Akemi's Anime World

Blue Seed Anime Review

Blue Seed Box Art

Blue Seed

4.5 stars / TV Series / Adventure / 12-up

Bottom Line

A wonderful and well-executed series.

It’s Like...

...A modern-day Sakura Wars does 3x3 Eyes.

Vital Stats

Original Title

ブルーシード

Romanized Title

BLUE SEED

Animation Studio

Production IG

US Release By

Section23, ADV Films

Genre

Demon Invasion Action-Adventure-Comedy

Series Type

TV Series

Length

26 25-minute episodes

Production Date

1994-10-05 - 1995-03-29

What's In It

Categories

Look For

Objectionable Content

  • Violence: 3 (significant)
  • Nudity: 1 (mild)
  • Sex: 2 (moderate)
  • Language: 2 (moderate)

See Also

Sequels/Spin-offs

  • Blue Seed Beyond

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Plot Synopsis

Momiji seems like an ordinary high school student with ordinary ambitions; to visit Tokyo, to fall in love, to experience her first kiss...etc. But to her surprise she finds out that she is the last descendant of the Koshinada family. Whose members have the grisly duty of protecting Japan from the Aragami, a race of plant-like monsters, by sacrificing their lives, literally. Suddenly, she finds herself being chased by the Aragami, who want to kill her in a special ceramic field, which negates her power. Fortunately for her, a secret organization named the TAC and a super-naturally powerful young man called Kusanagi are out to protect her. Together they fight the Aragami, in order to avoid Momiji's sacrifice. But in the shadows, an evil greater than all the Aragami combined is biding its time...

Quick Review

My first impression with this TV series was that it was just-another-anime. You've got your maiden in distress, horrible monsters out to destroy us humans, a rag-tag team of monster destroyers, and a cool guy with cool powers. But as the story progresses, the series begins taking on a life of its own. The characters begin taking form and you start caring for them, as the series artfully puts even the supporting characters in the limelight for a while. The action sequences are well-executed and leave you wanting more. There's also just the right amount of comedy, and just the right amount of romance (especially endearing is Momiji's shy attempts at attracting Kusanagi's attention). The plotline, which starts cliched, is actually pretty good and gets better as the series advances.

The acting in the subtitled version (the one I saw) was pretty good, especially Momiji's voice actress, Megumi Hayashibara, who is (in my opinion) the definitive voice of the cute-air-headed-school-girl. The music was mostly unmemorable except the ending theme sung by Hayashibara herself. Another nice extra is the Omake Theater at the end of each volume, which usually provides hilarious parodies of the series itself (watch as Kusanagi and his arch nemesis settle their differences once and for all by playing Mahjong!) but sometimes provide an extra look at the characters, revealing more of their conflicts and stories.

All in all, Blue Seed is a wonderful, well-executed series, on par with the likes of Evangelion and Escaflowne. Go see it!

Notes and Trivia

None

Availability

Available in North America from Section23, formerly ADV, on a 6-disc DVD set. Was also available on six individual trilingual DVDs, or 13 subtitled or dubbed VHS volumes, as well as a set of long-out-of-print LD collections.

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