Cheap Witch Hunter Robin - Fugitive (Vol. 4) (DVD) (Shuko Murase) Price

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Customer Reviews of Witch Hunter Robin - Fugitive (Vol. 4)

Darker and more serious.
After the attack on her apartment Robin is taken to headquarters, where everybody figures she will be safe. They're wrong. Robin is no longer the Witch Hunter, but a witch that now must be hunted. Or, at least, that's how it looks like to her. As she learns to live on her own, the rest of the STNJ, minus Amon who is now missing, are finding it harder and harder to do their job. Everybody in these episodes seem to be questioning the very facts behind witch hunting and the STNJ team seems to be splitting apart. Trust, is after all, at an all time low. Is Robin on the wrong side and who does Amon really work for? How many sides are there? Are her powers out of her control or are they just becoming stronger?
I love the fight at the end of "In My Pocket". Robin kicks butt and the music for the scene really fits the mood. Everything is dark and dirty, the underside of the city, as Robin tries to survive. She doesn't look good as a messenger (but somehow she's still dressed in black).
These episodes are some of the best and they are all linked together (no stand alones in this DVD). The extras include the normal notes, trailers and two voice actor interviews.

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"All many traces of loneliness..."
The violent attack at Robin's apartment at the end of the previous DVD signals a change in her relationship with the STNJ. She is no longer a hunter, but the hunted. How this has happened it not completely clear, but Solomon now perceives that her powers have become too great and the attacks continue, escalating at the beginning of this DVD to a direct attack on STNJ headquarters. Amon engineers Robin's escape but he is compromised, and disappears.

Robin goes undercover, working as an assistant for Nagira, an attorney who has a connection with Amon and with the underground community of witches who lurk in Tokyo. Despite her own desire to remain hidden, a string of coincidences keep renewing her Robin's contacts with the STNJ team, who are now too short-handed to be effective. Robin must step in several times to prevent disaster.

Surprisingly, adversity has changed Robin from a fifteen-year-old girl with only tentative self-confidence to a young woman who can make her own decisions and fend for herself. In addition something is affecting her powers, making them an order of magnitude stronger, and harder to control. Robin is being drawn into the politics of the magic user's subculture, and she is on the way to being a force to be reckoned with.

It's hard to pinpoint why, but the artwork on these DVD's also seems to have improved. A variety of new angles and framing are being tried, and conceptual design of the 'walled city' is superb, providing the perfect modern gothic, noir background for a story that has become more ambivalent and complicated as Robin realizes that witches are not necessarily evil and have the right to live their own lives.

If you have been undecided whether to jump into this series I think it's clear now that this is exceptional work, possible one of the best serious anime of 2004.

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So long Robin ....
Often times the Amazon review boards are mistaken for discussion boards or fan forums. This in mind, what I'm about to say is going to upset that crowd. I will do my best to be fair.

First, let's address the show itself. The show is starting to suffer from some production value issues during these later episodes. Things are starting to seem rushed. Mouths don't move when people are talking (i.e. Robin and Amen running down the steps in episode 15). People seem to be standing and sitting for quite a long period of time without moving their head (a quick way to fill up some air time without great effort). Perhaps I am being slightly petty on this point, but I've seen way too many good anime (with strong production values to the very end) to let it slide.

This brings us to the story and character development. The story is far from great and the characters remain lifeless and dull. I think many who disagree are bridging the many gaps in the plot with their imaginations or basing reviews on future episodes. I have not seen any of the future episodes and I didn't pay money to imagine the story.

The writers have given us one major plot twist on the third DVD and it's already going nowhere on this DVD. I'm not an extreme action junkie, I can appreciate well built suspense, but it seems to me like we should have been in and out of the factory, discovered what Orzo is, and introduces new levels of conflict by this point. The world of Robin is just too interesting to devote whole episodes on nothing. And this leads us to Robin's ultimate downfall...

It seems the writers are gearing this show towards a younger audience (which is fine). However, I like my anime to be a little more complicated than what is being offered. I'm used to the plot twisting and turning like a pretzel. Robin has let me down here. The only twists come in the curve of a boomerang that never quite takes off and keeps revisiting the same old threads.

To conclude, if this was ten years ago with virtually no anime market around, I might suggest owning Robin just to own something. However, it isn't ten years ago and, in my very humble opinion, you have MANY better ways to spend your anime dollar (Rahxephon, Cowboy Bebop, Last Exile, etc).

For the fans I upset, I apologize. Take solace in that this will be the last review I write. My Robin collection ends here.