The Anime Blog

It’s really hard to tell an epic story in this medium, anime, in only six episodes; it’s even harder to do it well. Karas is a six episode anime series which strove to tell an age old story of the battle between good and evil and the consequences which happen when the balance between the two is off. Karas not only tried to convey this message, it attempted to cram massive amounts of info and background into a very short series which needed the customary twenty six episodes.

PLot summary

Tokyo’s chosen protector, the Karas known as Otoha, has lost his master, Yurine, to the former Karas turned embittered tyrant, Eko. Otoha had awoken from his coma in the city hospital in order to stop Eko from destroying Otoha’s corporal form. Too late he realized he was not Eko’s target; Yurine was.

Without their Yurine, the Karas of the cities are powerless to transform into their guardian forms. Now Otoha wanders the streets, trying to discover a purpose without his Yurine. In a twist of cruel fate, what little was left to Otoha before his coma was riven from him by his former gang member brothers.

Eko, meanwhile, finally has all the pieces he needs to turn Tokyo into a charnel house, devoid of humans but a haven for demons. Karas is unable to stop Eko as he sacrifices his minions in order to realize his ambitions. Tokyo now becomes a blood drenched battle ground between the now powerless Otoha and the nigh indestructible Eko. But Tokyo chooses its Karas; who will this city now pick as its protector?

review

Readers familiar with this site know how I feel about the previous Karas. To those unfamiliar: Karas: The Prophecy had too much flash and not enough substance. Too little information was given about the Karas and the role they play in protecting various cities. Tidbits were thrown out to the general public, but most people were forced to re-watch the first volume multiple times in order to gain some modicum of understanding. Wikipedia also became a popular source of external information for the series instead of the series itself.

Karas: The Revelation, while being a massive improvement over the first volume, was still lacking major plot points and depth. Otoha had the potential to be a highly sympathetic character, and I began to be drawn to him, but the development fell short. This was aggravating. There were far too many holes in his story, his personality, his background, his role as Karas; the list is long in that regard. Whole episodes should have been devoted to Otoha if the studio wanted to flesh him out. And it felt like the studio actually did want to flesh him out but ran out of time. Instead, we’re given this hollowed out shell of a man who looks fantastic on the surface but is empty on closer inspection.

The same goes for Eko. This guy wants to destroy Tokyo for the countless years of pain he endured as he watched it degrade under his protection. This is a huge plot point but there wasn’t much background on how Eko has attracted demons to his cause or how his Yurine grew so weak or who he was before he was a Karas. Even briefly touching on any of these points would have made Eko more sympathetic which would have added to the story’s overall depth.

As it was, the story felt incomplete and shallow. The Yurine’s control the Karas, but how and why? The city creates the Yurine but how are the Karas chosen? Why is Otoha called “Doctor Karas”? What is a Karas’ duration as protector? All these interesting questions, which viewers ask themselves, add a spark to the series which never developed into a flame. Everything fell short except the visuals and the voice acting.

Karas has some of the absolute best character designs to date. Homura, a Karas visiting Tokyo, takes the cake as the best design in the series. Her armor and Karas persona have a sensuous yet warrior-like feel; the balance between the two is perfect. Even the absolutely laughable Karas-jet planes had great design work. All the Mikura (machine demons) were horrific in appearance and had the desired affect of creeping me the hell out. Both Otoha and Eko were given the super-bishishounen treatment and looked fantastic on the screen. The Yurine are adorable with their glowing hair and cat-girlish mannerisms. Visually, it seems as if nothing was overlooked, with the exception of the editing.

In some scenes, the editing made it confusing as to what was actually happening; is the fight over or did it move somewhere else? Is this a flashback or is a character’s response real time? Did this character die or not? Poor editing made a movie which was already dreadfully confusing, needlessly more so.

Karas: The Revelation was Tatsunoko Production’s 40th Anniversary work. The animation is indeed a celebration of superb craftsmanship, super-detailing, realistic movements, and inspired character designs. “Impressive” is actually too mundane a word to describe the animation. Details abound and the rich palette for the series almost drips from the screen. The story for Karas, however, was the Achille’s Heel for what could have been Tatsunoko Production’s finest work to date.

The English voice cast, though much touted, paled in comparison to the Japanese voice cast. The Japanese voice cast emoted well and blended in beautifully with the visuals. The music suited the animation and was epic to match the high reaching feeling of the anime.

Karas had the potential to be a masterpiece beyond its jaw-dropping visuals. Story, plot, and character development, however, were sacrificed in favor of beautiful animation and inventive character designs. It’s easy to make something look good; it’s much more difficult to develop an anime that will stick with someone long after they forget what the series or movie looked like. Karas was a beautiful anime, but I’ve already forgotten what it was about, if I ever knew to begin with.

out of a possible four gummies.