Bamboo Blade

I started with the (ongoing) Bamboo Blade manga, so my review of the anime comes from that perspective.

All of the enjoyment of the show comes from the characters and the fights. Although that might make it sound like a shonen series, it certainly is not, but it dances on that line between shonen and seinen very well. Ostensibly about a kendo instructor and his struggles with a high school club, it's really about a young kendo prodigy named Tamaki who matures into a young woman through the course of the series.

The series is short on plot, and since this was my first real sports anime ... I'm not really used to that . They basically go from one tournament to another, with lots of training in between and little drama. It didn't have much to draw from, since the manga is also weak in this respect.

The art and sound are passable, the fight scenes are well done, but some reuse of material towards the end becomes conspicuous. I'm not crazy about the opening or ending, and I really don't like Tama's voice, which sounds way too young even for that character.

The characters obviously make the show, and all the girls are distinct and likable. It does a very good job of developing each personality, and is very patient introducing them.There's even a happy couple in the mix, which seems rather rare in anime these days.

Overall, a light anime with cute characters, it should leave you feeling happy after each viewing.

Favorite Character: Dan the Man
Crushing on: Saya
Favorite Episode: 22
Favorite Song: Track #19 Yugure

Let me start by saying that I was really looking forward to watching Bamboo Blade, having a passing interest in kendo(not exactly practicing it, but rather being curious about it), and I wish I could give Bamboo Blade a higher score than I have. Bamboo Blade has an amazing cast, great voice acting(seriously, the shouts are quite believable and they don't sound forced - and there's a lot of shouting in kendo) and engaging action sequences - with a memorably soundtrack to top it all off. However, it falls flat when it comes to character development and story. Half of the cast doesn't really change ... much in terms of personality - I'd go as far as to say that on occassion, some of the characters are completely ignored, appearing for a scene or two, which doesn't seem right if they are considered part of the main cast. What's worse is that this time is instead spent on possibly one of the duller characters - Tama, who sadly evolves into the protagonist of the show. Don't get me wrong, she isn't a bad character, but I feel Bamboo Blade had a perfect set up for a "decentralized" show, where each character was important, but midway they arbitrarily decided that Tama is to take 3/4 of the spotlight. All in all, as far as story is concerned, I feel like the team behind Bamboo Blade was figuring it out as they went - some plot decisions seemed odd to me, as if made in haste. I think this is generally a fine anime that had quite some potential, but made the wrong turns.

Bamboo Blade is an adaptation from a splendid Manga of the same title. The story is good; it encompasses varied contents: comedy comes first, followed by a bit of drama, handful of Kendo actions and a little sip of romance. There's nothing wrong with the artworks, female characters are really cute and their emotions are well expressed, visually. The only exception is some dull feeling I had during the Kendo scenes. This is hard to mention by words, it was like... lacking sharpness? or so. Anyway, voice-acting was of great standard. An example can be seen in the action scene, which was brought up to ... life (regardless of the 'feeling' I mentioned) with voicing. Everything else is okay as far as I'm concerned. Be warned though, if you've already read the manga, you may get feeling similar to mine that something IS missing. (Set aside the fact that no further season is aired first! It's quite off topic)

That comes to a mediocre scores for animation and enjoyment. I had to admit that I'm quite biased since I liked the manga better. Anyway, this series is okay and worth spending time with.

Bamboo blade is supposed to be the story of kendo club and it's development. In Muroe high school Kendo club there are only a few (4 ) members out of which 2 are delinquant boys who do not let new members join and one eccentric saya chan who comes whenever she likes and leaves in a moment. Only the captain kirino stays. Now the main character, which i liked the most and sympathized with was the coach of the kendo club koujiro ( toraji). He is totally poor so he craves for delicious food to be feed by someone else as he lacked the money ... to buy them. Even if he gets money, due to his extreme bad luck, that to will be taken away by the money lender. He makes a bet with his senpai who at one time feeds him free lunch makes a bet that if his (koujiro) team wins he will be fed sushi at his father's shop free of cost for a whole year. Excited coach now searches for new members and accidentally they find Tamaki" who wins over adults at her family kendo dojo. She is national level player who never attended any tournament. Later on Miyazaki(miya-miya), dan-kun, yuji-kun, azuma satori etc will be added to the team.

Character development: Dan's , Miya-miya's characters develop clearly. But i felt sympathetic towards their coach. Yuji's character is just for name sake.

Even the tournaments are not so good.

Enjoyment: Overall you can enjoy it as a slice-of life comedy. Nothing so much about kendo. Unnecessary entrance of teams in the tournaments is seen clearly in the plot. Wast of time. Initial interest that was created in the first few episodes gets vanished at the end of the series.

It's not a bad show by any means, but it's nothing great either. At least for me, it's a slice of life, comedy anime with a kendo setting. It can be funny at times as well. So, if you want a kendo anime with comedy and cute girls doing cute girl things, you'll like it.
I thought the writing was lazy sometimes, like the senior bully character. He was an interesting character, that could have been used better, but they showed him in start, forgot about him for 20 episodes then brought him back again randomly to create some tension, then he's gone again lol.
They ... introduced a stalker as well in the middle of the show and hyped her up like it's gonna have some big character arc, but then forgot about her and just showed her randomly in between when she stalks miya-miya. You can take her out of most of the scenes in this anime, and it still wouldn't have any impact on the show. goes to show, how useless that character was.
And there are several other nitpicks like this that just make this show...well....kinda meh.
It's not bad at all, it can be funny, but that's all it is for me.
Another issue I had was that, the teacher who is supposed to be very important and even is one of the main characters, is just showed so weak, how can I take him and his students seriously, if their teacher is shown so weak and useless most of the time lel. I thought maybe he will grow with the students, and we would actually see him be great at kendo, but nah he's weaker than his student, so that's kinda underwhelming. But yea, if you want a laugh, and wanna watch cute girls doing kendo, go for it bud, I don't give a shit. But if you want to watch a serious Kendo anime with great character progression, watch "Musashi no Ken". Jaane.

As it is very obvious from the title, this anime tells a story about girls (and some boys) doing kendo. A sport anime, without a doubt, with a shounen feels embedded strongly in it. What does this anime tell us beyond “cute girls doing kendo”? The answer is....a journey.

Kendo is a journey to better our ownselves. Im not practicing kendo, but that sentece is just something that i re-wrote from what i saw in this anime. People may start kendo with small or even ridiculous reason, but after they get deep into kendo, they’ll be set off to an internal journey. Yes, a journey indeed, ... and journey means character development.

Character development is, in my opinion, the strongest point that this anime has. I am not telling that the other aspects of this anime are bad. Nope. But if we watch from the start till the end, what we will feel first is about character development - like Tamaki’s development to find her reason swinging her shinai, as well as Miya Miya’s. And how Ishida sensei developed from uncool, egoistic teacher to a teacher that sacrificed himself for his students (in a way, that’s quite cool). Even the plainest character like Yuuji (this is not my opinion, this is the characters opinion in anime) had a subtle yet strong development in this anime.

By all means, these character developments aren’t the best case in anime world. But they are still something worth to note down in our mind and heart. These developments feel like embodiments of the soul of kendo itself, then manifested in many ways depending on who is doing the kendo. What i mean is one person way of sword differs from others. Each person has their own development in their own track, that what makes this anime so beautiful.

Speaking about other technical aspects, i think it’s good except for the sound part, specifically the choice of the seiyuus. Many characters have seiyuu that don’t fit with their roles. This case is pretty similar to Shokugeki no Souma’s and it can lessen the characterization of those involved. And also, this anime needs more chibi form :3

For the ending part of the review, i strongly suggest to try anime version and manga version of this title. Yes, they are different - anime version and manga version differ quite great after the second half of the anime (and the second half of the manga). To put it simply, the anime version focuses on more shounen-ic vibe while the manga version focuses on what beyond kendo as a sport.
The story writer, Masahiro Totsuka sensei, stated in the afterword of the manga that he hoped Ishida’s development would have an effect to the reader. I think his statement worth something to try, or at least, that’s what i did and i found it very amazing. So try to read/see both versions and compare which one have more effect in you ~

This has the worst structure of a show I've ever seen. Despite that baffling aspect, Bamboo Blade is a lighthearted irreverent comedy maybe worth your time.

Let's get the negatives out of the way.

First off, the show's premise is that a school's kendo sensei, Ishida, makes a bet with his friend that his team of girls can beat his friend's, with the reward being a year's worth of eating at a restaurant.

This weak hook to the show is resolved in a handful of episodes. Let me repeat: the reason for this show existing is resolved in a handful of episodes.

After some meandering, the show comes up ... with another premise: after a disastrous encounter with an influential figure, Ishida's job is at risk so he decides to win the national kendo tournament to make himself indispensable.

You'd think this should have been the premise all along, considering the high stakes. Regardless, the show's complete lack of urgency, momentum or adherence to sports tropes almost makes this new premise as meaningless as the initial one.

By the time episode 20 rolls around there is no sense of escalation or impending finale to the story. The characters are not knee-deep into a tournament or anything like that, in fact there's no kendo in that episode at all, the show is more concerned with inter-relationship dynamics and characters goofing around.

So if you go into this show expecting the traditions of the sports genre, think again.

There's no explanation for newcomers as to what kendo even is. There's no "discovering a sport via a character new to it" structure. There's no shonen/Naruto-esque explanation of the tournament and its rival teams. All this, despite the fact that there are indeed characters who join the kendo club for the first time and need to be taught the sport, and that there is indeed a tournament with rival teams making an appearance. The show just doesn't have the time to treat the viewer as kindly as it treats Dan-kun (a humorously drawn character who creepily sounds like he's 30 years old).

I already knew enough about kendo personally, so I didn't feel in the dark, but I imagine people who know nothing about it, will feel a mild frustration that the show doesn't take the time to methodically explain the ins and outs of the ritualistic martial art.

So, instead of a structure of a sports show, you're just kind of thrown into the lives of these girls who hang out at the kendo dojo. The show's comedy is its highlight. It's irreverent and goofy, with a pleasant cast of characters.

Tamaki is a standout, and ostensibly the show's protagonist. You'd think that would be Ishida, but he's such a superficial character, useless as a teacher and has no character arc, that the actual protagonist is Tamaki. She's the one the viewer goes on a journey with, she actually has a character arc.

Tamaki is an introvert, and in a show tempered with incompetent narrative writing, she stands out as being authentic. My favourite moment is when she starts a job for the first time. The writers nailed what it feels like for an introvert to do that.

On the negative side, there's a subplot involving a stalker that struck me as very odd. Sure there's plenty of laughs to be had during the storyline, but the victim of the stalking is (accurately) portrayed as being freaked the hell out about it, to the point of paralytic fear, and I don't really find that amusing. The whole thing just stuck out like a sore thumb compared to everything else going on in the story.

Also worth noting that Ishida sensei is beyond useless, he doesn't teach anyone a single technique in the entire show. Near the end instead of taking responsibility himself, he decides to leave a pivotal and stressful decision to one of his students like a coward. Garbage writing for a garbage teacher.

So Bamboo Blade has a baffling structure about it, you keep waiting for the plot to heat up, but it never does. Its stuck between being a slice of life show, and one with stakes. It feels as if it was written by someone completely new to the art of storytelling. If you go in with lowered expectations, you might find the show a good time though because it can be quite funny.