"At no point has he ever shown her the least bit of interest because this stump of a character has a one track mind about murdering his former best friend, and yet somehow she has convinced herself that there is no one else for her." So upon watching this again years later... Are we totally certain that these two aren't just the basis for Sasuke and Sakura?
When you asked, "why suicidal people?", I thought the answer was going to be that it was less likely people would investigate their disappearances. It seemed obvious and logical, especially compared with what they actually went with.
Is anyone else surprised that he didn't call "Token" "Sakura"? I mean the utter uselessness in the plot, being an incompetent ninja, falling in love with "Sasuke" while he has never done anything to suggest he likes her. Huh... Maybe that would have been too on the nose.
eh , token wasn't a selfish sociopath that makes "friendships" only for selfish reasons so she can feed off of them, or threaten her child with violence simply for asking if she was actually sasukes wife frankly it'd be insULTING token. Sakura is an emotionally, psychologically, and kinda physically abusive.
GamerGirlOfGotham Not that I disagree with you, but when did Sakura make friendships for her own gain? Not that she wasnt the worst, I just cant think of any of them.
She later abuses her relationship with ino to get what she wants, she pretends to be hinatas friend to push her towards Naruto to get him off her back. She also later, when realizing she was pregnant with aasukes baby, pretended to be friends with Karin so that she could be lead to safety. Later even covering up a picture with karin and sasuke, covering karin with a picture of herself and actually saying "she must never know about that woman" or something to that effect
OH yeah. Actually, now that I think about it, what was the point of Sakura not being honest with Salad, not answering the question, and using a old pic of Sasuke instead of using a new one?
It may be the nostalgia glasses but I still love this anime. I feel like its from a time where not everything had to be explained and ex positioned to death. Actions, emotions, and events could happen in away that were understandable and acceptable with some leeway without breaking the narrative or or its fundamental laws. Since we are dealing with ninjas and demons, nothing broke or took me out of the story. He wouldnt run away from the village because he was trying to figure out what was going on, no matter how crazy it would be to stay there. Spider demons = clues. Explosives in sword hilt? Sounds like a good ninja to me. Why Token is crying after the ninja that was trying to kill her gets trampled leads me to believe that she loved him but he was too much of a ninja and was following his duty. But, I guess thats subject to interpretation.
My father use to rent anime way back when you had to have a small machine to rewind the video tapes, i remember vague images of Guyver the bioboosted armor, Akira and so forth, ive been searching for this anime for a tleast 18 years or so and i would like to thank you Bennett for finally putting a name and title to old memories.
Glad to see I'm not the only one who loves this OVA. It kind of sucks that Sage just rips apart all the vintage anime I fell in love with as a teen and his viewers just sort of jump the bandwagon in agreeing how terrible it is. While I'm glad I found his channel, I really can't agree with him on most of his reviews. I honestly think it's a cultural/generational thing. I'm guessing he's in his 20s and picked up vintage anime as a hobby in adulthood after taking a college film class or something, being super jaded and critical of everything he sees. Kind of a bummer, but oh well. I've seen every anime he's reviewed and then some. Curse of the Yoma is in my top 10, like several other movies he regards as trash.
The counting song is much older than this anime. My wife has never seen this anime but she knew the lyrics to the counting song when I was watching it on my laptop she sang it. Later she said “You know that song is something like... bad luck” lol.
Salokin Sekwah ... there was a highlander anime.. you know for the tiniest of seconds i was happy and then experience and reason came back in a soul crushing wave
Wait..a mere mortal fighting against someone who has abandoned his humanity? If it weren't for the flashback where they were friends...I would've say...I rather watch Jonathan vs Dio all over again.
Cliche ninja fantasy. Awesome old school art and animation. I would rent this from blockbuster for like a month straight. Say what you want, I absolutely loved it.
You've basically done every guilty pleasure old anime I have after this except 'Utena The Movie', 'Bastard', and 'Shamanic Princess'. And when I say Pleasures I mean movies I Torture people with for my pleasure. I do genuinely like most of them though hahaha.
Agreed. Unfortunately, anime mostly exists to convince you to buy the manga, which has never been fully licensed in English. :( And actually, Shamanic Princess isn't by CLAMP. It was produced by the Princess Project, although the character designer, Atsuko Ishida also did the designs for Magic Knights Rayearth.
***** Yeah...though it's wonderful knowing Dark Schneider's voice actor also voiced Cosmo from Fairly Odd Parents hahahahaha! Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I associate that style with them so much hahaha. And Rayearth is my favorite anime of all time.
Locaneo lol, sorry, I've never seen the dub. I've always been a sub-only girl. I only remember Ishida 'cause she also did the C/D for Martian Successor Nadesico, and I love that show. The whole time I watched it, I kept thinking, "Man this looks A LOT like CLAMP." Tonally, the humor is quite different, but it's got the same look for the C/D: lots bright colors, huge eyes, and elaborate hair styles.
Honestly that powder could have been just about anything, when a fine powder floats in the air pretty much the smallest spark that sets off so much as a single particle causes a chain reaction that ignites the other particles so quickly that it causes what is referred to as a dust explosion, but I could just be looking into this too deeply
The most frustrating thing I found about this anime was they would cut scenes so quick *already noted in the video*...not just that but they would introduce characters like aya and then you don't know her name up until she dies...
5:39 hey remember when the jedi council said that Aniken's training might bring great danger to the force and the universe? Ya Im getting some flashbacks of that.
8:28 it could very well be a type of gun powder.... Ninjas know quite knowledgeable about mixing chemicals and compounds. In fact now that I think about it, their are chemicals on the Periodic table That do then to ignite when introduced to air or moisture....Being out in the middle of the woods, could be one or both. Plus if it was meant to explode and destroy the monster woman it doesn’t seem likely since he in the monster woman are still in one piece. So I’m gonna go with it being more of a flash bomb.
Your horse question is a bit hard to answer. Off hand I'd say yes. A demon horse coming out of the sea to trample people is the kinda thing she wouldn't have covered in ninja training. But this is a world with sea demon horses, and wolf horse centaurs so she just might have.
Soooooo how is it ADV decided to label Blood Reign "essential" when it's so forgettable mere minutes after finishing it? Were they just throwing the title around at the time or what?
How is this a adv essential? I'd hate to know what else they think is essential. I haven't even watched these ovas and I can tell it's an incredibly boring ride.
this is the first time I caught the jim ross impression at the end. god bless you man. THAT MAN HAD A FAMILYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
When I grew up with this, age 9 or so, I always took this as kind of a mood piece or something. Not at all saying I would even KNOW WHAT THAT MEANT back then, but I just remember this weird atmosphere that I liked about it. And coming back today, ehhhh...the atmosphere is there, but how the fuck did I ever stay focused for even a quarter of the OVA? Ritalin was fucking awesome.
There's no denying this anime has a boring 'random encounters in an RPG' type plot (if such a word can even be used) like Sage says, with any action driven by our hero simply walking from one point to another meeting and sometimes fighting whatever 'character' crosses his path. I'm surprised Sage didn't comment on the pointless inclusion of Oda Nobunaga in the show - seemingly as though the writers were literally just sitting there ticking off all the boxes of the tropes from other equally less than stellar ninja anime from the period (see Black Lion, Wrath of the Ninja). And yes, Token is a terrible character but then I don't think you can really expect good, fully rounded characters in what's intended as a two episode OVA or least not be frustrated at it. But, especially when compared to some of the competition put out by ADV, I wouldn't write Blood Reign off as completely forgettable - the surreal imagery, the attempt at an understated and mysterious late night atmosphere, and the insane monster designs are certainly something to at least hold on to afterwards. Perhaps it's average in the long run, but Blood Reign is nonetheless a cut above a lot of the titles Sage reviews in terms of memorability simply for these reasons. In terms of atmosphere it's not dissimilar to a later rather obscure anime horror/mystery series named Requiem from the Darkness. You certainly don't feel like you've wasted your time by watching Blood Reign like you do with say, Wild Cardz or Ninja Cadets.
If you want an answer to the exploding witch woman Sage my best bet would be that it's a variation of gunpowder designed to ignite in the air when exposed to a spark of some sort but, I seriously doubt if it would work like it did in the anime. However, there was an incident in Taiwan where some colored powder ignited in the air during a rave so it could work along those principles.
Holy shit! Ive been looking for this one for years! I remember seeing it on tv in 2002! I just couldn't remember the name! Of course i forgot because it shares a name with that game series! Thanks dude!
I suppose different versions of this anime vary in quality, I only remember this being very good, and me watching it very often. I'm not just saying it because if nostalgia factors but I genuinely liked this ova.
***** I watched this just recently and for the type of piece this anime was it's was pretty good. It does feel like Sage didn't really watch this because he miss presents more than one thing about and some of what he complains about comes out as nitpicky. Of course some of the criticism he made were valid but this is easily one of his worst "reviews".
Antti Saavalainen Yeah I have to agree, I don't feel like that was an accurate representation of this OVA. It does have plot holes and things wrong with it, but at the same time, it has very moving parts, at least for me, like the whole reincarnation at the end, and MC fighting his childhood best friend, and it's genuinely hard for him, that's why he's all "emo" not just for the sake of it, but because he truly feels this way.
***** Good points all. This is just a case of "not for everyone" when you get down to it. The horror elements of this story were pretty much glossed over by Sage. But like most all things, horror is subjective.
It is very good. He's just hyper critical and jaded and rips into vintage anime because he probably machine-gunned watching them in his adulthood and a lot of them lost the subtle impact they would have otherwise had. Compare that with someone who was a teenager when these anime came out and anime was hard to find, stuff like this was gold. The generational context is what defines his taste, but his taste in the case of many of these classics is just poor, IMO.
I would say the reason why "token girl" was crying despite being a ninja could be linked to some deeper emotional connection between the characters, sure, since it's never explain or shown it just comes as something completely out of character for this so called "ninja", but then again, since you are reading so much into it, you may as well go to the conclusion that this "love" thing is most likely why she keeps on traveling with sasuke, then again, that just rises the question, does she "fall in love" with the first man she sees after a traveling with him for a while ?. Or maybe i'm just trying to read too much into this shitty anime.
Also used to see this when Encore Action channel had anime and also had real commercials along with it. Early anime came a long way. I'm not kidding this was in the early 2000's. Since this wouldn't happen today and commercials are to cheap now to even be believed.
Can you please review more shoujo anime? I love your show and watch it regardless of whether I'm familiar with the show or not. But I avoided these generic and dull shounen titles like the plague. Shoujo anime is the reason I went from being a casual viewer to an otaku. I'd love to see an episode on Shamanic Princess or Magic User's Club. And on the god-awful end of the spectrum, Wedding fucking Peach.
***** I tried watching this show once and couldn't get pass the 20 minute markXD As for Wedding Peach...I watched it long ago and just couldn't figure out what to think of that shitXD
I owned two fansubbed VHS tapes of Wedding Peach with four episodes each, and I think I was able to get through two and a half, maybe three episodes before my brain cells started screaming for mercy. I was really into magical girl shows at the time and had watched some really great ones. The unfortunately still unlicensed Hime-chan's Ribbon and Nurse Angel Ririko SOS come to mind as examples. Both very silly concepts that managed to really make you care about the characters and take their stories seriously, while still have fun with the whole thing. There's some bad magical girl stuff out there, of course, but at that point, everything I'd seen varied from good to great. Worst comes to worst, I figured Wedding Peach would just be a sub-par Sailor Moon ripoff, which it is, but it's also so incredibly dumb. I was bewildered to hear it got licensed
+Jennifer Nichole Yeah but if you've seen one or two of Sage's past reviews then he's really not much into the cute stuff. I think it literally kills him inside to watch cute, adorable crap. XD
I'm not asking him to become a fan; I just want him to broaden the categories of anime he reviews on his comedy anime review show. I realize the visuals are really important to Sage, but he's leaving a ton of potential material on the table just because "kawaii" is not his preferred art style. The CLAMP-style character designs should never prevent someone from the action-packed awesomeness that is Shamanic Princess. Also, while his reviews of bad anime are hilarious, his reviews of boring anime are significantly less so. I'd rather watch his choke down a few doses of a "kawaii" show that's interesting than watch him struggle to find something interesting to say about a safe seinen title.
"At no point has he ever shown her the least bit of interest because this stump of a character has a one-track mind about murdering his former best friend and yet somehow she has convinced herself that there is no one else for her" that's almost a point for point description of Sakura Haruno
Y'know funny enough I do remember this one. At first you were pulling out shlock I never even heard of, but these days? Hot damn lately you've been reviewing a lot of obscure anime I actually saw XD. I wonder if you'll do a review of Black Lion, where this one samurai is resurrected as a killer cyborg by a version of Nobunaga in league with space aliens.
I forgot about that scene in the Lord of the Rings with Galadriel. There was a similar echoing line with Celebrimbor in Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor where he says "All shall fear me, and rejoice". Interesting.
Ah, Blood Reign. Contrary to what you posit in the video Sage, I actually DO remember this anime well and have fond feelings for it, if only because I thought its trailer on the Evangelion VHS tapes was really cool, back when it was titled Curse of the Undead: Youma (still love that Youma Counting Song!) I think that's probably the best way to view it actually, in AMV form. Apparently this OVA was based on a one-volume manga serialized in Ribon Original. Which is a manga anthology magazine for little girls. Huh.
Curse of the Yoma is in my top 10 anime of all time. I really love it for its surreal and beautiful tone, the stillness of many scenes, the subtle flashes of things that play tricks on your eyes, the haunting soundtrack, the bizarre atmosphere... It's really an acquired taste I'm sure, but I think Sage is just too young to have really experienced this film and other classics at an age where they would have had a greater impact on his psyche.
@@phubans I love me some ridiculous ninja stuff, I unironically enjoyed the sheer WTFness of a lot of things, but having watched Curse of the Yoma without a shitty english dub in the way, I am absolutely bewildered that THIS is in a top 10 for someone. It ought to be the trope codifier for "It's So Okay It's Average". There's some great moments, there's some bad moments, but overall it just kind of all balances together into something that I'd recommend watching on a rainy day, but not go absolutely out of your way to check out RIGHT NOW. It's very pretty though. Kind of striking a rare balance between shonen and shojo genres without hitting either ugly extreme. Now if only I hadn't read Basilisk before learning this exists, because that had a way better love interest failing at being a ninja and crying sadly and spoiled me a bit with non-combattant love interest protagonists.
If you're Doctor Who, then the best day is usually followed by the worst. Earthshock ---> Time Flight, The Caves of Androzani ---> Twin Dilemma, Trial of a time Lord ----> Time and the Rani, Parting of the Ways ----> The Tennant Era, Heaven Sent ----> Hell Bent.
The only thing i can remember about this anime was the man eating horse and that just funny fucking Demon tree that just screams out gibberish and that shit made me burst out in laughter every fucking time.
The only thing I found interesting about this anime, is that it uses a variant of a poem, said to be written by an actual ninja from feudal times, as it's opening theme song. I think the credits mention a studio songwriter. But they would be more like an interpreter, who took certain liberties. The original poem speaks somewhat conceptually, so interpretation or elaboration is fine. I'd hardly call that plagiarism. In any case, it's a grim tune from several hundred years ago. The author and her companion were supposed to have had tragic lives, in the extreme. THAT story would make a great premise to a feudal/horror-themed anime.. Unlike this one! D:
So, I was watching this but not looking at the screen. And then, the dumb line where "Sasuke" says the girl cries too much happened, and I just blurted out "Fuck you" in response and then wondered what the silence was for immediately following it, came back, and there was Sage flipping this turd nugget of a finale off. Good man Sage, good man.
I remember when I bought this anime on VHS, and like you said its not bad nor good, its just forgettable....cause I sure didn't remember what it was about, but it's title is unforgettable And I remember the title being, Curse of the Undead Yoma, Blood Reign I think was added later.
It's funny, I thought I had seen this anime before and I was right. I saw this anime years ago and the only part of it that stuck with me was the part where they find the woman on the side of the road dead with the baby still attached at the umbilical cord. Other than that I completely forgot this anime entirely.
"Child of the ground." Given the spider thing, I think maybe the better translation was "child of the earth." I think it's referencing the Tsuchigumo, or "earth spiders," of folklore. Maybe? Kinda hard to tell.
14:35 Simple: Have things happen, but not to the main characters/anything important. The easiest way to put this is in terms of a Tabletop RPG. Imagine a GM making a bunch of NPCs, and having them do everything without giving the players any chance to effect the world or plot at large. The player's are just along for the ride that the NPCs are dragging them on. Things do happen, but they happen to the NPCs, the people the story isn't supposed to be about. However, nothing is happening to the PCs, the ones the story should be about. Things are happening, yet nothing is happening.
+Skeith0X The title of this anime is Mamono Hunter Yohko (aka Yohko Devil Hunter) but maybe you already found out by yourself ... ^-^ Sorry for the engrish !
Sorry but I actually liked this anime. It's not Ninja Scroll good but I liked the reincarnation aspects all the different bits and pieces in this movie. But then again your commentary does hit the nail on the head too.
aww sage you're gonna review burn up W? I liked that one....though the fact they don't have a proper ending for it pisses me off, though the sequel series was supposedly following on from that despite some inconsistencies (like, I'm PRETTY sure the virtual drug doesn't come up at all in the sequel despite being the main focus on the villain's plot)
10:45 Girl: "A horse?" Sasuke-er: "It's an illusion." 10: 54 - 10:58 An illusion that can kill people? Next you'll be saying the monster on the tv screen isn't real but then the monster eats the viewer's face.
***** I'd love to see you take a look at 801st Airbats some time. It's really quite an amusing, if simply premised anime. But as the saying goes, for the best content, Keep It Simple Stupid XP
"At no point has he ever shown her the least bit of interest because this stump of a character has a one track mind about murdering his former best friend, and yet somehow she has convinced herself that there is no one else for her."
So upon watching this again years later... Are we totally certain that these two aren't just the basis for Sasuke and Sakura?
I mean, Sasuke is based, at least in part, on Hiei from Yu Yu Hakusho
"drop your coat and grab your toes! i'm gonna show you where the wild goose goes!"
best line ever!
"Baby, I'm gonna butter your buns."
When you asked, "why suicidal people?", I thought the answer was going to be that it was less likely people would investigate their disappearances. It seemed obvious and logical, especially compared with what they actually went with.
An anime with two Sasukes would be hell for me.
Yeah! I mean, they don't even have the courtesy to have one of them be voiced by Yuri Lowenthol!
It's hard enough with just one
1:51 "Sometimes beige is the color of the day." That was beautiful, Sage.😢
Is anyone else surprised that he didn't call "Token" "Sakura"?
I mean the utter uselessness in the plot, being an incompetent ninja, falling in love with "Sasuke" while he has never done anything to suggest he likes her.
Huh... Maybe that would have been too on the nose.
eh , token wasn't a selfish sociopath that makes "friendships" only for selfish reasons so she can feed off of them, or threaten her child with violence simply for asking if she was actually sasukes wife
frankly it'd be insULTING token. Sakura is an emotionally, psychologically, and kinda physically abusive.
GamerGirlOfGotham Not that I disagree with you, but when did Sakura make friendships for her own gain?
Not that she wasnt the worst, I just cant think of any of them.
She later abuses her relationship with ino to get what she wants, she pretends to be hinatas friend to push her towards Naruto to get him off her back. She also later, when realizing she was pregnant with aasukes baby, pretended to be friends with Karin so that she could be lead to safety. Later even covering up a picture with karin and sasuke, covering karin with a picture of herself and actually saying "she must never know about that woman" or something to that effect
OH yeah. Actually, now that I think about it, what was the point of Sakura not being honest with Salad, not answering the question, and using a old pic of Sasuke instead of using a new one?
Just checking, this is some crazy naming coincidence, right?
I dont recall any of this stuff happening in Naruto. O.o
Ugh, an anime with 2 Sasukes? 1 Sasuke was already 5 too many.
More like ten too many the dick.
Ah, yes, everybody knows that every good anime has at least -4 Sasukes
It may be the nostalgia glasses but I still love this anime. I feel like its from a time where not everything had to be explained and ex positioned to death. Actions, emotions, and events could happen in away that were understandable and acceptable with some leeway without breaking the narrative or or its fundamental laws. Since we are dealing with ninjas and demons, nothing broke or took me out of the story.
He wouldnt run away from the village because he was trying to figure out what was going on, no matter how crazy it would be to stay there. Spider demons = clues. Explosives in sword hilt? Sounds like a good ninja to me.
Why Token is crying after the ninja that was trying to kill her gets trampled leads me to believe that she loved him but he was too much of a ninja and was following his duty. But, I guess thats subject to interpretation.
My father use to rent anime way back when you had to have a small machine to rewind the video tapes, i remember vague images of Guyver the bioboosted armor, Akira and so forth, ive been searching for this anime for a tleast 18 years or so and i would like to thank you Bennett for finally putting a name and title to old memories.
Won't lie, this is one of my favorite anime movies. It wasn't great, it got boring. But I really enjoyed it. Plus the two songs are freaking awesome.
Glad to see I'm not the only one who loves this OVA. It kind of sucks that Sage just rips apart all the vintage anime I fell in love with as a teen and his viewers just sort of jump the bandwagon in agreeing how terrible it is. While I'm glad I found his channel, I really can't agree with him on most of his reviews. I honestly think it's a cultural/generational thing. I'm guessing he's in his 20s and picked up vintage anime as a hobby in adulthood after taking a college film class or something, being super jaded and critical of everything he sees. Kind of a bummer, but oh well. I've seen every anime he's reviewed and then some. Curse of the Yoma is in my top 10, like several other movies he regards as trash.
The counting song is much older than this anime. My wife has never seen this anime but she knew the lyrics to the counting song when I was watching it on my laptop she sang it. Later she said “You know that song is something like... bad luck” lol.
I really like this anime,but then again I've been watching it on VHS, since the mid 90s
I know this is a stretch, but a team-up of Sage and Spoony to tackle the awful Highlander Anime would be INCREDIBLE!
Salokin Sekwah ... there was a highlander anime.. you know for the tiniest of seconds i was happy and then experience and reason came back in a soul crushing wave
SnowCrash ...Its so awful...
Salokin Sekwah oh dear god, i almost forgot that this existed
Salokin Sekwah
How about Sage and Nash? Sage reviews anime and Nash already reviewed Highlander on Here There Be Dragons.
Ikrani I would really love to see maybe Kyle from BHH do something with Sage
Wait..a mere mortal fighting against someone who has abandoned his humanity? If it weren't for the flashback where they were friends...I would've say...I rather watch Jonathan vs Dio all over again.
Cliche ninja fantasy. Awesome old school art and animation. I would rent this from blockbuster for like a month straight. Say what you want, I absolutely loved it.
You've basically done every guilty pleasure old anime I have after this except 'Utena The Movie', 'Bastard', and 'Shamanic Princess'. And when I say Pleasures I mean movies I Torture people with for my pleasure. I do genuinely like most of them though hahaha.
Locaneo All of those titles are awesome. We could be friends. :D
Agreed. Unfortunately, anime mostly exists to convince you to buy the manga, which has never been fully licensed in English. :(
And actually, Shamanic Princess isn't by CLAMP. It was produced by the Princess Project, although the character designer, Atsuko Ishida also did the designs for Magic Knights Rayearth.
***** Yeah...though it's wonderful knowing Dark Schneider's voice actor also voiced Cosmo from Fairly Odd Parents hahahahaha!
Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I associate that style with them so much hahaha. And Rayearth is my favorite anime of all time.
Locaneo lol, sorry, I've never seen the dub. I've always been a sub-only girl.
I only remember Ishida 'cause she also did the C/D for Martian Successor Nadesico, and I love that show. The whole time I watched it, I kept thinking, "Man this looks A LOT like CLAMP." Tonally, the humor is quite different, but it's got the same look for the C/D: lots bright colors, huge eyes, and elaborate hair styles.
Honestly that powder could have been just about anything, when a fine powder floats in the air pretty much the smallest spark that sets off so much as a single particle causes a chain reaction that ignites the other particles so quickly that it causes what is referred to as a dust explosion, but I could just be looking into this too deeply
So, I mean, did we all just gloss over that the guy in this show doesn't wear pants?
The most frustrating thing I found about this anime was they would cut scenes so quick *already noted in the video*...not just that but they would introduce characters like aya and then you don't know her name up until she dies...
I set fire to a school bus full of children to transcend my humanity #no regrets
finding adult anime on direct tv back in the day on starz and encore was a literal gold mine
The scene of Suave clapping makes me laugh my ass off to this day.
Token just Bella Swan dived into a non relationship.
3:01 -
"Here comes Kool-Aid,
here comes Kool-Aid,
I'm gonna blow up the day!"
Was I suppose to sing this to the toon of "Here Comes Santa Claus?"
8:40 clearly, he ignited the bullshit in the air causing a explosion of heat and stupidity.
5:39 hey remember when the jedi council said that Aniken's training might bring great danger to the force and the universe? Ya Im getting some flashbacks of that.
This felt more like a video game plot then an OVA.
I love the sage, he's almost as sexy as suave.... wait....
8:28 it could very well be a type of gun powder.... Ninjas know quite knowledgeable about mixing chemicals and compounds. In fact now that I think about it, their are chemicals on the Periodic table That do then to ignite when introduced to air or moisture....Being out in the middle of the woods, could be one or both. Plus if it was meant to explode and destroy the monster woman it doesn’t seem likely since he in the monster woman are still in one piece. So I’m gonna go with it being more of a flash bomb.
Your horse question is a bit hard to answer. Off hand I'd say yes. A demon horse coming out of the sea to trample people is the kinda thing she wouldn't have covered in ninja training. But this is a world with sea demon horses, and wolf horse centaurs so she just might have.
Token is even worse than Sakura from Naruto because Sakura at least got a bit cool in Shippuden.
I remember how much the trailer stuck with me. When I finally got to watch this, I fell asleep from boredom
Wait so its Sauske and Dio
Gregory Bowman Yes, but Dio done in the worst way possible.
Grantite #NoRegrets
1OOOmbr Oh my GOD! Whoosh, I didn't expect that today. Fuckin' blindsided me with that.
YOU THOUGHT THIS REPLY WOULD BE ABOUT THE VIDEO, BUT NO IT'S ABOUT ME DIO!
+NatsumeHack KONO DIO DA
oh god
This IS a Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura character dynamic.
I remember watching this anime on CZcams and being completely confused.
Soooooo how is it ADV decided to label Blood Reign "essential" when it's so forgettable mere minutes after finishing it? Were they just throwing the title around at the time or what?
How is this a adv essential? I'd hate to know what else they think is essential. I haven't even watched these ovas and I can tell it's an incredibly boring ride.
Because ADV has shit the bed in this "essential" labeling category on several occasions.
Michael McCormick I hate to ask for examples...
***** You really would.
Michael McCormick Its honestly hard for me to find anything good from ADV
this is the first time I caught the jim ross impression at the end. god bless you man. THAT MAN HAD A FAMILYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
"You never went to Castleton!" ... Oops, wrong show.
3:00 Insert Snake Eater reference here.
When I grew up with this, age 9 or so, I always took this as kind of a mood piece or something. Not at all saying I would even KNOW WHAT THAT MEANT back then, but I just remember this weird atmosphere that I liked about it. And coming back today, ehhhh...the atmosphere is there, but how the fuck did I ever stay focused for even a quarter of the OVA?
Ritalin was fucking awesome.
oh wow i found this on Showtime a long time ago staring at the hoarse scene and could never remember the name of it
There's no denying this anime has a boring 'random encounters in an RPG' type plot (if such a word can even be used) like Sage says, with any action driven by our hero simply walking from one point to another meeting and sometimes fighting whatever 'character' crosses his path. I'm surprised Sage didn't comment on the pointless inclusion of Oda Nobunaga in the show - seemingly as though the writers were literally just sitting there ticking off all the boxes of the tropes from other equally less than stellar ninja anime from the period (see Black Lion, Wrath of the Ninja). And yes, Token is a terrible character but then I don't think you can really expect good, fully rounded characters in what's intended as a two episode OVA or least not be frustrated at it. But, especially when compared to some of the competition put out by ADV, I wouldn't write Blood Reign off as completely forgettable - the surreal imagery, the attempt at an understated and mysterious late night atmosphere, and the insane monster designs are certainly something to at least hold on to afterwards. Perhaps it's average in the long run, but Blood Reign is nonetheless a cut above a lot of the titles Sage reviews in terms of memorability simply for these reasons. In terms of atmosphere it's not dissimilar to a later rather obscure anime horror/mystery series named Requiem from the Darkness.
You certainly don't feel like you've wasted your time by watching Blood Reign like you do with say, Wild Cardz or Ninja Cadets.
If you want an answer to the exploding witch woman Sage my best bet would be that it's a variation of gunpowder designed to ignite in the air when exposed to a spark of some sort but, I seriously doubt if it would work like it did in the anime. However, there was an incident in Taiwan where some colored powder ignited in the air during a rave so it could work along those principles.
Olddog Also I'm sorry if this theory is to long but, I felt like I had to answer this for some reason.
Holy shit! Ive been looking for this one for years! I remember seeing it on tv in 2002! I just couldn't remember the name! Of course i forgot because it shares a name with that game series! Thanks dude!
I love the soundtrack of this OVA.
I suppose different versions of this anime vary in quality, I only remember this being very good, and me watching it very often. I'm not just saying it because if nostalgia factors but I genuinely liked this ova.
***** I watched this just recently and for the type of piece this anime was it's was pretty good. It does feel like Sage didn't really watch this because he miss presents more than one thing about and some of what he complains about comes out as nitpicky. Of course some of the criticism he made were valid but this is easily one of his worst "reviews".
Antti Saavalainen Yeah I have to agree, I don't feel like that was an accurate representation of this OVA. It does have plot holes and things wrong with it, but at the same time, it has very moving parts, at least for me, like the whole reincarnation at the end, and MC fighting his childhood best friend, and it's genuinely hard for him, that's why he's all "emo" not just for the sake of it, but because he truly feels this way.
***** Good points all. This is just a case of "not for everyone" when you get down to it. The horror elements of this story were pretty much glossed over by Sage. But like most all things, horror is subjective.
yes, it's "to each their own" I respect his opinion, even though I don't completely agree with it :)
It is very good. He's just hyper critical and jaded and rips into vintage anime because he probably machine-gunned watching them in his adulthood and a lot of them lost the subtle impact they would have otherwise had. Compare that with someone who was a teenager when these anime came out and anime was hard to find, stuff like this was gold. The generational context is what defines his taste, but his taste in the case of many of these classics is just poor, IMO.
I would say the reason why "token girl" was crying despite being a ninja could be linked to some deeper emotional connection between the characters, sure, since it's never explain or shown it just comes as something completely out of character for this so called "ninja", but then again, since you are reading so much into it, you may as well go to the conclusion that this "love" thing is most likely why she keeps on traveling with sasuke, then again, that just rises the question, does she "fall in love" with the first man she sees after a traveling with him for a while ?. Or maybe i'm just trying to read too much into this shitty anime.
Also used to see this when Encore Action channel had anime and also had real commercials along with it. Early anime came a long way. I'm not kidding this was in the early 2000's. Since this wouldn't happen today and commercials are to cheap now to even be believed.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you...
_Fist of the Star Chosen Completely Arbitrarily Without Any Association With A Cardinal Direction_
1:35 Omg, that stare is so creepy. Those empty doll eyes that stare into nothingness....*shivers*
Woah, got the upload before it was a month old this time! Nice!
Hmm.......That Lord of the Ring Plotpoint always baffled me...........I guess even Sage can teach you a thing or two
Your trippin.. one of my favorite 90s anime
Can you please review more shoujo anime? I love your show and watch it regardless of whether I'm familiar with the show or not. But I avoided these generic and dull shounen titles like the plague. Shoujo anime is the reason I went from being a casual viewer to an otaku. I'd love to see an episode on Shamanic Princess or Magic User's Club. And on the god-awful end of the spectrum, Wedding fucking Peach.
***** I tried watching this show once and couldn't get pass the 20 minute markXD As for Wedding Peach...I watched it long ago and just couldn't figure out what to think of that shitXD
I owned two fansubbed VHS tapes of Wedding Peach with four episodes each, and I think I was able to get through two and a half, maybe three episodes before my brain cells started screaming for mercy.
I was really into magical girl shows at the time and had watched some really great ones. The unfortunately still unlicensed Hime-chan's Ribbon and Nurse Angel Ririko SOS come to mind as examples. Both very silly concepts that managed to really make you care about the characters and take their stories seriously, while still have fun with the whole thing.
There's some bad magical girl stuff out there, of course, but at that point, everything I'd seen varied from good to great. Worst comes to worst, I figured Wedding Peach would just be a sub-par Sailor Moon ripoff, which it is, but it's also so incredibly dumb. I was bewildered to hear it got licensed
+Jennifer Nichole Yeah but if you've seen one or two of Sage's past reviews then he's really not much into the cute stuff. I think it literally kills him inside to watch cute, adorable crap. XD
I'm not asking him to become a fan; I just want him to broaden the categories of anime he reviews on his comedy anime review show. I realize the visuals are really important to Sage, but he's leaving a ton of potential material on the table just because "kawaii" is not his preferred art style. The CLAMP-style character designs should never prevent someone from the action-packed awesomeness that is Shamanic Princess.
Also, while his reviews of bad anime are hilarious, his reviews of boring anime are significantly less so. I'd rather watch his choke down a few doses of a "kawaii" show that's interesting than watch him struggle to find something interesting to say about a safe seinen title.
I agree, blunt critizism on cutesy things is always hilarious
I feel like this anime tried to be berserk with ninjas and failed miserably
HornHero It came out far before berzerk you idiot.
@@davidb8831 Before. After.
Shame it _still_ didn't work.
"At no point has he ever shown her the least bit of interest because this stump of a character has a one-track mind about murdering his former best friend and yet somehow she has convinced herself that there is no one else for her" that's almost a point for point description of Sakura Haruno
5:50 Good point there.
Y'know funny enough I do remember this one. At first you were pulling out shlock I never even heard of, but these days? Hot damn lately you've been reviewing a lot of obscure anime I actually saw XD.
I wonder if you'll do a review of Black Lion, where this one samurai is resurrected as a killer cyborg by a version of Nobunaga in league with space aliens.
What...The...actual...fu-
That... sounds... AWESOME!
But I bet they'll f!ck it up...
I forgot about that scene in the Lord of the Rings with Galadriel. There was a similar echoing line with Celebrimbor in Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor where he says "All shall fear me, and rejoice". Interesting.
Welcome to the Under 301+ Club, how tough are ya?
***** How tough am I? I watched Violence Jack all the way through... and had a fun time watching it.
***** How tough am I? I made it through Love Hina Again...twice.
***** How tough am I? How tough am I?! I'm so tough, I'm in a club that doesn't exist anymore! But I still do.
Snake Eater joke? Fucking love this channel.
That first episode felt like the Live Action Kamui movie.
Wow wow, was that a Saber Marionette DVD behind you? * gets on her knees and prays* please god, let Sage do a review
#NoRegrets
#NoRegerts
#NoRagrets
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_explosion
Basically most likely its a dust explosion, mix some powdered metal add a spark and whoosh
Ah, Blood Reign. Contrary to what you posit in the video Sage, I actually DO remember this anime well and have fond feelings for it, if only because I thought its trailer on the Evangelion VHS tapes was really cool, back when it was titled Curse of the Undead: Youma (still love that Youma Counting Song!) I think that's probably the best way to view it actually, in AMV form.
Apparently this OVA was based on a one-volume manga serialized in Ribon Original. Which is a manga anthology magazine for little girls. Huh.
Curse of the Yoma is in my top 10 anime of all time. I really love it for its surreal and beautiful tone, the stillness of many scenes, the subtle flashes of things that play tricks on your eyes, the haunting soundtrack, the bizarre atmosphere... It's really an acquired taste I'm sure, but I think Sage is just too young to have really experienced this film and other classics at an age where they would have had a greater impact on his psyche.
@@phubans I love me some ridiculous ninja stuff, I unironically enjoyed the sheer WTFness of a lot of things, but having watched Curse of the Yoma without a shitty english dub in the way, I am absolutely bewildered that THIS is in a top 10 for someone. It ought to be the trope codifier for "It's So Okay It's Average". There's some great moments, there's some bad moments, but overall it just kind of all balances together into something that I'd recommend watching on a rainy day, but not go absolutely out of your way to check out RIGHT NOW.
It's very pretty though. Kind of striking a rare balance between shonen and shojo genres without hitting either ugly extreme. Now if only I hadn't read Basilisk before learning this exists, because that had a way better love interest failing at being a ninja and crying sadly and spoiled me a bit with non-combattant love interest protagonists.
review appleseed and dirty pair
If you're Doctor Who, then the best day is usually followed by the worst. Earthshock ---> Time Flight, The Caves of Androzani ---> Twin Dilemma, Trial of a time Lord ----> Time and the Rani, Parting of the Ways ----> The Tennant Era, Heaven Sent ----> Hell Bent.
Schrodinger's plot there is both action and inaction and you won't know which until the credits open.
you know you should squeeze in a "Spiiideeers" cameo from doug walker
lol, that Last scene after the credits got me
The only thing i can remember about this anime was the man eating horse and that just funny fucking Demon tree that just screams out gibberish and that shit made me burst out in laughter every fucking time.
Clearly, the exploding Ninjas were Foot Clan ancestors.
I'm in tears from the MGS3 reference!
...and again for the Thriller reference
I actually really liked this anime
The only thing I found interesting about this anime, is that it uses a variant of a poem, said to be written by an actual ninja from feudal times, as it's opening theme song. I think the credits mention a studio songwriter. But they would be more like an interpreter, who took certain liberties. The original poem speaks somewhat conceptually, so interpretation or elaboration is fine. I'd hardly call that plagiarism. In any case, it's a grim tune from several hundred years ago. The author and her companion were supposed to have had tragic lives, in the extreme. THAT story would make a great premise to a feudal/horror-themed anime.. Unlike this one! D:
That clap though! That was fucking hilarious
So, I was watching this but not looking at the screen. And then, the dumb line where "Sasuke" says the girl cries too much happened, and I just blurted out "Fuck you" in response and then wondered what the silence was for immediately following it, came back, and there was Sage flipping this turd nugget of a finale off. Good man Sage, good man.
Playing metal gear solid 3 for the first time, I now get the cobra unit joke lol
I remember when I bought this anime on VHS, and like you said its not bad nor good, its just forgettable....cause I sure didn't remember what it was about, but it's title is unforgettable
And I remember the title being, Curse of the Undead Yoma, Blood Reign I think was added later.
you see sasuke had samurai skills equips so he was able to special powers through his blade
***** That's not "samurai skills", that's filtering his Lightning Style through the blade. It literally just takes concentration for him to do it.
*****
i was making a reference to final fantasy tactics, i didn't actually mean it
i rented this on vhs before blockbuster came around.
i thought that token was saying if he dies the world will end and she will be put through all that shit
Sage pulling a JR just made my day. I needed this. XD
vegeto247 JR?
Shinbu1128
Jim Ross, Wrestling Hall of Fame Play by Play Commentator.
vegeto247 Ah, I see. Thanks.
You ever going to review 'violence jack'?
It's funny, I thought I had seen this anime before and I was right. I saw this anime years ago and the only part of it that stuck with me was the part where they find the woman on the side of the road dead with the baby still attached at the umbilical cord. Other than that I completely forgot this anime entirely.
That is exactly the only part I remember too.
OMG! YES! Burn Up W is awesome! I can't wait to see that review.
This was a nice review.
Huh, Token sounds just like a certain pink-haired annoyance who ALSO convinced herself she couldn't live without "her man".
"Child of the ground."
Given the spider thing, I think maybe the better translation was "child of the earth." I think it's referencing the Tsuchigumo, or "earth spiders," of folklore. Maybe? Kinda hard to tell.
14:35 Simple: Have things happen, but not to the main characters/anything important.
The easiest way to put this is in terms of a Tabletop RPG. Imagine a GM making a bunch of NPCs, and having them do everything without giving the players any chance to effect the world or plot at large. The player's are just along for the ride that the NPCs are dragging them on.
Things do happen, but they happen to the NPCs, the people the story isn't supposed to be about. However, nothing is happening to the PCs, the ones the story should be about.
Things are happening, yet nothing is happening.
What's that anime at 25 secs where she's running his crotch ???
+Skeith0X The title of this anime is Mamono Hunter Yohko (aka Yohko Devil Hunter) but maybe you already found out by yourself ... ^-^ Sorry for the engrish !
@4:48, that's Hisako from KI before she died
why didn't you insert that end tidbit in to the review? You love wrestling.
Do you always watch the dub? I know often the dub version can be a bit different from sub. It can break moments
Sorry but I actually liked this anime. It's not Ninja Scroll good but I liked the reincarnation aspects all the different bits and pieces in this movie. But then again your commentary does hit the nail on the head too.
aww sage you're gonna review burn up W? I liked that one....though the fact they don't have a proper ending for it pisses me off, though the sequel series was supposedly following on from that despite some inconsistencies (like, I'm PRETTY sure the virtual drug doesn't come up at all in the sequel despite being the main focus on the villain's plot)
10:45
Girl: "A horse?"
Sasuke-er: "It's an illusion."
10: 54 - 10:58
An illusion that can kill people?
Next you'll be saying the monster on the tv screen isn't real but then the monster eats the viewer's face.
Is there a blood rayne anime? I feel like that series would really work as an anime.
***** I'd love to see you take a look at 801st Airbats some time. It's really quite an amusing, if simply premised anime. But as the saying goes, for the best content, Keep It Simple Stupid XP
Watching this anime is like listening to The Burning World by Swans.
that show with the red head. ive seen it before but i cant for the life of me remember its name