April 08, 2014

Blade & Soul -- ep 1

This is Aruka:

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She's wanted by the Palam empire, who have put a bounty on her head dead-or-alive. She ain't that easy to kill, however; she's blazingly fast. In the first few seconds of the show she dodges bullets and kills four gunwomen who try to shoot her, by slicing their throats.

This isn't a show for kids. In the first episode alone Aruka's body count is probably above 20 (it's hard to say given how chaotic one scene was), and we also see a village laid waste with lots of people being shot. It looks like the scenario overall is going to be Aruka wandering around looking for revenge, collecting other women warriors who also want revenge.

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This is Morii, her first recruit.

I'm not seeing anything particularly original here in terms of story or scenario. The enemy reminds me of the one in Blue Dragon as much as anything. And the idea of "superb swordsman accompanied by a small group of friends wandering in the world pursued by enemies" has been done lots of times before.

I do have to give them points for the character art. It all looks high budget.

In some ways it's refreshing to have a show in which there are lots of battles and people are actually killed in those battles, but on the other hand in some ways it was a bit nauseating. It felt gratuitous, death-porn.

Will I keep watching? I think I'll probably give it one more episode, just to see how it develops.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 08:44 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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