Customer Reviews

Blue Seed - The Nightmare Begins (Vol. 1)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This review is not only about the last DVD release in the series, but also as a review of the entire series. I have never really been into Anime like most people, but this one caught my attention. Blue Seed is about a young girl who finds out that her humdrum life is not all it seems. Taking its cues from japanese mythology as well as other world religions, the story involves the coming of the auragami, a race of spirits who exist in the form of a 'blue seed', or mitama, and must possess a host in order to Take over Japan and the world. The only known way to stop them is to sacriface a female virgin from the Kushinada family. It turns out that, like all living things, certain energies are released that put the auragami to sleep. Momiji, age 15, must be sacrificed in order to save the world.
Luckily she has friends that want to find an alternative to killing a young girl. The fight for the world begins when the auragami try to kill Momiji while keeping her safely inside a Ceramic field, thus removing any threat to their existance. A team of scientists and military types known as the TAC Rescue Momiji, but not before An auragami nearly kills the girl outside the field. Without giving away too many details, Momiji winds up with a BLUE SEED implanted on her chest! Nuff sed.

I now have the entire series on DVD. It can be had on four discs, 26 episodes, With both english and japanese languages, as well as spanish! The clarity of the DVD format really shows here, not because the original material is so good, but because you can see the grain in the film, which in a strange way adds to the overall look of the series. The discs also include the now infamous "Omake Theatres", little humorous 'outtakes' if you will, some racy and some downright side splitting.

Another thing to mention about this series is the english voice acting. In the past, I have often hated the english dubbing of any movie, and in the first few episodes of Blue Seed the acting is at times not very good. But as the series goes on, it improves dramatically, and by the time I got to the last two discs I found that I prefered it over the original japanese. By the time you reach the last episode, the emotional quality of the dubbing is just dead on right, and at times you thing that maybe the series was made with english in mind.

This is the only Anime that I have ever cared enough about to own. As a total package of dvds, this cant be missed.

As ADV continues to release old classic titles on DVD, this one is most anticipated. It's kinda like Fushigi Yugi. There are to fairy tale monster fighting each other. The Aragami and the Kushenada. The Aragami were made to protect the Aragami, but since almost none are left, they decide to kill them all off. And a high school girl named Momiji is one of the Kushenada and doesn't understand all of this at all. While the TAC track her down, Momiji comes under attack at her school by a big vine creature only to have a human Aragami named Kusanagi come to the rescue. The two form a weird love for each other which could be close to Fushigi Yugi. Anyway, Momigi spends most of the time in the first two episodes screaming when under attack by the plant Aragami. The last two episodes are basically character development episodes along with a little action mixed in here and there. The Omake Theater can be found in the extras menu. The Omake Theater is a little silly short that is included every two episodes. They are extremely funny! Extras also include Character Bios. The picture quality is like that of Evangelion: Mediocre, but not criminal to its origin. Dubbing for English is ok, but this was dubbed in the golden age of anime. The Japanese track does more justice I think. And hey, why not try the Spanish language track which I think is included on this one. Anyway, if you like the animation of Evangelion and your in the mood for monsters, check this one out. However, Blue Seed is too great for me to tell you just how comical and action packed it is. You have to see it for yourself. You won't regret it.

I managed to catch the second episode of Blue Seed at a friend's house one day, and it piqued my interest. When I found this DVD, with 7 episodes, I had to check it out.

Learning about Momiji, our Kushinada-hime, and the demonic Arigami combines elements of Sci-Fi and horror anime. Much to my surprise, the series also combines a surprising amount of humor in it as well.

While I usually steer clear of dubs, this one is actually very well done. The voices fit the characters well, even though I love Megumi Hayashibara, Momiji's english voice actress does a commendable job. However, Kusanagi's character was changed around quite a bit. In the dub, he is much more light-hearted and joke-y, while in the original he is much darker and sinister.

This first volume spends a great deal of time introducing the characters, and starting to ask the deeper questions of the series. However, there isn't much to the story so far. You can start to see the story forming, but this disc is pretty much just filler. Regardless, this is an enjoyable series with some excellent animation, music, voice acting, and some truly hilarious omake segments.

Because we see the cream of the anime crop in the US, we have a somewhat skewed perception of the typical level of quality in Japan. Truthfully, a large amount of anime production is entertaining, but not at all outstanding. 'Blue Seed' is such a series. Derivative and predictable, its success very much due to the strange cast of characters rather than plot, or soaring narrative. But, it is indeed, enjoyable watching.

Momiji Fujiyama is a young woman who wants nothing more than an ordinary life. The death of a twin she has never met finds Momiji being hunted down by evil creatures called Arigami. She is now the Kushinada, whose sacrifice will put the Arigami to sleep for decades, unless she is killed in special circumstances. She escapes, and is taken under the wing of the TAC Organization, dedicated to preventing the Arigami from devouring Tokyo.

TAC is the typical paranormal defense group. A gruff commander, efficient assistant, scientist, gun geek, and a computer freak. Add to this poor Momiji, whose desires for having a normal adolescence go up in smoke as one monster after another plague Tokyo. Momiji has a strange connection to the Arigami, through the blue seeds that are the essence of the monsters.

One of the problematic issues with this series is that the English dubbing considerably softens the original Japanese dialog. This would be bad if it were not for the problem that the Japanese narrative is very blunt and harsh. To the point that it seems out of pace with the story itself. Add to this the fact that the dubbing is unevenly recorded, and you have a dilemma of modest proportions. To be honest, I find the English dub a little easier to listen to than the Japanese is, but it is a personal choice.

This is a series where many of the characters specialize in being rude. Kome Sawaguchi, TAC's military specialist ignores her duty, insults the rest of the team, and is permanently angry. Mamoro Kusanagi, the Kushinada's guardian, uses unusually pithy language and behavior around 15-year-old Momiji. Everyone seems fixated on what cute animal print is on Momiji's unmentionables. The dubbing cleans this up enough to get the age rating down to 12+, but I think that is a bit optimistic. Some of this is funny, but it sets an uncomfortable tone to a series that has a very serious main theme.

Any fan of the Blue Series should definately get the DVD over the VHS. Volume one contains episodes 1-7, and includes both the Japanese w/ subtitle and English Dubbed versions of the show! Considering single episodes on VHS are the same price, you just can't do wrong with the Blue Seed DVD.

It's campy, corny and a little silly but it's my favorite series. I enjoy the heroine and her mysterious hero. This 15 year old girl actually acts just like a 15 year old girl! It's not Sailor Moon, that's for sure, and that's why I love it!

Blue seed is one of my absolute favorite anime. This anime is in my opinion a supernatural suspense. This anime has one of the best anime casts I have ever seen many of the characters names are also names of trees or flowers:
Momiji - (mapple), Sakura (cherry), etc.

This 26 eppisode anime is available in 4 volumes and there is also and OVA.

This is one of my absolute favorite anime. I wish Amazon would let me give it even more stars.

The life of a teenage girl can be stressful enough, but Momiji Fujimiya is a bit more stressed than usual -- it turns out that evil plant monsters are out to get her. Yes, evil plant monsters.

Fortunately if you can swallow that, "Blue Seed - The Nightmare Begins (Vol. 1)" is a pretty fun start to an anime. While it starts rather shakily (and with a very patchy dub), it includes grotesque monsters, teen romance, blam-blam action and a rather ditzy teenage girl's adventures as a destined "sacrifice." It's fluffy fun, but what sets it apart is a heavy dose of Japanese folklore.

One day on the way to school, Momiji Fujimiya is confronted by two bizarre creatures -- a young man (Kusanagi) with seven "blue seed" mitamas embedded in his body, who tries to kill her; and a serpentine plant monster (Orochi). Turns out she's part of an ancient family line, the Kushinada, that can destroy the aragami (sort of plant monsters).

But then Orochi invades Momiji's high school to destroy her, and is barely stopped by the Terrestrial Administration Center (a motley band of scientists, soldiers and government officials). Before Momiji knows it, she's been handed over to Mr. Kunikida of the TAC, and Kusanagi has changed his mind about killing her -- now he wants to protect her, no matter what. Oh yeah, and the Kushinada before her was a twin sister named Kaede, now presumed dead.

But staying with the TAC won't keep Momiji safe for long -- on her first day she's attacked by a monstrous aragami crow, followed closely by a giant jellyfish, an enormous blob of sentient water looking for a home, a kidnapped little girl, and a very unfortunate piece of panty-related software!

"Blue Seed - The Nightmare Begins (Vol. 1)" is kind of a wobbly beginning for the series -- the first couple episodes are pretty dense on plot and rather short on answers, and the ones that follow tend to be focused on fighting the Aragami Of The Week. One of them even hinges on Yaegashi making a panty-prediction software based on Momiji's unfortunate tendency to bare her undies.

Fortunately the episodes are still pretty entertaining -- there's plenty of grotesque monsters (complete with giant pulsating plant eyeballs), big guns and explosions, and wholesale destruction by the Aragami. Throw in some psychobabble and some love-to-hate-'em romantic tension, and you've got a fairly entertaining little show -- and even better, there are overtones of Japanese folklore woven into the story of the Kushinada, although it's not clear what they have to do with the story yet.

In the first three episodes, Momiji is as endearing as a cat ice-skating on a blackboard -- she whines almost continuously. Fortunately she becomes a far more likable heroine once she settles into the TAC, and turns out to be rather nice and eager to please. What's more, she's got a little blue mitama on her chest that helps her detect the Aragami, making her a bit more useful. Kusanagi is a bit of a dark horse at present, especially since he goes from trying to kill Momiji to defending her, but he adds a bit of wry humor ("Looks like you're only an A-cup").

And unlike many an anime show, the supporting cast is pretty colourful, even if they sometimes come across as stereotypes (the Genius Loser-Nerd, the Gung-Ho Gun Girl, the Scientist immersed in her work, etc). Fortunately each character is explored lovingly and given their own quirks and weaknesses, making them seem quite real and endearing.

It's worth noting that the English dub for this series isn't of great quality. In fact, the first couple episodes are pretty awful -- Momiji's howling whine, Kusanagi's toneless yells, and Matsudaira's scratchiness. Fortunately the voice actors get the hang of it a few episodes in, and they're doing a pretty decent job by the middle of the series.

"Blue Seed - The Nightmare Begins (Vol. 1)" starts off wobbly in many ways, and never quite manages to rise to greatness, but it also serves up plenty of monsters, mayhem, and Japanese folklore.

Been awhile since i had seen this anime an i had the last 3 to the set so i was like, let me get online an try to find the first one. It came quality wrapped an in great qualitly, i loved it!

The anime itself if fun and light-hearted enough where it doesn't get boring (and makes you laugh), but with enough action to keep you excited. The end of the series is especially touching, but what makes the series great is how the characters get to know each other from beginning to end.
PLUS there are SEVEN EPISODES IN ONE DVD! That's the best bargain you'll get. About 3 1/2 hours of entertainment. you won't regret buying this.