About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

If you like your female characters to be armed and lethal, then you'll like Witchblade. Be forewarned: the skimpy outfits and the busty animation can't be ignored and there's plenty of violence and other mature imagery to boot, thus its "Mature" rating. But its a keeper nonetheless - Witchblade is definitely worth the watch.



Pros

• Exquisite silver slipcover with additional artwork on back and inside flap.

• Quality extras.
• Good, in-depth storyline.

Cons

• Fairly racy at times - not for the kiddos.

Description

• Rating: TV-MA (Mature)
• Genre: Horror, supernatural, sci-fi, action
• Release date: 11/6/2007

Guide Review - Witchblade Volume 2

Masane Amaha can't remember her past but something in it has given her incredible powers and a thirst for blood. Unfortunately for Masane, she's just now discovering this bad girl side and must learn to master this "thing" that has become a part of her while trying to recover her past and rebuild the bonds with her daughter Rihoko.

In Volume 2, we get quite a bit more in the way of useful information as Masane begins to piece some things together. We're also introduced to Shiori, an X-con equipped with a Cloneblade and Masane finally has an opponent worth fighting. As the two battle it out, it becomes apparent that the blades are quite often more in control than its bearer and after Shiori suffers because of her weak bond with her blade, Masane begins to rethink how things should be handled.

As with volume 1, there's a number of subplots developing and the entire thing has a violent yet lusty feel to it. The body armor couldn't possibly be any smaller and the resulting transformations couldn't be any sexier but even with all the "in-your-face" blood and sex appeal, the story of the Witchblade never gets lost. Gonzo's ramped up version of Top Cow's American comic takes the underlying Witchblade basics and then builds a whole new story around them, complete with twists, turns and a devlishly developing plot.

The bottom line? I like a quality good vs evil kind of story. I love to see female anime characters move away from the whiny sterotype and into something more empowering, even if it is because of an ancient sembiotic organism attached to their wrist. And I loved Witchblade, lusty, busty artwork and all.