Gah. I lost my email account, so I had to create a new one. Send the complaints/praise/whatever here: |
Important note: Bandai at some point during the 2001 summer (it was a busy one for me, so not much time for me to keep atop the news) picked up the rights to Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran for U.S. release. I was kind of surprised to learn this, KTR is not like the majority of anime material marketed to us Americans. However, it does make my head spin with thoughts that maybe, just maybe, It might find it's way onto television like other Bandai material has recently. It's probably too Japanese and would be boring for the crucial children demographic. But a fellow can daydream, can't he? I've also found out during the same hectic summer of mine that the show's been fansubbed, I've seen the digisub files before on IRC. But apparently they're not to be found anymore after the move by Bandai America. Kazemakaze Tsukikage Ran is the creation of director Daichi Akitarou (whose other credits include "Jubei-Chan"). Daichi based the concept on the 70's live-action "jidaigeki" samurai tv show "Su-Rounin Tsukikage Hyougo", with the twist being the heroes are now women. (how faithful Kazemakase is to Surounin Hyogo, I do not know, but I would really like to see the original series someday.) The characters are designed by Watanabe Hajime (whose other credits include "Akazukin Cha Cha.") Head animation production studio on the series was studio Madhouse (many, many Americans are quite familiar with their work in "Ninja Scroll"/"Jubei Ninpucho".) Kazemakase (loosely translated as "carried by the wind") is an action-comedy of an episodic nature (which means no extended development of plot and drama). The heroes are Tsukikage Ran, a ronin who swordfights with a calm, commanding mastery (yet downs considerable quantities of sake with much less grace) and NekoTekken no Miao (the title from her "ironfist-cat" martial arts), her comic sidekick from China. The semi-realistic style of animation never lets the stories degenerate into absurdity despite the large amount of (quite funny) humor. The battles are animated with wonderful attention to detail. Ran takes her enemies down with a fluid combination of hand to hand combat and realistic single-swing kenjutsu (that has me constantly rewinding to catch it frame by frame). Miao's Nekotekken fighting is not the typical 100-foot leaping and Hadoken-throwing one would come to expect in anime, either, it's a very realistic yet incredibly fun to watch style that integrates crazy moves like pro-wrestling hurricanranas. Ran's voice role is performed by Yasuhara Reiko, who's work I've heard only in Kazemakase, but I've already fallen in love with. She delivers the lines with a cool seriousness (which I happen to find incredibly sexy ^_^; ) yet is able to skillfully shift to a more comedic mode. Miao is voiced by Okamura Akemi, who acts Miao with a much more stronger and boyish voice than one might expect for a character of her appearance and mannerisms. In my opinion, a good thing. Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran ran from 26 January 2000 to 19 April 2000 on Japanese sattelite channel WOWOW (whose other credits include airing live concerts of Dream Theater [shameless plug]). The series totals 13 episodes (9 of which I've seen as of 10 February.) |
~Since 4 September 2000. |
last update 12 November 2001. |
Important note: Bandai at some point during the 2001 summer (it was a busy one for me, so not much time for me to keep atop the news) picked up the rights to Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran for U.S. release. I was kind of surprised to learn this, KTR is not like the majority of anime material marketed to us Americans. However, it does make my head spin with thoughts that maybe, just maybe, It might find it's way onto television like other Bandai material has recently. It's probably too Japanese and would be boring for the crucial children demographic. But a fellow can daydream, can't he? I've also found out during the same hectic summer of mine that the show's been fansubbed, I've seen the digisub files before on IRC. But apparently they're not to be found anymore after the move by Bandai America. Kazemakaze Tsukikage Ran is the creation of director Daichi Akitarou (whose other credits include "Jubei-Chan"). Daichi based the concept on the 70's live-action "jidaigeki" samurai tv show "Su-Rounin Tsukikage Hyougo", with the twist being the heroes are now women. (how faithful Kazemakase is to Surounin Hyogo, I do not know, but I would really like to see the original series someday.) The characters are designed by Watanabe Hajime (whose other credits include "Akazukin Cha Cha.") Head animation production studio on the series was studio Madhouse (many, many Americans are quite familiar with their work in "Ninja Scroll"/"Jubei Ninpucho".) Kazemakase (loosely translated as "carried by the wind") is an action-comedy of an episodic nature (which means no extended development of plot and drama). The heroes are Tsukikage Ran, a ronin who swordfights with a calm, commanding mastery (yet downs considerable quantities of sake with much less grace) and NekoTekken no Miao (the title from her "ironfist-cat" martial arts), her comic sidekick from China. The semi-realistic style of animation never lets the stories degenerate into absurdity despite the large amount of (quite funny) humor. The battles are animated with wonderful attention to detail. Ran takes her enemies down with a fluid combination of hand to hand combat and realistic single-swing kenjutsu (that has me constantly rewinding to catch it frame by frame). Miao's Nekotekken fighting is not the typical 100-foot leaping and Hadoken-throwing one would come to expect in anime, either, it's a very realistic yet incredibly fun to watch style that integrates crazy moves like pro-wrestling hurricanranas. Ran's voice role is performed by Yasuhara Reiko, who's work I've heard only in Kazemakase, but I've already fallen in love with. She delivers the lines with a cool seriousness (which I happen to find incredibly sexy ^_^; ) yet is able to skillfully shift to a more comedic mode. Miao is voiced by Okamura Akemi, who acts Miao with a much more stronger and boyish voice than one might expect for a character of her appearance and mannerisms. In my opinion, a good thing. Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran ran from 26 January 2000 to 19 April 2000 on Japanese sattelite channel WOWOW (whose other credits include airing live concerts of Dream Theater [shameless plug]). The series totals 13 episodes (9 of which I've seen as of 10 February.) |
Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran |
one fan's humble information page and gallery |
-Carried By The Wind... |
Gah. I lost my email account, so I had to create a new one. Send the complaints/praise/whatever here: |
Webpages (corporate or non-corporate) who have linked me: |
It seems this site is down now. But I'll leave the link in case they come back. |
Corporate site for buying things.I'm glad they have somewhat better banners now. |
( 4 January 2002: updated the email adress.) |
A pretty good review site. |
Read or Die is a better anime than KTR, and my girlfriend's website about ROD is better than this one. |
