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Gotham Knight is the best North American and Japanese collaboration in the production of an animation. It is neither an anime nor a cartoon, but a perfect blend of the two. After watching this it created even more anticipation for The Dark Knight live action film that will soon continue the story. The DVD has Japanese directors, American writers, Japanese and American Artists (who are also writers and directors, but also do animation and character design), and American Producers. One cool note that I found was that Emma Thomas one of the producers is Christopher Nolan's wife, and she produces most of the films that ... he directs. It is surprising that he did not direct at least one of the short stories. I guess he was too busy with The Dark Knight. My skin feels alive just thinking about the upcoming film, since Nolan happens to be my favorite director. Maybe animation is not his style, since he is so good at directing live action.

The story is not really a bunch of short stories, but instead they are actually just different chapters for the entire story that covers the span of chronological events between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. But each story has it own style of direction, since each story was done by a different Japanese director and worked on by different American writers. Here is a break down of the short stories or "chapters" or episodes:

Have I Got a Story for You
Four youths describe their perspective of what they see as Batman. Each set of eyes see a different side to the being behind the mask. They each tell of their encounters with Batman, and argue over their observations, and each encounter happens to be contiguous with the next story told so it provided an interesting dynamic for the direction of the short story.

Crossfire
The perspective of two detectives under the command of James Gordon which is directed in third person. Local gang wars put some of Gotham's finest in danger, which is something the Bat does not like. One of the detectives was recruited from another city by Gordon, and he has his doubts about whether he can trust Batman, while the other detective grew up in Gotham, so she has a polar perspective to that of her partner. It situates excellent conflict between the opinion of the partners, and even with the superior officer.

Field Test
An excellent depiction of the good or "light" side of Batman. Normally his dark side is the one portrayed, but this story shows the truth of the man behind the masks and his kind heart. It also has some insane progressive technology!

In Darkness Dwells
The story features Croc and Scarcrow. Not as much depth as the other stories, but it has excellent action sequences.

Working Through Pain
The best of all six short stories. It is a flash back of Batman's past where he travels the world and seeks out some Hindu philosophy or Psychology to learn how to bend his pain to his own will. It is an excellent illustration and articulation of the inner conflict within Batman.

Deadshot
Another super villain, Deadshot, is assassinating the commissioners in Gotham. In the episode, Batman protects his social and judicial defender, and link to society, Commissioner Gordon. There is an amazing transition from the previous short story into this one, where Batman comes to a realization about his life as a superhero and the deeper meaning behind his surface motives for defending Gotham city.

A really cool comment on the show is that Kevin Conroy came on to do the voice of Batman. For those who do not know him, he was the voice actor for the original Batman in Batman: The Animated Series. He is a legend among North American voice actors, and his voice is the perfect match to the archetype that is Batman.

Overall the DVD or OVA or "whatever" is one of the finest animations I have watched. The very first scene blew me away with its phenomenal animation and artwork. It starts with a pan across a fog sodden bridge somewhere in Gotham to the top of a building where Batman awaits. Some of the best creators in the world came together for an avant garde production. Avant garde literally means the group of soldiers who would lead an army into battle. It is normally lead by the army's finest battalion. The figurative connotation of my use of the word, means to push boundaries. The perfection that is Gotham Knight is the result of some of the best production in the world. The task to bring all these brilliant minds together is arduous and costly, but with the perfect hierarchy that is their entire production team, they have been able to produce a taste of perfection in this Anime, Cartoon, Animation, whatever. The whole time as I watched I had inner conflict turmoil inside of me as to whether or not I consider this show to be an anime. But after watching the show, I came to the conclusion that is is neither an anime nor a cartoon and instead is a neoanimation. Whether or not that is actually a word, I could care less. I simply used a modifier on a noun and the semantics work to describe my meaning. All I really know is that this show deserves a place here on MyAnimeList along side of some of the greatest animation of our time.

I initially saw previews of this movie while I was in Japan last October. It was being released pretty much right after I left, and I was there for a full month. But there was an awesome display at the Manga museum in Kyoto with an original script, and other memorabilia. When I saw the previews, I knew this movie was going to rock. But I never imagined BONES would deliver such a timeless tale. This movie will become one of the classics as time progresses.

Anyways, lets get to the basis for my extreme rating.

Story: 9
Such a classic formulated tale of a boy, Kotarou, his ... best friend, protector and pet dog, Tobimaru, and his new found guardian, Nanashi (nameless). They integrate the archetype of the ming dynasty searching for power, and situate a conflict of interest between them and the feudal lords of Japan and the Shogun. There is also a blond haired warrior fighting with the Ming Dynasty, who is implied to have German blood, I would imagine. The story is incredibly well thought out, and multiple threads are started and finished coherently.

Art: 10
The computer graphic imagery was done so fastidiously, it is impossible to notice when cg images are subtly composited into the hand drawn images. But then there are fight scenes that explode with insane animation. There is one scene where Nanashi blows onto his blade, and the animation scent chills done my spine. The art deserves nothing but a 10 in my mind.

Sound: 9
This is Japanese animation at its best, and the sound was equal is importance in the production to the imagery. It really entices me, the way the score appeals to my emotions, and the songs and sounds are used repetitively to evoke emotions at particular events in the plot.

Character: 9
Kotarou, is an angry kid, who has had a frightful run from a higher power. His best friend and dog, Tobimaru, will follow him anywhere. Tobimaru is actually one of my favorite characters. He reminds me of my dog I lost last year. He even looks very similar. But what struck me the most was his dedication towards his master, that my own pet portrayed. I would go for 5 hour hikes, and I would never need to call his name once. He would always be near, and doing an adorable job protecting me from whatever evils are out there. He would whimper when I would walk along some high rock ledge, and would bark at any strange men. My dog would always use his judgment of character to decide whether to bark at a shady person, or to go wag his tale and meet some new friend. It actually made for an amazingly tame dog. Just like Tobimaru. But all dogs have teeth.
Nanashi is an elite ronin, who has history fighting with the army. His past binds him to a promise, and his nonchalant attitude with serious battle side makes for comparison with the great classic warriors of animation.
Kotarou is an excellent character, and develops well throughout the story. It is a growing of age period for him, and he needs his courage for the bloody battle that is fought for him. I liked all three of the main chracters, and also the antagonist side has just enough gray in the evil archetype.

Enjoyment: 10
A great action anime. It is essentially Serei no Moribito without fantasy, and with a better ending all in a single high budget movie. I loved every minute of it. My depiction above shows why I enjoyed every moment.

Overall: 10
Everything that I needed to say, has been said about Mukoh Hadan. Even the name of the anime rocks. There was nothing that was left out in this movie if you are a fiend for anime action with great plot.

Perfect execution of a unpopular shonen anime. Even though it has a mainstream plot and presentation, it has a soundness of all the elements in the show that so many one shot animes lack.

I could not give the show a 10 for character, since no character stood out like the infamous L, or Light, or Luffy, or many of the other great characters. Even though I was captivated by all the characters, no one stood out. It may be due to the female writer's preference not to bias her character development to only one of the two main characters. Even though it is a male ... oriented theme overall, she has built a great relationship between the two characters. Their attachment and growth dependence on one another really shows in the later part of the anime.

The story I could only give a 9 because it did not have any shocking twists, nor deep revelations. The show was intended for amazing action, intense adventure, and they even blew the budget on the animation! I meant that last part as a figure of speech. The plot was always entertaining, so I was never for a moment bored, and I was always anxious waiting for the next episode. Excellent themes are hidden within all the episodes. Especially between the common male male female character trinity, just like in Naruto. Also the ominous older brother, and tiresome grandfather play out in some dynamic relationship with Yoshimori. Kekkaishi is as good as Bleach and Naruto at their best. I use those two, since they stories are the most parallel to each other.

The animation was incredibly done. For clearly being an unpopular manga and show, the production was high grade. Limited CG images composited into the shows main scenes. Princess Mononoke was one of the first to do this well, and has been proven to be an incredible advancement for the industry. Over the next 10 years we are going to see much better animation, once show budgets increase as the world turns to a complete global market.

The score is done with great meticulousness for the creation of appeal. The end character montage with a rock rift is such a great way to end each episode. It makes you crave for the next episode. Shows like this that repeatably use the same melodies to lead into scenes really enhance the appeal of the show, instead of forcing some repetitive melody in your head. Animation is nothing without sound. Shows that do not put money into their soundtrack... fail.

The dialogue was great, so my overall enjoyment was superb. The common banter in shonens is a great exemplification of how it is possible to escape from all your problems in a moment. One minute a character is stressed over being weaker than an enemy, the next they are cajoling with their nemesis.

If you want to watch a consistent anime that gives everything you want, just take it all and watch the show. It does not disappoint and delivers in action, with only marginal build up of suspense. The creators of this show analyzed all the popular anime, and formulated a perfect model for a show they wished to produced, then approached the closest show that matched their requirements. Pretty prehistoric method of manga selection, but does it ever make a great animation.

Now its time for me to go back to the pile and search for another show. There is still one more episode to be subbed, but I am already satisfied by the show that is Kekkaishi.

Oh and by the way, they use these cool barriers called Kekkai, which act as shields, and can perform a type of volume combustion, which they then consume as a form of garbage collection/religious burial for ayakashi (ghosts/demons), and they even play on the idea of encapsulating dimensions, and also about dimension construction. I said the show had no deep revelations, but it does use some damn cool archetypes.