Posts with the “dark fantasy” tag

Ardent

A review of the Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul anime series

The final ending card of *Rage of Bahamut: Genesis’ warned us: “I’ll be back”. For a time that seemed to refer to the indefinitely delayed Manaria Friends (not to be confused with your Italian food research group: marinara friends), until that is, Virgin Soul was announced. A direct sequel to Genesis with the same director - Keiichi Satou - and a returning cast of characters, would this new two-cour series be able to capture the same kind of adventuring fun that typified its predecessor?

an ambivalent desire for the original’s penny-dreadful-esque whimsy

Picking up ten years after the sealing of the Bahamut, humanity, under the new rule of King Charioce, have enslaved demons and begun to purge angels from their midsts. The fates of both Favaro and Kaisar are unknown and instead the impossibly cheerful and unusually brawny Nina takes centre stage. Unfortunately for her, she transforms into an enormous red dragon when coming into contact with a member of the opposite sex which has a detrimental effect on the buildings and people surrounding her when she does.

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Skirts and swords: hype for the Blood-C movie

Blood-C received a lot of stick when it aired. Upon announcement of the sequel film Blood-C: The Last Dark, the series was labelled as a nothing more than a twelve episode trailer. It's not entirely unjustified when taken on a plodding, twelve week schedule; in aggregate though the series' strong points shine through safe in the knowledge of the next episode's position on your playlist.

the kind of trouser-stirring animation Production I.G. are capable of when enough money is thrown at them
The nagging unreality of protagonist Saya's situation never departs after the first of her friends is butchered and is only magnified when the wholesale slaughter is played out. The brutality of the monsters and their sublime indifference to the general populace juxtaposed the puppies-and-sunshine school life the opening episodes peddled.

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