Reviews Anime / Busou Renkin

Switched at birth

Busou Renkin is an odd duck, it falls under the domain of Shonen, so you'd think the action would be fun and the romance poorly written. The odd thing? It's almost completely reversed. The action in the series isn't bad, the fights are fairly intelligent and the powers of the characters are pretty awesome, the main problem with the series is the below average animation, the fights aren't really fun to watch, so that kinda sucks some enjoyment out of the show, it's a shame what a small budget held this show back from good to awesome.

The humor is somewhat superior, the whole Affectionate Parody thing works pretty well, even for somebody who isn't to familiar with either Rurouni Kenshin or Bleach, the characters and voice actors (English ones, I didn't see the Japanese, so I can't judge it) had great chemistry, especially Tokiko and Kazuki, which is great, since there romance was the best thing about the show and my favorite part of it. This is coming from a guy who generally dislikes romance, the characters have a legitimate and beautiful romance that really is the heart of the show, I loved their interactions, and what problems they have isn't the Joss Whedon Diabolus Ex Machina variety, making their struggles and their triumph all the more beautiful.

More about Kazuki, I think that he's one of the best Idiot Hero Messiah's around, I know I'll be scalped for this, but I like him more then Vash, his kindness and naivety is believable and admirable. Tokiko is an excellent Foil as both a romantic interest and lancer. Pappillon is oddly fascinating, and hilarious, Spike Spencer really is a good actor. The other characters play their parts well, but I feel know that the ending was rushed and the characters that they introduce are interesting, but they kinda disappear and don't develop. Victor was somewhat disappointing as a bad guy, yes, he was tragic, and his reasons were logical, but the fight was severely anticlimactic, hell, I think the real climax was the conclusion of Kazuki and Tokiko's relationship.

What more can I say about this show, the music is awesome, and the opening is one of the most energetic and inspiring of all time, getting me really pumped for some Alchemical asskicking.