Synopsis: Kojirou, the kendo instructor for Muroe High, gets a challenge from his senpai to an all-girl kendo match. If Kojirou wins, he gets a year’s supply of food. With only one active member in the club, the bigger problem is not winning, but rather, to acquire more members.

BAMBOO BLADE 01 – A Broom and the Defender of Justice 「竹ぼうきと正義の味方」

I took a whiff of BAMBOO BLADE as it promised some kendo fun, a few good laughs, wacky sidekicks and a kickass lead. Did it deliver as expected? Well…

Thoughts

The episode opened with Kojirou on the wheel in Initial D-style, blabbering on how he was to make his kendo dream team. Then, the opening theme came up. The music was bland and boring. Was it a sign of things to come? The animation was up to par for the most part. There were some lapses here and there, but we have all seen worse I’m sure.

We were introduced to a slew of characters. Right after the opening, we saw Kirino Chiba, the only active member of the kendo club. In the manga, I perceived her to be a much more cheerful and livelier character. The anime, however, didn’t give her enough crazy pills to let her personality truly shine.

Next, we had Toraji Ishida, usually called Kojirou, the deadbeat kendo instructor who got blinded with a year’s supply of food. He does not really have the pretty boy look going for him and his personality, at least in this episode, does not redeem him at all.

We also have Yuuji Nakada, normal looking high school student, and Danjyuurou Eiga, egghead or Humpty Dumpty, whichever works for you. It didn’t get very interesting till we actually saw Humpty’s sparkling and gorgeous girlfriend, Miyako Miyazaki. The bit about how a couple should balance out was funny. They were debating as to what type of girl would Eiga’s girlfriend be. Kojirou was explaining that a 30-point man should be with a 70-point woman as a 10-point woman should be with a 90-point man.

Finally, we have the star of BAMBOO BLADE, Kawazoe Tamaki, whom we saw whacking high-speed, sports-related projectiles and the vice-principal with her Nimbus 2000 to save Kirino and Kojirou. My only gripe with Tama-chan was her voice. She totally lost a big chunk of her coolness because of her oh-too-sugary voice. A deeper tone would have suited her better, perhaps along the lines of Yuki Nagato or Hotaru Imai.

Having read a good number of chapters of the manga, I really had high expectations for this show. I waited for it to blow me away and make me fall in love with the characters as the manga did, but it never came. At one point, I thought that it never really tried. However, taking a second look at the episode, it was not as bad as I thought. I guess having been able to read the manga hampered my enjoyment. I felt that the introduction of the characters needed more work. Also, the execution of the jokes weren’t as funny as I imagined it to be. As a fan of the manga, I was really disappointed.

We’re still at the first episode though, so I am hoping BB can regain some of its luster in the next episode.

Popularity: 3% [?]

No related posts.