Blade & Soul

Title:Blade & Soul
ブレイドアンドソウル
Overall:Unevaluated
Keywords: , , , , , , , , ,
Notables: TAKAO Yuki
YUKI Aoi
Alka is an assassin for the Clan of the Sword. She's on a journey to find the woman Jin Valel, who killed her master Hon. Jin is demon-like woman who controls the Energy of Chaos and kills without feeling - not unlike how Alka has learned to kill in her work as an assassin. On her journey, Alka encounters three strange women, each great warriors in their own right, and grapples with her slain master's wish that she leave the life of an assassin behind.
(Synopsis courtesy of ANN)

13 episodes
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Unevaluated Stretch [series:2886#628]
(One episode watched):

Unfortunately, this show didn't seem to have much 'soul' to it, by which I mean anything unique and distinctive which would make the viewer sit up and take notice. It's another 'swords are better than guns' fantasy, with overdone good vs. evil morals (though judging from the synopsis above, Alka may not be squeaky clean after all). But it is pretty generic: the big bad empire is beating up on common people, and a mysterious warrior girl with fantastic skills happens to come along and help the people--sort of like The Magnificent Seven. That's a tried and true storytelling framework, but the fact that we don't get to know Alka much sabotages it. Why has she agreed to defend these people, when they don't particularly trust her? If the makers don't want to reveal the answer at the moment, her secretiveness and reluctance to talk to people might have been emphasized as a way of excusing the lack of explanation and making us curious what the deal is with her, but it wasn't. Alka's skills are too good to believe, like her ability to deflect multiple machine gun bullets with her sword. I mean, come on! I can only suspend so much disbelief. A cheap attempt to harness nudity debased the show somewhat. The people of the village shift their attitudes so quickly and so haphazardly that they hardly seem like people at all--more like robots. This just seems to me like a half-hearted attempt to churn out one more action anime using a stereotypical premise. It might still come around, but I am not going to risk being bored for another 23 minutes.

Last updated Saturday, September 13 2014. Created Monday, April 14 2014.

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