Bamboo Blade is a comedy that comes around only once every very often. Let's face it, you've seen all of this before: Broke teacher looking for a quick fix to his problem, lovable cast of female characters who just want to train in kendo and have a fun time, all wrapped up in a comedy school setting. By no means is it anything new in the anime world, but it is still a wholly charming and fun little show.
Story:
Honestly, the story isn't all that fantastic. It's very predictable and cliche, and while that isn't bad, it certainly won't win any awards. I think it's best to just accept that the story is just a setup for the truly great cast of characters to interact in, rather than a driving force for the anime.
Art:
Character design is fantastic in Bamboo Blade! Each and every character is immediately recognizable and really left a deep impression on me. I still can't look at Kirino's face without smiling, what a beautiful character. Animation is surprisingly good, you can tell that while they knew this wasn't making any major leaps in the world of anime, the animators were dedicated to their work and wanted this to look really nice, and honestly, my hat's off to them. Well done! I'd also like to point out the lack of ecchi - there were a lot of times in this anime that could have focused on cheap panty shots and questionable ecchi situations, but it did a good job at not offending me at all.
Sound:
The soundtrack to the anime is kind of weak, but it makes up for it with the fantastic voice acting. Both the English and Japanese versions are very well-done, although I prefer watching in Japanese with subs. All of the voice actresses really capture the style of the anime very well, from the comedy scenes to the more serious ones, I was captivated the whole time by their voices.
Character:
And here's the major selling point of this anime. Really, when it comes to writing characters, there's nothing more frustrating than a good character that has poorly-written interactions with other characters. Bamboo Blade doesn't have this problem though, as all of the characters are well-written and enjoyable, but also their chemistry is superb and all of their interactions really make sense and contribute a lot to my enjoyment of this anime.
It may be a pretty typical style of anime, but that didn't keep me from thoroughly enjoying it. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a nice, fun anime to sit back and enjoy.
So, now that I've finished this review, I've decided it'd be a good idea to actually watch Bamboo Blade and see if it matches up with my review.
