It is my habit to go straight to the point and I hope readers can forgive me if this review lacks the often poetic and fancy language found in other "professional" reviews.
One-Liner:
Horrible, a total let down to the Shadow Skill saga.
The Good:
I wish there was something redeeming in this anime, but...
The Standard:
#1 Voice Acting - Reasonable with a few quirks. Ellie's voice sounds too demure, not the kind of voice you would expect from a martial arts master.
The Bad:
#1 Animation - There's way too much emphasis on 3D CGs that are very poorly rendered. The lack of details and motion is appaling, it's like watching a fixed 3D generated scenairo with a couple of camera pannings. For a martial arts anime, it's quite ridiculous to have people talking all the time with minimal background movements.
#2 Cut Corners - The show utilises a kind of "impressionist" technique for flashbacks. What we have is one red coloured background with a few shillohutes conversing. That's how all the flashbacks are presented and trust me, there's way too much of these scenes for a short movie. I see this as laziness of the production team rather than some form of artistic expression.
#3 Sound - There are no more than 3-4 tracks for the entire movie. Except the opening which is mildly pleasing, the remaining tracks are indistinguishable. Due to a lack of tracks, there are way too many scenarios that either go without bgms or have totally inappropriate music that damages the mood.
#4 Story - Bad guy steals a key and proceeds to unlock a secret move at a secret place. Good guys go there to stop him and secret move gets destroyed for good at last. Sounds simple and lame? Yep, that's all there is to the plot - There are no sub plots, no build up, no mysteries, no romance and remarkably, very little fighting.
#5 Character - Absolutely no effort has been put into the characterization. All we have are a few poorly done scenes about how Gau's parents were killed and how he struggles with his dormant hatred. Oh did I mention that this is all done in the red + shillohutes technique I explained earlier?
Anime: Shadow Skill: Kuruda-ryuu Kousatsu-hou no Himitsu
Info
- Info
- Titles
- Add to My List
This thrilling fantasy action OVA is fully rendered in CG created by ToonShader technology. The story takes place in warrior kingdom where a deadly martial art called Shadow Skill is practiced to defend the continued existence of the kingdom. Dreaming of becoming an invincible warrior one day, like the legendary warrior named Scar Face who has defeated 2,000 opponents, the boy named Gau Ban trains hard with his older adopted sister Elle who has mastered Shadow Skill. A deadly combat breaks out when a rouge pack of intruders suddenly assaults the castle to steal a box that contains a secret...
Source: cdjapan
Source: cdjapan
Statistics
- collapse pane
directly related anime
Prequel
TV Series, 1998, 26 eps, ,
- Reviews
- add Recommendation
- collapse pane
Reviews
by potrek on 2005-02-15 01:19
Approval:
02.5% (3 votes)
Definitly THE WORST of Shadow Skill saga.
It was hardly watchable :( I don't even consider it as part of Shadow Skill story ...
Animation:
Full CG. Cell Shading (called also Toon Shading). One word to describe it: Crappy_as_hell. Chara design sucks, low level of details, very bad light effects, only a few locations, and textures ... *sigh* (no comment). Animation sux too. Scenes are almost static (they try to cover it with camera movement). For christ sake it's fighting anime .. it should be at least a lil' bit more dynamic ... it's not a friggin' love story.
And it's not that I don't like renders. Hell, I love renders but only the good ones. It's just that level of this production is light years away from recent anime movies (I know it's OAV and I shouldn't complain coz they have very low budget but still ... Macross Plus, Macross Zero were OAVs too).
Sound:
Another letdown. Only few tracks, bad opening theme (and i really liked openings is Shadow Skill OAVs), bad endind and generally music sounds like taken from very dark psychodelic thiller not from fighting anime.
Story:
Well, one word (yes again): booooooooring. I almost fell asleep watching it. If you think you will learn more about Kuruda-ryu style you will be disapointed :(
Characters:
Gau,Elle,Scarface and new badass. No character development!
Value:
None. Are you bored ? Go watch great first OAV series again. It's worth it.
It was hardly watchable :( I don't even consider it as part of Shadow Skill story ...
Animation:
Full CG. Cell Shading (called also Toon Shading). One word to describe it: Crappy_as_hell. Chara design sucks, low level of details, very bad light effects, only a few locations, and textures ... *sigh* (no comment). Animation sux too. Scenes are almost static (they try to cover it with camera movement). For christ sake it's fighting anime .. it should be at least a lil' bit more dynamic ... it's not a friggin' love story.
And it's not that I don't like renders. Hell, I love renders but only the good ones. It's just that level of this production is light years away from recent anime movies (I know it's OAV and I shouldn't complain coz they have very low budget but still ... Macross Plus, Macross Zero were OAVs too).
Sound:
Another letdown. Only few tracks, bad opening theme (and i really liked openings is Shadow Skill OAVs), bad endind and generally music sounds like taken from very dark psychodelic thiller not from fighting anime.
Story:
Well, one word (yes again): booooooooring. I almost fell asleep watching it. If you think you will learn more about Kuruda-ryu style you will be disapointed :(
Characters:
Gau,Elle,Scarface and new badass. No character development!
Value:
None. Are you bored ? Go watch great first OAV series again. It's worth it.
- Latest discussions
- Clubs
- collapse pane
newest discussions
-
TopicsRepliesViewsLast post
- Anime Tags
- Character Tags
- collapse pane
- Cast
- Staff
- Songs
- collapse pane
Cast
show all
add/edit cast
main character
female, , braidsBraids is a style of hair in which the hair is interweaved into locks. Braids can be displayed in various styles, such as twin braid tails or a braided hair hairband., cyan eyesThis character has cyan color eyes., long hairLong hair is hair from (but not including) shoulder-length, up to (but not including) waist length hair. Sidelocks do NOT count as long hair., martial artsVarious sports or skills, mainly of Japanese origin, that originated as forms of self-defense or attack, such as judo, karate, and kendo., orange hairThe character has orange hair., physically strongIn comparison to the norm, someone who is physically strong possesses superior, sometimes even unnatural, physical strength. Said strength usually allows them to win fights, or at least to last longer; stronger people are also normally able to withstand harsh conditions more easily than the rest, and even do things as simple as carrying heavy weights around. This tag also applies when a race is stronger than others (think the Sayajin), as long as said weaker races are also a part of the cast., sevaarno description set
voiced by:
Hayashibara Megumi
14, male, adolescentAn adolescent (teenager) is 13 to 19 years old., brown hairThe character has brown hair., cyan eyesThis character has cyan color eyes., martial artsVarious sports or skills, mainly of Japanese origin, that originated as forms of self-defense or attack, such as judo, karate, and kendo., sevaarno description set, short hairShort hair is hair from (but not including) bald, up to (but not including) shoulder-length hair. This hair length is what one would typically, though not always, see on most males. Short hair includes hair that goes no more than a centimetre or two beyond the chin; anything longer is shoulder-length.
voiced by:
Matsuoka Akio
secondary cast
female, black hairThe character has black hair., moleA mole, also called beauty mark, beauty spot, beauty patch, and sometimes birthmark, is a type of visible, circumscribed, chronic lesion of the skin or mucosa that may be congenital (present at birth) or acquired. Such marks are sometimes considered an attractive feature, hence the beauty-related names, and they are medically known as nevus (plural: nevi), from naevus, Latin for "birthmark". They are not to be confused with the animals commonly called moles., purple eyesThis character`s eyes are colored somewhere between red and blue.
voiced by:
Mizutani Yuuko
female, hatA hat is a headgear that typically has a shaped crown and a brim; the shape and size of the brim changes with the type of hat. Hats may be peaked. Hats are worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory., purple eyesThis character`s eyes are colored somewhere between red and blue., red hairThe character has red hair., shoulder-length hairShoulder-length hair is hair at shoulder length, within a few centimetres margin. This hair length is longer than what one would typically, though not always, see on most males. Short hair includes hair that goes no more than a centimetre or two beyond the chin; anything longer is shoulder-length. Typical male hair at the back of the head which reaches the shoulders does not count as shoulder-length hair; the individual hair strands are very short (0-4 cm), and therefore count as short hair.
voiced by:
Shimokawa Mikuni
