Introduction
Kiba (2006) is a 51 episode anime by Madhouse Studios, a fairly large company with an array of works including, Beck, Black Lagoon, Chobits, Death Note, etc. It is a Shounen adventure in a fantasy setting (which is a given considering 90% of all Shounen animes).
Synopsis
The story starts off with the main character, Zed, in an overdeveloped world call Calm. While fleeing the police, he gets transported to a different world. He discovers that he is a Shard Caster and has one of the most powerful spirits in the world. The next 50 episodes are about him travelling through the many lands of this new world, meeting friends, gaining new powers, and a fated reunion and battle with his childhood, Noa, from his home world. Pretty much the storyline of every other Shounen adventure.
Story
Kiba had an interesting premises and certainly one of the reasons I started watching it was due to the interesting synopsis in various anime databases. Problem comes when they start trying to develop the story.
The anime is split into a number of arcs that seem disconnected from each other. In fact the entire storyline feels like the writer went away and wrote some OVA's and then tried to force them together to make some sort of intelligent sense. While each arc does, in some way, progress the story to what should be a climatic resolution to tie the whole series up, that resolution never comes. What you get instead feels like another arc, with half a dozen new character introduced hurriedly and a few action scene to tie up the main story while leaving a dozen unanswered questions. The result is an anime that feels far too long and dragged out especially since there are filler episodes that serve no purpose to either the plot or character development.
Characters
The characters were probably the biggest letdown in this series. All the characters were one dimensional and either underwent radical personality changes or stubbornly refused to change. After watching the series I realised that I didn't find a single character likeable. Well... it's kind of difficult to like a character when she's a cute and benevolent princess one episode and then goes on a murderous rampage of vengeance the next, with little or no reason for such a drastic personality change. I guess the writers seem to think that personality changes is a good form of character develop. I'm not saying they're wrong, but not when you do it to half the cast.
On one hand we have drastic personality changes, on the other we have characters that doesn't change for the entire series. Like the main character Zed, who starts off as a dull, stubborn, simple-minded brat and ends up as a dull, stubborn simple-minded brat. (well, maybe he got a little more stubborn in the end)
Animation
The animation is average. The non action animation is generally good, but considering it's made in 2006, it could've been much better. However, when it comes to the fight scene, the animation doesn't flow nicely at times and some of the large battle scenes involve shaken stills being passed off as animation. For a Shounen that relies heavily on its action sequences, this is a very big let down.
Sound
The OP and ED songs were quite good and Amil Gaoul had a nice accompanying chorus, but that's as far as songs go in this anime, as the rest could easily be attributed to background sounds. The Seiyus in Kiba did a decent job considering the cliched and unimaginative dialogue they had to work with.
This is not child labour. Honest!
Argh, maybe vinegar wasn't a good idea.
Humans come from egg? I missed that one in biology class.
I think a cheeseburger tastes better than this...
But does a cheeseburger give you tits??
Oh look it's Ash Ketchem with a red pokeball!
I choose you! Victreebel!
Shields to full power!
Hmm... maybe we should get a better shield generator...
I'm here for no apparent reason. The writers couldn't come up with anyone else to save you.
Let's take a detour to Ulbacus to kill off a few minor characters we introduced accidentally.
Oh no... we killed off a few too many, so let's bring this guy back with a uber hax spirit for 10 seconds of screen time!
You... want my pokeball?
Zomg! I'm going to be raped by tentacles!
Sunglasses makes me look more gangster.
Who needs sunglasses when you've got red eyes and fangs!
Synopsis
The story starts off with the main character, Zed, in an overdeveloped world call Calm. While fleeing the police, he gets transported to a different world. He discovers that he is a Shard Caster and has one of the most powerful spirits in the world. The next 50 episodes are about him travelling through the many lands of this new world, meeting friends, gaining new powers, and a fated reunion and battle with his childhood, Noa, from his home world. Pretty much the storyline of every other Shounen adventure.
Story
Kiba had an interesting premises and certainly one of the reasons I started watching it was due to the interesting synopsis in various anime databases. Problem comes when they start trying to develop the story.
The anime is split into a number of arcs that seem disconnected from each other. In fact the entire storyline feels like the writer went away and wrote some OVA's and then tried to force them together to make some sort of intelligent sense. While each arc does, in some way, progress the story to what should be a climatic resolution to tie the whole series up, that resolution never comes. What you get instead feels like another arc, with half a dozen new character introduced hurriedly and a few action scene to tie up the main story while leaving a dozen unanswered questions. The result is an anime that feels far too long and dragged out especially since there are filler episodes that serve no purpose to either the plot or character development.
Characters
The characters were probably the biggest letdown in this series. All the characters were one dimensional and either underwent radical personality changes or stubbornly refused to change. After watching the series I realised that I didn't find a single character likeable. Well... it's kind of difficult to like a character when she's a cute and benevolent princess one episode and then goes on a murderous rampage of vengeance the next, with little or no reason for such a drastic personality change. I guess the writers seem to think that personality changes is a good form of character develop. I'm not saying they're wrong, but not when you do it to half the cast.
On one hand we have drastic personality changes, on the other we have characters that doesn't change for the entire series. Like the main character Zed, who starts off as a dull, stubborn, simple-minded brat and ends up as a dull, stubborn simple-minded brat. (well, maybe he got a little more stubborn in the end)
Animation
The animation is average. The non action animation is generally good, but considering it's made in 2006, it could've been much better. However, when it comes to the fight scene, the animation doesn't flow nicely at times and some of the large battle scenes involve shaken stills being passed off as animation. For a Shounen that relies heavily on its action sequences, this is a very big let down.
Sound
The OP and ED songs were quite good and Amil Gaoul had a nice accompanying chorus, but that's as far as songs go in this anime, as the rest could easily be attributed to background sounds. The Seiyus in Kiba did a decent job considering the cliched and unimaginative dialogue they had to work with.
This is not child labour. Honest!
Argh, maybe vinegar wasn't a good idea.
Humans come from egg? I missed that one in biology class.
I think a cheeseburger tastes better than this...
But does a cheeseburger give you tits??
Oh look it's Ash Ketchem with a red pokeball!
I choose you! Victreebel!
Shields to full power!
Hmm... maybe we should get a better shield generator...
I'm here for no apparent reason. The writers couldn't come up with anyone else to save you.
Let's take a detour to Ulbacus to kill off a few minor characters we introduced accidentally.
Oh no... we killed off a few too many, so let's bring this guy back with a uber hax spirit for 10 seconds of screen time!
You... want my pokeball?
Zomg! I'm going to be raped by tentacles!
Sunglasses makes me look more gangster.
Who needs sunglasses when you've got red eyes and fangs!Conclusion
Kiba is a mediocre anime with a sporadic storyline that feels like the writer has just made stuff up as he went along. An ending that leaves numerous unanswered questions together with an unlikeable cast and poorly scripted dialogue, leaves this series with much left to be desired.
Kiba is a mediocre anime with a sporadic storyline that feels like the writer has just made stuff up as he went along. An ending that leaves numerous unanswered questions together with an unlikeable cast and poorly scripted dialogue, leaves this series with much left to be desired.
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