Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Irishchatter I honestly thought this anime was pretty good. I thought involving a young woman (who is the same age as me) who has secret of turning into a badass monster and bringing up a young girl who wasn't even hers, was pretty inspiring. I really did think that Masane was such an incredible character for bringing the child up and fighting to save the world. However in the end, I badly wanted Masane and Rihoko to interact together one last time before they both went their seperate ways. At least Rihoko did have a family who cared for her and loved her just like Masane did.I actually agree with one reviewer here that this deserves a second season like it would be great for Masane and Rihoko to be able to bond again! This deserves a 8/10 rating!

glowhomer This series is on par with HBO's Spawn:Animated series. The story is well told, the relationships of the characters are strong. The central mother/daughter theme is simple, powerful, and elegant. I enjoyed all the characters, and the changes they go through, because of a mother's love. For me, most anime is almost senseless, due to my ignorance of Asian culture. I don't care much for giant robots they crush cities and everybody seems to be fine with it. That silly mech. But the machines in this series are relevant, if cannon fodder. The fights were often anti- climatic, ending too soon in one way or another, but easily over-looked when taken into context. No sex, lots of bulbous bosoms (yay!), not much violence against humans and what little there is, is shown off screen or implied in some way. Anyway, worth watching.

xamtaro *note: I do intend to play the devils advocate here in light of all these positive reviews. I'm just stating how i feel about this series*A co-production between American comic book company "top Cow" and anime company Gonzo, Witchblade is loosely based on the famous supernatural genre graphic novel series of the same name. In retrospect, "loosely" might be giving this series way too much credit. As a whole, "Witchblade" feels like a completely un-related anime series with the "Witchblade" title slapped on it just because it happened to feature a gauntlet-like object that binds to a woman thus granting her supernatural powers while replacing her clothes with an overly skimpy combat outfit. Other than that, it has absolutely NOTHING ELSE in common with the comic book it is based on.Whatever intriguing supernatural detective story or down-to-earth characters that are easy to relate to has been thrown out the window and replaced with cliché upon cliché, staple to many science fiction Japanese anime.Our story is set in future Japan. A couple of years ago, a giant disaster ravaged Tokyo leaving one Masane Amaha and a little girl the only survivors at ground zero. Now Masane and the little girl Rihoko, whom she adopted as her daughter, have returned to Tokyo and get involved in A string of events that culminates in an encounter with a strange and dangerous biomechanical creature leading Masane to discover that the little jewel on her wrist is actually "the witchblade", a legendary artifact. Now Masane has become caught in the middle of a power war between the NSWF organization and the "Douji" group, each with their own bio-engineered super soldiers and each desiring to possess the Witchblade for their own ends.Though the characters are tried and tested stereotypical anime characters, their interactions come across as very genuine. Masane and Rihoko especially play out their mother/daughter roles very realistically, thanks to an excellent voice cast both in the original Japanese and the English dub tracks. Both are extremely likable even though the whole "mature young kid" and "bumbling but kind hearted immature adult" stereotype is nothing new in the world of anime.Sadly after a rather promising first few episodes, the series starts to falter. The subsequent characters introduced to the series tend to be rather one dimensional and set firmly in stereotypical roles of "the tough guy protagonist", "sadistic female assassin", "comedy relief gang" etc. The story pacing also takes a nosedive. It feels like a 12 episode story stretched into 24 episodes. There is a bit of Comedy, but comedy is a good thing when played right, not when it is awkwardly written and badly placed. Awkward also translates to the animation and art style. It would be easy to criticize this show's overly sexualized portrayal of Masane and the other "clone-blade" users. On almost every young adult female character, it is either the butt or the.....chest or both that is disproportionately emphasized. Fanservice is at an all time high with scenes of scantly clad blood-lusting females duking it out with blades and bouncing "melons". Even the "bloodlust" is quite literally a "lust"; all in a bid to titillate the male audience. Characters are drawn off-model sometimes with Masane's body proportions seemingly changing size in-between scenes. The animation also suffers in the long run. Only the still shots and close-ups look passably decent but disappointingly stiff. Action shots and many scenes involving movement cause the level of art detail to drop quite a bit. The mother/daughter drama between Masane and Rihoko might have been the saving grace of this series but sadly it is also stretched to breaking point over the course of the 24 episodes (again due to horrible pacing). The story gets more and more convoluted as the series passes into its second half while the art and animation sort of settles into a low-to-medium budget look and feel as the production constantly cuts corners by using one too many animation short-cuts.For all the advertising Funimation and Top Cow did on the Witchblade anime, this series is an utter disappointment. Instead of building on the more original mother/daughter dynamics and character drama, the series decides to play the "sex sells" card and deliver one fan-service laden combat sequence after another, complete with jokes about the main character's over-sized breasts. Lacking even the coherence and cleverness of the original comic books, Witchblade may satisfy those hot blooded young male viewers who love to be teased by anime females in states of semi-nudity. Other than that, it is mediocre fare not worth the time or money, compared to other better series out there.

chrichtonsworld This anime is just beautiful! The animation is very clear and smooth. It is a joy to watch the characters walking around in this anime. Also there are a lot of likable characters in this series. I promise you will laugh. The relationship between Masane (the woman who carries the witchblade) and Rihoko (Masana's daughter) is a special one. It is obvious that they love each other very much! And it seems that Rihiko takes care of the mother who is a bit of a wild one (maybe as a consequence of the witchblade,we don't know). And at the end we are witness of some change in Masana's character. She has to mature in order to provide the best care for her daughter. It is touching to see how strong the bond is and that it doesn't matter what obstruction and misery comes their way. Because of their love for each other they will overcome it. Maybe it sounds too much like a soap opera. But in my opinion there is nothing wrong with a bit of drama now and then. Especially when it's done like in this anime. This show doesn't contain as much action as one would think. But that is primarily because this is a plot based anime with some action in it. The action scenes that are shown are fun but not real special. Only the sexy outfit,the big boobs and other features keep popping up to add some flavor. Probably done to tease the male viewer (I think). The last episode gives enough closure,although we never get to learn about the origin of the Witchblade and how it chooses it's wielder. But since the focus wasn't about the Witchblade it doesn't matter that much. Overall this is a nice, fast paced anime with beautiful animation and great characterization.