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Knight Hunters - Dead Ringer (Vol. 1)

Knight Hunters - Dead Ringer (Vol. 1)

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $26.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Only watch the subbed.
Review: Hey, I've been a big fan of Weiß Kreuz for a long time had the entire series in fansubs and was really excited when they released it to American DVD. I was very VERY disappointed in all the dubbed voices. They didn't capture the characters like the original four. I don't know who the American voice of Aya is but he is definatly not Koyasu. I didn't mind the dubbing until episode two when Aya sees Taketori and screams out his name. Ther person absolutly had no emotion in his voice during that scene that Koyasu has in the Japanese. I only recommend getting the DVD of this anime that way you can watch the original four guys behind their characters.
Other then the dubbing the DVD is great it has little dubbing bloopers that make you sit back and laugh. Also has a biographys on Koyasu and the gang. In case you haven't picked up on it Koyasu is one of my favorite voice actors. Seeing him now with an anime of him and his groups own creation is just the best.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best EVER
Review: If your into spy things, and awesome looking or high educated florists, then you will love this dvd,4 boys, each have a mysterious past, left their loved ones behind to join a secret agency to hunt down beasts and elimnate them from seeing their tomorrow "knight hunters, deniy these beasts their tomorrow" before they go on a mission that is the last thing they hear!!you must get this if you are into spy things, "there contains some violent scenes"but other than that, AWESOME series!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't be fooled by the hype...
Review: Sure, the plot sounds nice--four attractive young men, innocent flowershop workers by day, savage assassins by night. Eh, it sounds cheesy right there, but I gave it a chance anyway. I'd heard all about the characters, the voice actors, the seemingly promising action/drama/romance integrated throughout. Now, I know better than to listen to the biased reviews of fangirl and boys.

This is a really poorly done anime, by any standards. The dialog is dull, the episodes repetitive and truly inane, and the animation looks like it's done by amateurs. The DVD itself looks good--nice packaging, art--but do NOT judge a DVD by its cover. Yeah, there are some extras for diehard fans, but for the casual viewer, they are pretty much useless. The bloopers section was not amusing at all, just the American voice actors messing up and cussing in the background.

If I had to describe this series, the first and most prominent word that comes to mind is CHEESY. The drama is superficial, the "sci-fi" action is cringe-worthy. I'm not being overly critical, but if you are the type of person who is impressed by black-and-white concepts of justice, Sailormoon style, then by all means, spend your extra [money] on this. But lemme tell you, even Sailormoon has more depth. At least the Sailor scouts were friends.

I gave this a one ... I have seen the first and second DVDs and it's enough for me to conclude that despite the mature content, this is clearly for kids 13 and younger.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Fun bishonen series with *terrible* production values
Review: On some level, how can a show about a group of prettyboys who work in a flower shop by day and assasinate "above the law" villans by night go wrong? There is actually alot to like about Knight Hunters / Weiss Kreuz. The plot is actually far more complex than most anime of this ilk, and if you give the series time, the characters show a surprising amount of depth given the nature of the series. The show also rises above the "villain of the week" syndrome with some very well thought out within-episode storylines that hook you.

On the other hand, this show looks like it had a $100 budget. While the character designs are nice, they also look *very* dated once they show up on screen, and the animation is also extremely poor. Perhaps they were going for an style/theme effect, but for me it just reeks of low-budget b-team animation (lots of stills, extremely stilted motion, simplistic lines, obvious pencil lines everywhere, etc). Think along the lines of the original Bubblegum Crisis series.

Technically, the DVD itself does a fine job. The picture is true to the source material, and the sound is fine. So if you can look past the extremely bland visuals, you might discover a series well worth your time. Decent number of episodes per disc makes it less of a risk, as well.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Ah the world of Bishounen
Review: This anime is one of the first I've picked up. I'll just share my opinion since the 1st reviewer did such a great job of explaining events, characters, plot...etc. The animation isn't the greatest, however it is at times impressive. It's chock-full of great voice actors, that's a plus. The soundtrack and image albums are euphonic. It shares the humanity of the antagonists, which is quite common in anime. Therefore, in my opionion, although this may be an action-packed, bishounen-full series, it still grasps on to depth within the story and characters. I did enjoy the series and the characters, but there seemed to have something missing within the storyline...a bit choppy (like my review), if you ask me. Nevertheless, this is one of the more appealing animes, I believe, because it breaks away from the 12-year old superhero/mecha-dominated shows that are oh-so-common. This series does contain some humor (meaning superdeformed/funny faces/sweatdrops kinda thing), not as much as Fushigi Yuugi, and not anyless than Gundam W. So all in all, the cute boys (especially Ken and Schuldich ^_^) shallowly make up for the relatively inconsistant storyline and the music makes up for the less than super animation.

BTW...I didn't watch the DVD version, I watched it in the original Japanese.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great features, great series
Review: I don't know where all these reviewers are coming up with the notion that Cheesiness, Angst, & Extreme High Melodrama are *surprising*-- or *unwanted*-- in a shojo anime. Come on! Really. This is for us. We want our angst and family tragedies and long-lost siblings and haunted pasts and Good Vs. Evil and unrequited love and knee-weakeningly beautiful boys... we want it all, and we want it bloody.

That said, the Weiss Kreuz collection is one of the best things that you could possibly take home & watch on the sofa with your box of chocolates & your pink tissues. Four pretty young things, each one with a worse revenge-complex than the next, all with clashing personalities; an expansion on the buddy-cop concept, only better... four pretty young vicious bloodthirsty international assassin boys who run a flower-shop. And of course they're all straight. If you don't love an idea like that right away, then you shouldn't be renting this in the first place.

The DVD edition is fabulous, easy to navigate, crammed with features, sketches, interviews, you name it. I was especially (pleasantly) surprised at the existence of outtakes. Recording all that drama had to be taxing, so it must've been a scream to make a pink-clad Omi say, "But I can only dance to Madonna."

You can watch most of these stories independently of each other without worrying about the overarching plot, which is nice for those who don't want the full collection. The boys get a mission, they go out and find the bad guys, and much fighting & bickering ensues. Most episodes have at least some brokenhearted weeping, and they all have bloodshed (although the fight-sequence style in this anime doesn't do much for me). If you're lucky, you'll get to see the gang of psychic/psychotic villain boys, who are even more interesting than the heroes. You can start watching with an eye to just absorbing the cheesy missions, but you will soon be hooked on the tangled interpersonal relationships and vendettas, which is, after all, the point.

I personally like the animation well enough; it's not groundbreaking, but it does not look like 1987, either. The dubs and subs are equally good here, in my opinion. They put a nice amount of effort into it. I think the English translation was pretty great, very natural-sounding. Bold yellow subtitles were easy to read. The voice actors were often lackluster, I agree with everyone on that point. I privately think Aya could be even bitchier (although he couldn't be colder, which was nice), Omi even squeakier, and Farfarello even crazier. But Schuldig's erotically snide baritone is the definite bright-point of the English dub; you may find yourself listening to him purr "ruined lives taste like honey" repeatedly until you freeze up your Pause button.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Only watch the subbed.
Review: Hey, I've been a big fan of Weiß Kreuz for a long time had the entire series in fansubs and was really excited when they released it to American DVD. I was very VERY disappointed in all the dubbed voices. They didn't capture the characters like the original four. I don't know who the American voice of Aya is but he is definatly not Koyasu. I didn't mind the dubbing until episode two when Aya sees Taketori and screams out his name. Ther person absolutly had no emotion in his voice during that scene that Koyasu has in the Japanese. I only recommend getting the DVD of this anime that way you can watch the original four guys behind their characters.
Other then the dubbing the DVD is great it has little dubbing bloopers that make you sit back and laugh. Also has a biographys on Koyasu and the gang. In case you haven't picked up on it Koyasu is one of my favorite voice actors. Seeing him now with an anime of him and his groups own creation is just the best.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great features, great series
Review: I don't know where all these reviewers are coming up with the notion that Cheesiness, Angst, & Extreme High Melodrama are *surprising*-- or *unwanted*-- in a shojo anime. Come on! Really. This is for us. We want our angst and family tragedies and long-lost siblings and haunted pasts and Good Vs. Evil and unrequited love and knee-weakeningly beautiful boys... we want it all, and we want it bloody.

That said, the Weiss Kreuz collection is one of the best things that you could possibly take home & watch on the sofa with your box of chocolates & your pink tissues. Four pretty young things, each one with a worse revenge-complex than the next, all with clashing personalities; an expansion on the buddy-cop concept, only better... four pretty young vicious bloodthirsty international assassin boys who run a flower-shop. And of course they're all straight. If you don't love an idea like that right away, then you shouldn't be renting this in the first place.

The DVD edition is fabulous, easy to navigate, crammed with features, sketches, interviews, you name it. I was especially (pleasantly) surprised at the existence of outtakes. Recording all that drama had to be taxing, so it must've been a scream to make a pink-clad Omi say, "But I can only dance to Madonna."

You can watch most of these stories independently of each other without worrying about the overarching plot, which is nice for those who don't want the full collection. The boys get a mission, they go out and find the bad guys, and much fighting & bickering ensues. Most episodes have at least some brokenhearted weeping, and they all have bloodshed (although the fight-sequence style in this anime doesn't do much for me). If you're lucky, you'll get to see the gang of psychic/psychotic villain boys, who are even more interesting than the heroes. You can start watching with an eye to just absorbing the cheesy missions, but you will soon be hooked on the tangled interpersonal relationships and vendettas, which is, after all, the point.

I personally like the animation well enough; it's not groundbreaking, but it does not look like 1987, either. The dubs and subs are equally good here, in my opinion. They put a nice amount of effort into it. I think the English translation was pretty great, very natural-sounding. Bold yellow subtitles were easy to read. The voice actors were often lackluster, I agree with everyone on that point. I privately think Aya could be even bitchier (although he couldn't be colder, which was nice), Omi even squeakier, and Farfarello even crazier. But Schuldig's erotically snide baritone is the definite bright-point of the English dub; you may find yourself listening to him purr "ruined lives taste like honey" repeatedly until you freeze up your Pause button.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Of Florists & Assassins...
Review: I've seen the entire first season [not the second sadly] and from the first opening theme to the last ending credits, I was hooked...the plot is refreshingly...well...THERE, so you're not just sitting there staring at the 4 bishies [Aya, Ken, Omi, and Yohji] for 8 hours straight. [but is that so bad? heh] Lead by the mysterious Persia, the four recieve missions to assassinate various "baddies," each episode focusing on one of the 4 main characters. The plot twist at the end takes you totally by suprise, something I always like...[For those who hate spoilers, all I say is it involves Aya & Omi]

But let me put it in perspective for you...the entire first season is about 8 hours long. I watched it all in one sitting [no breaks, literally, i was so into it, i forgot to pee]. I have the attention span less than zero. I was enthralled during every single minute. Does that help at all? It's THAT good.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE BEST ANIME EVER!!!
Review: this is my best anime when i 1st watched the 1st 5 episodes in the 1st DVD it was not that good but when i bought the second DVD man this is the best anime u have to watch it full of action adventuer the characters is the best of all animes the story is so great and when the episode finish i just cant wait to see the next what can i say else GO AND BUY THIS ANIME IN THE BIGENNING U WILL NOT UNDERSTAND AND ITS A LITTLE NO SENSE BUT WHEN U KEEP WATCHING U WILL SEE THE NEXT AND NEXT TILL THE END IM SURE THAT U WILL LIKE THIS ANIME..........


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