Forum - View topicREVIEW: El Cazador de la Bruja DVD Part 1
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Andrez
 Posts: 67 Location: Tokyo |
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Dunno if this helps add a little depth to arguments either way - but here's the story I did for Flash in Japan in Anime Insider magazine back in 2007, around the time the series was released in Japan; for it I interviewed the show's director, Koichi Mashimo:
MAIN STORY While the title of El Cazador de la Bruja (The Witch Hunter) may make it sound like yet another supernatural or medieval romp, it is in fact - above all else - a road movie, at least according to the series’ director, Koichi Mashimo. The highly respected helmsman of previous pearlers, like most of the .hack outings, Madlax, Noir, and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, is adamant at least on this point, and drove the notion home in a recent drive-by with Anime Insider. “It’s a road movie-style story in which two girls, Ellis - a target of bounty hunters - and Nadie - a bounty hunter - join hands for some reason, and then head south,” he relates. But don’t think this is just any old Midwest American road movie – after all, this is anime, and it’s been steered by renowned Japanese animation company Bee Train… the people responsible for another tarmac-based title, Immortal Grand Prix. It’s also set way deeper than the Deep South. Ellis is an amnesiac on the lam, accused of a murder she can’t recall and possessed of an array of unusual powers, pursued by relentless bounty hunters, until one of these – the feisty, self-assured Nadie – tracks her down in a dusty, possibly Mexican township. Instead of turning in the girl for the reward ducats, Nadie instead joins Ellis in her flight south, to uncover clues about her past. Mashimo believes that the locale, the character-driven plot, and the quirks in the style of the unfolding tale are the real strengths here. “The story itself is serious, but this time I took in a more cheerful angle, with a consciously light and easy sense of taste, in order to avoid too much doom or gloom,” he explains. “Putting a little gag into a serious scene – such as Ellis’s innocent regular line, ‘Yes, sir’ - are a different approach from my previous two projects, Noir and Madlax. And setting the story in Latin America, which is unusual for anime, also creates a more open atmosphere than the previous two series.” While the series continues Mashimo’s penchant for gals with guns, even stronger character development is part of a newly baked approach here, taken in tandem with his co-driver, writer Kenichi Kanemaki (Hell Girl). “I think that Nadie’s character – that of apparently being an ace gunslinger, but in fact also having another side as a silly soul who pushes her luck - plays a big part in the outcome of this story,” he muses. The same goes for Nadie’s erstwhile sidekick, Ellis, in an excellent yarn in which nothing is quite what it seems. “In Ellis’s background, there’s a big secret about her birth,” Mashimo says. “That secret relates to a key person in the large-scale Project Leviathan plot - and the friendship between the two girls undercuts the suspense surrounding the mystery of that project. “Another key point is that the two heroines don’t actively clear up the mystery very well, and they don’t seem to care! Although they hook up for their own purposes at first, they unexpectedly get along with each other and start to think that it would be pretty nice to continue traveling together - so they enjoy their journey itself, without hurrying forward at all. I think this carefree abandon reflects the Latin setting.” Femmes and firearms aside, Mashimo sees a direct path between El Cazador de la Bruja and his previous series, Noir and Madlax, in part because of the principle producer he worked with in all three. “I discussed the project with producer Shigeru Kitayama, of Victor Entertainment, who worked on the other two titles with me, and we drew up this project based on his draft,” he recounts. The director says he can’t single out one individual character for praise – “I love all of them,” he warmly declares – but he is forthcoming when it comes to his favored snack food consumption during (and after) the creative process. “I often drink coffee, but I hardly eat anything during work - because eating slows the tempo down. Still, I like potatoes, so there’s nothing better than drinking beer with French fries after a hard day’s work.” 
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