Alternative TitlesJapanese: ブレイド
Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 12
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Jul 1, 2011 to Sep 16, 2011
Duration:
24 min. per episode Rating:
R - 17+ (violence & profanity)
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 6.311 (scored by 1967 users)
Ranked: #45892
Popularity: #1729
Members: 5,024
Favorites: 4 1 indicates a weighted score
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SynopsisThe story revolves around Blade, a "Daywalker" vampire hunter who was born with vampire and human blood after a vampire attacked his mother. While visiting Japan on a mission, Blade tracks down Deacon Frost, the vampire who killed his mother. Blade confronts "Existence," a mysterious organization composed of vampires modified by Frost.
(Source: ANN) |
Related AnimeCharacter: Wolverine
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
Reviews
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roriconfan
55 of 176 people found this review helpful
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1 of 12 episodes seen
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| Overall |
3 |
| Story |
3 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
3 |
| Enjoyment |
1 |
Blade is the fourth Marvel attempt to get a piece of the pie out of the anime fans and once again it’s just wasting its precious money on lame adaptations. I have watched all three previous shows and I could already see from the pilot episode it is following the exact same pattern as those. It is quite safe to say that I knew in just a few minutes that it is mediocre at best since the makers repeat the same crap as before. To be honest, up to now Marvel derived anime were slowly getting more interesting, meaning the makers were slowly learning how to make a good action show and we had the more than obvious analogy of Iron Man < Wolverine < X-Men. You see, the action was getting better and the amount of heroes was increasing which was making each attempt a bit more enjoyable than the previous one. So I expected for Blade to be even more enjoyable for improving the formula further but to my disappointment it is the worst of them all. And don’t tell me I reached to conclusions too early; it is more than obvious if you see the storyboard and the execution in comparison to the other three.
First of all the music part is by far the best thing in this show as those rock pieces are nice to listen to lots of times. All the rest are terrible. Just 3 minutes in the show and you see that the bad guys are nothing but dumb vampires attacking innocent civilians and being vaporized by the hero. There is nothing interesting about them, they are just cannon fodder. Hell, they don’t even fight in an interesting way; they are just brainlessly attacking with claws and get owned in less than a second because Blade moves faster than light or something (lol at the after image he leaves as bait; what is this, early Dragonball episodes?). Great strategy there guys; too bad Solid Snake is better.
What is even worse is how these mooks are killed. It is true that in some stories with vampires they are instantly combusting when they die but this is plain laughable. They don’t burn and turn to ash with a few bones remaining to fizzle away in the wind. I mean it was so cool in the live action trilogy or even in From Dusk Till Dawn. So what crappy way to combust is this here? They just go poof and disappear like it’s a Digimon being defeated. Plain horrible; they look like kagebushin rather than monsters with personality.
What is even worse than even that is how they look like. In an attempt to flavor their appearances, they are all sorts of combinations. Just imagine a vampire catfishman who uses vampire cats and water as hindrance. Weird? How about vampire chicken? Vampire imps? Vampire ninjas? This is plain ridiculous, especially when it is pointless. No matter how they look, they are equally weak and use the exact same dumb technique of “running towards the opponent with no plan at all”.
There are also human collaborators to the vampires, called familiars. Not only they are even easier to beat than vampires yet they have the nerve to attack Blade in hopes of defeating him with simple clubs. They are also idiots enough to have tattoos on their wrists showing the vampire insignia of the guy they are working for. Amazing secrecy people, do you have the map to his lair drawn on your ass too?
And then there is the Big Bad of the show, whose actions make no sense. He clearly is ten times stronger than Blade, continually defeats him easily and continually lets him escape despite the more than obvious fact that he needs his blood to complete an experiment. Instead of capturing him single-handily, he keeps sending his troops to be massacred by Blade and he just walks away when he has him cornered. Yeah, that makes sense. It’s called the “We can’t have a showdown before the last episode” strategy.
There is zero interest in the action and it is supposed to be an action show. Since the first episode, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to already figure out the animators are using the exact same choreography as before. Random slashes and gunshots, most of which are done with still frames and a cheap fire effect covering the monsters. And all vampires are defeated in less than a second with a simple punch or kick before they are set on fire; as if they are made of paper. They are not even shown suffering before they die. Hell, they are not even shown being damaged much before dying. Hell, there isn’t even a body remaining as proof a battle took place there.
Furthermore only vampires are killed in this show, as normal people always survive or just fall unconscious. This is of course done because the show is supposed to be for teenagers and thus it couldn’t be too brutal. And for some reason vampires don’t count as people but as Digimon, so it’s ok to kill them. Anyways, my point is that normal people are always spared but vampires are killed. And since both are defeated equally easy, that ends up making the vampires to look far weaker than normal people! Shouldn’t a story full of dark areas and vampires be scary or unsettling? Well this one here isn’t in the slightest. How can you be afraid with such piss poor weak adversaries? They look stupid too.
This is a retelling of the action live movies and it is nothing we haven’t already seen. They aren’t even trying to make a twist with an already simplistic plot (and don’t tell me there is complexity in the Blade movies). I practically felt like I watched the first movie repeating in the exact same way, with far less interesting action and atmosphere. So ok, Blade is after the guy who bit his mother. Doesn’t that make him his creator? Why is he after the guy who thanks to him he is now so cool and saves people from vampires? He should be in-dept to him. Yet all he does is killing random vampires, as if he has nothing else to do. That gets tiresome fast.
As for the story? Aside from Blade chasing after Big Bad it is practically random traveling around the world and fighting mooks, while listening to the overblown dramatic tales of unimportant people you will never see again past the episode they appear in. So practically there is NO PLOT AND STORY THAT FITS IN TWO LINES OF TEXT. Heck, even the major secondary characters that aid Blade are a weak girl, a grandpa, and a dog. Does that sound interesting? Nope.
As you can tell early on, my impressions of Blade are veeeery negative. It is a mediocre work like all the other Marvel derived works, and thank goodness it is the last. Now Madhouse can you please try harder? read more
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jackson_h
11 of 38 people found this review helpful
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12 of 12 episodes seen
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
My first review on MAL!
I'm expecting not many to find this helpful, after all people will only find a review helpful if you think EXACTLY like them...
Well here we go!
*POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN REVIEW*
Blade in my opinion is probably the best of the 4 Marvel anime projects.
X-Men is a very close second. Wolverine a distant third and Iron Man finishing last.
I found Blade the be very entertaining and the most interesting of the four Marvel anime shows.
It's about killing vampires. Even Madhouse couldn't screw this up. :)
Fans have complained about Iron Man being kind of boring (and it kind of is) and Wolverine having a WTF ending (yeah it kind of does).
The only major complaint I have against the X-Men anime is Hisako/Armor, who I thought was an annoying and unlikeable character.
(off topic but I found her more likeable in the Marvel Knights motion comic "Astonishing X-Men" which is voiced by many anime voice actors in the New York area, so check that out if you haven't)
No surprise that the Japanese wanted to shine a big spotlight on a character who was actually Japanese in the comics, but I didn't think it had to be so bright. Sure she's a main character but did she have to get more screen-time than actual fan favorites like Storm and Beast who although are main characters as well, seemed to be shoved into supporting roles instead?
Back to Blade though.
One of the things that the Blade anime succeeds where most of the other Marvel shows suffered from is that the story didn't confine the characters just to Japan.
In Blade the story takes place in various countries and I found this to feel more natural; the characters actually travel to a new country for a reason (and not forced just because anime = Japan/Asian setting)
What I also really liked about Blade was that you get to see a lot of the character's history in some episodes.
You see how he became a vampire.
See his childhood.
See his training and how he learned his skills.
Another great addition is that in one episode you also see the history of the main villain Deacon Frost who you might actually feel sorry for after learning about his past.
I also found the Japanese "sidekick" in the Blade anime to be the best written character of all the other sidekicks in the Marvel anime shows.
Better than Chika in Iron Man, better than Yukio in Wolverine and better than Hisako in X-Men (even though all are technically main characters).
She has her own goals she wants to accomplish (like Yukio) but in my opinion has better character development after watching all the episodes.
I felt 12 episodes was an appropriate length and none of the episodes were "filler". Only downside is that the secondary storyline of destroying the Pure Bloods is never shown (maybe if a second season happens in the future).
I guess another thing that some might find annoying is how at times Blade struggles with enemies you know are obviously weaker than him.
Also how Deacon Frost continues to defeat him every time they meet so it can set up the expected final showdown in the last episode.
Obviously there's a lot of action and violence in this anime so if you're looking for anything more deep you probably won't find it here.
This anime primarily targets casual anime fans and fans of the comics who haven't been exposed to any anime yet.
Besides being just another typical action/fighting show there were some moments that I personally found a bit sad, so it was a bit surprising and welcoming to have some emotion in a story like this.
Some people who don't commit to watching all episodes I suggest to you this:
At least watch episodes 1-4, (episode 4 being a very important one). If you don't want to continue by then, then I guess this show isn't for you.
I hope you found something in this review helpful and thanks for reading.
- Jackson read more
Recommendations
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+Both have human experiments.
+Both main characters have sad past.
+Both have similar atmosphere,animation and plot .
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Similarities:
Isn't it obvious, they both deal in slaying supernatural evil beings and they both use bladed weapons in doing so.
They both do most of their hunting at night.
They both have the skills and wits to fight.
Dissimilarities:
In Blood C, the chiquita (Saya) is a full time student and a miko but a part-time hunter, while in Blade, the hombre (Blade himself) is a full time hunter.
When it comes to weaponry, Blade uses more than just his sword, he's got an array of blade and pointed weapons. While in Blood C......hummm, I think she just relays on her sword, but I guess we'll find out if she uses something else in future episodes.
In Blood C the main protagonist is a girl and in Blade it is man.......isn't that very obvious?
Saya in Blood C is sweet, caring and a little bit clumsy, in Blade the main lead is a man with few words coupled with a bad attitude.
And finally, in Blade the hombre (blade) is a half man half vampire, while in Blood C the girl is all human who can perform super athletic skills.......I think.
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Opening Theme"Slashing Through the Night" by Takahashi Tetsuya
Ending Theme"Between Darkness & Sanity" by Takahashi Tetsuya
Fansubbing Groups
Which fansubbers do you like the best? Click + to approve of their subs for this show. Click - if you don't think they did such a great job.
Related ClubsMaaya Sakamoto fanclub, The Noble Heroines, MadHouse, Based on Fiction (tv shows, movies, video games, cartoons, novels, comics, ect), Comic Book Fanclub, Power House
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