Anime: Kaze no Youjinbou

This is my first review on this site. If you would be so kind as to rate me, send me hate mail, or just carve your opinion into my car door to let me know how I'm doing, that'd be fantastic.

Story 8/10

Kaze no Yojimbo is based off an old Japanese movie from the early 60's, simply titled Yojimbo. Yojimbo is about a ronin who wanders into a town where rival crime lords make their money by gambling. The ronin convinces each gang to hire him as a bodyguard. He then brings peace to the town by convincing both sides to kill each other. There isn't much in common here apart from the rival gangs and George being a wanderer, but that's a little history for you.

To summarize the story, hopefully with not too many spoilers:

Kaze no Yojimbo revloves around George Kodama, a wanderer, who finds his way to the country town of Kimujuku looking for a man named Genzo Aroni. He's informed Genzo no longer lives in Kimujuku and is told to check in the nearby town of Sundai(sp?). George believes there is more going on and sticks around only to fall between two rival gangs in the middle of a struggle to control the town. The story continues as George gets involved in the conflict in order to find what he's looking for. Who is George Kodama? Why has he come here? What's the truth behind Kimujuku's secrets?

The main arc itself isn't that unique. While I can't think of a specific show with a similar story, I know I've seen this before. That being said, the narrative has many different layers. There's George himself, whom the show slowly reveals his reasons for being in Kimujuku. Second, there's the conflict between rival gangs, which is essentially the main side story that intertwines with George's story. And finally, there are the stories about each individual gang, as this also intertwines with George's story. None of these plot lines have much depth, but they are all told well and all mix together nicely. The story flows through each episode, even the filler episodes contribute in some way to either the main objective or the development of George's personality and history. There are a plethora of side stories and adventures that'll keep you hooked through all 25 chapters, such as a murder in a church with unique circumstances, a casino train, and a mezzen of mines

I don't know if it's historically accurate or not, but even Kimujuku gets better development than most of the show's other characters. There are episodes here and there almost entirely devoted to the history of the town and it's residents. All of it fit well with the show and made the town come alive with history. I also felt they contributed to George as a character and the overall plot, even though these episodes were mostly filler in essence.

Character Development: 7/10

George Kodama is definately an interesting guy. I'm almost certain he is Bleach's Urahara Kisuke. He looks the same, has the bucket cap, and also has the same seiyuu on the English dub. But no complaints there, this show predates that by a few years.

Anyway, back on topic, Kaze no Yojimbo is about George Kodama, and that's it. A few others get some background information, such as the lovely innkeeper Sanae Araki and the big, dumb goon Racoon. Invariably, the crime lords both get some development through their involvement with George, but only enough to further George's story. That being said, George Kodama is a fascinating fellow. I agree with the reviewer who compared him to Spike from Cowboy Bebop. They both have good fighting skills, very smart, master of sleight of hand, and similar personalities. I didn't find George quite as interesting as Spike, but that can be said of about every other character in anime. George is a very well rounded personality with an interesting history, albeit generic. You get a good glimpse at his past, his inner feelings, and yes, even some unusually awkward romance. The romance felt slightly out of place simply because it didn't do what every other aspect of the story did: develop George's character. It didn't do much for George other than make him seem indecisive and insecure, that seemed to conflict with every other aspect of his personality. I felt as though the writers added it at the last minute just for kicks.

Sound: 8/10

A lot can be said about the sound scheme in Kaze no Yojimbo. I was only able to get my hands on the English dub. Apparently I managed to find the only DVD set that didn't include the original Japanese and subtitles. At first, I was upset. I prefer my anime in Japanese. Luckily, the English dub is pretty good compared to most out there. Michael Lindsay does the English voice for George Kodama, which adds to my theory that this show is Urahara Kisuke's life before he died and became a shinigami on Bleach. Anyway, Michael does a great job with Kodama, and Melissa Fahn also did exceptionally well with Miyuki, one of George's on-again-off-again lady friends. Apart from that, the voice acting is definately above average for it's time, and still holds it's own against the few English dubs of newer shows I've seen. The voices fit the characters perfectly. The dialogue felt natural and not forced for the most part.

The music is fantastic and very much so adds to the atmosphere. I might be a bit biased, as I think the piano is my favorite instrument to listen to, but the piano tracks were just great. The haunting melodies and crashing low chords all added suspense and mystery that contributed to the show's great atmosphere. The fight scene music is, oddly enough, really well done. The music is odd because it's essentially the cheesey rock'n roll guitar solo fight music seen in too many shows of last two decades, but doesn't get as redundant as other attempts have. All in all, the sound continues this shows trend of just doing things right.

There was something missing in the sound scheme. The environmental noises and sounds were very generic and repetitive. We're outside so we can hear birds. We're by a road so we hear cars. While that's true, and you would hear those things, there's much more going on outside than birds, and more going on by roads than just cars. Yojimbo didn't. The sounds weren't realistic and alive, they were just sounds.

Animation: 6/10

This is really the shows biggest weakness. The animation is really last generation. It's not bad last gen, but not great either. That's not to say the animation is bad, it's just the weak point of the show.

Animation Fluidity

Many of the conversation scenes are a single still-frame with only the mouths moving and the occasional blinking. Nothing else is going on in the backgrounds. Facial expressions generally only change with the camera angles. While this style fit the dialogues and the show's atmosphere, they were overly simplified and really needed to include more facial expressions and gestures. It seemed like most of the other animations such as walking had a relatively low frame rate. People looked as though they were moving through a vat of maple syrup. The action scenes, on the other hand, had much better flow, but the animators took the easy way out by using shaking still-frames to show the action. I love old anime, so this didn't bother me at all. I would've been much more forgiving had this show been made 5 years earlier. However, this is a show that came out in late 2001 using animation that resembled anime from the mid 90's. In the twilight of other shows with fantastic animation such as Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star, I found it very low in comparison to other anime of it's time.

Style

I loved the style of the artwork. The show used a lot of Dick Tracy-esque color schemes to accent what was going on in the story at key points. It really added to the atmosphere and is something I had not seen done well in anime. The town of Kimujuku is well drawn. From the upper-class homes of White town to the old brick buildings of Red town, there's a lot of variety in the buildings and other set pieces. The main characters are all uniquely animated and varied, although most of them seem like they're borrowed from other more popular anime.

Value 10/10

I picked this up new from a bargain bin in my local comic book store for 25 USD. I don't regret a dime of that. I thoroughly enjoyed this show. It's one of the few shows I've watched multiple times. I definitely got my money's worth out of this one.

Enjoyment 9/10

What can I say? This show was great. I was surprised many of the more hardcore anime fans I know had never seen this. Everything this show tries to do it does well. The only thing keeping me from giving this a 10 are the first two and a half episodes, which weren't very interesting. If you don't mind somewhat dated animation and like a good mystery story, this one's for you. I feel this show may be overlooked by many newer fans, as this is not an anime you see a lot of discussion on. So do yourself a favor and at least give it a shot for 5 or 6 episodes!

Kaze no Yojimbo... I'd wanted to watch this series for quite some time, but for some reason I kept putting it off—I had a feeling I'd get bored of it, but thankfully, that didn't happen, in the end, and I am glad that I have watched this series.

Story: Exceptional. The first episode got me quite interested in the series, and I liked the main character, George, from the very start. The next couple of episodes were a little bit uninteresting, but it picks up pretty well after a bit. The story is largely centered around a mysterious happening that occurred in a small town 15 years in the past, and the main character is trying to find some answers.
I won't give anything away, since finding out what happened is a large part of what makes the anime interesting. On a very good note, basically every question that had built up over the course of the series was answered by the end. This is saying a lot, since there were a lot of questions to answer, but they did a fantastic job with intertwining the story and characters throughout the series.

Character: I liked most of the main and secondary characters in this quite a lot. The development is very good, too. George[/i], the main character, is very cool. His attitude makes things interesting—he acts like he doesn't care what happens, and this leads to a whole lot of things happening around town. His role as a catalyst in the town's development is very interesting. His past is mysterious, but as said about the story, things unfold as the story progresses.
Other characters, such as Racoon, Master, the Ginzame brothers, Tanokura, and Sanae[/u], all develop very well as the main cast. At first I didn't like some of them so much (though I did like Master and the Ginzame brothers from the start), but getting to know them really made me change my mind. Each of these characters play a role in the story's development in some way or another, some in very major ways, and the way that they interact is realistic and their changing relationships are fun to watch.

Enjoyment: The enjoyment to be found in this series is pretty high, notably in the later stages of the story. Part of the time, in the first ten or fifteen episodes, I was just wondering what was going on and I wanted to find some answers, but my patience paid off after all. Still, even when I didn't know very many answers, the events that were unfolding were interesting. There's a fair amount of action, though not too much. Really, I found that the unfolding of the story and finding out the secrets of all the characters is what made this anime worth watching.

Animation: The overall quality isn't really good, but there are some redeeming qualities. You can always tell who's who, on the bright side. The main character has a good design, though most of the other characters aren't really noteworthy. They suffice, though. The action scenes are often animated simplistically, like with no backgrounds or with very few frames. During some of the "less-important" fights, there are a lot of still frames or other shortcuts. The anime isn't about the fighting, thankfully, so this doesn't detract too much from the experience.
However, a thing I liked about this was that there were various simplistic color schemes that were sometimes used, probably to save money, but it gave those scenes an interesting feel and it worked pretty well. Another technique they used was during dialogue, but it's a bit difficult to explain... so either way, I thought it was kind of cool, even though it was probably a shortcut to save money.

Sound: Good voice acting, especially for George. Racoon's voice wasn't too pleasing, but it definitely fit his character. The music was thoroughly good, often adding to the intrigue and suspense. There wasn't a lot of variety to the soundtrack, but it was still of a nice quality. I liked the opening theme song, even though it wasn't very fitting to the atmosphere of the series. The ending theme song was okay.

Value: Definitely worth watching at least once. Even now, I can tell that I'd consider rewatching this series someday, and I don't usually rewatch anything unless I really liked it. As for purchasing it, I would not... but hey, I hardly buy any anime unless it's at a really good price.

Overall: I recommend watching this if you're interested in a serious and complex mystery with a fair bit of action, centered around a very cool main character. There are lots of questions in the beginning, but the pay-off by the end is superb.

Well, first of all, i'd have to say that this anime reminded me of cowboy bebop. it's probably because of the main character, since he's very much alike with Spike from CB. if i'd have to compare the two animes, i'd probably still prefer CB, but it's worth mentioning that the story of Kaze no Yojimbo is more complex and interesting, in my opinion. Also, i think this anime provided a more satisfying ending.

The animation isn't the best there is, of course. They tried to make the characters move smoothly and succeeded in most cases, but there is still room for improvement. The art is fairly simple, at least, it is simpler than in cowboy bebop. but that's all about style and preferences, so.... (see Fantastic Children for simple art in recent anime, and it's good too).

The music isn't very impressive, I'd have to say. Of course, perhaps it is because I do not appreciate many masculine vocaled opening and ending songs. I didn't notice many faults in the voice acting, although sometimes the wording didn't synchronize with the characters (mouth moving for nothing 1 second after the vocals finished). but that's not a big deal.

As for the story, well that's probably the strong point of the anime. It's a rather complex mystery plotline that gets your head spinning after a while. it starts out slow, however, which is a shame, because that can throw off a viewer. there are some boring fillers in the beginning, perhaps for character development, but it doesn't work very well. But when the episodes reaches double digits, the story starts heating up. It's very well developed in my opinion, although sometimes confusing. The last 4-5 episodes are really outstanding, and leave us with a great impression of the anime, which is probably why i gave 10 for enjoyment.

I didn't like the character development in this anime. The background storylines are revealed in a bad way, and doesn't exactly reach the viewers. i mean, it's supposed to be sad and all, but i'm just there "oh ok". it didn't expose the emotions at it should have. Also, one thing about this anime : what in the world is up with the opening? it shows like the main character with the girl all along, and the girl (miyuki) practically doesn't do anything in the story. she appears in maybe half the episodes, and that's it. however, the villains, if u can call them that, are pretty well-done. the 3 brothers there, they're unique alright. ok fine, so the big dude, the 2nd brother, he's lame, but the other 2, they really made an impression on me. Not as much as Johan from Monster, but close enough.

All in all, this anime is worth the watch. It's extremely underated in my opinion, and if you can survive after the first couple of episodes, then you're in for a ride. Action's pretty good too :)