Monday, March 7, 2016

Bamboo Blade Part 1 Episodes 1-4


Kojiro is a man with a dream…the dream of a years worth of free sushi to sate his never ending hunger.  In order to attain this dream, he must assemble a team of the best Kendo Warriors at Muroe High.  He already has two veteran members: Kirino and Saya.  And he has three fresh recruits: expert Yuji, small but valiant Danny and his girlfriend Miyako.  But there’s one person Kojiro wants more than all of them combined: the tiny but powerful Tamaki Kawazoe.  Only thing is, Tama may be an elite Kendo practitioner.  But she doesn’t want to practice at school, seeing as how she’s practiced her whole life.  For honor, for redemption, but most importantly FOR SUSHI, Kojiro must do the impossible and convince this little Kendo Goddess to sign up with his team.

Well I said this year I was going to try something new.  I know this blog tends to get a lot of time dedicated to mecha, action and general shows where everything goes boom.  So as promised, I’m dialing it back with a series that has action, but no mecha and nothing going boom…unless you count emotional meltdowns of hilarity, in which case we’re good on that front, so no mecha…that’s 1/3 right?

Kendo, one of the hallmark sports of Japanese high schools.  It only makes sense that there might be several Anime dedicated to putting it front and center.  It is a sport of honor, strength, mental fitness and above all else, it’s about having fun.  And if the opening episodes of Bamboo Blade are any indication then it looks like we’ll be having a lot of fun indeed.

There’s something about Bamboo Blade that sucks me in.  It looks cute enough, animation wise.  But there’s something more…I don’t know, zen I guess, about it.  The show just seems like a good relaxer, able to help you unwind while also getting you excited about something.  There’s an energy amongst this team of idealistic Kendo trainees that just gets to you.  There’s something to take away from each of these first few episodes from Kendo lessons to lessons about life to the quirks of each member of the main cast.  I’m actually happy that some of the basics of Kendo are discussed a little.  I wouldn’t call Bamboo Blade the perfect demo tape for trying out Kendo.  It will pique interest though to learn more about the sport.

Ah Tama-Chan.  She’s so adorably cute and yet so bad ass at the same time.  But what I love most about her is…she’s an ANIME FAN!!!! Yes, the main character of this series is a Sentai loving swordswoman with dreams of being a hero of justice.  It brings a tear to my inner otaku when Anime can have a character that reflects, in some way, love for the genre.  Tama may be quiet.  But when she speaks or does anything, it easily steals the show.  Plus her Chibi designs, both in comedic moments and in flashbacks are just too freaking cute.  The rest of the cast shines in their own way.  Kirino’s optimism, Saya’s melodrama, Kojiro’s quest for sushi, Yuji’s calmness around all this crazy energy and Danny’s…well tiny form, each character stands out in their own way.  A close runner up to Tama would be Miya.  She may look cute and friendly (and WAYYYYYYY out of Danny’s league).  But cross her and her black energy will flare up and scare the hell out of you.  I love how every character can see it except the blissfully oblivious Danny.

The opening episodes do have their serious moments.  This is mostly around team bullies Toyama and Iwasa.  Toyama is a sadist who loves beating on team members, especially women apparently.  There’s always an air of dread when he’s around.  Iwasa isn’t much better since he just stands back and tolerates Toyama’s sick nature.  It’s darkness like this that makes the light of Tama shine brighter when she kicks the crap out of him in a match.  Not sure if we’ll see these two bullies again. But Tama left an impression on Toyama he will never forget.  Good riddance.

Still not sure if we’re going to see a fifth team member for Kojiro’s all girl line up for his match against his sempai.  With the actual match apparently set for the next episode, will we see our “green” member of the team (yeah did I mention Kojiro took a Super Sentai approach to his team by assigning all of the girls colors?)?  We’ll just have to wait and see.  But overall, I’m happy to be checking out Bamboo Blade and hope everyone is ready for a couple weeks of Kendo comedy coverage.  It’s new and fresh right (for this blog anyway)? 

See ya next week.

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