Karas: the Prophecy and Karas: the Revelation

(00:51:50 CST)

Karas: the Prophecy and Karas: the Revelation

Karas. More appropriately (for US Audiences): Karas: the Prophecy and Karas: the Revelation. This originally six-part and now two part anime mini-series begins with an absolutely gorgeous but mostly incomprehensible battle sequence that leaves you clapping along but feeling like you missed something. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, and you end up with a fair approximation of the first half of this story: pretty on top of pretty, with more questions than you could count on all your fingers and toes.

Battle sequences are like the best elements of all the various Final Fantasy "limit break" style attacks melded together for glory and God but detached from anything like balance or strategy. Assuming that, by strategy, you do not mean waving your hand to make your your sword go flying off into a kanji-like thing composed of the pieces and then coming around with a roundhouse while water surges around and slice-bam! Toss in some human elements that might as well be cut-scenes here or there, ironically confusing you by trying to unravel the mystery, just to make sure you are paying attention to what reall matters: namely, how pretty they can make it. There you. You will be amazed and amazingly unsure of what is going on. Well, that is unfair, they clue you in that yokai have been attacking people but leaving survivors (read: witnesses) and some hybrid yokai-machine tribe is wrecking even more havoc (read: the badguys).

The first part, The Prophecy ends with the mother of WTF. Then, thankfully, The Revelation shows itself to be more than just another clever title, and explains most things. In fact, you begin to feel maybe a wee-bit over-explained because there is half an hour or so where they just go on and on and on and on about what the first half meant. Then comes about an hour of various battles and destruction and mayhem. Rinse and repeat. Feel satisfied.

At least, I felt satisfied. I've read more than a few bemoanings about the confusion of the first half. I am not quite so put off. We are talking about a six episode story-arc here packaged, now, in a box set that costs about one DVD's price. If three twenty-four minute or so episodes half composed of spectacular fight scenes are simply too much to wade through without having it spelled out, I am not sure if anime is a good place for you to be. After the fourth episode (the first third of the second "movie"), if you do not understand what is going on, then you were probably confused by Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman as a child.

It's a matter of the cost of opportunity in my opinion. I sacrificed knowing exactly what was up for a bit, because I trusted them to be going somewhere and I accepted that somewhere might be down the road of more awesome special effects. Which they were (both going somewhere and playing around with more special effects). Maybe this is a problem of making a murkily plotted movie this pretty: two different crowds are flocking to see it.

Overall, I found it to be Good with a Great visual style and visceral appeal though more of a Fair to Meh story. I got the story, it just doesn't quite feel like justification for the sheer amount of death and doom involved. Would recommend, especially as a rental or if you can find it, like me, for cheap in a used/bargain bin.

Si Vales, Valeo

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