Kai Doh Maru

Beautifully produced and interesting concept, but has a lot of faults. PLOT: Allowing 45mins to explore the political intrigues of the Heian period is not nearly enough time and as a result the plot becomes extremely fragmented and disconnected – like a series of short snapshots of Kintoki’s life. The characters are not given enough time to develop so there is no real emotional connection to them and they remain shallow throughout. This is a pity as even in their basic form they do hold promise if only they were given some time to develop. It is confusing, but there is a defined plot here andI did find it interesting. Don’t expect a Samurai action flick from Kai Doh Maru though as its much more about the political background than the action set pieces. ANIMATION: Now this is where the majority of my enjoyment came from. The animation is done in a style I haven’t seen before – almost like an animated scroll painting in its watercolour, pastel glory. Everything is pale coloured with simple lines, but things like trees, leaves and grass are extremely detailed. Character designs are also very simple and quite generic but fit well in this setting. Movement is very natural and fluid – the few action scenes are well choreographed with bright red blood making for a striking contrast to the otherwise pale colour palate. CG rendering is used to great effect as well on things like wagons and falling snow – it’s a very visually attractive piece of animation. MUSIC & VOICE ACTING: Music is done in a period style with a hint of a modern twist – very fitting for this anime. Voice acting is mostly unremarkable, there is not a lot of emotion on display and the seiyuu’s didn’t seem to have much of an emotional tie to their characters. Overall it’s a pretty piece of animation, but they tried to cover way too large of a story in too short a time. Given a bit of extra time Kai Doh Maru could have been excellent, as it is its merely average and confusing.

I watched this to kill 45 minutes and basically that is all this OVA is good for. The art is different than what most are used to, it uses a lot of crosshatching and pale colors but that is also because the setting is feudal Japan when they used a lot of pale colors in their art. The plot is really hard to "get" by just watching the anime, I suggest you find an outline like the one found on Wikipedia and reading along. Don't come in expecting a GREAT anime, its just minimally good for when you're really bored and have nothingbetter to do.

It's nicely made, many nice drawned scenes, but overall - i totally hated, hated, HATED this story. I fell asleep the first 4-5 times i tried to watch it, then i forced myself to complete it. But yeah, it sucks.