Story: This is what happens when you get a writer who is 1. subpar and 2. Not Japanese. The writer for this has written for Highlander before, alot for highlander. I think that he's written ONLY for Higlander. The formula for this anime is VERY simple and yet incredibly complex. Revenge. I've seen revenge done before, and i've seen it done VERY well. Highlander has a very simple revenge plot, it's so simple that it's insulting. There's also the TERRIBLE sideplots....these were also insulting. I'm not giving any spoilers, but really, even if I did, it wouldn't really spoil anything at all. All the "plot developments" were predictable and boring. And i'm usually too busy paying attention to what's going on to think about what's going to happen. But I was constantly thinking about what "twist" they were going to throw at me next. Oh and the script is absolutely terrible. If you can't finish 50% of the lines before the actors say them...then you're not trying hard enough.
Art: For a terrible anime the art is pretty nice. The art is very smooth, very crisp. There are some really beautiful scenes, and then there are a bunch that aren't that hot. The action scenes lacked flow. They all seemed very static and choppy, very few seemed beautiful. Someone compared this to Afro Samurai and mentioned that the fight scenes lacked intensity, which is exactly what it lacks. This anime is meant to be all about action, and yet the effort put into these scenes seems so lacklustre. The art reminded me alot of Basilisk, and I'm not a huge fan of the style, it really doesn't suit the "feel" of this anime.
Sound: All that was available for me was the english dub....which frightened me. BUT I watched it. They got McLeod with a Scottish accent.......half the time. Which is HILARIOUS when he drops it for a bunch of lines. The english voice actors deliver every line terribly, it doesn't help that the entire script is riddled with terribly cheesy lines and ridiculous one-liners. They had some ridiculous rock music for a bunch of it as well....that didn't help.
Character: Oh man. the characters here are absolutely hilarious. You have the protagonist Colin, who's only dream is vengeance. He wants revenge because some guy "Markus" killed his wife. He's silent, angry, and incredibly powerful. you have Markus, who's such a "bad guy." you even watch his girlfriend kill some gigantic barbarian without breaking a sweat. Then he makes out with her. Oh yeah, he's bad. Then there's the whore with an ulterior motive, who tries to sleep with Mcleod....but he refuses because he's faithful to some wife who died hundreds of years ago. You have the annoying little kid with a dying sister who just HAS to join them because he has to save her from a virus that kills people. *sigh* Just watching them hurts, trying to analyze them hurts even more.
Enjoyment: No one should watch this. For an anime, it didn't even feel like an anime. This is probably the perfect example for anyone who hates how some anime become "americanized." This is an American anime...but it's not fun, it's not creative, it's not original. Only a die-hard Highlander fan could stand watching this.
Please. Don't make the mistake that I made. This anime is horrible, worse than an American B-movie. Even in the first 10 minutes it's really easy to see that it's not going to get any better, and it doesn't...it just gets worse.
