All of my reviews contain spoilers for the reviewed material. This is your only warning. this review also contains a spoiler for the finale of Kill la Kill The Witchblade IP is an odd one. Starting as a western comic book its since had branches of roughly equal billing originate from both America said comic series a liveaction show on TNT in the early 2000s and Japan a manga and an unrelated anime which as you might guess is the subject of this review. This puts it in rare company including franchises which are way above its own notoriety like Transformers and Lilo Stitch. Depending on what circles you run in different Witchblade properties are more or less wellknown. 880https://i.ur.com/jq7lD5T.png The 2006 anime adaptation is among the more wellknownthough were still talking niches within niches hereand has had something of a curious history all its own. If youre familiar with the Witchblade anime and you live in the States its probably via the Independent Film Channels short lived anime block where it ran alongside the cerebral morality plays of Hell Girl and the downright unsummarizable Speed Grapher. Thats a pretty small audience but its not nobody and consequently Witchblade has a small but certainly present cult following. So the ultimate question then is whether or not said following is warranted. Of course Im of the opinion that the file it into a box labeled good or bad school of criticism is incomplete in the first place but its what people want to know much of the time so sure lets start there. The term I think best describes Witchblades overall quality is surprisingly good. Witchblade is notionally a part of the socalled battle vixens genre a now mostlydead movement originating with the anime of the same namehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IkkiTousen that revolved mostly around girlongirl fight sequences and a heavy side of cheesecakestyle fanservice. Witchblade indulges in catfights about half as often as many of its genrefellows seem to but the fanservice aspect is certainly here. If youre not onboard for some unapologetically horny character designs you might want to turn back now. 880https://i.ur.com/8nejhFs.png Roughly this horny Witchblades core characters are Masane and Rihoko. The former a displaced happygolucky amnesiac mother who is the lone survivor of a devastating natural disaster that leveled much of Tokyo six years prior. The latter her daughter an infant at the date of the disaster now a punky sixyearold who is in many ways more responsible than her mother. Masane is also the wielder of the titular Witchbladethough she doesnt actually know what the mysterious chrome bracelet around her wrist is at series startand it is from this object that the entire shows conflicts spring from. 880https://i.ur.com/KbSJPRK.png The Witchblade Masane finds herself evading the NSWF a supedup Child Protection Services corps established after the disaster who want to take her daughter who as the two live a vagabond lifestyle she cant properly take care of. This changes when shes essentially forced into working for The Douji Group an advanced weaponry company and the director of its Special Division one Mr. Reiji Takayama. Under their employment she uses the Witchbladewhich she can use to transform into a superpowered scantilyclad wielder formto fight XCONs and later IWeapons sapient combat robots made out of the bodies of dead people. Does that sound like a lot? Weve not even gotten to perpetuallyonthehuntforthenextscoop news photographer Tozawa. The clutch of colorful characters who reside in the mixedresidence home that Tozawa lives in including in no particular order his bossy landlady a pervy old man who turns out to actually be a genuinely sweet guy and also a computer hacker a shy fortuneteller and a guy named Michael who doesnt do much. On top of that theres the sinister Father the series main antagonist for its first half and the head of the NSWF. Takayamas morally ambiguous secretary Segawa and his slimy rival even by executive of a weapons company standards Wadou. Theres a lot that happens in Witchblade. The series first half is mostly on the fun side of this sort of affair. Though in the case of a seinen series that still means random women getting picked off by killer robots before Masane can swoop in to stop them from doing more of that. Theres also the appearance of the Cloneblade Wielders who serve as higherlevel foes to Masane. 880https://i.ur.com/vLJrgcZ.png Would we all be so lucky Despite ongoing hints of a darker longterm plot the focus in the front half of Witchblade really is mainly on the fightswhich often highlight Masanes well say outfitand cute mother/daughter bonding moments though thankfully the show has the base amount of good taste required to keep those two things wellseparated. 880https://i.ur.com/by4oWJT.png After the halfway point is when things start taking a different turn and Witchblade plays its hand in full. And really if Witchblade has a general flaw its that its occasionally a bit too ambitious for its own good. Father the main villain for the shows first half is a cipher until shortly before his death. Whatever the show is trying to piece together out of his bizarre Freudian obsession with creating the perfect mother out of the NeoGene project that created the Cloneblade Wielders it never quite gets there. On a different note and ironically for an action series the actual fight scenes are largely just competent instead of anything truly stunning. Some stand out more than othersespecially in the shows final 6ish episodes after Masane gets her new transformationbut few things in this department will really move you. The show actually works best in quieter moments. Masane and Rihokos relationship is flatout adorable. Combined with the lategame addition of Takayama Witchblade certainly makes a much better case for the nuclear family than say Darling in The FranXX. Witchblades biggest failing and Id argue its only serious flaw is the final execution of its main thematic line. Much of Witchblades writing revolves around the concept of motherhoodthis makes sense as Masanes bond with Rihoko colors the entire series from end to end. It seems to really believe quite strongly in that bond but crucially not strongly enough to actually have Masane get out of the series alive. 880https://i.ur.com/a6ad6xt.png 880https://i.ur.com/nbmdHFR.png Instead she sacrifices herself at series end. The idea is clear in doing this she frees Rihoko of the burden of ever becoming the wielder of the Witchblade something the show repeatedly brings up as an almostcertainly if the artifact is allowed to survive. But ultimately this is the same mistake that distant stylistic relative Kill la Kill would make almost ten years later. A death does not automatically make an ending more impactful. Unless nearperfectly considered it can rob the series of some of its power and sadly that is the case here as well. To the shows wellearned credit the episodes leading up to Masanes demise are in fact some of its strongest. There is a palpable sense of impending tragedy as Masane spends her last few days on Earth with Rihoko and their friends at the mixed residence house capping with taking her daughter on a picnic just before Douji now controlled by Wadou and the NSWF launch their joint attack to recover the Witchblade. 880https://i.ur.com/MUDelCd.png While this is the only time Id argue that the shows character designs get in the way of its emotional torque it dampens the impact of a serious emotional shot to have it be of a character wearing an outfit with essentially no bottom it is to the shows credit that its genuinely only to a small degree. While I ultimately disagree with the decision to go in that direction in the first place Masanes sacrifice in the finale is wellwritten and wellexecuted. Its a solid end to a good series. I am not entirely sure if it is the case but I would not be surprised to learn that Witchblade was something of a beginning of the end point for its genre in at least some small way. The answer to how much genuine emotion can you wring out of a story in a genre designed primarily around fanservice shots and catfights? seems to be about this much and to be honest thats not a bad answer. Witchblade more than maybe any other series Ive ever reviewed on this site is not going to work for everyone. Folks who are fans of the outrageous designs and campy fun of the first half and folks who are fans of the high tragedy and longing thematics of the second are often not going to be the same people. Would sticking to one or the other have made Witchblade an easier recommend? Yes but Im not sure it would actually have made it a better show. There are a lot of minor details Ive glossed overin particular I must give a nod somewhere to the absolutely superb performances of both the original Japanese and English VAs for Masane Mamiko Noto and Jamie Marchi respectively who absolutely nail their role as the character. You get the point by now though. Witchblade if you can forgive its faults is worth your time. If you have the same affinity for weird relics of another era as I do you might even find it to be something special. If nothing else it is and I say this with total sincerity a damn effective reminder to call your mom.