Down and out high school teacher Toraji Ishida is truly at a low point in his life: no money, no luck, no life — even his kendo club is on the rocks, with only one active member. When a friend challenges Toraji to a battle between their respective kendo teams, he refuses — until his friend says that if he wins, he can eat at his father's sushi place for a whole year for free. The ever-hungry Toraji is inspired to create the best kendo team ever, which almost seems impossible — until he runs into kendo prodigy Tamaki Kazawoe, whose sword can topple even an adult opponent, and her quiet passion for the sport is only rivaled by her hidden love for justice and anime. The quest is on to find a team of girls who are talented and willing to pick up the sword and join the school's kendo club — or else no more food for Toraji!
Highlights:
You can divide the highlights of Bamboo Blade into two parts: the comedy and the action. Both parts together define the series as a whole. For the comedy parts of the series, it is a humor that is very character driven. We have an amazing cast to watch: the ever-perky and ready-to-go Kirino; the tragically comedic Toraji; the silent but passionate Kawazoe; the pessimistic and off-kilter Sayako; Miya-Miya, who diverts between perky and dangerous; her plain-looking goofy boyfriend Eiga; the kind and sincere Yuuji; and the ever-clumsy kendo ace Azuma. Each character brings with them their own brand of humor to the series. There is Kirino and Sayako's rather unorthodox way of recruiting members, Toraji's continuing bad luck that gets worse as the series progresses, Miyako's constant switching between her loveable persona and "Dark Miya-Miya" who scares all of the kendo members — except for the oblivious Eiga. There are several stand-out scenes that are prime examples of how utterly funny Bamboo Blade can be, like when Kazawoe is unnaturally chatty as she talks about her hero Gorō Taniguchi (yes, the director of Code Geass, which kinda puts her love for justice into a whole new perspective, doesn't it?) or when Miyako is doing her best to avoid Sayako as the first time they met she went into Dark Miya-Miya mode and made quite a wreck of poor Saya's bike. And then there is poor pathetic Toraji, whose endless mishaps end up putting the kendo club into deeper trouble than before.
And than brings us to another thing that this series excels at: action. Bamboo Blade, despite its shiny comedic exterior, is still a sports anime. This means there has to be tons of practice scenes and eventually matches between their team and other opposing teams, such as the team headed by Tojari's sensei, Kenzaburō, the crux of the whole series' start. Even when practicing, you can tell the production team did a lot of research into kendo. All the subtle nuances of a very Japanese sport is there, from the way they step across the floor to even how they manage their gear. The spars themselves, whether practice between fellow team members or two teams facing off, can be very involving and dramatic without being too long. Kendo, after all, is not a sport where you spend an excess of time against your opponent. They have set times for regular and overtime limits, and even then matches usually don't take that long. Ergo, it becomes less about time and more about concentration, putting all of ones mental and willpower into each step and strike. And each girl has their own style and technique; the series does a good job of making these distinctions. Every time Kazawoe picks up her shinai, even in her bulky equipment, you can tell that it is Kazawoe. Likewise, Kirino's technique is high and spirited, Sayako is is energetic and frustrated, Azuma is skilled and fast, and so forth. With each match, you get more of a feel for their character through the way they handle their shinai and move around as they dodge blows and strike their opponents.
Extras:
As expected of a release with thirteen episodes to two discs, there are barely any extras to speak of. There are textless versions of both the opening and ending sequences, as well as a good number of trailers for upcoming Funimation releases, including the Fullmetal Alchemist movie and the second half of this very series (But with no release date! Bah!).
Funimation has included with the series an English dub track for all thirteen episodes. The script is changed slightly to fit with the animation, but there are no changes so major that someone watching only the dub would be following a different story. The voice acting is very good, matching the original Japanese's seiyuus in style and talent. When watching with the dub track selected, two performances really stood out to me. There was Luci Christian as Kirino, who did a great job of bringing her energy and enthusiasm to life. Then there was Sean Teague as Eiga, who was spot-on as the plain and not-so-bright character, whether it was complaining about the equipment or cheering his girlfriend on. Dub fans will enjoy watching Bamboo Blade in English.
Overall:
In the fall anime season for 2007, a little series about girls who were on a kendo team premiered on Japanese TV sets across the nation. Its name was Bamboo Blade, and it is finally getting the widespread audience it deserves as Funimation releases it to the English-speaking populace with 13-episode sets, the first one coming out the end of this month. And for those fans who don't like sports anime that much but are still curious about this show, let me say this: this is not a typical sports anime, for better or for worse.The kendo serves as a marvelous and interesting backdrop to the colorful cast that dominate the series and are the ones who will make or break how good the series is by the last episode. It is slow moving at times, but interesting enough that it is still able to grab the viewer's attention, and well worth sitting through all thirteen episodes. Even if they have ridiculous CG floors, but they become barely noticeable as the show progresses. Since this is only the first half, I don't know how well this series may end, but I do know how it starts, and it's a wonderful start that is making me anxious for the rest of the episodes.
ComicsOnline gives Bamboo Blade season one part one 4 out of 5 strikes of the shinai
