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Mirage of Blaze
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Animation - 8.3 |
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Sound - 8.0 |
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Story - 7.7 |
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Character - 7.8 |
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Value - 7.9 |
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Enjoyment - 7.5 |
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Average - 7.8 |
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| Average |
8.0 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| I think with some more episodes (and perhaps a few classes and an interest in feudal Japan), this would be a really great series. It definitely had potential to go on for many more episodes, especially since the source material, a series of novels, is over 40 volumes long.
The highest point of this anime for me was the music. The background music in this series is really lovely, and the VAs are well-chosen for the characters. I wish the matching of the voices to the mouth-flaps could have been more accurate, as this had worse lip-synch than the average anime (in japanese, I mean).
There are lots of characters with long Japanese names, and I'm sure they all have backstories that would help make the story clearer. See it if you really enjoy stories of feudal Japan/samurai and history, as the shounen-ai factor in the series isn't as present as in some similar series.
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| Average |
7.2 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| Mirage of Blaze is one of many examples of how much a story/plot can be badly used or developed. Like many other animes series, this one has one serious flaw: it's too short. 13 episodes are almost always not enough to properly develop a plot and the characters... but if the story is as intricate and complex as Mirage of Blazes' it gets a lot worse. The plot from this series could last for at least 26 episodes without the need for fillers. I dare say it could very well last for 40 episodes. But 26 would be the minimum required to properly (or at least acceptably) develop a plot like the one that is presented to us in only 13... the same goes for the characters.
I actually thought the plot quite good. It wasn't original, but then again what is these days? But the story was creative, complex and had a good combination of action, drama and romance. The thing is they tried to fit such a plot in 13 episodes... and the result was a confusing story, with some parts missing and very little background-story. There were too many names, dates, locations and none of them was properly explained. The viewer is bombarded with a great load of these names, dates, locations and characters without ever managing to retain most of it. Thus most of the story is lost.
Secondly, the characters are not well developed. There is no proper background for any of them, and they all seem to confused most of the time. Some of their attitudes are quite weird... sometimes I went "what was that?" because I simply didn't understand why one character had just acted the way it did.
Thirdly, there are a few minor incongruences... characters that are at one place in the end of an episode, appear in a complete different one in the next... without any kind of explanation. It almost seems like they were doing all those things between episodes that we don't know about.
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| Average |
6.8 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
0 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
| Animation: Good
Sound: I really disliked the OP and ED themes, and that the music is very bad... (I hate rock... -.-)
Story: Very confusing (and if I want the anime to be clearer for myself, I would need to watch it again, but I'm not wasting my time on this anime again) There were too many names involved and did not kept it simple in a short series. Such as what a short story is meant to have. Limited characters, and places (One of them, anywho). Bascially, the anime just kept on shoving your mind with many names that an average person could not keep up. There was a slight shounen-ai in it. During episode 6 or 7, Takaya and Naoe were in the hotel room together as Naoe said something odd to Takaya. That was quite amusing a bit. But I only found that slight amusing throughout the whole series. It was too plain and there's no enjoyment in it for me.
Character: It's good that they limited the main characters to 5 or so. 4 guardians, and 1 school friend of Takaya's. The bad thing is that they added too many locations and too many clan names. That was confusing... (I hate how some subtitles do not translate what some words are when it is stated in romaji).
Enjoyment: hm.. okay I fell asleep many times during this series, what do you think?
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| Average |
8.0 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| I found this story a bit confusing...at first, than I re-watched it. I liked the characters a lot. If I were a less dense of a person, this would probably be an excellent story. It's just I couldn't keep up with the names.
The stories of history from the show, and the idea of everything is awesome, so creative. Although it does remind me a little about Yami No Matsuei, except his has much less humorous scenes.
Um...a lot of people call this a shonen-ai anime. Well when I went to buy more dvds, I asked the guy if he had any new shows that I haven’t seen yet, he gets my Mirage of Blaze. Until the 7th episode...I couldn't call it a shonen-ai anime, they just seam like normal anime guys, smiling and protecting each other. Just as friends, well mostly Naoe did the smiling and the protecting, Takaya was just lost.
I did enjoy the beginning a lot, the humor in it wasn't that bad either...it's the ending I didn't really enjoy. If could of had a much better ending, if they didn’t end the anime so quickly. And I don’t understand the ending that well either, why did Naoe leave Takaya...maybe I wasn't paying attention...oh well. It made me sad.
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| Average |
7.3 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| The shounen-ai aspects of this show are virtually non-existent, so if you're thinking of watching this for that purpose alone, don't bother!
It's more of a supernatural anime, based around reincarnation and spiritual powers.
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| Average |
7.2 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| As an action fan the series was very good. It boasts a good story, good music and nice animation. The only problem is the length. The story has a lot of potential for it to be even better, it was cut short as it could've lasted for a lot more episodes. There were some homosexual tones here but nothing too graphic which made the story a little odd as in to deliberately attempt to make it more than it seems. Other than that this was a great anime which did an intelligent job at combining modern day Japan with the feudal ghosts of the past.
Decent watch!
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| Average |
10.0 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| I love shonen ai and yaoi so this anime kept my atention from the beggining.
Takaya Ougi is a student and his life changes when he sees a girl in flames.
The most strange is that only few people can see that flame, one is his friend Yuzuru.
Then a misterious man appear, Naoe Nobutsuna. Who is he? Why he tries to protect Takaya?
Why does he keep telling Takaya that he's Kagetora-sama, an ancient warlord? Why is Naoe
frightened about his past? What relationship did they have in the past?
A lot of new characters will appear and new plots will be revealed.
I think the most fabulous things about this anime are:
-The magics they use to attack;
-The characters emotions and feelings;
-The excelent voices of the seiyuus (expecially Naoe);
-The links beetween the characters and their past life which made me watch all the anime
a lot of times!
If you like complicated plots and complex bishonens you'll like this anime a lot!
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Yuuto |
(2003-10-11 03:46:54) 2003-10-11 03:02:50 |
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| Average |
10.0 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| Mirage of Blaze always seems to get mentioned alongside Yami no Matsuei, a series that is for some reason always associated with yaoi. Being a straight male, yaoi doesn’t exactly interest me. Still, both series are supposed to be quite good, and so I decided to check out Mirage of Blaze when it came out (the cool box helped my decision ^_^).
First, I should clarify, despite the fact that people seem to classify this series as yaoi, there has been no such content in the first four episodes. There hasn’t even really been any sort of hint at such a thing. The main characters may end up getting involved in some way later, but as of now we have two high school guys that are best friends and a mysterious man that is protecting them.
Takaya and Yuzuru are good friends despite their difference in attitude and personality. Yuzuru is a cheerful and calm guy who has all sorts of girls flocking to him, while Takaya is more aggressive and less inclined to control his temper.
Not long into the first episode, we’re introduced to two new characters standing in front of a shrine. The shrine serves as the grave for Lord Shingen Takeda, a feudal warlord that died in the 1600s. These two new people break the seal on the shrine to allow Takeda’s spirit to escape and take over a new body. Naturally, this body is Yuzuru’s.
Before long Yuzuru starts seeing restless samurai’s spirits roaming about in his room trying to kill him. This is where Naoe (the previously mentioned mysterious man) comes in to save Yuzuru. It turns out that he is one of five people who are continually reincarnated in order to fight the never-ending battle with the restless warriors’ spirits from the era when Takeda was alive. Also, it turns out that Takaya is also one of these reincarnated warriors, but he happens to be the leader of the group.
This web of relationships causes quite a bit of conflict. First, Takaya is very reluctant to believe that he is the reincarnation of anyone, let alone a warlord with such an important place in history. Beyond that, Takaya has to decide whether or not to trust Naoe with Yuzuru’s life and his own.
Also, later in this DVD another emotional conflict comes up for Takaya. After some questioning, he finally understands the nature of his reincarnation. Rather than simply being reincarnated at birth as these people, they are rather the spirits of the dead warriors taking over a new body. The person who existed in their bodies until they took over is basically forced out of that body and their life is ended. On top of that, this would have an impact on the people around them that don’t understand why someone they know and love has suddenly changed into a different person.
All in all, the story for Mirage of Blaze is very interesting. It started off quickly, and set up a lot of conflicts and questions, and was admittedly a bit confusing at first (especially with names). After a few episodes though, the basics start to fall into place and we’re left with a very deep story with a lot of potential. The yaoi thing hasn’t come in, though I can see how it might in the story (they take over a body that is strong, not necessarily the same sex as what they started with). For fans of that sort of thing, you’ll enjoy it because all the guys are the typical Clamp-style pretty guys. For those who’d rather not see such things, it doesn’t seem like it will be too graphic or frequent so it should be safe as well. Besides, the story is really good so far and the animation and music is impressive as well. Definitely recommended ^_^
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| Average |
7.8 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| Yet another "tend to be a shounen ai series" but nice one actually. The story is based on a novel that covers historical facts and all but the anime doesn't cover those aspects at all (Only 13 eps). Aside form that the animation is decent, nice character design with lots of boys for the most wicked fangirls ^_^;
The music is ok I guess, except the opening...argh engrish nooooooo
I watched 7 eps so far then it got licensed :S oh well dvds are on the way tho :)
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| Average |
6.2 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| This is an anime based on a long-running historical novel of the same name with a strong cult following.
Unfortunately, the anime does not inspire similar cult status.
The anime is not bad, but because of the length - 13 episodes, the depth and complexity of the story and its characterization is lost. Focusing on various arcs, the anime for the general viewer will be confusing if the viewer does not have the neccesary background knowledge from the novel.
The confusion tends to make one lose interest in the anime after a few episodes, and this is quite evident by the lack of fansubbing done after ep 6. Seem like even fansubbers had lost interest.
A pity....if only Mirage of Blaze the anime was done properly, it has so much potential.
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