Anime: Kaidoumaru 2mc2

Please this is my personal experiences of the film, and so though I may sound harsh, thats just how I saw it. I'm not saying YOU have no right to enjoy it!


Animation: 7
I'll start by saying that some parts looked really good, especially the fight sequences, but URGH! could the colours BE more bland? Now I know its meant to be stylistic and unified, and it achieves that well, but some of the scenes were so bland it was almost impossible to watch, and I found I had to turn my TV's contrast to maximum and its brightness to 0 just to be able to distinguish what is going on!

To me, the CGI was 'meh' but I guess its a matter of opinion.

Luckily I liked the interesting bullring effect the used from time to time, as well as the alternative style they used at the beginning, which mrsatan (aptly, in my opinion) described as 'moving manga'. This dragged it up from the 5 region to the 7, which is luckily, as I have the feeling that Kai Doh Maru 'aint gonna score that well in the other fields...


Sound: 6
Now I liked the music, especially the song in the opening titles, but thats really all I can say.
To me, the dialogue was like the animation; to bland for comfort. It was just to slow, disted and uninspiring.


Story: 4
I'm going to have to give it 4, as even though I've watched it three times now, and I know what happens, I still get the feeling that there is a whole backstory which was cut out at the last minute, or this is in fact a sequel but no ones told me that yet!

Seriously, I nearly spent the entire time mouthing "wtf?...", as the plot seems largely disconnected and unexplained.
To me it seems like a summery of a 130 minute feature film, as basically the entire thing consists of 'round ups' and important scenes to progress the plot, but nothing else. Its just so unexplained, and when I did work it out, all I could say was "so, thats it? thats the plot?"

Maybe its a stylised way of plotwriting that I seem not to understand, but its just too disted to really flow, for me.

Not to mention the bizarrly long silences. I don't dislike reflective scenes or prolonged moments, but there are some seriously strange silences in this film that are extended way beyond what could be considered a normal length.
But once again, this could just be me.


Characters: 5
The characters are partly destroyed by the plot, but its also the length that takes away from them.
In the 40 odd minutes of this film, they are just not touched upon, or touched open very little. You see a little of their backstory or motives, yet it seems that there is so much more which just isn't explored properly, or explored at all! In fact I STILL think that half of this film was cut out at the last minute, as some bits just don't quite make sense.


Value:
Sadly I paid an obscene amount of money for what I got out of the film.
As I said before, I've watched it 3 or so times now, and I expect I'll do so again, but I would seriously advise either buying this on sale or renting it, because for the love of god its not worth the standard retail price!
So if money is a factor when you buy anime, and you are deciding between Kai Doh Maru and something else, I would probably advise spending you money on the other thing.


Enjoyment: 7
Now I know I've just spent the entire review practically rubbishing this anime, but I also am of the opinion that every anime deserves to be watched at least once, just for the experience.
And despite certain factors which got low ratings from me, I did enjoy watching this.

So I do recomend you watch it, but please don't expect to be wowed.

For being only about 47 minutes long, I got a lot of enjoyment out of this anime. The story is a bit lacking, but there isn't much you can do in such a short amount of time. I think it would have been better off as a 13 or so episode series. None the less, it was very entertaining, especially if you're into the samurai-esque historical setting. Overall, it has some great animation and some engaging fight scenes with a short, yet intriguing story. I would recommend it even if you aren't a fan of this particular genre. It seems to also be connected to another anime, Otogizoushi, in some way.

Let me start of with cool animation + crappy story = subpar anime.

Animation- The animation in this is really cool. I thought the cg was well done with the way it was simple styled, it went with the animation. A few times the animation got distorted and such, but overall a pretty cool artstyle. The colors used are unique with vivid colors here and there. If anything watch it just for the beginning sequence, which REALLY looks like a manga in motion, i cant describe it any other way.

Sound - Nothin special here. I hated the voice of the main character, I couldnt tell if it was a boy or a girl until the story told me. Music was subpar and the voice acting is satisfactory.

Story - Ummmk I would try to explain the story but I have no idea what the hell was goin on. All I really caught was princess turns evil, kills bunch of people and girl tries to stop her. This has probably the worst ending of any anime I have ever seen. Not so much that I dont like the ending, but as in I have no idea what the hell happened and what the point was.

Characters - The character development is a damn joke. You have no idea about anything, why the princess does what she does, why they were after Kintoki, it makes no sense whatsoever.

Value- I feel sorry for the poor sap who buys this god-awful story. Just it and watch it once then you will understand.

Enjoyment- The only enjoyment I got from watching this was the cool animation and cg. At the end I wondered why I spent 45 minutes watching this thing. It would be redeemed if it was a series, but its not so we have to suffer.