Customer Reviews

The Soultaker - The Monster Within (Vol. 1)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I remember picking up Trigun, another of Pioneer's animes, two years ago. It was awesome but obscure in the anime scene. Now, it's become more mainstream than anyone could have imagined it would be two years ago.

The Soultaker, I believe, will follow suit.

The story starts out fairly simple. Kyosuke, a seemingly normal teenager, is stabbed and fatally wounded by his mother. Buried, a woman named Maya digs up Kyosuke's body, having a feeling he is not yet dead. And indeed, for some reason, Kyosuke lives. That's when the story gets complicated and calls upon you to pay close attention to the story. Why would his mother do such a thing? And how in the world is he still living? Before any questions can be answered, Maya is kidnapped by a mysterious organization and with the help of a mysterious stranger, Shiro, sets out to rescue her, revealing secrets to Kyosuke's past and pertaining to Maya.

The story is absolutely gripping. This is one of those anime's in which you have to really watch it to enjoy. It leaves you hanging almost every time wanting more. The sheer mystery of the plot draws you in. The characters themselves have a very human feel to them, especially Kyosuke, whose dedication to save Maya at all costs is very genuine.

The music is awesome especially the Opening theme "Soultaker" and the ending theme "Memory." But the music is really just icing on the cake...

The drawing style is what will either draw in fans or garner criticism from people. MOST of the scenes consist of only a couple colors and are not very detailed, adding style to this anime. However, this very lack of unnecessary detail is what turns away most people from this supreb anime. To each his own. To be honest I was quite uncomfortable with it during the first episode, but it really grows on you. Most creative style I've seen in a while.

Go support the Soultaker Revolution! Buy the DVD and find out what we anime fans are raving about!

i was absolutely stunned to read the negative reviews here, so i thought it my duty to write up something godd about it.
just as a frame reference my current fav' animes are the following...
akira, jin-roh, lain, bloodlust, niea, tenchi, oh my goddess, perfect blue, princess mononoke, porco rosso, etc.etc.

anyway...i came into this anime (as with so many other) not knowing what to expect. i was hopeing for a fairly stylish, entertaining slice of typical horror anime. but nothing could of prepared me.
this anime, no matter what anyone says aobut it, has the most exsquisite and sumptuous animation, with a blisteringly fresh and beautiful style that i can safely say makes it look braver and more modern (or futuristic) than any anime out there. ever. FACT!
the story is a wonderfully mysterious one. unlike most anime, they're not afraid to make you have to sit up and take attention to understand all that's going on. and although some of the dialogue is corny, the dub is generally superb,and how any normal anime fan can complain about a generic storyline is beyond me as nearly all anime are about as by the books as you can get! it's the stunning attention to detail, and consistant stream of visual ideas that dazzles here.
to pin down the story..i guess it's kind of how we hoped the guyver would of been treated. and although the soultaker monster isn't quite as well designed as the guyver costume, it's harsh adult take on the age old 'boy turns into mutant' story shows up every other alike title out there for there inability to inject something brave and exciting into the genre.

fantastic stuff.

This is definetly a great anime, one of the best in a while. Superb animation is the first thing you will notice. There is not one normal angle on a shot, the colors are vibrant and detailed, and it is all blended so very nicely. Character designs are top-notch as well. The story is super deep an after these first three eps, you'll need to know the whole story. Do not believe what you may hear about the plot. It is confusing only for the first couple eps. After words you can enjoy the energy given off by this title. I have seen the whole series and it is worth every penny. I don't know about the dub, though, the eps i saw were all in subs.

According to Amazon reviewer charles solomon, SOULTAKER is a derivative of anime series like gasaraki & evangelon (does every title have to be compared to evangelon? sheesh!) I strongly disagree!
instead ST adapts elements from the DEVILMAN/GUYVER/GENOCYBER/DETONATOR ORGUN/X-MEN genre but with a touch of DARIO ARGENTO italian horror.
the plot/storyline may be confusing at first, but it your'e patient and suspend your disbelief you'll eventually be taken in
it's refreshing to see something slightly different from the contemporaly anime shows. the colors have a "PSYCHO NOIR" kinda feel and a style simular to Mike Mignola's HELLBOY Comics. the action/pacing is more appealing than the aforementioned series GARSAKI and EVANGELION which to me are very slow and tedious at times. Soultaker also has one of the coolest intro themes. another classic from the legendary TATSUNOKO studios (gatchaman94,Casshan,Hurricane polymar)SOULTAKER is a must have addition for the scifi, anime, comicbook enthusiast.

Kyosuke Date is not a happy camper. Frankly he's justified in his rage. When we first meet him he's being stabbed in the back by his mother, who then dies. The second time we see him he's being dug out of his grave in which he's been buried alive. No, it hasn't been a good weekend for Kyosuke. To complicate matters he finds that he has a long lost sister somewhere that evil companies are trying to find and he can now suddenly turn into a mutant demon thing that can kick major butt. Not that Kyosuke's thrilled about the transforming into a hideous demon thing, but compared to the rest of his weekend, that's a fairly good point.

The Monster Within doesn't show it's hand very much when it comes to the major plot of the series. All three episodes are mainly concerned with Kyosuke trying to figure out who his sister is and random characters of the sinister variety keep popping up and looking threatening. There's also Shiro, a helpfully homicidal mystery man who looks slightly like a mime who's joined up with Kyosuke.

At it's heart, Soultaker is a gothic horror piece inflected with a good bit of angst and bullets. Kyosuke didn't ask to be put in the position he's in, but he's going to have to live with that now and make the best of it. While it's a little confusing since the audience knows no more than the main character, The Soultaker still deserves a place in anime libraries.

First, many will compare this with FLCL (which is an earlier release in Japan), and even say that it's an anime made hot on the trails of it's predecessor (I dit it at first). Both start with situations that will leave you wondering what's going on, and quickly develop on a full complex story.

There's where they're different. While FLCL focuses on comedy with lot's of action (there are a lot of references on the Gainax universe on this one), Soul Taker focuses on action, with some comedy touchs.

As any new release, the quality of image and sound is terrific, and being enhanced for widescreen TVs is a plus, for sure. The colours on this one are bright and vivid, sometimes the contrast of colors, as bright red against a black background, green and blue against white, adds a nice sense of aesthetic which is found nowhere else on anime (only the Utena movie has come closer to this). Not much of the plot is given on this disc, but you wouldn't think that it would happen so early anyway.

As a side note, there's an interesting bit of translation that may be interesting for you to know. The "flickers" are spelt on japanese as FURIKA, which is a way to say in engrish, english words being used with japanese phonems, the word "freak", which is a more appropriate way to describe what the flickers are when compared to regular humans on this title.

Some things you just don't question. This anime happens to be one of them. But, to warn you ahead of time, an average person will go through one of these three reactions: You will watch it and love it; you will pound your head against the TV and try to make sense of it; or you will stare blankly at the TV and think to yourself: "WHY did I buy this?!"
Me? I belong in the first reaction. I bought the DVD because the cover looked cool. But, I've learned that covers aren't everything. I loved this series from the opening animation to the ending credits. It IS a bit obscure (as several other reviewers mentioned...), but that's the appeal of it. There are lots of anime out there that leaves the watcher wanting to delve deeper into the ultimate question: Why?
I think that this anime series acheives this better than any others that I have previously watched. The lack of detail in the animation and the use of darker colors add a depth to the plot and animation that I love. Some people WILL be turning up their noses at this anime. I say that it's their loss.
The confusion of the main character is tangible---you wish that you could fall into the plot and just help him; make sure that everything will be alright. The main character is plunged into situations that he doesn't understand and has an innocence...a naiviety...that is so hard to find in anime or real life. It will either attract you or repel you.

I DO recommend this anime series. I love it. There are lots of anime series that I LIKE, but very few that I LOVE. It is completely worth the ...+ you'll be forking over. Just watch it and find out.

Soul taker overall is pretty darn good. However dont feel bad if u are confused by the first few episodes. Overall things do pick up and it becomes very cool and worth watching. If you like horror, science ficion and mystery, this is the anime for you.

Soultaker tells the story of a young boy, Kyosuke Date who is killed by his mother as she herself appears to die and later is dug out of his grave alive by a girl who is a fragment of the sister he never knew he had. It seems that 2 seperate powers, the hospital and the Kirihara group, are vying for the "flickers" of his sister and Kyosuke becomes embroiled in a conflict against them along with his mystery companion Shiro Mibu who friend or foe refuses to give away his agenda. It is in being pursued by robots and mutants that Kyosuke discovers that he himself is the powerful mutant code-named Soultaker.

Soultaker while possessing what initially seems like some quality animation is let down by a weak and garbled storyline that you are expected to swallow no questions asked. Although things not automatically being revealed to the viewer is common in anime it was quite an extreme in the case of Soultaker which refuses to tell you the bare essentials of anything while proceeding with a storyline that it appears you need to know something about the characters in order to understand. Having said that this is the first three episodes so there is time for further development.
In these first three episodes the main protagonist seems almost one dimensional (and that is saying nothing of those whom he shares the screen with) having been thrown into the malestrom which he accepts all too easily despite his doubts and although constantly asking why? never seems to get an answer but there is only confusion rather than intrigue so it is often hard to care and things are far too sketchy for too long which is quite deterring when awaitng even the occassional pay off. Even the action sequences seem tame when looking at other current anime on the shelves with events move at a hasty and unexplained pace leaving the viewer clueless.
In regards to the animation the character design is faultless and the mood created by the dark tones and stained glass backgrounds is beautiful to look at yet suffers from being all too static. The characters barely move so it is more like looking at a single piece of art rather than an actual animation and this is often frustrating to watch as there is a panel of nothing but dialogue while the characters remain posed still. As mentioned above the action is sub-standard again suffering from that lack of motion and when the Soultaker makes his appearance it is short and limited packing none of the grandeur and martial arts mayhem that we come to expect when watching anime.
Perhaps of course this is what sets this from the norm and it may well be to the tastes of some but not this reviewer. This is however the first installment of Soultaker so it might be too quick to judge the whole series on its basis and hopefully the remaining episodes will not follow suit and allow this to be the great anime it has the potential to be.

I was completely confused during the first episode. I too felt that scenes were random, weapons were too strange (Hospital's needles), and any reason for watching was not given. But I stuck through the first DVD and it all came together in the third episode. If you give yourself at least three episodes then you should be hooked into the plot; a plot that is sure to take you strange but interesting places.