Blade & Soul (2014) User Reviews

watchable action/fantasy...

[joelherro · 6/10 · 27 June 2014]

...just don't be expecting anything too special.

Aruka (becomes 'Alka' by episode 2) is a female assassin from 'the clan of the sword'. She is extremely skilled and hunted relentlessly by the Emperor (Empire haha) and his formidable henchwoman, Jin Varrel, for vague reasons (threat?). Along her travels, she meets an array of mostly female characters, all of which are warriors.

That's pretty much all I can say without spoilers, but there really isn't much else to it anyway. The animation is quality, with some CGI thrown in, and there's plenty of action, a lot of which is pointless fighting. All the strong characters are scantily clad women, while the men play stupid, servile roles. There's not much room for character depth or epic story scope and the final episode is a complete waste of time. That being said, overall, it's still a decent action/fantasy anime, worth watching if you're bored.

Not too bad

[kaundamabuya · 7/10 · 31 August 2014]

The series follows a female assassin looking to avenge the murder of her master. Along the way she encounters virtually only female characters. The men in the show are mostly idiots. The show is very female dominant.

There is no character depth at all and the plot is very simple but yet the show was rather enjoyable.

The graphics were really mesmerizing. The show should be taken for what it is. There is no moment of boredom at all. Don't think too much, just watch.

Looking to pass time? Then give this anime a shot.

Enjoyable action anime based on a Korean game

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 5 July 2014]

In this series, developed from a Korea computer game, the protagonist is Aruka, also known as Alka. She is an assassin, a member of the Clan of the Sword and she has sworn to get revenge on the person who killed her master. She is also being hunted herself and the bounty on her has attracted the attention of Hazuki; a bounty hunter determined to get the reward. Over the course of the series there are many fights as people try to kill Alka and inevitably fail.

I rather enjoyed this series despite the number of clichés it serves up: just about all the leading fighters are women, the men are either idiots or soon killed and all the adult women have breasts the size of their heads and not much covering them; this is especially true of Hazuki who wears a tiny bikini style top! The story was enjoyable to watch and managed to get quite dark at time; especially towards the end. Talking of the end; the real finale to the story is the penultimate episode; the finale is just a comedy episode with plenty of fan service. The character designs were impressive and quite distinctive and the backgrounds looked good too. Overall this was a good series and I'd certainly recommend it to fans of the genre.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.