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Witch Hunter Robin DVD 2: Belief
Violence: Some, not graphic
Sex/Nudity: None
Music:
Runtime Episodes: 24/26
Overall Rating: A -
Artwork: B +
Story: B +
Comments: At one point this was be made into a live action movie for the Scifi channel. The opening and closing misic is also quite good.
Voice Acting English: B +
Voice Acting Japanese: A -
Genre: Gothic, powers, police
Extras: STN equipment files, a list of terms used in the DVD, DVD credits, 3 previews, reversible cover (this part is actually creative).



Date Reviewed: 7/3/05 Last Updated: 10/26/09

Basic Premise: A secret branch of the government whose job it is to hunt witches also hires witches. For Robin the ethics of her job begins to trouble her.
Review: Now that Robin has her new glasses she is able to focus on her targets with deadly accuracy and precision.  She is itching to try out her limits that she thought were much more narrow.  Amon, however, is not nearly as happy for her as everyone else is, but as to why he wants her to not explore her fire ability he keeps that to himself like most everything else, but that is his nature.

One very interesting theme in this DVD is that the STN and Robin in particular will have the seeds of doubt planted about the ethics of what they are doing.  Sure they are hunting dangerous witches, but the reason that they are hunting the withches is because they are witches whose powers have begun to manifest.  The witches are criminals to be sure and are usually killers or doing something very illegal, but that is not why they are hunted.  It is because they are witches.  One witch asks her if she is willing to accept that she is a witch and what that means.

That is one of the real gems of this show; the philosophical questions that are asked.  The things is that all of the background music and the way the witches are portrayed show the witches (minus the STN witches) as the bad guys, but if you think about it the morality never adds up quite right.  Other than that the episodes are very engrossing.  The characters are well fleshed out.  It's hard to pick one episode as a favorite, but this volume is well worth picking up.  I will point out teh fourth episode on this disc where more actual witchcraft is used such as doing intricate incantations for astral projection and such.

As I started up this volume I was impressed by a few things.  The English voice actors are really quite good.  It is such a relief to have an anime that is not focused on harem girls, or boobs, or childish melodrama.  This is a serious drama with great character development.  It is interesteing how the artists took on a more dark colors that are also more black and white instead of using vibrant colors.  All of these things complement each other.  I almost forgot to mention that a lot of computer animation is used in this series.  The amazing thing to me is that with Japanese animation computer animation is designed to look like typical drawings or to blend in and in that regard they do a good job.  Look for it and you'll see.

It has been a while since I have watched this series and I find myself eager to see how the upcoming episodes in this series play out.  I remember that some future episodes I wasn't too keen on, but for now I have no complaints and it is such that I am really eager to see what happens next!

Conclusion: This is a more serious anime than is typical.  The creators do a good job of taking the audience seriously.  A lot of effort was put into this show as well and it shows; especially on the american production of the show.  The show does a good job of keeping you interested in the characters.



Publisher: Bandai
Related Website: witchhunteronline
Where Found: amazon, Suncoast
Copyright: 2002/2003
Author: Shukou Murase
If you enjoyed this anime try: None yet.


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