Anime: Highlander: The Search for Vengeance

If you have come to this Anime seeking a Highlander story with an Anime twist to it, you have come to the right place!
First off this Anime is very reminiscent of the original 1986 film in that it is also a light action flick based on the story of the immortal highlander and his long travels through time.

The main premise of the Anime is a simple one. A tale set in the not too distant post-apocalyptic future, of a virus being engineered to be spread and the Highlander being the protagonist to try and stop this.
This is only on the surface though, as like the original, Highlander has a lot of back story to bring to the viewer.
This is often going to be the case in a Highlander story as there is usually heavy emphasis on the fact that the Highlander has lived for many (often over many thousands of) years [as have other invincible Highlanders] and therefore there is usually a long-running story thread that needs to be unravelled which spans various historical time periods.
This of course is a very pleasing aspect to fans of the original Highlander as it is a prominent "feature" of such a tale.

Another well realised aspect of the story is the way they managed to incorporate the Highlanders back story from over a thousand years beforehand into the "current" story, to some degree. This alone makes the Highlander licence worth it.

The story itself is by no means breathtaking, but then again this is a Highlander story and it suffices at very least.
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The actual look, design and animation of this film on the other hand is towards the upper scale of things.

I'm a fan of the this art in general and many of the characters and feel reminded me a little of the Ninja Scroll movie in terms of looks and design.
The animation is unarguably fluid and well drawn. At no point do you feel cheated by any of the on-screen happening. No compromises seem to have been taken in this regard.

As is now almost the norm for recent Anime, most of the vehicles and complicated technology are rendered in 3D.
Often times this can stand out and make the border between hand drawn and rendered too obvious... but not here. The sparsely used 3D seamlessly blends with the excellent animations and pleasing background art to merge into one of the more visually pleasing Anime that I have watched.

Orthodox action scenes aren't as frequent as one might imagine from an action flick, but once they do happen they are very smooth and often pleasingly gratuitous.

Another cool side effect of the Highlander story spanning several ages, is that you get to see actions scenes taking place in the past with swords and shields to action using modern technology.
It's just so visually diverse and interesting to watch.

The Anime twist I mentioned earlier comes in the form of very cool and oversized technology which the main evil force in this Anime use which is all beautifully design and animated. It all feels very "possible".

Another such an Anime "style" is in the design of some of the enemies which are pretty inventive such as the chainsaw wielding Highlander.
For me these types of super-human "boss characters" are very reminiscent of Anime in general and to be found in Highlander: TSFV.
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The music also manages to reflect the different time periods very well with fitting Scottish type battle tunes used to action riffs during the future settings.

This Anime is a surprisingly pleasing marriage of the original style Highlander story and Anime.[/b]

I wasn't expecting much from this Film and it turned out to be a very pleasing watch and what I though was a very solid production.
It's far from the best Anime ever made, but it's no where near bad.
The way that Highlander lives through various time periods adds a lot in the way of diversity from the outset and it's good to see this Anime use this feature to it's advantage.
For the fact that it's based on a real movie, it's actually very good - seeing how these kind of enterprises rarely turn out very good.

It is all a Highlander film should be about with the Anime vibe which we all so enjoy.

A solid 8 out of 10.

It is a mistake to watch this movie without being aware of the Highlander movies and tv series. It will give you a really bad impression of an otherwise ok franchise. The Highlander is an entirely American concept. It is aiming at epic rock fans, who dig the idea of knights and warriors fighting for some high ideal, while accompanied by dramatic pasts and rock music in the background. It is quite silly if you try to reason it, as it is brimming with Manihaistic concepts (good vs evil) and it’s filled with heavy-dudes who have nothing better to do with eternity, other than fighting each other with medieval swords. And this movie happens to be the flashiest but also driest incarnation of the entire franchise.

In terms of artwork it has vivid but not tiresome colors, multiple details, huge variety on objects and locations. The series does not have a unique artistic concept; it just depicts a grim, dystopian future world in the same way all Hollywood movies do. You know, wastelands, deserts, remnants of today’s skyscrapers, people suffering and hiding and the like. Still, the artwork is planned through with care and there are several flashbacks, where we get to see many violent time periods of human history, which are equally detailed and well-made. There are also cool sword-wielding heavy dudes and busty chicks fill the screen. SWAT underlings, amoral scientists, tanks and mechas, all in exceptional detail and without the slightest body deformity. Add to that wonderful battle choreographies, sword sparks, lighting shows during Requickenings. Still, like in all Hollywood action films they look great but are not realistic in the least since the final blows in all the duels are out-of-place and forced. The animators said “No more” and the battles end right there just because they said so.

Voice acting is rather dry since Westerners lack the voice coloring of the Japs (the movie is on English). There are also lots of cheesy one-liners and talking like 12-year-olds. Certainly not fitting with Immortals who have the wisdom of a millennium and scientists with an I.Q. of 200. Music themes are atmospheric but completely forgettable. Sound effects are crystal clear but too reminiscent of American action b-movies, which I happen to loathe.

The premise of the story is about a small portion of humans, born with the ability to be ageless and immortal. The only way to kill them permanently is to take their heads off. Since every Immortal wants to be the only one left alive in order to be free to do anything he wants with the world (usually to conquer it), all Immortals spend their limitless time training in swordsmanship and dueling with others of their kind. Each one of them has a portfolio, which hardly gets any deeper than becoming the strongest in the world and dominating all humanity until the end of time. So, we basically have a bunch of muscular guys and some busty chicks looping each other’s heads off. Not something to lose your brain cells pondering…

Yet the movie focuses more on the personal drama of the protagonist and not on the whole idea of “There can be only one”. The hero in the story is an Immortal whose woman was killed by a megalomaniac Immortal a 1.000 years ago. He pretty much spends this millennium hunting him in order to get revenge… and that’s it. Well, ok, what did you expect from a action-heavy movie? It doesn’t try to go any further than that, but at least, it does try to flesh-out its characters a bit. It’s still a very linear and predictable plot; until we are introduced to the main characters, their pasts and their goals, there is nothing left to see other than the final battle. Plus you need to need to not be thinking too much or lots of things will feel unexplained and forced. A few examples: How did the bad guy gained control of the city? Where did he get all those soldiers and high-teck equipment? Why does the hero always magically fall unconscious in Holy Ground every time he is about to lose? Why does the hero always win with a simple, vaguely depicted strike? And how many side effects did that last explosion had in the end of the movie? With a simple blow, everything out of control was solved; like in some cheesy fairy tale.

The characters are all heavy-dudes and busty chicks, easily attracting your attention if all you look for is the rule of cool. They don’t have much personality, and pass as generic and forgettable. All you get is the good guy who wants revenge, the bad guy who wants to rule the world, the chick who wants to save her people, and a ghost-mentor who mumbles some cheesy monologue every 10 minutes. That’s all there is to it. And their backdrop is even simplier than that: The good guy is Scotch. The bad guy is Roman. They are 1.000 years old. The chick is a 20-something New Yorker. The ghost mentor is a wise druid. The end. And of course don’t expect any substancial character development. I mean, the hero does think it over and towards the end of the movie does not live for revenge but to protect the new woman he loves (which is effectively the same woman, reincarnated) … Not that this changed anything. He still had to fight the bad guy, no matter how he changed. And he did fight like he usually does so not much of a change at all.

Verdict: If revenge is a dish better served cold, then this movie has no spark of warmth in it. And as a dish, it had quite a typical flavor to it. Brainless action, cool-looking heavy dudes, sexy femmes and awesome graphics and sound. Very enjoyable if you are looking for some dumb fun.

SUGGESTION LIST
Afro Samurai
Vampire Hunter D
Ninja Scroll
Fist of the North Star
The Highlander francise

Animation:
Nice,realy nice done!i never expected that.
The complete movie is perfectly animated and the fight are realy great,this is the best thing for that anime.

Sound:

I cant Remember it that well...its a while ago i watched this anime but i have no bad memory about so i doubt it was crap ^^

Story:

Typical highlander story.Who the only one is here the big question and i think everybody knows it allready...the new thing here is that it plays in the future.im not the kind of spiler dude so i dont say special thngsa about it so,all i say its "ok" for highlander but nothing that special.

its English dubbed normally thats crap but this was ok.

Character:

hmm even here nothing new...its good old mcleod...on the way to become the one,a few characters that has nothing that special anyways i liked them.

Value:

i thik i will watch it again and i think thats the best highlander movie out there.

Enjoyment:

I realy enjoyed this one,i liked the first and the second Highlander movie and all that came after these movies were crap but this anime was awesome in some ways

if you like action you realy should watch it afterall thats the best thing on this anime

By watching Highlander: Vengeance I did the unspeakable, because I watched it with an English dub. Well, the anime wasn't available with a Japanese dub (yet), so I had no choice (except for not watching it at all).

Art/Animation
The good things about this Highlander anime are the art and the animation. Whether or not you like the character designs, you have to admit that the quality of the art is very high. The animation quality is also very good. The action scenes are very fluid.

Story
The story is not very bad, but it's nothing great either. To me it felt like too much time was spent on all kinds of flashbacks. Because there were so many flashbacks in a relatively short movie (80 min), everything felt kinda rushed.

Character
Note: This part contains a minor spoiler.
They completely failed at character development. They portrayed the main character as someone that has lived for thousands of years only for the sake of getting revenge against the villain of the anime. Near the end of the anime he suddenly decides not to live for revenge, but still kills the villain...

The main character I talked about above is Colin MacLeod. Yes, we now have a third "MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod". We already had Connor MacLeod (live-action movies) and Duncan MacLeod (live-action TV series). That must have been some amazing clan to produce three immortals!

Sound
The English dubbing was (like usual) very bad. It's nice that they tried to give the Scotsmen a Scottish accent, but without proper/talented voice-actors, it still remains a bad dub.

Conclusion/Overall
Despite its obvious shortcomings, I still moderately enjoyed this anime. Due to the great art/animation the action is pretty good, which is after all the main genre of this anime. However, I believe I would have enjoyed this anime more if it had a Japanese dub.

Story

This is yet another story of a MacLeod (not a direct member though), nothing too special or new for that matter.It focuses around Colin MacLeod and his quest for revenge throughout the years for the loss of his loved one. The story itself is pretty linear and predictable with no twists whatsoever, so you should not expect any innovative attempt for making this anime original.

Characters

There are only 3 characters playing the major role in this anime with the rest of the remaining appearances being quite indifferent and who do not affect any part of the story.All characters have no development during the cource of this movie.
The major characters are:

Colin MacLeod:
The protagonist, a Celt who lost his beloved one to Marcus Octavius and seeks revenge

Marcus Octavius:
The main vilain, an expert swordsmaster, ex-Roman General, who intends on creating a New Rome

Dahlia:
A rebel woman who stands up to Marcus and lives ,among other citizents of New York,in the underground and hopes one day to stop a virus that has been killing them all

Sound

The music themes are scarce and only put where needed.The sound effects are quite good and have a realistic tone.Overall the sound is quite good and well processed.

Animation

Animation is one of the strong points of this anime, though it doesnt reach perfection it does not miss to please the eye.All fight scenes are well done and the animation of the characters is very fluent. The camera and the settings are both very good which gives another plus to the movie

Value

This movie will never be considered a classic but on the other hand it cant be tossed to the garbage, its a well ballanced attempt to transfer the legend of the clan MacLeod to the anime genre.

Enjoyment

Personally i enjoyed watching this movie and i might watch it again some time.I believe that most people who liked the Highlander series and movies will be quite pleased by this one.I know i wont miss this movie so much if i were not to see it again, but nontheless i had a good time watching it and probably you'll have too