With Witchblade Volume Five, the anime proves it has a schizophrenic nature by changing from a jiggly breast-fest into a meaningful series *gasp*!

Plot Summary

After her encounter with her “mother”, Maria has become a sober young adult over night. She has vast new insight into herself, her purpose and her relationship to Father.

Masane, meanwhile, has been reunited with Rihoko and has become an overly doting mother, much to Riko’s discomfort.

Masane continues to work for Doji Industries, but her job becomes more dangerous as hidden alliances unfold behind closed doors. A malevolent force is trying to create a new Blade, stronger even than the Clone or Witchblade.

The situation becomes sticker when Masane finds herself romantically involved with an unlikely suitor. Masane has many burdens to shoulder besides the Witchblade; that of mother, lover and protector. Which will she choose?

review

Volume Five of Witchblade was a good volume, especially when compared to the abysmal first three DVDs. This volume and Four don’t even feel attached to the rest of the Witchblade series, they’re so different in tone, depth and story. The story has honed in on actual plot and is focused on it with surprising clarity. It’s as if the series fell asleep behind the wheel in the first few volumes of the anime and then woke up, downed a few Red Bull’s and began cruising along.

Character Development

The story for Witchblade has become developed, fleshed out. Witchblade, the second half, is a tale of harnessing great power for personal gain. That power is the Witchblade and the Witchblade is Masane. The Cloneblades also desire the power of the Witchblade, but for a different reason. There are many people who need or want the Witchblade or Masane so it’s interesting to watch all these desires play out in different ways. It’s completely different from the first three volumes where the desires were borderline pornographic.

Characters have stepped forward in Volume Five and become compelling in themselves and not as showcases for various lumps of meat. Reiji Takayama has become infinitely interesting as has his rival at Douji Industries, Wato. There are now intricacies between characters and their relationships to one another, whereas before, the only intricacies were who could get naked faster; the Witchblade or the Cloneblades.

Maria is fascinating in the way she’s changed. She’s still unstable, but like the anime, she now has a purpose. Maria was scary before, but now she’s terrifying.

Masane is not nearly as annoying since she doesn’t have as many opportunities to display her abject ignorance. She’s really toned down in this volume and even displays a few touching moments of sentiment. The love interest between her and a certain someone added an additional note of humanity to the series, giving the anime more layers of depth.

It’s actually pretty phenomenal how everything in this anime has massively changed.

Production

Dale Kweon did the cover art for Volume Five of Witchblade. The way he portrayed Maria is dead on. She looks just as intense in his artwork as she does in the anime.

Conclusion

Despite the fact the story, plot and pacing have finally resolved themselves, I’m irked it took three frick’n volumes to get to this point. Why was it necessary to prolong the drawn out episodes filled with partial nudity and jiggling anatomy? If this story could be told in thirteen episodes, and I believe it could, why waste time and money making thirteen superfluous ones?

Ignoring the first three volumes, completely, this series is engaging. The characters are interesting, human and sympathetic and the story is thoughtful and well paced. On the other hand, taking into consideration the first three volumes, the series is half gratuitous and half developed. But fifty percent of a good series is better than one hundred percent of a crappy series, so in the spirit of positive thinking, I consider Witchblade’s cup of rating half full.

Rating

Witchblade, Volume Five gets 3 outta 4 Hammies!

Retail Info

• Publisher: Funimation
• Release Date:March 11, 2008
• Retail Price: $20.99
• Number of discs:1
• Episodes:17-20
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Language: English, Japanese
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Format: Animated, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen

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

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

plot summary

Masane encounters two Cloneblades on one of her missions for Douji Group Industries. These two women are the bearers of powers similar to the Witchblade and are actually wearing Witchblade clones, hence, Cloneblades. Masane is put to a brutal test of strength with one of the seasoned Cloneblades, Shiori. Still new to her powers, Masane barely survives the battle and is nursed back to health by her keepers.

Unbeknown to Masane, her nosy, freelance reporter neighbor, Yusuke Tozawa, has been following her and captures the fight on film. He confronts a befuddled Masane for answers so he can sell the Witchblade story to the highest bidder. Before he can do that, however, an ex-con attacks the duo. Now Masane must hone her powers and balance life as Witchblade and mother.

review

Yikes. I’m still confused as to what this series is trying to be, but I’m leaning towards hentai. After watching nine episodes toe the line between sexual and softcore hentai, I’m as yet unsure what the general focus of the anime is. Is Masane jiggling for a reason, is there a purpose for her heaving meatbags? Or is it, like the equally scantily-clad, “eager” Cloneblades, fanservice times XXX?

I managed to eke out a few facts between the boob and booty shots:

• Masane works for Douji Industries because she loves her daughter Rihoko.
• The Cloneblades want to destroy Masane.
• Masane as Witchblade loves to fight and fights the Cloneblades.
• The Cloneblades are unstable but seasoned and powerful.
• Tozawa is opportunistic scum who wants to exploit Masane.

Needless to say the story got lost once again between Masane’s ample, GGG cleavage. Every time anything resembling concrete plot reared its head, it was buried beneath T&A shots and other, not-suitable-for-this-site “occurrences” involving bio-mechanical creatures with white “ooze” for bodily fluids. What plot did manage to escape the vortex of flesh that is the Witchblade was only slightly interesting and considerably underdeveloped:

Character Development

Tozawa is an absolute dirt bag with only one thing on his mind: money. He tries to extort Masane for the Witchblade story but finds it difficult to accomplish in part because Masane’s so stubborn and so stupid. Masane’s character comes across as dumb, dumb, dumb, and annoying. Rihoko has eons more sense than her mother and is the only character which I sympathize with thus far in the series. There’s “history” between Takayama and Reina which explains how the Witchblade was lost to the Douji Group. The Cloneblades are a scientific wonder but are still inferior to their original.

But the plot that should be front and center in all serious anime is noticeably missing from the spotlight. In its stead is a parade of female anatomy which randomly pops up to distract even the most dedicated viewer.

The Cloneblades are themselves an interesting addition, but any screen time they get is spent in compromising positions. Once again, it’s difficult to get into this story when it switches gears from sci-fi action to sci-fi action hentai.

Production

The packaging for Witchblade is once again shiny and alluring, with cover art done by Top Cow artist Eric Basaldua. The DVD covers and inserts are top notch with plenty of graphics and tantalizing text. Too bad the anime hasn’t lived up it’s packaging…

I’m irked this anime is still randomly floating around sans plot. It seems it’s relying on its massive amount of fanservice to drum up an audience. I’d like to be able to say that ploy will only get a series so far, but we all know fanservice sells, and Witchblade has thus far been flying off the shelves. However, I can honestly say that ploy will only get an anime so far with me, and Witchblade hasn’t impressed me at all yet.

Rating

Witchblade, Volume Two gets 1 outta 4 Hammies!

Additional Reading

If you haven’t read it yet, check out my Witchblade Anime, Volume One review!

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.

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.

Rating

Witchblade the Anime Series, Volume One gets 1.5 outta 4 gummies!

Now go read my review of Witchblade the Anime Series Volume Two!