Cheap Legend of the Dog Warriors - Hakkenden (DVD) (Dog Warriors-Hakkenden) Price

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Customer Reviews of Legend of the Dog Warriors - Hakkenden

An authentic Feudal Japanese anime
The first thing that hits you about this series is it's atmosphere. Based on a 200 year old novel, and set in the Feudal era of Japan, this series drips of the mysticism and and deadly grace of that era, with it's haunting background music, it's bloody sword battles and war scenes, and it's defined characters. The story is unusual; two clans are at war; the Satomi and Anza. The Satomi is at a brutal disadvantage, and in desperation and jest, the lord of the Satomi clan makes a pact with his dog. The result is amazing; among other things, it includes a curse, prayer-beads and eight warriors who we are yet to meet, and who are yet to meet each other. All this is made pretty clear in the first 1/2 hour episode of the series; what really keeps blowing me away is just how much of the plot is fitted in to each episode. Even after just episode one, the cares of the Satomi clan became my own. So, why didn't it get five stars then? Well, for all it's wonderful plot, the animation was a bit cruddy at places. I read somewhere that a lot of different creators took turns in producing each episode, and there are marked differences in the quality from episode to episode, even within an episode. When the quality is good, it really is something to behold, but when it's not....UGH!! -_-;; However, don't let that deter you, if you're into anime with a strong plot and diverse and equally strong characters. It's definitely a series to watch if you're an anime fan, or a fan of Samurai stories, or (like me) you're both!

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Not verry well put together
When I watched the first disc I thought this was a really good series, but once I went on to the next disc I was outraged. The next disc starts out with what looks like a 1rst graders attempt at animation, I think the next episode had bad animation too. But after that it seemed like they went back to the original animators, I was a little mad but I figured the worst was over now. Well a couple episodes later the 1rst graders where back in the animation studio. Changing animators like this is the worst thing you can do, I could see if the animation started out horrible and they upgraded it but why make it worse. On top of all that the story was another one of those stupid make no sense Akira, Ghost in the Shell types. The ending was horrible, the only reason I give it 3 stars is some of the episodes where actually really good. I will bash any anime I dont like, I dont care if everyone else thinks its great or not.

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For the most part, pretty good
The Hakkenden is the story of eight warriors reincarnated from the bizaare union of a woman and a dog. Sounds weird but it's presented in a mature (not explicit) manner. This is complicated by the fact that they don't know each other, so the story is basically their meeting and what transpires.
From other reviews, it seems that changing animation styles within the series is the biggest complaint, so let me address that. The first three episodes have consistent animation which is quite good. Episode four is a different style, but it's not too offensive. By the end of the episode, I liked it. Episodes 4-8 and 11-13 all have the same style, which is similar to the first one. Episode 9 is very basic, but you probably won't wince too much. Episode 10 is a joke. It contains the worst, most comically bad animation I've ever seen. At times the characters' faces are little more than blobs. I spent most of the episode laughing at the animation, so all in all I probably got my money's worth. Bottom line on the animation: it's not as big a deal as lots of people make it out to be. Read on.
The story is pretty intriguing in many places. It seems confusing at first because they dump a hundred different names on you at once, but you really only need to know a small fraction of those names for it to make sense. The characters are not brilliantly developed, but most of them are still interesting. The villain is well done and creepy, although he gets no closure at all. Having a few more episodes to flesh out the eight warriors wouldn't have hurt.
One thing I liked was the atmosphere. Especially in the last three episodes, the feudal Japanese style is really well done, aided by some very good combat animation. When characters fight they do so with grace and fluidity and best of all, most fights are brief and decisive.
So all in all the Hakkenden is an enjoyable, pretty well done anime. It has its flaws, but so does everything. (plus, it's affordable. doesn't that [upset you]when a series has thirteen episodes and they want over a hundred dollars for it? what's the deal?) Anyway, that's the story on The Hakkenden.