Anime Review: Karas

I hadn’t intended to write a review for this particular DVD, and in fact hadn’t originally sought to watch it at all. However as fate would have it, I was given the opportunity to view this exotically eye-catching anime through a sheer twist of fate, and boredom of myself and a friend.

I had no idea what to expect going into the anime, except that I’d seen commercials for the DVD release on the Sci-Fi channel whilst in-between my bouts of Ani-Monday. (which is, I can only guess, a newer version of the older Saturday Anime the channel used to show) The visuals represented by said commercial were, to say the least, incredibly pretty and were enough to pique my interests. A few weeks later, I manage to get my hands on a friend’s rental copy of the 2-disc feature, and plopped down.

Karas, for those who aren’t familiar, is a sci-fi and action-heavy henshin anime that was released in Japan back in 2005, and only recently made it to the states as an English release in late 2007. Karas tells the tale of a young former Yakuza assassin from a fictional representation of Shinjuku, who after being injured enough that he slipped into a coma, was chosen by the “spirit” of the city to become a Karas – a soul who is the supernatural protector of that city. The city’s former Karas has gone rogue, and it’s up to the current one to figure out what his predecessor is up to before it’s too late.

Sounds simple, right? Yeah, well any good anime fan knows things aren’t ever that easy to figure out right away. And it wasn’t, for me at least. I honestly didn’t get exactly what was going on in the entire film until a little over halfway through, as you’re dumped right in the middle of flashback central for the majority of the first half. It was hard as hell to figure out what exactly was supposed to take place in the present, and what of the numerous cutscenes was meant to represent the past. Trying to wrap my brain around understanding who was who and what was going on, was about as easy to understand as staring into a strobe light: it’s pretty as hell, but you’re going to have to break away for a moment to contemplate what the hell just happened.

You also have to keep on top of at least 3 different stories within the larger plotline. First there’s the story revolving around Otoha, who is the Karas of the present day, who is taking orders from a catgirl called a Yurine with goggles. Yup, there are catgirls, but at least they’re useful catgirls as they represent the “will of the city”. I think that makes them useful anyway. Anyway, Otoha has to deal with being the protector of the city and fight all the nasty mechanized demons called Mikuras that work for the former Karas gone bad. Then there’s the side-story of the humans who are getting caught up in the goings-on of the battles between Karas and the evil spirits, and how things are spilling over into the human world in a X-Files sort of way. Another concurrent story is Eko, who is the former Karas who wishes to purge the city of humans who he thinks are polluting and degrading everything with their selfishness, and Eko’s ex-henchman Nue who now fights on the side of the angels against his former master. Get all that? Neither did I until the end.

One of the recurring themes I enjoyed was the one involving the different yokai that inhabit the city. A theory that has been used in other anime before is that yokai are demons and spirits that are always surrounding humans, but because humans have become disenchanted with the idea of the supernatural and ghost-stories, they can no longer see the yokai, which also weakens the spirits. Due to this, the yokai are given their own choices to make regarding what they wish to do about it: either they can resent humans and side with Eko in his quest to teach humans a lesson, or they can side with Otoka and his Yurine and hold onto meager flickers of hope that things will get better. This is where the Mikura come into play, as we find out they were former yokai who sided with Eko and were in turn mechanized and given more power, but at the cost of constantly desiring the taste of human blood. Nue is a good representation of the tragic nature of this choice, as he began to resent Eko for his plans to punish humans since he found out that if humans die, then the yokai will fade out of existence because there will no longer be any humans who believe in them.

Another theme I thought was interesting is that each city has a Karas, who is created by the will of the city – the Yurine. We see this as a Karas of another city, Homura, is introduced halfway through as a conscientious observer. We also get a glimpse of other Karas of other larger cities around the world with their Yurine. However, that’s all you’re shown. It’s like the writers had a great idea for a character type, then got lazy halfway through and decided they only wanted to explain things so far, so what you get in the end is a tease.

It’s really too bad that an anime like this couldn’t get it’s own series, though that’s probably wise in the long run. If too much is explained, then you begin to run the risk of overusing elements that make that particular anime unique and interesting.

Plus every other anime would feature a supernatural hero who can turn into a plane, a car, and still manage to be a badass swordsman.

All-in-all, I would say that if you’re into action-oriented films that have heavy graphic eye-candy and a confusing yet interesting plot that you’re not afraid to wait for explanations until the end for, then Karas is a solid bet. The combination of 2D and 3D animation in this feature make it very aesthetically pleasing, even when you don’t necessarily know just what’s going on all the time.

Interesting Facts:

– There was a surprising amount of top-name actors who provided voices for the English version of the release. Cree Summers, best known as Elmyra on Tiny Toons and Hyena on Gargoyles did the voice of Yurine. Jay Hernandez from Hostel did the voice of Nue. Matthew Lillard from Scream and Scoobie-Doo did the voice of Eko.

Interested in Picking It Up?
Karas – The Complete Collection