Blue Seed

Genre: Shoujo / Comedy
General Audience
1995 Yuzo Takada, Takeshobo, BS Project, TV Tokyo, NAS

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Cover Description:
An elite team of special agents faces off against an ancient and bizarre race of creatures whose millennia-long attempt to enslave humanity have given rise to man's ancient legends of shape-shifting monsters and demons!

For over one thousand years, the forces of the Aragami have been held in check by a steady diet of human sacrifices, but now the bonds have been broken and its up to the elite agents of the TAC to take on mankind's oldest enemies, whose ability to impregnate, mutate, and control almost any living creature make them the most deadly of adversaries.

To combat an enemy who can attack anywhere, anytime, without notice will require the most talented agents from around the world and every resource modern civilization can provide, from high-tech super-computers and chemical weapons to plain old bazookas.

The most dangerous items in the TAC's arsenal, however, are the two special human weapons. Joining the agents in their battle are Momiji Fujimiya, a young Japanese teenager whose traumatic implantation with an unborn Aragami, a 'blue seed', has left her with enhanced psychic abilities, and Mamoru Kusanagi, orange skinned, cat-eyed former servant of the Aragami who rebels against the will of his masters to use his super-human powers to protect Momiji!

The ultimate destiny of the planet earth will be decided once and for all!

(26 Episodes)

Addictive till the final episodes. >>> by skysenshi
Before I begin my commentary on the main parts of Blue Seed, I would just like to commend its creators for the humor they have injected in the Omake Theater (extras at the end of every volume). Three most notable of these fascinating mini-stories, which have no relation whatsoever to the actual storyline, are the overview of Kome's puppy love, the heart-rending "The Day of Sugishita", and the Cinderella-ish "Grandma Go Go". I have never looked forward to a volume's ending as much as I did with Blue Seed's presentations.

That aside, I must admit that the first episode of Blue Seed didn't really strike me as a must-see. The artwork certainly isn't something remarkable, nor is the animation that spectacular. On top of that, what I'm writing about is the English Dub, so any Blue Seed fan would understand if I bashed Momiji's annoying high-pitched squeal--err, voice--to the high heavens. Needless to say, voice acting is very important in defining a character's personality. After hearing Momiji's whining tune, I was convinced that there is nothing to the character design that would make me want to finish all 26 episodes in one night.

I was wrong. The second episode had me changing my mind. The more I learned about Kusanagi, his connection with the dreaded Aragami, and his eventual softening towards our central figure, the more I loved every minute of every episode that followed. It takes a while getting used to the other characters, though, but once you go beyond first impressions, you'll discover that they aren't as bad as their English voice actors portray them to be. I should warn young impressionable readers about something, however: Blue Seed is dripping with so many one-sided love affairs, it actually hurts to watch those people involved! Especially when some of them are featured in the Omake I mentioned above. (My heart cried: "Poor Sugishita! You don't deserve to lose to an old fossil!") The main love triangle, on the other hand, reminds me somewhat of the newer anime Inu-Yasha. It's a Kikyo-Inuyasha-Kagome triangle, to be precise. It must hurt a lot to forever be in the shadow of someone so perfect, someone who is of the same image as yourself but so much more magnificent in so many ways...

Somewhere along the way, you'll realize that Blue Seed is about the struggle for ecological balance--that the myth of the god Susano-oh and his wife Kushinada is a symbolic representation of the human psyche. To be exact, this happens in the 13th episode, where the legend becomes twisted and conflict sets in. Blue Seed suddenly becomes something more than your regular cheesy comedy series. It metamorphoses into an anime that beckons a subtle philosophical analysis. For this alone, my scales have tipped tremendously in its favor. I would recommend this title for those who are looking for something light yet not totally lacking in depth and for those who are after feel-good endings.

Individual Rating: Art/Animation 5; Story 8; Characters 9; Sounds 7