Customer Reviews

Knight Hunters - Dead Ringer (Vol. 1)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Weiss Kreuz (Knight Hunters or translated as White Cross) is the story of 4 guys - Fujimiya Ran (also known as Aya), Hidaka Ken, Kudou Yohji, Tsukiyono Omi - intent on one thing - revenge. During the day they work as florists, but by night they hunt the evil that can not be touched by the law. The series contains 24 missions (A two part OAV also exits: Verbrechen and Strafe-translated as Crime and Punishment) Each mission progresses the story plot by giving background details pertaining to each charater and how they came to be a part of Weiss. Each character has their own trajic past. Ran/Aya's family were all killed except his younger sister Aya who remains in a coma. Aya is the silent leader of Weiss who has taken his sister's name to never forget his pledge for vengeance. Omi is a kidnap victim whose parents refused to pay the ransom. He is the computer genius of the group, and is also the youngest, but his does not remember his true name. Ken was an upcoming soccer star (goalie) who was accused of gambling and losing games for profit when he lost a major event. He is the most normal out of all members. Yohji was a private investigator that had his partner killed in front of him. Yohji is the suave memeber and his favorite past time is picking up women. Weiss obtain their mission information from a mysterious organization call Kritiker,a man called Persia and his assistant Manx.

All members of Weiss carry their unique weapon of choice: Japanese sword-Aya, archery/bowgun/darts-Omi, wire-Yohji, bugnuk/tiger's teeth-Ken. Of course no anime would be complete without villians. Weiss must confront two groups: Schwarz (translated as Black) and Schreient.

This anime is greatly enhanced by the songs of the vocal group Weiss Kreuz: Takehito Koyasu (Ran), Tomokazu Seki (Ken), Shin-Ichiro Miki (Yohji), and Hiro Yuuki (Omi). Music is by Kazuya Nishioka. The popularity of the series created several art books, music scores, and lots of anime merchandise.

Information in this review is based from the TV series and "Weiss Kreuz Film Book".

Or something like that, I forget the correct quote. *looks sheepish* The brainchild of the band Weiss (aka the main voice actors for the series) Weiss Kreuz is full of eye candy, and one of the more surprising plotlines I have seen. Usually, one can guess the nature of a series from the get go, but there's a few loops thrown into this one! About four bishounen (pretty boys) turned assassins with equally tragic pasts fighting against unjustice that is untracible by normal Japanese law. It is worth a glance (or more).

The ultimate bishounen (beautiful boy) anime has finally made its official bow on U.S. shores. Fangirls who have worn out their fansubs (and who spent many hours cringing at typos like "Byce" instead of Weiss) now have crisp, clear DVDs to drool over (and they keyword here is drool . . . eye candy has always been the main thing this series had going for it, although its plotline also makes an excellent springboard for fanfiction). The premise: Four young men are Tokyo florists by day, vigilantes by night. Under the aegis of the secret Kritiker organization, they eliminate heinous criminals who have slipped out of the grasp of the authorities. The episodes contained on this disc explore the pasts of two of the group members, Ken and Yohji, and show how much of a "normal" life all four have to sacrifice to complete their mission. (Including heterosexual romance. Small wonder this series has spawned so much yaoi -- male-male love -- fanfiction). So, it's not high art -- so what? These discs deliver good, mindless fun -- action, nice music and "anime babes who make me think the wrong thing" -- for relaxing at the end of a long day with a bucket of popcorn, and there's certainly nothing wrong with that. Those familiar with the original fansubs should avoid the dubbed version on this disc like the plague . . . the character voices are all wrong, especially Omi, who sounds 10 years too old and has lost all of his sweet innocence. But the subbed version is superb, with readable titles that don't distract from the lovely view of the boys. If you're a fan of bishounen stuff, like Gundam Wing, Kenshin or Tokyo Babylon/X, by all means, check this out.

When I first came across this title, I was interested. Aya, Yoji, Ken, and Omi are the four young men who are florists during the day but at night, comprise Weiss Kreuz, an assassin group who eliminates certain menaces to society.

Animation is superb, action is generally well done and the amazing music are actually sung by the seiyuus(voice actors) themselves whom have formed a singing group. Despite this, I find the plot to be slow at times and uninteresting, which caused me to fastfoward the certain sections. I also found the story displayed in a rather choppy manner. At one moment, you see Ken die and in the next, he's fine. I quickly caught on to the plot again, but the moment of confusion pops by more than a couple of times. Not a show for kids with its mature themes. I'm thinking PG 15 or so.

In general, each episode is worth some time and can stand on its own. You get the villian of the week and some action. There are also bits and pieces of the greater plot involving the Takatori's and you get to know the Weiss gang on a personal basis.

That was what stopped me from giving this show a three star rating. This show is pure bishounen, meaning that it has been loaded with so many hot guys so that it is impossible not to fall in love with one of them. Not only are they cute, but they actually got personality and alot goes into understanding what makes these guys tick.

As for the DVD, I liked the clear menu, though flipping through each episode kinda annoyed me. There are some nice extras, such as the outtakes. In general a show that has something for the mature guy and girl. Definitely not a DVD for everyone. I would suggest renting it if possible before purchasing it to see if this is to your taste.

I don't know where all these reviewers are coming up with the notion that Cheesiness, Angst, & Extreme High Melodrama are *surprising*-- or *unwanted*-- in a shojo anime. Come on! Really. This is for us. We want our angst and family tragedies and long-lost siblings and haunted pasts and Good Vs. Evil and unrequited love and knee-weakeningly beautiful boys... we want it all, and we want it bloody.

That said, the Weiss Kreuz collection is one of the best things that you could possibly take home & watch on the sofa with your box of chocolates & your pink tissues. Four pretty young things, each one with a worse revenge-complex than the next, all with clashing personalities; an expansion on the buddy-cop concept, only better... four pretty young vicious bloodthirsty international assassin boys who run a flower-shop. And of course they're all straight. If you don't love an idea like that right away, then you shouldn't be renting this in the first place.

The DVD edition is fabulous, easy to navigate, crammed with features, sketches, interviews, you name it. I was especially (pleasantly) surprised at the existence of outtakes. Recording all that drama had to be taxing, so it must've been a scream to make a pink-clad Omi say, "But I can only dance to Madonna."

You can watch most of these stories independently of each other without worrying about the overarching plot, which is nice for those who don't want the full collection. The boys get a mission, they go out and find the bad guys, and much fighting & bickering ensues. Most episodes have at least some brokenhearted weeping, and they all have bloodshed (although the fight-sequence style in this anime doesn't do much for me). If you're lucky, you'll get to see the gang of psychic/psychotic villain boys, who are even more interesting than the heroes. You can start watching with an eye to just absorbing the cheesy missions, but you will soon be hooked on the tangled interpersonal relationships and vendettas, which is, after all, the point.

I personally like the animation well enough; it's not groundbreaking, but it does not look like 1987, either. The dubs and subs are equally good here, in my opinion. They put a nice amount of effort into it. I think the English translation was pretty great, very natural-sounding. Bold yellow subtitles were easy to read. The voice actors were often lackluster, I agree with everyone on that point. I privately think Aya could be even bitchier (although he couldn't be colder, which was nice), Omi even squeakier, and Farfarello even crazier. But Schuldig's erotically snide baritone is the definite bright-point of the English dub; you may find yourself listening to him purr "ruined lives taste like honey" repeatedly until you freeze up your Pause button.

The first video in the Weiss Kreuz series will finally become available, which is something I've been waiting for for a long time. I became obsessed with the series months ago when my friend let me borrow her tapes she got from Japan. I was drooling by the end of the first episode. Now, I've seen every single episode and the first OAV movie. Everything in the series is near perfect. The plot is dark and yet beautiful, with pretty well done animation to boot. And I immediately downloaded the music and burned it. Well, I'm done raving about the series; it's time to get back to Diablo II. Read some other reviews to find out about the storyline, which, if I haven't mention, is wicked. Okay, that's all I'm going to say.

Weiss Kruez is great! The begining is slower then the rest of the series (of course!) but this is one of my favorites. Its got everything in Bishounen-ness: Youji's a ladies man, Omi's small and kawaii, Ken's athletic and shy, and Ran/Aya's cold and mean. If you're a fan of Rurouni Kenshin, Gundam, or Fushigi Yuugi, i think you'll enjoy Weiss Kruez

Now I've been waiting to check out this series for quite some time. I mean, who can resist when the main characters are flower shop boys by day and assassins by night? This sort of campy set up is difficult to pass up, especially when done well.

Unfortunately, while definitely an interesting idea, serious angst tends not to mesh well with cheese and general campiness. There are some particularly hilarious scenes when it does (the biker guy and van at the beginning of the first episode for example), but it's a very twisted kind of humor. Think along the lines of the pubes episode of South Park, the revelation at Cartman's Chili-con-Carnival. However, much of the atmosphere just comes across as forced (The guy licking the axe? Come on.) I cringed several times throughout the disc, embarasses that certian things made it through the original edits.

However, the plot has potential, and I would like to see the rest of the series. The overall aniation could definitely have been better, but it's not bad. The background music is good (I'm partial to Aya's theme myself), and the vocal songs aren't bad either. The quality of the english dub depends on your personal preference. The dub outtakes are pretty good (the wedding scene is classic, but again, twisted), with two or three shining about the rest.

This disc isn't everyone's cup of tea (and I don't know about the series as a whole yet), but with five episodes on this first disc, it's a pretty good deal.

You gotta love this anime. Hot guys. Tragic Pasts. Cool fight scenes. And OMI! The second episode isn't that great, but the rest are wonderful. Weiß Kreuz translates to white cross.

Unlike some people(or is it one) I dont think this exploits anyone. I found it a refreshing change compared to a lot of the nicey-nicey anime out there. The heros are assasins and they know it, they do not try to cover it up. The assasins are in the service of good but have their own probs. Be forewarned, The first 2 episodes are ssslloooww and hard to get thru but it is worth it. The series picks up with the 3rd episode so slogging thru the intro stuff is ok. Pick it up you will like it.