Witchblade is a criminally underrated anime.
A beautiful story about the love between parent and child hiding behind an ecchi facade.
It saddens me that this series was forgotten and recognized more.
The voice acting is great. Mamiko Noto is a delight as always and Akemi Kanda makes for a perfect daughter. The soundtrack is good, but not as memorable as other series from that time period. But it does capture that special atmosphere, only 2000 anime have.
Animation quality is on the usual level for anime of this era, but I was a fan of the direction, which elevated some scenes.
Plotwise the first half starts really strong and while the second half declines in quality, rushes several plot points and makes very questionable choices, it is still an entertaining watch that makes me beg for more.
Its biggest downside is the inclusion of several new plot developments in the second half that aren't properly developed since the anime only has 12 episodes left.
In my opinion, they should have either focused more on developing the elements of the first season to conclude them satisfyingly, or extend this series by another12 episodes.
I personally would have much preferred the second option, since I loved the cast and would have loved for all of them to develop a bit more.
What drags it down is it missed potential, had the series maintained the quality of season 1, it would have easily been a 9/10, but it sadly fell down a bit towards the end. I still believe it is closer to an 8 than a 7, but it should have been better.
To conclude, I'd recommend this to anyone who is nostalgic for 2000's anime and who wants to see parental love between a mother and daughter, which is sadly a rarity in action anime.