Back to Xalengurth's Profile Xalengurth's Profile

First of all, I will say that I did not watch Trigun before seeing this. This I say because most people will tell you that this is a ripoff of Trigun. I have not seen it at this point, so I do not know.

___________________________________________________________________

Prologue:

The anime was a great one, if you are a fan of action this has plenty of it, if you want drama this has plenty of it, if you are a fan of vampires this has plenty of it, if you are a fan of sci-fi this has plenty of it (no mechas though), and last of all if you enjoy ... history and some political fiction this has plenty of it.

Personally, I really enjoyed the allusion to historical empires and political ideologies present in the anime. For example: The New Human Empire (aka Empire of the True Race / Methuselah Empire) is very influenced by the Ottoman Empire, going as far as to have the Imperial Janissaries do the same job they did in the actual Empire, being the household guard of the Emperor (Empress, in the case of the anime) that and a mix of the earlier Byzantine Empire which was succeeded by the Ottoman Empire. Vatican is representative of the EU, and an allusion to the medieval Christian philosophies of the Roman Catholic Church. Albion is, I believe, the modern England adapted into the anime controlling only the British Isles at this point as well as being neutral in the Vatican - Empire tensions. Also, being born in Istanbul and spending the first 5 years of my life there (as well as many visits) I can say Istanbul was very nicely adapted into the Byzantium of the anime, which is the capital of the Empire as it was in the Ottoman Empire. Hell, even the parts of the city are accurately portrayed!

One thing I did not like about the anime was, it does not give much background information at all... The story is perfect! But the only thing the anime tells you is that there is a conflict between Vampires and Terrans and that this leads to tensions between the Vatican and the Empire. For this I had to read various sources to get information about the background, which might have led me to enjoy the anime fully. However, I really hesitated giving this a 10 because of that, had it portrayed the background nicely I would not have even thought of any other score.

__________________________________________________________________

Story:

The story is perfect! However, if you are reading this I suggest that you do not become discouraged by the length and keep on reading as I will be telling much of the points of the story that I wish were told at the first episode.

At one point in the history of Earth, humans colonized Mars. And the colonists discovered two types of nanomachines there left by an earlier civilization: the Bacillus and the Crusnik. They subsequently injected the nanomachines, and those with the Bacillus were turned into the Methuselah, or as termed by normal humans (called Terrans by the Methuselah) into vampires. However, those with Crusnik installed into them do not live, except for four, who are Abel, Cain, Seth and Lilith.

When the colonists returned to Earth, a war broke out between the Methuselahs and the humans who had remained on earth. Abel, Cain, and Seth took the Methuselah's side—while Lilith supported the humans' side. The continuing war eventually led to "Armageddon," the apocalyptic event that happened 900 years before the start of the story. During the war, Cain went insane and killed Lilith. In grief, Abel took her body to the Vatican where she was buried. Abel remained at her side, weeping for her, for 900 years.

At the start of the story, there is an uneasy truce between the Methuselah and the Terrans. The Roman Catholic Church is a major military power determined to protect humans from the Methuselahs, with its seat of power based in the Vatican. The Methuselahs have their capital of Byzantium, which is surrounded by a field of particles to filter out UV radiation, protecting the Methuselah population. However, the Methuselah have an Empress that wishes for peace, and the Vatican is reluctant to start hostilities against the Empire because the Empire is the most technologically advanced nation on earth, with weapons and machines that surpass both the Vatican arsenal and Albion.

Both groups use "lost technologies," such as airships, missiles, and computers, to engage in a cold war with one another. A third great power, Albion also plays a role in the war with its superior arsenal of lost technology and weapons and higher level of manufacturing ability versus the Vatican. The independent monarchy of Albion is a primarily human country, however the secret of their expertise in lost technology is found in the Ghetto, an underground city of enslaved Methuselah. It is these Methuselah who operate and manufacture the lost technology, but with the death of the Albion Queen, some of the enslaved vampires begin a rebellion for the freedom of all of the Ghetto residents.

Last of all, Crusniks are beings that drink the blood of Methuselah, while the Methuselah are beings likened to vampires because of their superior strength, agility, prolonged life span, regenerative traits and their inability to be exposed to the sun (as the nanomachines would burn the host) together with their weakness to silver and their necessity to regularly drink human blood because the nanomachines are constantly destroying their red blood cells. They can have children, and they can eat normal food.

__________________________________________________________________

Art:

The art / animation is good as it is not an old anime. The blurry-ish look really gets one into the story's dramatic and tragic tones. The way the faces of each character is drawn also hints at their respective character personalities. Also, the facial movements and eye effects truly reflect the mood of the characters.

The color choices used in the anime are really good for the atmosphere of the overall plot.

Other than those, there is not much I can say about the animation as it is not really an old anime.

___________________________________________________________________

Sound:

The OP and the ED were both really good, even when I did not really want to spend much time I could not stop myself from watching / listening them.

The music and sounds used in the anime really help in setting the atmosphere of the moment. Especially I paid attention to it at the final episode where it really fit in with what was going on. There is no other way that I can describe that than saying it was "Epic".

____________________________________________________________________

Characters:

I was actually kinda disappointed as there were no special characters like, say Lelouch, in this anime. They were all rather typical characters, you know, the guy with the tragic past (who I think over exaggerated it), the whiny-yet-nice-so-you-cant-get-mad-at girl, the little aristocrat boy who falls in love with a commoner and can't bring himself to say so, the best friend who betrays but then comes back in the end as he is about to kill his helpless best bud, the empress in disguise, the fanatically loyal guy who goes mad with his loyalty only to realize his mistake at the end... etc.

So the characters are all ones used in previous works with not much originality other than their adaptation into the awesome storyline of the anime.

_____________________________________________________________________

Enjoyment:

I really enjoyed this series, however the enjoyment at the beginning was limited due to the frequent plot changes at the first few episodes and the storyline that was not efficiently given at all.

Later on though, after the involvement of Esther into the plotline, the enjoyment increased as I started seeing political conspiracies, fanaticism, ideologies, and tragedy... of course not forgetting the epic action scenes which were really good btw.

______________________________________________________________________

Overall:

Although due to the lack of information about the background storyline at the beginning, I really hesitated giving this show such a high score, I could not help but do so knowing the actual storyline and having finished the series together with the ending.

I really hope they would make a continuation of the story, as after properly knowing the storyline the series is truly a masterpiece quality one. That is of course in my opinion.

Nevertheless I highly recommend this anime, and I REALLY REALLY want to point out that you SHOULD DEFINITELY READ ABOUT THE BACKGROUND STORY BEFORE STARTING THE SHOW!!! What I wrote about the background story in the story section should be sufficient, although of course knowing more doesn't hurt ;).

I watched this anime when I was in elementary school, and including me all my friends were really into it. This got us all into soccer too lol, I would imagine myself being Tsubasa, or Misaki and try harder at soccer.

I recently watched the first three episodes but couldn't find anymore with english subs, or dubs. If anyone knows anyplace I can find them in please let me know.

But as to the anime it is very enjoyable, it combines both reality and super powers such as Tsubasa's super kick (which, while playing the Japanese only Atari game with my friends and not knowing a ... bit of Japanese, for an unknown reason called it "Magnum"), and the Twins' super-joint kick.

It is about a student named Ozora Tsubasa who moves to Nankatsu from his hometown because he wants to play soccer in the famous Shuutetsu team. However, his encounters on the first few days forces him to reconsider, and with the advisement of the famous Brazillian soccer player Roberto Hongo who was asked to train Tsubasa by his father, he ended up joining Nankatsu Public School's soccer team, a rival to Shuutetsu that hasn't won in many years. Mainly it is because of Tsubasa's rival beginning with the famous Shuutetsu goalkeeper Wakabayashi Genzo, and the friends he made that go to Nankatsu PS. As the story develops Taro Misaki moves to Nankatsu a few days after Tsubasa and becomes best friends with him, also joining Nankatsu.

The series follows on the games of Nankatsu and friendships and rivalries of Ozora Tsubasa.

I recommend it to everyone.