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Kaze No Stigmata Complete Collection
Spanning 4 discs and 24
episodes, Kaze No Stigmata the Complete Series is an exhilarating tale
of murder, mystery and how to fit into one's family when you are very
different.
The world of Kaze no
Stigmata is different from ours, with certain people able to wield the
power of the elements as they wish. The more powerful the family of
element users, the higher their status is in society. The pecking order
of each family is determined by the young having to duel each other
using the family element, with the loser of a bout being evicted from
the their family. It's certainly a lot to take in and as long as you can
forget the lack of morals in this practise, then the rest of the story
falls into place and makes sense.
The hero of the story is
young Kazuma who is exiled from his family when he fights for right of
succession within the family with his second cousin Ayano. The element
that the Kannagi family use is fire and Kazuma is simply no match for
the younger Ayano and forced to leave in disgrace.
The years pass with no
sign of Kazuma and the family business continues as normal until a
string of Kannagi family murders see the return of the young man, whom
the family suspect as being behind the killings. Kazuma has changed a
lot in the time he has been gone and has also developed an ability to
control wind and all things that go with this powerful element. The
Kannagi family, bent on revenge attempt to do away with the innocent
Kazuma, not believing his protests. Eventually he does regain their
trust to an extent and meets Ayano who bested him during the family
duels.
What follows at this
point is a team up between the two and a Kazuma's brother named Ren.
They are determined to solve the mystery of the murders and explore the
potential of fire and wind working together on a common goal. The plot
does take some twists and turns at this point, and multiple leaps of
faith are also required to make it through the series. The show, and
remember we are reviewing a complete 24 episode series here, does follow
the formula of that format so we are following multiple villians almost
on a show by show basis which can be a tad confusing but at the same
time within it's context, adds layers to the story.
This is a storyline that
could have been made a lot tighter and completed in less episodes.
Whilst it is a good way to learn more about just what Kazuma can do with
wind, it drags out certain sequences for a bit longer than they
comfortably should have been. The first dozen episodes in particular
seem to make Kazuma too powerful against all foes, so there was no real
sense of danger when you saw him in combat. That's balanced a bit more
in the latter half of the series, whilst fights involving Ayano and Ren
do contain the potential for bad things to happen to them.
The video quality is not
bad on this series with strong vibrant colours used to good effect. The
illustrations are heavily stylised with mainly strong base type colours
used with little to no gradients. I'm not sure if the source contained
this element, but the image is a tad grainy at times, not to the total
detriment of the video but still affecting my score. Some of the
animation came across as a tad choppy during certain sequences, but once
again certainly nothing to be too upset about. I am a strong believer in
the story should be carrying most of the total score, not
technicalities.
Audio is good on this
production with crisp clear tracks in both English and Japanese. I
usually prefer listening to the language the production was initially
made in, however on this release I found the English dub to give a lot
more to the story than the subtitles did, and finished the story with
English audio.
Special features
included some textless songs and a three part series called Ayano's
House Call: All-You-Can-Eat Cakes Parts 1-3
which did'nt really flesh out the main title at all. They are however
fun 10 minute clips that show our three main characters via a clips done
to look like they are on a promotional tour. The animation has been done
to take on the appearance of a home video.
Kaze No Stigmata is a
good series with lots of potential. Whilst there was a lot of room for
this to be a great tale as opposed to a good one, this was not followed
up. I would still happily recommend the series as worth watching with
good battles and colourful characters. If you are particularly fussy
with your anime then you might wish to rent it out first before
committing your hard earned coin. If you just want a fun ride though,
here are 600 minutes for you! |
