Post by Fenril on Apr 26, 2013 13:56:12 GMT -5
An animated adaptation of the tv series "Supernatural", loosely adapting the general plot of the first two seasons, along with adaptations of a few comic book spin-offs and some brand-new material.
As much as I enjoy the regular tv show, it's become fairly bloated over time (really, the show should have ended with the fifth season, as was originally intended); nevertheless, I was intrigued by the idea of a new version --and an actual anime at that (meaning it's a Japanese production, not a US cartoon with an anime aesthetic). The results were surprisingly good.
The general storyline is pretty much the same: the Winchester brothers, Sam and Dean, hunt all sort of supernatural creatures all over the US while searching for their father and trying to solve the mistery behind their mother's murder.
The support cast is given new storylines --female hunter Ellen is replaced with psychic Missouri (a one-shot character from the original show), Bobby is potrayed as more of an ally than a surrogate father (which works surprisingly well), demoness Meg is diven a very different story (and a lot more power); most notably, villains and victims of the day such as Jessica (Sam's girlfriend), Jake (a G. I. haunted by demonic forces) and a father-and-son vampire team are given much more development.
This also fixes a common problem with the series proper, the vague implication that everything supernatural is evil by default and that the few "good" monsters out there are just humans trying to control bad blood in themselves. Here we are given things like a benevolent Kappa, a non-lethal prankster spirit, and humans with powers whose *human* side is the problem.
On the ocassional issues that the tv show had with minorities (meaning that minority characters do exist prominently in "Supernatural", but they tend to be potrayed as victims of the day. Black male characters on the show are almost always evil and recurring female characters will usually end up victimized, whereas recurrent white male characters will usually go out in a blaze of glory)... on that front it's *slightly* better --minority and recurring female characters do exist (notably a male-to-female transexual cop, in an original story having to do with phantom cars), and while a lot of them are still victims of the week at least they are given more of a story.
Jake and Missouri are developed, if minor, characters, Meg (the human, not the demon in her) is given a strong motivation to join the demons, and so on. Interestingly, Gordon, the crazed vampire hunter from the show, appears for one episode, but in this case he's potrayed as a Van Helsing-type european, rather than as african-american (he also never meets the Winchesters).
The animation itself may not be the best out there (it's not always as dinamic as it should be), but the scripts themselves are pretty good, and ocassionally they use the animated format to show a few monsters they couldn't do before, the less humanlike in appearance.
It's also worth noting that the character Dean is much more compassionate in this version (one could argue this makes him far more sympathetic in key moments such as a confrontation with his stranged father).
All in all... I'm not sure if anime fans who don't care about the original show would like this (there are much better monster-hunting anime out there), but it's short and entertaining enough to never overstate it's welcome.
As much as I enjoy the regular tv show, it's become fairly bloated over time (really, the show should have ended with the fifth season, as was originally intended); nevertheless, I was intrigued by the idea of a new version --and an actual anime at that (meaning it's a Japanese production, not a US cartoon with an anime aesthetic). The results were surprisingly good.
The general storyline is pretty much the same: the Winchester brothers, Sam and Dean, hunt all sort of supernatural creatures all over the US while searching for their father and trying to solve the mistery behind their mother's murder.
The support cast is given new storylines --female hunter Ellen is replaced with psychic Missouri (a one-shot character from the original show), Bobby is potrayed as more of an ally than a surrogate father (which works surprisingly well), demoness Meg is diven a very different story (and a lot more power); most notably, villains and victims of the day such as Jessica (Sam's girlfriend), Jake (a G. I. haunted by demonic forces) and a father-and-son vampire team are given much more development.
This also fixes a common problem with the series proper, the vague implication that everything supernatural is evil by default and that the few "good" monsters out there are just humans trying to control bad blood in themselves. Here we are given things like a benevolent Kappa, a non-lethal prankster spirit, and humans with powers whose *human* side is the problem.
On the ocassional issues that the tv show had with minorities (meaning that minority characters do exist prominently in "Supernatural", but they tend to be potrayed as victims of the day. Black male characters on the show are almost always evil and recurring female characters will usually end up victimized, whereas recurrent white male characters will usually go out in a blaze of glory)... on that front it's *slightly* better --minority and recurring female characters do exist (notably a male-to-female transexual cop, in an original story having to do with phantom cars), and while a lot of them are still victims of the week at least they are given more of a story.
Jake and Missouri are developed, if minor, characters, Meg (the human, not the demon in her) is given a strong motivation to join the demons, and so on. Interestingly, Gordon, the crazed vampire hunter from the show, appears for one episode, but in this case he's potrayed as a Van Helsing-type european, rather than as african-american (he also never meets the Winchesters).
The animation itself may not be the best out there (it's not always as dinamic as it should be), but the scripts themselves are pretty good, and ocassionally they use the animated format to show a few monsters they couldn't do before, the less humanlike in appearance.
It's also worth noting that the character Dean is much more compassionate in this version (one could argue this makes him far more sympathetic in key moments such as a confrontation with his stranged father).
All in all... I'm not sure if anime fans who don't care about the original show would like this (there are much better monster-hunting anime out there), but it's short and entertaining enough to never overstate it's welcome.