their cause.

review

Volume Two was actually worse than Volume One; much, much worse. I don’t even know where to begin with how bad this series has been so far.

The inconsistent nature of this wretched series has become rampant in this volume. For whatever reason, space in this anime has atmosphere; however, this changes whenever a massive body-count is required. When that happens; Blammo! Instant Vacuum of Doom!!! One minute, people are chatting away on the hull of a ship, next minute- uh oh, no one can hear you scream in space! You know why? Because it’s a frick’n vacuum!!! But hey, Glass Fleet has this nifty Vacuum On/Off switch.

character designs

Each episode of Glass Fleet finds new ways to insult my good taste. The character designs, far from being cleverly inventive, are degrading into the laughable, stupid and tasteless. I give studios credit for trying something new, but the keyword there is “trying”.

Glass Fleet doesn’t look as if anybody tried to design anything that might be passably tasteful or attractive. All the designs are ugly composites of various cultures mushed together without forethought. The colors are garish and loud, and heap on further visual abuse. Rachel’s dresses are the absolute worse fashion faux pas I’ve ever been witness to. She’s the daughter of the leader of the Star Cross religion? Can’t she afford to execute her current fashion designer and hire a new one?

Character Development

The only redeeming quality in this volume was the addition of Rachel. She thinks Vetti’s full of crap and repeatedly insults him. She sees through his shabby attempts at courtship, and throws them back in his face. It’s as if she’s in on this whole joke of an anime.

The absolutely predictable dynamic between Cleo and Michelle, ooops, Michel, is getting boring. Should I be able to know what happens next in an anime? Do I have awesome psychic powers? Or is Glass Fleet so shallow that even a two year-old could follow it?

The bad dialog, crappy story, sub par animation, horrific character designs, and ear-splitting voice-acting is now being touched off with overt hints of shotacon.

Vetti and his “royal guard” display a weird affection for each other beyond mere camaraderie or brotherly love. There’s a sick twang to the “love” these two share which is wholly inappropriate to any anime. I thought it bad enough with the yaoi-ness between Vetti and Cleo, now to have this man-boy love pop up in the series makes watching Glass Fleet that much more burdensome.

Animation

Wait, did I just imply that the shotacon was the worst this series has to offer? My bad, Glass Fleet’s stunningly bad animation is actually far more disturbing than the shotacon; and that’s saying something. Gonzo should burn any mention of their having worked on Glass Fleet and mind-wipe anyone who knows they worked on it.

It’s positively shameful how bad the animation is. In one scene, it looks as though some animator’s kid was given an opportunity to work on GF with his crayons. Yes, crayons. In another scene, as Vetti’s fighting Michel, his jerky choreography is missing whole actions! One second Vetti is lunging towards Michel, the next he appears in front of Michel with zero movements in between.

Music

John Williams, the composer who scored Star Wars, must be pissed something fierce. I know I would be if someone stole my music, and it sure sounds like Glass Fleet ripped its score from Williams’ podium while he wasn’t looking. The grandiose nature of the score is far too big for the smallness of this anime.

Glass Fleet Volume Two outstrips Volume One in terms of overall crappiness and poor quality. If down is where this thing is headed, it doesn’t have long before it’s dead and buried.

Rating

Glass Fleet, Volume Two gets 0.5 outta 4 Hammie kun heads