Black Blood Brothers: Complete Series
Label: Manga / FUNimation.
Release date: 18th May 2009
Certificate: 15
Discs: 3.
Running time:300 mins approx
Video: Widescreen 16:9 Anamorphic
Sound: English 2.0, Japanese 2.0
Subtitles: English.
RRP: £19.99
Brief synopsis:
Ten years ago a great war raged in Hong Kong between the races of the Vampires and the Humans, all brought about by the emergence of a new and even more dangerous breed of Vampire. This new race of bloodsuckers, The Kowloon Children, had the ability to not only to infect and turn humans with their infectious bite but also to turn normal vampires into one their own kind. The aggressive and ambitious Kowloon King was eventually defeated by the hero of the Hong Kong Crusades, Jiro Mochizuki, known to his enemies as “The Kin Killer” and to his allies as “Silver Blade” after his signature weapon, a Japanese sword made of silver which is especially lethal to all types of Vampire. Now, ten years later, Jiro and his young brother travel to a secret offshore island called “the special zone” which was created as a sealed city haven where uninfected Vampires and Humans could live together in peace. Their journey is interrupted when they’re caught up in a plan mounted by the remaining Kowloon children to infiltrate The Special Zone and re-ignite old animosities between the humans and the vampire refugees. As old enemies from Jiro’s past come back to haunt him he finds that if he’s to protect both the sanctity of the Special Zone and life of his little brother then it’s time to wield the power of the mighty Silver Blade once more.
Comments:
Black Blood Brothers has been touted as an action packed horror series and while there’s plenty of action going on, there’s not a whole lot of horror to be seen. In-fact there’s much more in the way of comedy than there is of horror so it would probably be better described as a Vampiric action series with horror and comedy elements. Black Blood Brothers has also been compared to the likes of Hellsing or Blood but it doesn’t come anywhere near the levels of Action or Horror involved in either of these series being much fluffier and cuter than both… Much, much fluffier and a whole load cuter.
Based on a popular series of Japanese novels, this series assumes that you’ve read some of them, or at least have a friend nearby who has and can explain some of the whys and wherefores along the way. Without that foreknowledge or advice it does feel somewhat like the viewer’s been dropped slap-bang into the middle of a longer running series and then left to spend quite a bit of the show waiting for the recap or flashback episode which will help explain the back story. Unfortunately this enlightenment never comes and, as the series doesn’t really have a particularly satisfactory conclusion either, it can leave the viewer feeling somewhat bewildered and not just a little cheated. There’s no in-depth explanation as to what the Hong Kong Crusade was all about, what Jiro really did during the crisis or how any of the characters previously interacted. Several of the characters which float on and off screen give the impression that they’re supposed to be quite important in the overall story but here they’re essentially just relegated to lengthy cameos. To put it bluntly, it’s like trying to understand the whole Star Wars series whilst only being allowed to see the even-numbered episodes. You’re still able to enjoy what’s going on on-screen but you’ll be left wondered who most of these people are, what on Earth they’re doing and what’s with all the blowing stuff up?.
That said, what can be gathered of the plot’s pretty interesting, most of the characters are fairly affable and the action sequences are exciting and well paced. Our hero, Jiro Mochizuki (who has been likened to Hellsing’s Alucard but he’s much more akin to Trinity Blood’s Father Abel Nightroad) has quite the impressive array of powers and abilities, plus a completely ridiculous hat to boot, and comes across in both the sub and dub as very likeable though somewhat stubborn and prideful. Our human heroine, Mimiko, is certainly no shrinking violet either and is more than willing to speak her mind and go toe-to-toe in a slanging match with a 100 year old bloodsucker and put her neck on the line (quite literally when you’re dealing with vampires) without hesitation if it’s to protect those in her care.
BTW, If, like me, you generally only watch the opening and ending titles the first few times and then skip through them on each subsequent viewing, it’s worth watching the final ending all the way through.
Dub/Subtitles:
The dub’s fairly well produced although there are several glaring mispronunciations that plague the entire run of the show. The four main characters, Jiro, Mimiko, Kotaro and Cassandra, are all played with believability and thankfully a minimum amount of overt sentimentally. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for the supporting cast who seem to have been pulled from the “Guts & Glory” school of voice acting and sound more like they should be voicing characters from Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh.
Extras:
Each disc offers text-less versions of the opening and closing animation plus the original Japanese TV spots but unfortunately it’s the same batch on each of the three discs. What this release does have going for it is that every single episode has an extremely funny and off-the-wall Japanese commentary track, with accompanying subtitles, featuring many of the show’s original cast and crew.
Black Blood Brothers: Complete Series is available on DVD from most online and high street retailers now. As usual both Amazon and Play are currently offering this release at some nicely discounted prices working out to just under a single pound per episode. FUNimation has more info, trailers and the first three episodes in their entirety on their official site here.
Reviewer: Penfold
Shakugan No Shana – Box Set
Label: MVM./ FUNimation
Release date: 8th June 2009
Certificate: 15
Discs: 6.
Running time: 654 mins approx
Video: 16:9 anamorphic
Audio: Japanese 2.0, English 2.0.
Subtitles: English
RRP: £49.99
Brief synopsis:
High-school student Yuji Sakai has a problem. You see, Yuji’s dead, and has been for some time, he just hasn’t realised it yet. What he thinks is his real body is just a short lived facsimile that will completely fade out of existence with time leaving the world unaware that he ever existed. This is the fate of so called “Torches”, humans who have been drained of their life essence by denizens of the Crimson Realm, strange and powerful beings from another reality. When Yuji is attacked by denizens of the Crimson Realm he’s saved by a strange, nameless teenage girl with flaming hair, red-hot eyes and a mysterious Japanese sword. Yuji names the girl Shana after her sword, the Nietono no Shana, and she in turn opens his eyes to the shocking reality of the world around him. Some rogue members of the Crimson Realm plan to drain the life essence from all the humans in the city for their own nefarious gains whilst chosen warriors like Shana, called Flame Hazes, fight to the death to defeat them. Now that Yuji knows the truth he vows to use what little time he has left in this world to assist Shana in her fight to defeat any denizens who would dare to threaten human life in this city she has sworn to protect
You can find our previous reviews of this series here, here and here and the official FUNimation website for this series here
Extras:
Spread over the 6 discs are: various production art galleries, Naze Nani (why/how & what of…) Shana videos, several trailers and “Shana-Tan” #1-2 which are short self-parody episodes of Shakugan no Shana starring a chibi (mini) sized version of Shana and her friends. The whole thing’s enclosed in a nice sturdy cardboard box with new front cover artwork.
Shakugan No Shana – Box Set will be available on DVD from Amazon, Play and high street retailers from 8th June 2009.
Reviewer: Penfold