Customer Reviews

Real Bout High School - The Final Battle (Vol. 4)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When I heard about the arrival of Real Bout High School, I was skeptical at first, because of the fact that it was centered around fighting. While I am a huge fan of Street Fighter, most fighting animes don't have any plot, and don't do well at all. I had heard good things about the series, and I had happened to go shopping a day or two after it came out, saw that there was only one copy left, and decided to give it a go.

"Samurai Girl: Real Bout High School" is about a girl named Ryoko Mitsurugi who is titled as the best fighter at the school, and Is always being challenged by different teams or people -- and these fights are actually encouraged by the school board. In the first episode, Ryoko finds a necklace that transports her into an alternate realm to defeat monstors. She later returns and tries to figure out what she had just experienced. Ryoko's rival is Azumi Mitsurugi, and they're always arguing over a guy named . Although they are rivals, Azumi tells Ryoko that she can learn to advance her skills by becoming the apprientance of a mysterious man named Tessai Onizuka, who teaches her to use her weapon as a sword, and as a stick.

The animation is extremely good for a television series, and there weren't any noticable jumps or rainbows around charectors. Shading is done wonderfully, and colors are bright and brilliant.

The sound is just your classic TV stereo sound.

The menus were done very well and creatively. The menu looks like an actuall fighting video game match going on between Ryoko and Azumi. The sub-menus look like options menus and select-a-charector type menus.

There are four episodes on the disc. "Enter the Samauri Girl", "The Strongest Man Joins the Fight", "Enter the Way of the Swordsman", and "The Girl with the Deep Black Eyes".

Some of the english voice actors on Real Bout High School have worked on previous shows like Cowboy Bebop and Rayman Earth, so they should be recignizeable.

Some extras include four "Special End Corners", which are little extras hosted by the two main Japanese voice actresses.

The first four episodes are very good, and the show is promising. We just have to see where the series takes itself.

I came into this with pretty low expectations, and left suitabily surprised. While the basic plot is rather hackneyed (super-skilled kendo girl fits in the school league, but also finds a pendant that makes her punk demons in another world from time to time), the characters are actually pretty likeable, even if they are common anime archtypes. The show does a good job of keeping the mood light without becoming completely flippant, and the episodes really fly by. The fight scenes are the definite standouts, with great choreography and pacing, but the other scenes of character and plot building are also done well enough to hold your interest.

The dialogue is actually pretty fast and witty, and the translation is pretty good, which certainly helps matters. Visually, the show has nice production values, with well-articulated motion and vibrant, clean colors. Character designs are also very well done. The fight scenes in particular are very well done, and the motion in these scenes is easy to follow.If you're looking for a lighthearted and fun anime with some really well done fighting sequences, you really should check this out. It's certainly worth a look.

Up until this final volume, I really like Real Bout High School--the characters were silly but engaging, the story line much the same. Unfortunately, the show couldn't finish the race. This volume is an utterly unsatisfactory way to end the show.

First, out of the three episodes on this disc, there's probably a full episode's worth of flashback. That is inexcusable on a 13 episode series like this, and even more that it is all on one volume--a third of this disc is flashbacks. Bleh.

Second, the storyline falls completely apart. The battle promised in Episode 12's title never occurs, and the real climax of the series is all but off-screen. There is also no resolution to the (admittedly silly) romantic subplot.

Finally, nothing which does happen on-screen makes much sense. We never see the connection between Miyuki's mystical powers and the events around her; we never see what Gates really is (mafia boss or demon or both); we never learn why Ryoko suddenly gets some magical powers of her own. The explanations, such as they come, are in almost nonsensical one-liners--you just can't put them together to assemble anything.

Ryoko's adventures thus come to a disappointing ending. The standard anime excuse for a failed ending--you can go read the manga (comic)--doesn't even help here: the comic tells an entirely different story, which has none of the supernatural elements of the anime.

I guess if you like the show up until now, you probably want to see the end, but beware: you'll be disappointed. If you haven't seen it, perhaps you'll want to pass it by--up until volume 3, I would have recommended this series, but not now.

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If you like anime with lots of fighting in it--this is it. This anime is a fighting based cartoon animation that uses incredible computer animated fighting effects in some also very incredibles battles for some extreme eye popping visuals.
The main character is Ryoko, a student at a private school that has traditional k-fights with wooden weapons used as substitutes for real weapons. They are tournament like, and the fighting is what this DVD is all about. Fights are remarkably well done.
OF course, the plot involves more than that. The main character is drawn into another dimension, where she has to hone her fighting skills even more and face even tougher opponents while she also tries to live life in the real world.
This DVD starts you off in her adventure that is just beginning.

As I was halfway through this disc, I was thinking to myself "What happened?!". The first disc of RBHS got me seriously hooked on this series. The colors were solid and vibrant, the art was clear and detailed, the music was catchy and appropriate, and the characters were cool and likeable. The most important thing about the first disc was that the episodes had an enjoyable plot. On this disc you find only three episodes (four on the first) and I must say I thought the quality of not only the story, but the artwork has decreased since the first disc. The video quality is still great with vibrant clear colors, but the first two episodes artwork looks like a rush job. The third episode makes up for them, and I recognized the great looking anime style that I loved so much in the first disc. Everything just seems a little bit more detailed. I'd recommend this only if you really liked the first disc, and want to stay loyal to this series. Everything else about this DVD is fantastic. The keepcase I got was clear but I heard they released a limited edition colored case. Inside are some translators notes, and the disc itself is coated with a really nice glossy material, and features some sharp line art of Ryoko. The menus are simply the best I've seen on an anime DVD, with the idea of two characters fighting it out like a video game whil you select your choices. When you buy this DVD you're getting a real beautiful piece of work, but be warned you may find the overall content to be less than satisfying.

This first volume of Real Bout High School proves to be engaging. The story leaves you wanting more and the battles are fun to watch. Neither of these are what make Real Bout an excellant show however, Real Bout's real strength is its characters. These are the kind of characters that are just fun to watch and have the chemistry to make a great show. I hope further volumes prove to be as entertaining as this first one.

It's a really good yet short anime series. It kept me entertained with the humor Daisaku provided. Joshua Seth was good as Daisaku's part and David Lucas kept Shizuma's character, like in the japanese version. It may be 13 episodes long but I still like it.

Visually, the series is beautiful; furthermore, the show features excellent vocal performances (The ever-versatile Satsuki Yukino reinvents herself again to play the main character's romantic rival, Azumi...Sempai)and is strong in the department of character development. I was already a fan of the manga (And I feel the manga features stronger storytelling than the anime.), but I feel I learned additional information about the characters by watching the program. The series is also entertaining on a more subtle level, as it relentlessly mocks (Or homages) conventions such as the "Magical Girl" genre of anime and manga, fighting games, samurai cinema, and other fighting series; Nagumo and Gates, the two rival characters new to the series, are extremely reminiscent of characters from such series as "Fist of the North Star"; the trio of villains our heroes encounter in the midpoint of the series, alternately, remind me of "Yu Yu Hakusho" characters. There's even a girl dressed like certain characters from Tenchi Muyo, as well as villains at the end which seem somewhere between Raxzehphon and Evangelion entities. These references are pretty entertaining, since the show isn't built around them, but rather character development and striking visuals.

At first, I didn't "get" the fact many of the character designs created for the anime were supposed to resemble designs from other anime series, and wrote them off as unoriginal. But my attributions of unoriginality nagged at me, because the rest of the visuals in the series were so well-crafted. So the "uninspired" designs are really very funny once one realizes they're *supposed* to be that way. ^_^

The slight redesigns of the manga characers appeal to me, though I will warn they've been slightly cutified. The Demon Beasts Ryoko has to fight unfortunately lack interesting designs, one of the series' visual shortfallings; Studio Gonzo does remarkable work in many departments, but I sometimes find that, as a trend, their creature designs are a bit run-of-the-mill.

Furthermore, although developing the characters well, in terms of plot development, however, the series inadequately explains background on the conflict between the characters Nagumo and Gates, as well as the connections amongst Nagumo, Hitomi and Reiha which would help viewers enjoy the program better.

However, I felt Nagumo's "true conflict" which is revealed in the final episode, while somewhat anticlimatic (In not involving a slugfest) was very interesting because it added a philosophical bent to the series; it reminds me of the (Oft-maligned) resolution of another show from the fighting girl genre, Ikki Tousen, in that it centers on defeating fate.

In terms of DVD content, the extras are neat. There are the art galleries almost standard to anime DVDs, but in addition, a number of segments which introduce you to the Japanese voice actresses who portray Ryoko and Miyuki. I enjoyed these segments because they added a human touch to my viewing of the series.

All-in-all, I'd recommend reading the manga first, not because it's necessary to understand the series, but because it's a better story. But if you read and enjoyed the manga, the series is well-worth watching, given you can get a good deal on it.

Although I think that the story behind it is a good idea, I also think they could have done it better. At times (which is almost everytime they show Ryoko) the whole "I'm a samurai" thing can be overdone, and, most times, irritatingly annoying. The series has great potential but they just barely missed pulling it off.

Real Bout High school is a delightful comedy with all the fight to back it up.
The story follows a young girl named Ryoko Mitsurugi who is destined in her heart to be a samurai. One day she finds an amulet in her locker that changes her life forever. Being transported to another relm called Solvania to battle demons Ryoko relaizes her destiny to save the world from Gates a ruthful god of destuction, and to make sure she still reighns as the champ. The story however in itself is not all macbre. With delightful charcters such as the tenacious but stupid Shizumaa Kusanagi who is always out for a good fight(mainly with our little samurai girl Ryoko) and beautiful but deadly Azumi Kiribiyashi Real Bout High is in for hours of pantyshots,killer fights,screams, and laughs.