PAN-CHAN'S REVIEWS

WEISS KREUZ
(first anime series subtitled)



[insert SPOILER WARNING here]



RAMBLING
Take Charlie’s Angels, remove the girls, add in cheesy plotlines, a pinch of plot holes, throw in a lot of blood, and you’ve got Weiss Kreuz in a nutshell.

The series revolves are four men that are literally florists by day and assassins by night. If this seems ridiculous to you now, just want. The series starts off with decent episode plotlines involving the destruction of kidnapping rings and the assassination of politicians, but soon degrades into genetic experimentation turning normal people into slimy monsters.

The actual plot in the first half of the series isn’t half-bad. Sure, there are people that turn giant squid men, but every series has its down side. In the first few episodes, we’re introduced to the four main characters and are given hints about their pasts. If there’s one good thing about Weiss Kreuz, it’s the excellent character development. Each of the four main characters have dark and twisted pasts that make them who they are. This helps explain why each of them became a part of Weiss and how each of them came to sell flowers kill people.

The background character building doesn’t end there as people from each of their pasts resurface throughout the series making the plots addictive. I found that I wasn’t watching the series to find out will happen, but what had happened.

Besides the excellent character building, the series doesn’t have all that much. Plots about murdering scientists are boring. Plots about murdering scientists who turn out to be Omi’s older brother are not boring.

I’m pretty sure the end of the series took place when the first half of the series ended in episode fifteen. That’s where the climax is at least. After that point, the plotlines get so blatantly cheesy they probably were written on a napkin at a bar somewhere. The last half of the series deals with a mysterious ritual by an organization known as Estet. This ritual is so mysterious that by the end of the series, most of the main characters aren’t even sure what it’s for.

And did someone say plot holes? Well, this series might as well start labeling them will flashing neon lights. The amount of plot holes is, well, let’s just say that if you were to list them all, you’d turn eighty before you reached the end.

For example, in episode three, Youji gets shot in the stomach while driving a car. Somehow, the bullet magically traveled through the engine and nailed him. Also, watch for the magically appearing clothing. If Weiss is on an undercover mission in civilian clothes, their assassin uniforms will somehow appear on them right before the battle begins. What's more, apparently Aya’s sword has the amazing ability to find him, even when he clearly left it back at the flower shop.

In all fairness, the second half of the series is a bit better dealing with plot holes. In episode seventeen, Omi actually throws Aya his clothes and sword. They don’t explain how he changed in 0.035 seconds, or where his other clothes went, but by that point in the series, I honestly wasn’t expecting to find out.

The cinematography of the series is actually quite interesting. You never know how everyone’s favorite assassins will make their entrance, but you can be sure that it’ll include lots of useless posing and lines such as “Hunters of the light. We hunt the future of the dark beasts. WEISS!”

In all honesty, I found it all really cool. The Weiss poses are things you’d act out on the playground as a kid. (Except they never let me pretend to be an assassin at school. I wonder why.)

The dramatic shots of the boys with their gear ready to attack make the viewer want to be an assassin, or at least dress like one. And it all makes perfect sense until you actually think about it.

The moment you bring logic into the world of animated assassins, you know you have a problem. As for Weiss Kreuz, some of their dramatic entrances not only make no sense, they are physically impossible. Unless you expect me to believe that four guys can fly up to the ceiling just to do dramatic poses, then fly back down before the fighting begins. They also seems to have miraculous ways of getting to top secret locations—even those locations that are hidden out in the middle of nowhere.

Of course. That must be it! I always knew Aya kept a helicopter in his jacket pocket!

Then there are the weapons. What show about pretty boy assassins isn’t complete without weapons? Aya fights with a sword and cuts people into itsy bitsy pieces, Omi shots people with darts and they magically die, Youji strangles people, and Ken scratches his opponents to death with Wolverine-inspired claws. Why don’t they use guns like normal assassins? Wouldn’t that be faster and less messy?

No, they couldn’t use guns. That would make too much sense for a Weiss Kreuz plot line.

As I mentioned before, the character building in this series is exceptional. By the end of the series, you feel like you know each of the four assassins personally. I honestly feel sorry for them. They go through hell and then get sent to work for hell. Some job.

Many of the minor characters don’t get as much attention as they deserve. Because of this, you don’t really care about them after the series is over. Sakura, for example, is a key character, and without her, the ending makes even less sense, but does anyone care what happens to her? No. Not in the slightest. She could be run over by giants cats holding acorn guns and no one would notice. Surprisingly, Sakura isn’t even a disposable character.

There are tons of disposable characters in Weiss Kreuz. As a general rule of thumb, if a new character appears at the beginning of an episode, they’ll probably be dead (or, even better, fatally wounded) by the end of the episode. It’s a good idea not to become too attached to any of the characters in Weiss Kreuz apart from the fab four. Everyone else has a tiny little habit of dying.

The two main groups of villains in Weiss Kreuz don’t get much in the way of character building either. Many of the bad guys and gals from Schwarz and Schreient find themselves in the spotlight for a few minutes here and there, but they are overshadowed by the dream team.

The way women are portrayed in this series is not in any way dignifying. Manx and Burman walk around in miniskirts and the girls from Schreient manage to fight in some of the most revealing outfits that have ever been conceived. Moreover, none of the women can function properly without men at their side. Schreient is fine until Masafumi Takatori dies. After that, they go crazy trying to bring him back from the dead. Manx isn’t any better as she quits her job after Perisha dies.

The only girl with half a backbone is Oka. Of course, she’s killed just when you start to like her.

The animation quality of Weiss Kreuz varies from episode to episode. In some episodes, the animation is gorgeous and vibrant. In others, it’s blatantly obvious that the series was made with a relatively low budget. In some scenes, the animation is so bad that the only way you can tell the members of Weiss apart is by the color of their hair.

Another interesting aspect is that the anime series does not have much in the way of blood. The bad guys are stabbed repeatedly, but no blood comes out. Whether this has to do with the violence on television issue or the really bad animation quality is still unknown.

If the series had better animation, it would do much better than it already has. Unfortunately, many anime fans get annoyed with the crappy animation and never watch Weiss Kreuz past episode three.

As an anime fan myself, I must say that this is one thing about the series that could have been easily remedied. I found that some of the best moments in the series were ruined by animation quality that rivaled graffiti.

The episodes leading up to the last episode included some of the worst animation I’ve ever seen. Thankfully, the last episode had decent animation and made sitting through the pathetic excuse for stick figures worth while.

In contrast, the Weiss Kreuz soundtrack is simply amazing. The unique background music always fits the scene and never feels out of place. Furthermore, the theme songs, sung by Weiss, are wonderful pieces of music. It’s not everyday that the voice of your favorite assassins are also a hit music group.

So what is it about Weiss Kreuz that makes it so popular? With all these problems, where does the appeal come from?

Despite all its shortcomings, Weiss Kreuz is actually a fairly fun series. It’s not something you’ll watch eight hundred times, but it’s something that you’ll enjoy. Even if you’re only laughing at the problems with it, you’re still enjoying yourself.

Weiss Kreuz is actually quite good until you start thinking about things. If you are willing to just sit back and absorb what you’re seeing without thinking about it, you’ll adore this series. After you’ve seen it, you’ll also find out how easy it is to make fun of, but while you’re watching it, you’ll be in heaven.

The majority of Weiss Kreuz fans are female. This is not surprising if you consider that the entire plot revolves around four beautiful young men who go around killing things. But the mindless killing aside, the series is about four attractive men. What more can a teenage girl ask for?

The fandom for Weiss Kreuz is surprisingly gigantic. At anime conventions, you’ll always be able to find someone dressed as their favorite Weiss Kreuz character, and it’s hard to find anime fans that haven’t at least watched an episode of Weiss Kreuz.

Overall, the series has lots of problems and one twisted fandom. However, regardless of all the issues, after you’re done watching the series, you’ll end up wondering what happened to your favorite characters and what they’re doing now. It’s in this way that Weiss Kreuz is immortal—not for the plot lines, or for the animation, but for the characters.

Even if you finished the watching the series months ago, once in a while, you’ll find that your mind will wander back to the world of Weiss, and the four young men you came to love.