Blue Seed

Original Title: ブルーシード
Romanized: BLUE SEED
Literal:

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...

Reader Review

Rating: 4.5 / 5
Reviewer: The M Man
Review Date: 2003-08-17

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 progressed, the series began taking 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!

US DVD Review

The six DVDs were originally sold separately and are now available as a set in a big, fat keepcase-style package. The discs are trilingual (there's a Spanish dub, too), with an English subtitle track, and feature an "Omake Theater", textless opening, and some character bios.

Content Guide

Ok for most kids, but be warned that it does get pretty violent at times, and some of the humor can be raunchy.

Violence: 3 - Not terribly graphic, but there is some serious violence.

Nudity: 1 - Nothing of particular note.

Sex/Mature Themes: 2 - Some raunchy humor.

Language: 2 - Some coarse language.

Notes and Trivia

None

Availability

Available in the US from 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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