Witchblade

Surprisingly good, honestly. Sure, at first glance it seems to be gratuitous with fanservice or whatever, but that's maybe 10% of the show, there is a (relatively) layered plot with criss-crossing faction alliances and grey character motives. At its core it's really a story about a mother who will go to great lengths for her daughter, over all others. Also, a decent and original story for what is supposed to be a loose adaptation of a Top Cow IP. It doesn't seem to have much in common with its American counterpart besides the titular Witchblade artifact itself. Maybe the artstyle is somewhat dated, but not ... jarring enough to take away from the show. Worth the watch overall.

Not a series for the faint-hearted. This has mountainous heaps of violence and fan service that were over the top even for the era. The artwork was not typical for anime of the day, as this was based off an underground American comic. The MC remains the same but they kind of Japanized the daughter. This didn't get a big time budget, The action scenes were very well done, but they had to make concessions for the other scenes as a result.

The story was kind of a mess. Violent shonenistic sci-fi on one hand, and something of SoL concerning the mother-daughter relationship. I didn't ... think it meshed very well, just way too much contrasting motivations to make the whole cohesive, It falls flat in the long run. The story starts off strong but slides as the episodes come out. As others have noted, the ending is rushed. Definitely appears the producers expected a longer run, then had to pack half a season in the last couple episodes. It wasn't satisfying at all.

I only saw a dub of this back in the day. The VA for the MC was also an odd contrast. Her scenes with the daughter were emotionally spot on, but otherwise the overacting was annoying, The VA doing the daughter did an exceptional job, though.

The other characters? Meh you could have plucked them from any of dozens of other anime of the era.

No need to continue slashing this title with a blade though. If I was to grade it today it would get 72/100 for a C-. But back in the day it would have been more like a B. Sadly, time has drained this witch of her magic. I won't recommend it, but if the premise seems interesting, I won't dissuade anyone from giving it a try.

✪ Genre: action, comedy, drama, sci-fi (genetic enhancement), military, seinen


✔ Positive Aspects ✔

◧ The quality of the animation is typical of any Gonzo production, highly saturated, fairly vibrant colors, with the characters being distinct from one another, with clear facial expressions.

◧ I found the concept of this series very interesting, even though it could have developed more.

◧ Probably the strongest aspect of the show was the character development of its protagonists, with the mother-daughter duo taking center stage, and every plot change being understandable only through this lens.
...

✘ Negative Aspects ✘

◧ As far as the unfolding of the plot goes, this was a major bummer for me. The series seemed to lack an obvious antagonist. At best, there was a mixture of different characters periodically acquiring antagonistic roles which were allowing the plot to unfold in its distinctly inconsistent manner, constantly giving me a sense that it was lacking in direction. The wearer of the Witchblade did not appear to be progressing much, either with regard to her fighting abilities, or her growth as a person on an emotional and/or intellectual level. Also, we did not get to know much about the device itself, besides some sporadic references very early on in the series.

◧ Another gigantic bummer for me was the character development of the deuteragonists. Both the mother-daughter duo’s fellow residents and her 2 coworkers were barely developed. For most of them, I did not get a clear idea of where they were coming from, I did not get to know much about their personal histories, their motivations, their thought processes. It’s not that the series dedicated that much time in action scenes or the story was sufficiently complex that it required extensive air time.

◧ On the sound department, there was not much to speak of, since I can barely recall anything at all.

◧ The action scenes seemed to be very rushed, escalating normally but ending somewhat abruptly, not allowing the viewer to take much pleasure in them.


Overall: A pretty boring series which had decent potential but did not make much effort to live up to.