Forum - View topicBusou Renkin (TV).
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11293 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Busou Renkin (TV) Genres: action, drama, magic Themes: alchemy, Homunculi, superpowers Plot Summary: One night, Kazuki Muto jumps in to try to save what he thinks is a girl in distress from a monster and instead gets impaled through the heart. The girl, Tokiko, is actually an alchemic warrior with a Busou Renkin, name of Valkerie Skirt, with the mission to exterminate Homunculi. She implants the only other successful work of alchemy than the Homunculus, the Kakugane, to take the place of Kazuki's heart. The Kakugane resonates with his fighting spirit and forms a Busou Renkin (in his case a spear) so he can fight the Homunculus monsters who prey on humans. Kazuki joins with Tokiko to battle with the Homunculi and protect his friends and his sister Mahiro. ---------------------------------- Haven't read the manga yet, but I figure there probably aren't many people who know about this anyway so I put "-the anime" in their just to let everyone know that there is one. And so, I'm checking this out because it's by Nobuhiro Watsuki, the creator of Rurouni Kenshin for those who don't know the name by now... After one episode, I think it's Decent and can turn out to be a pretty good shounen series. The thing that bugs me, though, is a thread I saw about the content; more specifically, the concept of alchemy. By the way, Busou Renkin roughly translates to "Arms/Armored Alchemy" (arms/armored in the sense of weaponry, I think). Yes, I have seen roughly half of Fullmetal Alchemist on Cartoon Network. And I have all the DVDs for the TV series now, but refuse to watch them until I get my LE movie, which will not be for another month thanks to FUNimation's unexplained release delay... In any case, I believe abunai as well as others users mentioned that the idea of alchemy, science, and the supernatural have been present well before FA (not "FMA" since "Fullmetal" is one word, for those of you who keep butchering it). I can't say I've seen it present in anime or manga (especially manga, since I haven't read much of it). But the controversy has arisen now that you have this franchise that started manga serialization about one year after FA started and 3 years after the anime. I haven't had much exposure to either of these two titles in either form (it's been a while since I saw FA the anime), but I just don't want to see a ruckus if people say BR is ripping off of FA. Anyway, getting to the anime itself, BR feels typical in its setup of introducing characters, encountering some adversity, then easily overcoming it in expecatations for their new adventure to start. Seeing as how the Encyc. entry for the manga says it's only 10 volumes right now, 26 episodes sounds like a good length to produce a potentially solid production. From what I've seen so far, the artwork and animation are very clean. It's been a while since I've seen anything from Xebec, and I couldn't even tell it was them until I looked at the credits. Characters aren't horridly too moe or lolita like what I feel like I'm seeing in everything else. Colors and lighting are well toned, yet not too bright or dark. And there's not too much bad/blocky CG or overly vibrant digital painting. Music is a nice mix of synth, trumpet, and strings. If anyone is familiar with Kouhei Tanaka's work in G Gundam or Gate Keepers you'll find the score to be well balanced for the action and comedy scenes. Plot/characters seem a bit generic, but like I said it's just the first episode. However, if there's anything I've come to love about Watsuki's only other work that I practically worship, it's that he really knows how to tie his characters into the theme or story he's written over a period of time. The only thing I don't like is some of the "first person" comedy you get when Kazuki puts his face in front of the camera like he's talking to the viewers. Although, if I understand Watsuki like I think I do from all of his comments in the Kenshin manga, they might just be doing it for the sake of how he, Watsuki, presented himself or the manga in its original form. Voice acting is pretty good. They've got a nice cast of seiyuu from Jun Fukuyama (Albert in Gankutsuou), Ryouka Yuzuki (Arashi from X (TV)), and Aya Hirano (Haruhi Suzumiya from the self named show). I'm hoping this series gets a little buzz now that I've gone to the trouble of typing all of this, and I apologize for yet another long post. Please give the series a try, at least for Watsuki's sake, as I know I'm not the only Kenshin fan around  .
EDIT: Added the Encyc. entry. Last edited by Tony K. on Tue Jul 08, 2014 2:40 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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ryusaki
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Ah,Tony your not the only Kenshin fan around. And alot of people who I've talk to who has read the manga say "no way shape or form besides the mention of alchemy is it like Fullmetal Alchemist." Let it be I have the first volume of the manga and I plan on picking the second up soon. I ofcourse have watched the first episode. It was pretty well done. Though at first people will say it reminds them of Bleach. Boy meets girl shonen jump series. Ha I agree,Give Watsuki a chance!
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selenta
Subscriber Posts: 1774 Location: Seattle, WA |
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I skimmed through the episode, watching a few scenes, looked like a POS. I deleted it immediately, I had better things to watch. But, I didn't know it was from the guy who wrote Kenshin, and if Tony likes it~... I guess I'll download it again and watch it if someone else also has seen the first episode and thinks it looks decent. 
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Animefreak6969
 Posts: 587 |
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I just finished the 1st episode of this and for the most part it was pretty good, the whole beginning i found pretty funny and i LOVE the girls uniforms. However although it was all funny it also kept the sense of "mystery" and seriousness to it, although it felt all to familiar of a show, like I've seen quite a few shows that start basically like this before.
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11293 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Wow, I can't believe I didn't get that. It's essentially the exact same, now that I think about it, only in a different order: spoiler[ Boy gets killed trying to save someone, that someone revives him, though in this case through alchemy. And with that revival, he gains new power, sees his loved one (sister) in harm's way, uses the newly aquired power to save her, then decides to take an adventure with that someone to take more responsibility with that power.]
Now, now. No need to force yourself. I say I like it only because I'm able to find a lot of positives in most shounen series I watch. The theme is always simple and there usually appears to be some kind of formula, both of which might make it seem predictable. But for me, it's always about the characters in this type of series and how they reinforce the themes of your typical shounen title or just how good the story might turn out. Not all people like shounen, but it's easy to see how influential and popular they can be if they're produced well. Again, it's only one episode, and the first one or two are just about always for character and plot introduction. Heck, I even enjoy stuff like Angel Links, Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture, and Gate Keepers, yet they're not even that well recieved in general from shounen fans of the anime community (from my experience). Then again, the fact that Watsuki is behind its creation could just be my Kenshin bias trying to stick up for him. Until I see more of the anime or start reading the manga, I can't say for sure, but I do have faith in his work and the anime production staff for now  .
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Animefreak6969
Posts: 587 |
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Well I Love Fatal Fury the Motion Picture AND Gatekeepers but like Tony said they're not well recieved in the Shounen anime community so that might be why i have a more open positive view of these
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ryusaki
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True True, but alot of series sometimes have a familiar start yet right after that they are very different. |
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ryusaki
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Hmm... well eh.. even when i think about it a bit more there are more similarities between the two. spoiler[Much like the 13 Protection Squads,there is the "Alchemy Warriors, in which the group Tokiko is with. ,besides that How Ichigo becomes a Shinigami Rep.,Kazuki becomes a Alchemy Warrior,though from what i know I'd guess a full member.] There are also alot of Kenshin refrences from what i know,which I love. |
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Animefreak6969
Posts: 587 |
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Thats true, im just gonna keep with it and watch, especially since you said there is a lot of Kenshin references. |
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Ohoni
Posts: 3421 |
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I really enjoy Buso Renkin, but it does tend to borrow heavilly from other sources. I would say it's more of a Bleach clone than an FMA clone (or HnRS clone if one wants to get snooty about it), since Tokiko is very similar to Rukia, as is the way she distributes power to Kazuki, and the early enemies all look like they're straight out of Rockman X. It's still a fun series in its own right though, and well worth checking out.
I especially love that, according to Nobuhiro Watsuki, his inspiration for Kazuki's "lance" weapon was the movie A Knight's Tale, starring Heath Ledger. |
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GoodLuckSaturday
 Posts: 567 Location: Indiana |
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At lot of the quirkiness with the Mudo siblings is in that Watsuki said in the manga that he wanted to portray Buso Renkin with lots of comedy, which would explain a lot of what the deal with Kazuki's screen poses and self assumed awesome moments are. Personally, I was pleased with the first episode. The Valkyrie Skirt looks pretty awesome animated, and there seems to be a good balance of the life moments and action moments right now to keep me entertained. I don't think anyone should expect a revolution in shonen anime with this one, but having more Watsuki stories animated is good enough for me. |
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godakame
 Posts: 112 Location: Disney World |
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I tend to get unconsciously defensive as well when people start bad mouthing the creator of Kenshin. But after reading Busou...well I wouldn't mind if the anime diverged from the manga a bit. The manga starts out fine, but just nosedives shortly afterwards (I never finished the manga); which might explain why it got canceled in Japan. The only good thing he has produced was Kenshin. My faith in Watsuki has been faltering of as late. That is until I read some of his more recent stuff. The stuff he is trying to get serialized now; it's a lot more bloody and violent than what Watsuki has produced in the past, or your standard shonen fare. Well anyways, I'm hoping for it to get serialized. He has got this legless girl as (maybe) one of his supporting cast, and I got a thing for dismembered girls. Uh...that makes me sound like some serial killer, doesn't it  ?
Nonetheless, an enjoyable first episode. |
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ManSlayer07
Posts: 214 |
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The first episode of BR was typical shonen far as everyone has mentioned. I originally wasn't going to check it out but did anyway. It was decent but felt too much like the first episode of Bleach.
But I guess most shonen anime start off similiar...
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tebalith
Posts: 134 |
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I'm not sure she would have much of a role if Embalming was to be serialized... spoiler[considering she died. Granted, this isn't necesarily an obstacle...] And we don't even know who would be the protagonist, and if it even would be anyone from the two oneshots...
Back to Busou Renkin: The yelling of FMA rip-off and Bleach rip-off have been going on for three years, and certainly won't stop. Personally, FMA had not been the first manga where I heard of alchemy (that was Marie & Elie) or homunculi or the philosopher's stone (that was actually Slayers...), so I'm not particularly outraged, especially considering that BR is doing entirely different things with the concept. I suppose we can partly blame Viz, who chose to translate Busou Renkin as "Armored Alchemist" in the Kenshin manga. Which is not just a wrong translation, but also further suggests a similarity to FMA. As for the Bleach similarities... See, I was not reminded of Bleach with the beginning of Busou Renkin. I was reminded of Yuu Yuu Hakusho. even more so of Tokyo Underground. Both more or less use a similar idea, both older than Bleach, as far as I know...? Anybody crying that Bleach ripped them off? No? Well, then be fair and leave BR alone. Shounen manga often use similar plot structures, and if you generalize a story's plot enough, you will ALWAYS find similarities and parallels to other stories, especially in the same genre. And finally: The anime's opening theme is pure love.[/spoiler] |
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SharinganEyes92
 Posts: 816 |
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I just watched the first episode of Buso Renkin, and I have to say that I like how it's going. Sure, it reminds me alot of Bleach, but then again, it is a Shounen, the genre that I love so much. I thought some parts were a tad corny and rushed, but the animation and character designs were nice. I liked the concept on alchemy. It's totally different from Fullmetal Alchemist, from what I can see. Anyway, I'll watch some more episodes to see if they show more promise. I mean, afterall, it was created by Nobuhiro Watsuki, one of my favorite all-time manga-kas.
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