Anime: El Cazador de la Bruja

El Cazador is the third installment of the Girls With Guns Trilogy from studio Bee Train and it's surprisingly refreshing. Those expecting Noir II probably won't be pleased but those expecting something creative and highly inventive will be most happy. Going into El Cazador my self I really wasn't expecting much. The series didn't look like it had the same kick as MADLAX my personal favorite of the genre or the simplicity yet style of Noir. However when I started watching it, I simply couldn't put it down.

El Cazador is different from it's two previous predecessors in so many ways, it gives it the striking originality to make it a stand alone series not requiring the viewer to see the previous two. With a more adventure setting and much more of a blend of comedy and drama and a western flair through Central America, the series proves to be fun, enjoyable and a great anime take on the time honored Buddy Picture. The relationship of Nadie and Ellis develops episode by episode and we see the two become closer and even suffer some growing pains along the way. Being pursued by mysterious interests such as Rosenberg and Jody Heyward with the creepy stalker LA the bounds are clearly defined of good and bad.

There's no shortage of surprises and exciting moments in the series as well as the calm moments to sit back and enjoy the art and music culminate into a lovely atmosphere. Yuki Kajiura returns to provide the music bringing a Latin style along with other clever motifs such as the song "Maxwell's Witch" as music to Ellis' mysterious powers and FictionJunction YUUKA's "el cazador" written entirely in Kajiura's made up language but sounding Spanish all the same.

The series does suffer some pitfalls such as the lack of development for Nadie when compared to Ellis who gets an entire episode devoted to her backstory and can sometimes lack the style brought by Noir and MADLAX before it. The animation remains quite good and stays true to a style of simplicity but good looking all the same. Yoko Kikuchi contributes to the character designs once again as she did for Noir and they look fantastic.

Overall El Cazador is more than worth a look at even if you haven't seen the previous Girls with Guns series by Koichi Mashimo and his studio Bee Train. It's a fun adventure that you probably won't want to put down with funny and serious situations molded together making this an underrated triumph.

Animation:
Nothing really appealing here. Its your basic artwork for an anime series for this particular year. However, in a way this can be a good thing because not going overboard with the animation allows you to focus on whats really important which is the plot/story which is the heart and soul of the series.

Sound:
Unfortunately, sound was a category I did not like in El Cazador de la Bruja. First of all, there is this one sound piece with the violins that is quite good and pleasing to hear, however considering there is hardly ever any action in the beginning or middle of this series. This one sound piece was playing over and over again, so by the time it played in a scene were it should be playing, you've heard it so many times that you're either bored of the music or don't care for it. Let me give an example, this music that I am referring to should be played when there is a gun fight going on, but in the beginning of the series it was being played when Nadie was in the kitchen doing some every day chore and other non-spectacular moments such as this.

The "Taco-Taco" song was oh so annoying. Ellis has this airhead voice to her... its like she is too lazy and carefree when she talks, she has that tone to her, so when you add that voice to an already annoying song that was sung alot in the beginning of this series, it got annoying pretty fast and it seemed like every episode in the beginning had this song.

Story:
I see this being broken down into 2 halves.

1st Half - Nadie protects Ellis from people coming after Ellis, but the people coming after Ellis are homos and a little boy that should be in a mental hospital. But let me say this, there really isnt much going on for the 1st half of this series. I believe most viewers will give up during this part (1st 13 to 18 episodes) and then drop this series because it really is messed up.

2nd Half - This is the half that gets interesting, unfortunately its only for like the last 6-7 episodes, so to get to this point, you would have to endure 20 episodes of boredom and banging your head on your keyboard of a first half.

Characters:
Nadie (girl with gun)- This is by far the character that I really did not have problems with. I thought she was cool and collective in nearly every situation, including battles and Ellis. I also liked her facial expressions throughout El Cazador de la Bruja

Ellis (girl with blond hair)- Oh my god is this person annoying. As mentioned above, she has this "I don't care attitude because it doesn't affect me" when it actually does. Ellis is a complete airhead and lacks common sense. The one thing I really hated in this series was her reply to almost anything Nadie told Ellis, which was "Yer sir", because that laziness in her tone was irritating. The only way I can describe how irritating it is, is by referring to real life... its when you are being told to do something or tell someone to do something, but you have to do this but dont want to, so that person or yourself gives an answer in a way that looks down on this person, like a half hearted yes, that is how Ellis's "Yes sir' sounded to me.

L.A.(little boy after Ellis)- This little boy is after Ellis because of his one sided love. But all he does is stalk the girl when she sleeps, eats, basically anytime he can. What is most disturbing about this guy is that when he starts talking about Ellis (b/c he talks to himself ALOT), its like he is stroking his epeen (dick for those that dont know that term) and is talking at the same time he is doing this. I mean it is very disturbing and quite frankly disgusting.

Value:
This series is basically suck hardcore the first 15+ episodes, kinda suck the next 3-5 episodes, and then get interesting towards the end. But the question is... "will you be able to endure the boring/lame episodes to get to the interesting episodes which are are the end?" Now the answer to that question is solely on the determination of the viewer.

ENjoyment:
I really found no enjoyment watching this series. More like I was annoyed, disgusted, and irritated by watching this anime series. I really had to use my experience as an anime fan to watch this entire series from start to finish, because I have this habit of watching an anime series all the way to its end if I start watching something, but as mention, I had to truly dig deep within myself to finish this.

Verdict:
If you can endure 20+ episodes of bad everything (read above) and want to be pleasantly surprised with the last few episodes towards the end, then sure, check this series out. Otherwise, stay the hell away from El Cazador de la Bruja!

Noir mark 3, also known as El Cazador de la Bruja. Studio Bee Train messes a little weenie bit with the exact same premise and throws it out supposed as a different anime we should regard differently. I dislike this subgenre as it is just fan service, in the form of half-naked women, killing hundreds of criminals with big guns. I prefer more sophisticated stories than this silliness. But this time they tried little bit more with the whole «chicks with guns» and offered a somewhat different feel to it, a somewhat twist to the formula by being more character-focused and not very kill-anything-that-moves. Still, such a deviation is a step forward to a more emotional and realistic series but also a step backwards to a more boring one as well.

Unlike Noir and Madlax, El Cazador never managed to make that much of a sensation when it first came out. The reasons for these vary but it basically comes down to the three major ones that follow:
1) The formula started to get boring and repetitive to sell as much anymore.
2) Unlike its predecessors, it came out during a time when the market was full of great anime.
3) It is far less action/plot/emo oriented, three major hooks of the earlier shows.

So although the visuals improved a little bit more and the characters felt livelier, the completely easy going nature of the show failed to grab the attention of most, since back then most were still busy on the latest hits, such as Death Note, Code Geass, and Haruhi. Not that there is something wrong with the production values here; the artwork is simple but elegant, voice acting and music themes aren’t memorable but are decent. It’s just that there isn’t an over the top amount of fan service and battles, so most of the fandom didn’t even bother with it. It is pleasing to watch and listen to but not great in any way.

The story had some potential but as usually it is greatly overlooked. Shy girl is the daughter of a murdered scientist, butchy girl is willing to protect her from criminals, who are after her father’s research. And yes, there are shoot-outs. And yes, there are mysterious powers going around. And, yes, yes, yes, there is a half-nude scene in almost every episode. On the bright side, none of the above is that far-fetched. The action scenes are kept at reasonable levels and quite far apart from one another. Most of the duration of the series is actually character immersion rather than pointless gun fights. Yes, it is mostly talking, traveling to various places, learning about peoples’ lives, exploring ancient mysteries and occasionally showing some leg and boobs. Nothing extreme in all. So, I loved the development of the characters. Although terribly stereotypical, they are colorized in wonderful ways and become quite likable. Plus, none is a superhuman that kills a 1000 people with a 6-shooter. 5 normal people at the most, using generally realistic body movements and light ESP powers.

Still, this doesn’t change the fact that this is a series with a terrible main story, very slow development and quite unimportant events. The people are mostly standing still and talking, which will get boring for most. Even the wonderful character coloring falls short before 26 episodes of light action and traveling around the world. A movie summary of this series by the way would be a blast.

There is no value in this anime, since Requiem for the Phantom is the nth remake of this formula and the best of its kind (although I am no fan of emo chicks with guns and by no means fan of that series). As one described it, such Bee Train shows are basically long moody music videos and not good action/mystery series. So no, I don’t really recommend it. Hear the soundtrack and skip the rest.

And now for some excused scorings.
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