Kiba

I can't believe such a hyped anime doesn't have a review. Well on with the show:

Story:
I absolutely loved this anime storywise. It begins with a young boy named Zed, who lives in a strange, polluted town known as Calm. One day, a spirit, Amil Gaoul, appears to him, and he is dragged into another world. This of course, might seem cliche within the genre of time/world-traveling hereos, but where Kiba sets itself apart is in the concept of shard casting, the main magical ability of the people of the alternate world. Shard-casters can produce from their body small shards which unleash an elemental attack. Other anime have similar concepts, but to use items like this is something that to me is rather new, and I liked it. Also, shardcasters may summon spirits using special shards, and there are six Key Spirits, which are far more powerful than other spirits. Without going into too many spoilers, once the six Key Spirits are brought together, a great power is unleashed, and much of the anime is spent in this quest by multiple factions to obtain the power of the Key Spirits. This makes for a truly epic anime, with a rather interesting ending.

Art:
During the first episode, you get the feeling that the art is dark, due to the nature of Calm, but once Amil Gaoul appears, you see the real art style of this anime. Most of the characters are drawn in rather conventional anime form, but the real artistic value of this anime can be seen in the ethereal forms of the various spirits. Amil Gaoul resembles an angel, but there are also spirits which resemble devils, warriors, mythical creatures such as phoenixes and centaurs. Most of the spirits are bipeds, which really adds to their appeal, in seeing ghostly, two-legged forms of many different beings. The places where the shard casters draw their shards from, can resemble anything from an intricate tattoo to jewelry, to some sort of disease-ridden boil, depending where it is, or the very character of the person.

Sound:
The voice actors are great, although personally I found Roia's voice grating on the nerves sometimes. The battle sequences with Amil Gaoul all have a beautiful chorus to them, so you know when the tide of the battle is going to turn. This is really the only highlight in terms of sound in this anime, the rest could easily be attributed to background sounds.

Character:
I didn't like some of the characters, mostly because they often contradicted their own actions in extreme ways. Zed remains for the better part of the anime, a hero, he takes to his role readily, then experiences doubts about himself, and his mentor, who although appears to have a grandfatherly aspect about him, has a dark past that doesn't come out until the last 5 or so episodes. Zed's best friend is another source of frustration, in that he so easily and completely changes himself into the opposite of Zed.

Enjoyment:
As you are watching the anime, you are completely absorbed in it, and maybe once it ends is when you really start questioning things such as characterization and such, but meanwhile, this is one wild ride. The rather novel concept of shard casting sets this anime apart, and I highly recommend it to everyone

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Kiba is a Shounen, Fantasy, Action, Adventure about a world full of shard casters, which are people who can summon spells and spirits. The concept is great but the story is rather second-rate.

The story follows the adventures of two separate boys (Zed and Noa), as they go through many different experiences in their different world, before both stories meet. Even though this anime series has a pretty unique concept of spirits, the story itself is told just like you average shounen anime, which ends up taking away quite a bit of the enjoyment of the show. However the simplistic story is still good enough and doesn’t feel like it’s entirely dragged out, most of the time. There are also the whole nations at war plot and their relations, which helps give this series some much needed depth, plus there are plenty of plot twists to supplement it.

The characters are probably the worst aspect of the series because they are all fairly one-dimensional and a lot of them go under drastic personality changes for no good reason. The poor dialogue doesn’t help much either, as they tend to spew out clichéd lines. The main character Zed is just as bad because he is a loud-mouth, simple-minded brat that does things senselessly. The only redeeming point has to be the way in which certain characters develop throughout the series.

The animation quality of this series is of a pretty good standard; with plenty of effort put into the environments, the actual spells and appropriately used CG effects. On the other hand the character designs are really plain and the actual fights sequences were somewhat lacking, as if they cut some corners in production. The quality of sound is just as good; with some notably great tunes from the soundtrack and adequate ambient sounds but poor voice acting does take a few things away.

Overall Kiba is a fairly entertaining shounen action adventure, with an erratic storyline. Because there was no clearly defined path, it just felt like the author was making stuff up as he goes along. One interesting thing is that during the action sequences, there are usually 2 fights going on (between the people and between their spirits). However this anime had a problem with leaving things unexplained or just doing a poor job explaining. If you are able to ignore the numerous faults, especially in the characters, you are sure to enjoy this series.

^_^

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First of I just finished this and All i can say is WOW!
Unlike a few animes of this type it really doesn't drag on and on. The story is constantly moving forward and keeping you well informed on whats going on with the characters and how they play their parts through out the anime.
I was really suprised, when it started i thought it was going to be your average superpower good vs evil kinda thing, but in the end i was wrong. A good bit of twists, and things that may or may not keep you guessing.
One of the best things i have to say is there are hardly any dead spots, even with memories and flashback.


This is my first review and i hope it can be of some help to some people.

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In case you don't wanna read the whole thing, here's a summary of this review;

Kiba is an original shounen fantasy anime from studio Madhouse and it's directed by Hiroshi Koujina (Hunter x Hunter 2011, Rainbow etc'). For a shounen, it has a relatively grim tone and adult themes that are more common in war dramas. But at the same time, it's set in a fantasy setting where people fight with swords and Pokemon style monsters.
It's not a perfect series, but if you want a well paced, well animated, dark and complete shounen series with a reasonable episode count that isn't at the mercy of any source material (and isn't called Fullmetal Alchemist 2003), then I recommend giving it a try.

And now for the full review:

*Story*

Like I said, Kiba takes place in a fantasy universe in which humans live on different planets and each planet has a vastly different way of life. And each seems to be a thinly vailed allegory to real world government systems (there's a democracy, a theocracy, a communist and a fascistic nation) and they're quite thoroughly explored in the narrative. Some of these planets have "Shard Casters" which is basically a warrior who casts spells or summons monsters through these marble thingies. Also Shard Casters usually use swords as well and fight together with the monster.

This series uses these elements not in having friendly battles that are just for fun, but in real wars between different nation planets, in which people actually end up dead most of the time. And even though this series has little to no blood in it, characters die in very brutal ways and life is very cheap.

The story centers on a troublemaking boy who manages to stumble in to another planet while running from the authorities on his home planet and becomes a Shard Caster and… You know the drill. I don't want this review to be a synopsis. But what I will say is that the heart and soul of the series is the conflict between the main character, Zed and his former best friend, Noah as well their roles in this world.

It might feel a little random and almost aimless at first. However, it does find its stride pretty quickly, has a pretty large scale and some cool (and frankly, shocking) twists and turns along the way. It is reasonably paced and complete with a satisfying ending. It doesn't always make complete sense and it could be a little clunky in places, but that's mostly due to irrational actions done by the characters and not the details of the story itself.

That aside, the central theme is spread out nicely in the narrative and is visible through the common thread between many of the characters - which is the struggle to free yourself from the circumstances you were born in to (with emphasis on the word "free"). That struggle is presented in both positive and negative ways depending on the character's actions and the circumstances they're in. This is also presented through visual symbolism in the form of a paper plane which reappears in the series occasionally.

*Characters*

The main characters here are introduced very well. The main character, Zed, like I mentioned before is a troublemaker and a rebel without a cause who has mommy issues and Noah is a straight laced, by the book type of person. Over the course of the series they develop in ways that feel like natural extensions of who they are, but are shaped differently due to their experiences in these other worlds.

To avoid spoilers I'm not gonna go in to any specifics, but I will say that Zed actually finds a cause to rebel against and Noah continues to be a "by the book" type of person but in an extremely different context.

The villains in the series are not exactly your standard shounen villains. Their motivations aren't super interesting and most of them don't have much depth, but they're very threatening because their actions are very cruel and their body count is high.

Supporting characters in general, aren't always handled all that well, sadly. There are times they seem to do irrational things. Things you can understand the basic reasoning behind, but it's still really dumb and is often proven to be pretty quickly. With that said, other characters are passable and are utilized in to the series well enough and are usually given some depth, but I can't really say any of them would leave a lasting impression on you.

From time to time, some characters can come across as quite over the top and/or having development that feels overblown and jarring.

For example, there's a twist villain from the early episodes who seemed extremely sympathetic at first, but once he was revealed for who he is, that sympathy is thrown out the window very quickly because of how heinous his actions are. Hell, even his tone of voice changes dramatically in to having a more cartoonishly evil vibe and it just leaves me puzzled as to why he was handled like that since it doesn't seem to be in line with the way he was before.

All in all, I'd say the characters are a bit of a mixed bag. The main characters, Zed and Noah and their respective paths are definitely handled well (even if the latter is a little over the top as well), but the rest are just fine at best and pretty questionable at worst.

*Art*

The character designs are pretty well done. They have a unique eye shape, clothes that complement their personalities and/or where they came from and the Main Character, Zed is consistently color coded red to make him stand out from the crowd. Some of the monster designs are ok while others are kinda lame (Amil Gaoul) and they're generally pretty creepy looking, but not always in a good way.

It also has some good background art. There are some very nice looking landscapes with bright colors and although not super detailed, they fit well with the foreground and there is a lot of variety in locations as well as a good use of shading.

The animation is pretty good too. It's not particularly great either and it does take shortcuts here and there, but this series also avoids the pitfall of a great deal of tv anime (particularly of adaptations, this isn't one though) of having characters stand around and talk for too long - that never really happens in this show. Plus, it has a lot of action, and though it's not spectacular, it's always brutal, quick and fun to watch. These fights involve a lot of people getting stabbed, falling of cliffs, getting burned to death etc' (did I mention that this show had a Saturday morning timeslot?).

*Sound*

There's two openings in this series and both of them are pretty good rock/pop kinda songs, especially the second opening that I think was crafted very well. The ending songs weren't bad, but were pretty forgettable. The soundtrack is excellent, it's mostly unnerving, but perfectly complements every tone the series attempts to communicate even if it gets a little repetitive.

The sound design is sadly quite basic at best. There's a heavy use of YGO sound effects, and other sound effects just sound plain weird or loud. But they at least have a fantasy-esque feel to them and don't sound out of place per say.

I think its voice acting is fine, but they overdo it with the screaming which becomes a tad silly at points. With that said, it does have many famous voice actors that you'd probably recognize and voices fit just fine with each of the characters.

*Overall* 7/10

Kiba is not perfect, but it is one of a kind in many ways and pretty crazy if I'm being honest.
I highly recommend to at least check it out.

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