Anime: Karas

Karas is a hollow attempt to sell a book based on its cover while the pages inside are nothing but incomprehensive doodles. It is a show that is pure guilty pleasure yet pretends to be sophisticated and mysterious to the most part when in reality it is just monkey writing poetry.

The first episode is exceptionally captivating, as the animation sequence during the fight is not only amazing, but it also foreshadows some sort of very mysterious story around beings from another dimension as well as the future of mankind. I was sold on it.

Unfortunately, the rest of the episodes are far less interesting and the mystery ends up being something my 5 year old nephew could come up with. The battle choreographies were hardly as interesting, the detail in animation kinda dropped, the characters quickly became boring and unoriginal, and the whole thing with the salvation of mankind meant nothing as there was zero empathy with the cast. It was all a completely dried up story with cardboards blowing shit up.

So what is the story anyway? Well, each city has its supernatural protector called the Karas, who fights demons who want to harm it. The current Karas is after a team of mechanical monsters who want to destroy the city as means to terrorize humanity and reminding them of their power, a thing people forgot because they stopped being religious and believing to superstitions. Their ringleader is also the former Karas of the city, who got fed up in protecting uncaring people and now wants to give them a lesson.

The main idea is very interesting I must say, as it makes several allusions to how the modern way of life is dehumanizing us and keeps us away from nature and respect for traditions and the past in general. Unfortunately, these notions go by in passing and you are never made to feel sympathy for the poor spirits who are neglected from humanity or empathy for the villain’s goal. It all happens in a completely dried of emotions way and you are given no reason to care about the cast or the setting in general. The lead character for example is not even a real person. He is a tool, a machine that the “will of the city” creates in order to protect it. Thus he has no free will of his own; he is just brainlessly chasing and killing the demons just because he was created for that purpose. Where is the interest in that? The main villain on the other hand is far more interesting for going against his reason for being and trying to improve the severed relations between men and spirits. Yet even his goals are hardly mentioned for most of the show and when he actually puts them into motion you are again given very little reason to care since there is no emotional connection made with the people of the city. You don’t care if they live or die, you don’t even care about the various investigators or that random chick messing with the battle between the Karas.

In all the best part of the series are the production values, which are amazing in terms of action and detail in the way the city looks industrialized or how bizarre the spirit world is. The soundtrack is also fitting with how each characters should sound (not hard since they are all simplistic) or how the background music would fit in each case. Yet even these are not enough to keep you interested all the way, since you are given little reason to care about the combatants and their reason for fighting. Also, only the first and the last battles are actually the truly amazing ones in terms of excitement, with the in-between being rather passable.

In all, the series made the mistake of not transmitting emotions to the viewer and not fleshing out the setting properly. It all ends up being shallow and forgettable, despite dealing with some really heavy subjects and having interesting artistic concepts. Too bad.

And now for some excused scorings.

In the near future humans will forget what it's like to be in the nature. They will forget myths, legends, the past, they will forget the essence of life. The balance between the spirit world and the human world as a result will crumble and spirits, in fear of extinction will have no choice, but to take the world over from humans. Here starts this show, in a crumbling world set in an urbanized city. A champion chosen by spirits originally to protect humans revolts against his destiny and takes his sword in hopes to bring humanity to extinction. His title is Karas, and his power is unmatched, as long as there is no other champion carrying the name of Karas to oppose him.

Karas is a surprisingly well made 6 episodes long OVA, strong both at its action and story sequences. Because the story this show tries to convey is far too big for 2:30 hours medium, it's cut to only the most important points, with barely any explanations. Though, unlike in many Gonzo shows, in Karas you can use your imagination and little hints to draw the whole setting and story (also pre-story) in your mind. On the other hand, even viewers who dislike to think while watching anime will enjoy this show - it's full of spectacular and extremely well animated action sequences. Even characters are surprisingly well done in this short OVA, as long as you catch all of the hints this show so carefully throws at you, you'll not only have everyone's detailed character traits in your head, but many back-stories as well. Hehe, I surely loved how this show managed to convey the past of many characters without using any flashbacks.

Karas comes with highest recommendations to anyone who are up for either some intense brain work or just simple pleasure from fascinating action scenes. Of course, you get the most enjoyment if you are up for both. ^_^;

Animation: 9/10

One of the best animations I have ever seen to date. 3D/2D is blended perfectly, sometimes it's even hard to tell which parts are which. Fighting choreography is up par with best fighting shows as of late (though still nowhere near as good as in Final Fantasy: Advent Children). Really, the only not astounding aspect of the animation is some character designs, while Yurine, Karas and Eko are cool (just look at Yurine's hair being blown by wind, wow...), other, human, characters (like the detective) somewhat lack detail and at times even look slightly out of place in such detailed backgrounds.

Sound: 7/10

Really, quite a few exciting tracks here in this show. While there are none which I could call masterpieces, some are not only very good mood setters, but also are quite exciting as stand alone pieces. You wont be disappointed by sound effects either, not to even mention the obvious loud explosions and realistic gunshots, the best thing they've pulled out was the realistic sound, when swords grind and pierce iron stuff, like floors, walls and so on.

Voice-acting is pretty good considering all main characters were done by first timers. For some reason famous voice-actors like Mai Nakahara and Takahiro Sakurai only got villains or minor characters to act.

Story: 6/10

Karas would have been much better if it was as long as 13 episodes, but well, too bad. Anyway, the story is cut just to the most important plot points, so you'll have to use your head as best as you can to get what's going on at all. I even had to repeat a few scenes from the first episode after finishing the last one, to finally get a crystal clear vision of the story. It's not really that original - (Eko, the previous Karas, who was protecting "the city" for more than thousand of years, finally got sick of humans and decided to erase them. Of course, it isn't so simple since "the city" created another Karas'es to oppose him). However, great presentation and some stimulating brainwork certainly raised my scores up. Also, I really like the idea of urban city having the will of its own (that idea is much more explicit in Abe's masterpiece Texhnolyze).

Character: 6/10

It really doesn't feel that this show is as short as it is when you look at its characters. I know about them far more (from hints) than it would have been possible to show in such a short amount of time. Surely, this show proves that good characters not necessarily need hundreds of flashbacks and hours of careful development to become good. Though of course, "short show" characters still can't really compare to some of the best crews anime world has to offer (Seikai no Monshou, Berserk and Rurouni Kenshin TV instantly come to mind).

Myers-Briggs personality type indicator:[/b]

Yurine - ISTJ (C)
Hoshunin Eko - INTJ (B)
Otoha Yosuke - ISTJ (C)
Nue - ENFP (C)
Hinaru - ESFP (E)
Homura - ENTP (C)
Kure Narumi - ISTP (D)

Show Spoiler

Value: 8/10

Not only it's short, it's confusing enough to make you watch it a second time. And if not for story, some action scenes, followed by nice music, are really tempting to be re-watched.

"Just as New York has Spider Man, and Gotham City has Batman, it's about time for Japan to have its own local hero."
Keiichi Sato


Karas. I started watching the first two eps several years ago. Then rewatched with the third about a year later. Then in a total of perhaps 5 years later, I finally finish it all. And each and every time, I was fully, utterly satisfied excluding a distasteful dip in ep 4.

Karas is something that you will either love to death or hate simply because of its style. I personally enjoyed Karas because of its rather unique non-anime feel. While watching it, it felt more like a Japanese effort to recreate the old Superheros such as Hulk, Spiderman, Batman, X-men, Ghost Rider, etc. Was it a good attempt? I'd say so.

ANIMATION
Oh gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous and in more ways than one. The CGI I felt was very impressive. While it wasn't as realistic as Advent Children, it was much more fitting, with sharp angles and contrast to give the city a sense of ugliness that it deserved without marring its poverty stricken metropolis beauty as well. The animation, amazingly, fell well in concord as well. It is very different from the cliche animation. Rather, the animation in Karas seemed to show the ugliness of the world but yet, once again, not marr its beauty, examples being the facial features of the characters. Wrinkles, zits, exaggerated lips and yet it didn't feel out of place at all. The only s tproblem I would probably have was the Youkai. The Youkai seemed to be shamefully out of place with their childish style in comparison to the very mature feel of the human characters and city. However, taking into account that the animators most likely wanted the Youkai to be as close to their ancient depictions as possible, it's quite excusable as the portrayals are more accurate than most. All in all: grossly realistic, beautiful, smooth.

SOUND
I did not pay a whole lot of attention to the music other than the Karas theme, which was the only noticeable background music. On a whole, it was a good addition to the OVA, but nothing too enormous on its own.
The voice acting was all in all good, fitting their character nicely. With the exception of Otoha. His voice actor seemed to be having trouble getting into the character, always having a distance feel. While this served well in some parts, it suffered in others.
Sound effects ranged from adrenaline pumping to just plain annoying. It's hard to describe quite how, but some were amazing as to giving battles a much more real feeling, while others were just too reminiscent of Pokemon sound effects that took away from Karas' unanime feel. On a whole though, it wasn't as if the effects were out of place.

STORY
The story in Karas is nothing enormous to rate upon. For those seeking immensely deep plots and dynamic characters, there isn't much to see. What really made the plot good, was not the plot itself (which was full of holes and shallow) but the presentation. Karas seems to show itself more like an American movie than an anime. As OVA's typically lack in plot anyhow, Karas focuses more on the delivering of the story in its lack of time. Without it, you are left with a rather cliche hero plot that isn't much to credit.

CHARACTERS
Characters is just as the plot, only more lacking. The only character with a story worth noting is probably Nue. Otherwise, the characters hardly change with very static backgrounds. But again, the presentation of the characters seems to make up for their crippling lack of depth.

VALUE
Despite the negativity in the ratings of sound, story, and character, Karas is definitely something worth the rewatch. I have rewatched it over and over again and never has it dulled from my first watch. Soemtimes I think I enjoy it even more. And though the characters and plot is shallow, just the way it is presented leaves a fuzzy feeling that you get after watching a good movie. Again, I viewed Karas as I would another American superhero movie, and if compared to those, I would say Karas fits in very nicely. But in comparison to other animes....there's just no comparison. It's entirely something different.

ENJOYMENT
It's clear that I fully enjoyed Karas. I love the crispness of the CGI, the marriage between American and Japanese superheroism. It was something new and refreshing. Unrealistic at times, but considering its genre, it's hard to expect otherwise. However I will note this. Those looking for an ANIME will not find much enjoyment here. This is something more like an American movie, as noted several times before, than a purely Japanese anime. It lacks the cutesy schoolgirls in sailor outfits, ecchi, lolita, the sort. At the same time, if you're not someone who dislikes modern western movies, namely superhero, it will again be hard to like Karas. It is simply a love hate type OVA. Best watch to find out. I highly recommend it.

A Mighty Morphing Power Rangers with a better story, blood and gore, and the eye popping animation. Karas (Crow) is a story of humanity forgetting the old traditions (symbolized by the humans forgetting youkai or spirits), and relying heavily on machines (symbolized by Mikura or mechanical demons).

When I started watching Karas, I was delighted by the stunning visual. The flashy and stylized fight scene got me intrigued. The whole title was beautifully drawn. Colorful scenes and detailed backgrounds coupled with amazing sound carried this title.

The first two episodes were confusing and slow, then add the design of karas (made me of think of power rangers) almost made me give up on this title. But I decided to continue on, since it only contained 6 episodes.
By 3rd episode, the plot picked up its pace and I was actually enjoying myself. I really didn't care for the fight scenes; They were dull. (except the very first scene).
Most the characters were cliche and shonen-esque. Only the main character really developed and the rest were one-dimensional. I was indifferent rather any of the characters parished or not.

The story was rather interesting. Building upon my earlier mentioned theme with full of unanswered questions from earlier episodes made me interested. What are Karas? What are Youkais? What are Yurine? who the heck is this red headed guy? What the hey is going on? Why is there always a survivor(answer is to remember)? Of course when the last episode started, I was bored since all of the questions were answered and had nothing left except the outcome.

Overall, I think I would've adored this title 10 years ago, but now it feels immature. If you enjoyed Transformer the movie and don't mind blood, I think you would like this a lot, but if you thought the Transformer was childish like I did, don't expect a great title.

Synopsis:

The world of the humans and the world of the demons (yōkai) have overlapped one another, leaving humans to walk the streets of life as they normally would, while demons walk, hidden from the naked eye, down the very same streets. A seemingly young woman named Yurine and her servant; the Karas have long maintained order and balance between the overlapped worlds, ultimately keeping the demons from interrupting the lives of humans. However, humans have come to forget and jest at the existence of demons, and no longer understand the privilege it is to live without fear. Disgusted by this arrogance, an old Karas turns his back on the laws he had once upheld, and in his human form, named Eko, he creates an army of Mikura, or mechanized demons, to ready an attack on the human race.

A young man named Otoha inherits the powers of the Karas and takes his place at the side of Yurine, who claims that his soul called out for her while he lived the life of a human. They live in the world of the demons. It is now up to Otoha to prove himself as a Karas, and restore the balance that Eko threatens to upset. Meanwhile, a superstitious police officer named Sagisaka and his rational new recruit, Kure, follow the trail of the murders dealt by Eko's Mikura, as well as the trail of a rogue Mikura named Nue. The prophecy unfolds from here into a grave revelation for all in the city.

Review:

The Karas series deals with a lot of ancient Japanese mythology and environmental issues for those of u who don’t know the word Karas means “Crow” in Japanese. This series has been ongoing for almost 3 years, that is a lot of time for a show considering that its only 6 episodes series. The reason for it being that the show got stalled during productions due to various circumstances but got restarted two years after the first three volumes were release. But it has finally been released in its entirety, on a side note this will be the first actually DVD review of an Anime show most of my reviews are based of the fansubs.

Story:

I have always been intrigued by Japanese Mythology and the way the screen writers add it to the Anime in new and creative ways. And this is especially true for a show like Karas which uses the Crow as a theme but also Cat’s these 2 creatures are revered in some cultures as the creatures who carries ones soul from the land of the living to the land of the dead. The way they achieve this in Karas is top notch and fleshes out the story and builds the foundation for the story.

The first OVA starts of very cryptic but everything gets explained to the viewer later on in the 4th OVA so if it a little confusing in the beginning don’t let it put you of, the pieces of the puzzle will come together later on in the show. This might distract from the enjoyment of the first part of the show but that isn’t something big to worry about.

Just a warning to those who don’t enjoy the sight of blood, from OVA 3 onwards there is gallons of it being spilled in the show so if u are a bit gringy get your love one to cover your eyes or hide under the pillow till its over. But other than that the story combines Japanese mythology with great story telling.

Animation:

When the first OVA got released back in 2005 the animation was jaw dropping and it still is there hasn’t been anything coming close to the level of CG and animations to it every since and that’s no mean feat considering it’s almost 3 years old already. The way they integrate the CG into the show was just jaw dropping from the fighting sequences to the rain effects and explosions. This has to be the high point of the show they eye candy animation. If u don’t want to follow the story u can just watch the show purely for the eye candy. I wonder how many man hours went into making this show. ?

Sound/Music:

This was the only let down in the show with the exception of the opening and ending sequence songs and the theme that was played whenever the Karas transformed. Other than that the music was pretty none descript and nothing special. The sound effects on the other hand were amazing especially if u have a system that has the ability to support the 6.1 audio that the DVD offers, use it u wont regret the experience.

Characters:

They don’t introduce many characters during the show, instead they introduce most of the characters during the first 2 OVA's and expand on each of there stories and how they fit into the bigger picture of the show. From Yōsuke Otoha (the Karas) to Nue (A rogue Mikura my favorite character) to Yurine the sultry “will of the city”. They get introduced at a moderate pace which suits the Anime perfectly and wraps it up nicely at the end of the show.

Enjoyment:

The level of enjoyment for this show is extremely high from the action sequences to the CG so if u want a audio visual experience that cant be given to you by any Hollywood movie out there then this show comes highly recommended.

Okay. So Karas has finally finished up after 2 full years. And while the wait was quite annoying, especially with the cliffhanger in between the long wait for OVA 3 and OVA 4, it was very much worth it. It was so much worth it I had to put off writing this review for a couple days just to let it sink in a bit more so I don't go (as) nuts with the scores.

Now I'm going to structure this review a bit differently from my others in that it's going to be a much more unstructured review with a structured summary at the end.

So to start off, a couple things come to mind for Karas and potential viewers. First, while everything is explained in due time, the first OVAs are very cryptic and will get you confused about most of the plot. You'll still be able to figure out the jist of what needs to happen for all to end well in Shinjuku especially if you've read the summary but since basically nothing is explained in the first couple of OVAs it will turn off some anime fans. But like I said, everything gets explained by the end, so if you can get through them, enjoying the amazing visuals of course, you'll be glad you took the time.

Also, I know the first 3 OVAs aren't exactly for kids but I'd just like to warn that the second set of OVAs (4-6) get much more bloody. So if blood isn't your thing, this probably isn't your thing. But again, I encourage those who don't mind so much to give it a try nonetheless.

Getting into the actual content, I'll start off with the bad because I'm sure if you're reading this review you've already looked at the scores. While it's only a 6-part OVA, there really is a lot going on. Counting off the top of my head there are at least 5 sub-plots in addition to the main plot. And that means that they all need their time to get at least introduced and concluded or tied in with the main plot. So that really give very little time to main plot which cuts its introduction sort of short and its conclusion does feel a bit quick. Still, I do have to give applause to the writers for tying everything together so nicely while maintaining the feel of an epic story-telling.

Also, this limited-time factor also makes it so some characters who really should have a bigger background story don't. The "cake" girl whose name I forget immediately comes to mind. And other characters who have a huge background don't get much of a story out of it. Just some words to explain it every here and there.

And that's really all I can think of complaining about. Oh... also, the Japanese voice of the green ghost is very annoying! Why did they get such an annoying voice to dub for him?? I mean, it's clearly not for kids and I don't know anyone over the age of 10 who wouldn't find his voice annoying.

Err... Sorry, onto the positive aspects. Well, the animation is at least 2 years ahead of its time. And by that I mean I expect maybe one OVA or series to have the same quality animation by at least 2009, movies not included. You really just need to watch the first 5 minute sequence of the first OVA to immediately understand why I would say that. Then there's the sword-fighting in the fourth OVA which gave me a Samurai Champloo meets GITS: Innocence type feel. And of course the final battle in the last couple of OVAs needs to be watched again and again and again and..... etc.

The sound is almost as equally as impressive as the OVA. The main orchestra score gives that "Superhero" feel that Karas needs to have. And the pop singles they chose for the endings are very pleasant. It's also interesting to recall the background music for other things like when ghosts are roaming about. It fits so seamlessly while you're watching the scene. And of course the SFX are very good and everything is in 6.1 surround sound.

Tatsunoko really put a lot of effort in all aspects of their 40th Anniversary anime and it really does remind us that they are the best at Superhero and Supervillain story creation. The lasting impression this anime gives is very strong for that reason; they seem to know exactly what it is that they want to depict to the viewer and have the experience to do it very well.


Summary:

Story: 9
The story is very impressive especially the way in which it's told throughout the 6 OVAs. I just feel like a mere 6 OVAs weren't enough for the size of the plot.

Sound: 10
The music is very impressive. Especially the orchestral score they use to fit the hero-theme. The SFX are also very good quality and all is in 6.1 surround sound.

Animation: 10
Extremely satisfying. Everything about the animation is top quality. From the fight sequences to the detail in the rain or snowy weather. Truly the highest point of this anime.

Characters: 9
While almost every character does get covered in enough detail as possible, there are some which deserved more time to expand upon either their background or their role. But for only 6 OVAs it's easily excusable.

Value/Enjoyment: 10
I really enjoyed all aspects of this anime as you can tell. I own the R1 DVDs and I've already watched most of the OVAs at least twice. Anxiously awaiting the HD version to be marketed and the OST hopefully in due time.

Average: 9.66