Chrono Crusade

Originally written by Daisuke Moriyama, Chrno Crusade (sometimes translated to Chrono) is an excellent action anime, that is possibly the saddest one I've ever seen. I created this review, because unlike the one other CC review, I've seen the whole thing, and I appreciate it. Sooo, here's my opinion. Story Rosette Christopher, and her little brother, Joshua, two little orphan children, are exploring, when they come across a mysterious cave. Within, a devil named Chrno was living, but the two young children befriend Chrno easily. One day, Joshua is driven insane by the powers he had already had, and the horns on Chrno, given to him by Aion,and puts all the other children of the orphange into a temporal stasis, where they are frozen for four years. Aion than takes Joshua away, as one of the 7 apostiles. Rosette, devestated by the loss of her brother, makes a contract with Chrno. She is given a mysterious time-piece, where when she opens it, Chrno feeds off her soul to gain power. As Rosette and Chrno try to find her brother again, Rosettes life is ticking away from her pack with the devil. Animation There is something I love about this animation, I can' even explain it. Unlike a lot of other action anime, this one does not cut corners with the shakey-screen effect. It's beautifully designed, with vibrant colours, and flows so nicely. I can't even explain it, as I said earlier. The best animation is definitly in the opening sequence, though. Sound Again, I just love the music. It's hard to explain. The ending and opening fit the series so well, it's perfect. The music within the series is awesome, with it fitting every scene perfectly. I especially love one of the songs, that usually occurs after commerical breaks in the first few episodes. It gives off a very mystery/horror sound, which I feel the series has a bit of, deep down. Character I love the characters. All but one. Chrno was my personal favourite. He is a cute little devil, but can change into his awesome true form. He is such a nice little thing, and I can't possibly see anyone not liking him. Rosette, while being a typical annoying female, I still loved. She is emotional, yes, but she's not helpless like so many other leads. For the first few episodes, she is doing the majority of the fighting. Of course, towards the end, she gets a bit helpless, but it's not like she didn't try! I like Azmaria, for some odd reason. Just a cute little girl that admires Rosette. And I swear, that song she sings, I've hear somewhere... J oshua was so adorable as a child, and just cool as a nut-job. Aoin was pretty neat, having more layers than the "I want to destory the world" thing. The only character I wasn't fond of Satella, and it was probably because I watched it in English, and I could barely understand her accent. It hurt. Enjoyment I watched this series in 3 days. I couldn't pull away. When I wasn't watching it, I was thinking about it. I was obsessed. I was Chrno Crusade sick. When I finished it, I cried. The ending was sad, and it was over, so I cried. Than I went to work, and I told everyone about this awesome anime I discovered. I proudly told them all I cried. I hummed the theme, until I went home. I am listening to the theme now. I think that could qualify as I enjoyed greatly. Overall / My Comments / My Feelings I love this series, and I've owned it for 4 days, so far. I am a sad, sad girl. The ending was such a depressingly happy ending, that I cried. Sure, they... umm.. Anyways, I highly recommend this series. I love it for reasons unknown (maybe just Chrno? He is named after a game I love...) but anyways, I suck terribly at explaining the story, but believe me, it was awesome. Awesome, I say. Go out and buy this series, don't just download it. It needs to be enjoyed from your cozy couch, where you can cry into some blankets.

This is a short review. This is basically a very driven girl trying to save her brother from being manipulated by the forces of hell. She is a sister in a branch of a military-church sort of deal, and her best friend is a devil. The plot is very interesting, including the questions towards God's involvement, death, and devils, and you can tell that every episode is somehow relating to the overall picture. My only qualm with this amazing anime would be the accent for the "Jewel Witch" (Satella). Being a German and speaking fluent German, and knowing my parents' accents with English... i'd haveto say that she's actually closer to Transylvania and Hungarian than German. But that's only the English dubbed. I saw the SUBBED version, too, and enjoyed the Japanese actress's pronunciation of most of the German words. STORY- 10 Because of the originality (in a sense) and the religious undertones that make you question things intently, and because the character development is very, very intrepid. This has one of the most meaningful story arcs that i have ever come across. Every single episode means something. Making you empathize with a character, understand them, or even pity them. Even though there are flashback sequences that can sometimes be confusing, as long as you pay to the subbed dates, you will enjoy this series more than any other 24 episode anime, i guarantee it. ART- 10 Beautiful. The action sequences use the "shaky camera" effect, but not to an overdose such as certain animes i have watched. The colors are always fitting for each of the episodes, and the blood is all the more gruesome with the contrast between the scenes SOUND - 8 I LOVED the music. The openings and endings were amazing, i watched each and every one (i usually skip), but the music was captivating and well suited for the genre. The ending theme (for the last ep) was utterly perfect, too. Well-sung. CHARACTER - 9 The contrast of character personalities makes this an a-typical anime. The main protagonist being a female with a very outspoken and agressive personality, the main male protagonist being very drawn back and selfless, and side characters that make you believe that there's either faith in humanity or lose your faith in humanity. The development is amazing too, you see between each episode a character grow stronger, or weaker, and the comparison is there. ENJOYMENT - 10 This is one of those animes you can't stop watching. Just looking at the preview for the next episode makes you want to say "Eh... i'll go to bed at 11:30pm tonight." Then, the next previews make you watch another episode, etc. By the time you've pulled an all-nighter you're still fulfilled and energized to watch the next, and call in a sick day to work. Overall - 10 I have finally completed the entire series, and i have to say, this has the most meaningful ending and perfect flow that makes Chrno Crusade one of the only animes that has PERFECT length and timing. This has amazing art, amazing characters, and an amazing message. One of the things lacking from most anime now is the artistic value and philosophical value. Sure, it's nice to have a good laugh every now and then, but if you're looking for a great series with characters that are funny, deep and intriguing, look no further. Chrno Crusade is a great series. Enjoy! TIP!!!!! I enjoyed watched the subbed versions better, and have all together stopped watching the dubbed versions. There are too many scenes where the laughable accent of Satella has gotten in my way. Though i do love Rosette's dubbed voice, i had to part ways with it.

I was proven wrong again. I am appalled at how much I get wrong impressions, but then again it’s fun to be pleasantly surprised when I find out that the anime I thought was going to be bad, ends up to be something spectacular and memorable. My first impression was that the show is too serious, and since I don’t like serious themes, I probably won’t like it. I was wrong – I LOVE IT! I even overlooked the blasphemy since it rocked. It was funny when it needed to be funny, it was cute when I needed to go “awww…” It had high energywhen I looked for some action. Thank God (no pun intended) my first impression was so wrong. I love the characters. Rosette was cool – she was so brave and a bit inspiring. She didn’t waste her time at all, and she was always trying to help out. Then there’s Chrno. What a cutie. I love how hard he tries to be accepted. The Chrno – Rosette love match was weird at first, because a) Chrno’s a demon. b) The height difference. c) The age difference (Although at first I was going for a Chrno – Azmaria love match.. I have a sick mind, I know). Despite that, it worked out in the end, since their love for each other was at a different level. I also like Azmaria. She’s just so adorable, and so pretty and well designed too. And then there’s Joshua – woah! Hottie alert. Too bad he’s under age and a bit of a retard. The drawing style was ok. It wasn’t bad, it wasn’t great. It was acceptable. There was nothing new about it but it was just alright. Chrno’s design was ok, but something about him wasn’t right. He’s still cute though. The villains looked cool too – they were well designed. Speaking of the villains, generally the fight scenes are ok and actually quite exciting.I like the colors – but sometimes too much blue and brown just sickens me. I know it’s in the 1920s and I guess they didn’t have much color then (Did that last comment make sense at all?) but more or less the colors were balanced. I also like how they used CG effects. It made it look more interesting and modern. It complemented the high energy of the story. The music had a western feel to it, at least for the BGM. That was another reason why I hesitated watching it because I hate western themes. It grew on me after a few episodes since I realized that the music did match the feel of the scenes, and it really improved the scenes. I really like the opening scene too – again, it matched the anime. I think it was called pleasure line or something like that. It was really well made, it even had violins to complement it. The ending song was just touching. It kinda hinted that the series was going to end in a really sad way, but it was still beautiful and delicate (remind me never to use the word delicate again) I am just so happy to have watched a really good anime. I know it isn’t perfect, it’s not as popular as other series out there (And I would personally liked it better with less unecessary fan service - she's a nun you know), but what I got out of it is just so special. It really touched my heart (I’m a sap, I know) and it’s definitely one of my favorites now.

Apart from the few high-tension moments that come in the latter episodes this anime really has nothing that merits recommendation. It's a good enough series to watch if you are bored....or you have the type of job where you could watch this to while away the hours. ART/ANIMATION Art/Animation was done by a big budget company, Gonzo, which usually means there isn't going to be anything lacking by way of animation. I would assume this would be considered a period piece [since it takes place in the 1920s] and as such, a lot of the artistic design was from or inspired from that era: thecars, civilian clothing, scenery and buildings. Movements and high-tension moments, like, car chases and fight scenes were all very smooth and realistic. The only thing I really liked animationwise was the ending sequence. SOUNDS The ending song I really liked it. It was very beautiful and melacholy at the same time. The OP was not to bad either. However Azamaria's singing....tho quite lovely, totally annoyed me for some reason, it just didn't look real or that it would come from her. Why is there an echo coming from her voice like she is singing in a great hall.....eventho she's outside? Other than that I have no complaints, the voice acting was great as was the sound effects. STORY The storyline was not put together well, this could have really been one of those 12 ep. shows. The basic premise of this show is that of a young, reckless and impetuous nun her cute sidekicks, a meek, angelic apostle and a once powerful but now somewhat inhibited demon, go searching for her missing brother battling all sorts of evil along the way.......hilarity supposedly ensues. Yet, I never find this show as funny they maybe wanted it to be and most jokes seem to fall flat and fizzle. With some of the earlier episodes, it was such a yawnfest, at times I found it so boring that I found other projects to do, such as begin writing this review and scrubbing my toilet. It's not as if I was totally lost on what the creators were trying to achieve with this story and the whole church aspect but somehow, in this series, the whole idea/concept of gun-toting nuns and demon-banishing clergymen seem forced or just overall silly with a lot of religious catholic symbolitry being tossed about with no real meaning behind it. It did make for one heckuva battle scene in the later episodes, however. But it just didn't make sense, the story could have been the same...if not better in my opinion if they were regular clerics instead of warrior-nuns. Religious animes are a tricky affair but sometimes they work out really well like for example Trinity Blood or having a rogue monk like Saiyuki's Sanzo, it seemed “believable” or to at least fit neatly within the storyline as opposed to just being thrown into the mix. CHARACTERS I had no particular affinity for any of the characters in this show, which is a rare thing to happen for me, I usually get bonded to at least ONE character very quickly. However with this show, I found these characters so insincere, unreal and even cookie-cutter[ish]. I can't place my finger on one singular reason why they appeared that way to me but one reason could be the randomness of their emotions..... one minute she's teary-eyed then the next minute she's yelling and the scene is supposed to be funny. The Demon-kid seems emotionless for the most part—and I don't think it was supposed to be intentional, and Angel/Apostle-girl seemed too cutesy and 2-Dimentional personalitywise..With Character Design, again nothing too unique and a lot of the clothing of the principal characters seemed out of touch with the times [what grown woman wears a giant yellow bow at the end of her hair?] also modding a nun's gear and habit for battle with humongous splits running down the sides and garters seemed......NOT right. ENJOYMENT I don't know how to feel about this show. I want to say that it was bad....that it sucked and maybe overall it kinda did. However, it does have it's awesome moments like the Demon Battle scene, which was out of this world. But a few good scenes can't carry a show. And there were just too much conflict and contradictions: Biblical facts v. Science Fiction and then you have the past [the 1920s] mixed with futuristic elements. The creators bit off more than they could chew with this story I think or maybe too many random ideas...I'm surprized someone didn't throw in a headless Indian running around with a tomahawk. It isn't something I'd watch again if I had the choice and I can't recommend it without letting the viewer know what they are in for.