Anime Mirage of Blaze

[Megumi momo]

I own the first two and I adore it.
I just wanna know if anyone also has seen it!!

[Dagger]

I've heard of Mirage of Blaze, and although I'm interested in watching it, I'm not quite sure that the series would be worth my money. I already own one series (Descendants of Darkness) with strong shonen-ai overtones but no actual relationships; unless Mirage of Blaze is incredibly original and artistically stunning, I see no reason to go broke for its sake.

Something else that concerns me are MoB's character designs--they look strikingly similar to X-TV's, and I suspect that the latter probably has better better animation.

But please do describe the show's positive characteristics for me. I've heard that its reincarnation storyline is very well done, and I'd like to know more about it.

~Dagger~

[Monkey_Orange]

Ooo...I have all 4 volumes of [B]Mirage of Blaze[/B].

I think that the story is pretty original. Keep in mind though that it's based on a long running series of novels, so 13 episodes is not enough to encompass the entire story.

What's the story about? Mind you, the show is pretty much an introduction so even the characters themselves are a bit unsure of what's going on--actually it's only one character.

In general, you got a bunch of guys from a long time ago who have been dispatched by a general to remain in the living world in order to exorcise vengeful spirits of the present time. Unfortunately, due to some internal conflicts within the group, the group leader was forced to seal away his own memories and is thus having a difficult time in coming to terms with his true identity.

Now, take what I've just told you and add in a bunch of unresolved feelings, sneaky and villainous wondering souls, and mix it with a butt load of Japanese history and lessons in exocorcism, and then you'll have the show.

I'll try not to spoil much, but the show does have a good ending that will have you wanting more. Unfortunately, unless you know other languages other than English [not me], then you won't be getting any. Sorry.

[U]Good things about the show[/U]
[B]Story[/B]: Not a simple one and quite involved in itself-->I like that! Supernatural. Drama. History. On one hand, there's fighting against the forces of evil, and on the other hand there's fighting that occurs within yourself, your feelings, and your sanity. Very angst-ridden.

[B]Art[/B]: Pretty. Clean. Pretty. As a rabid fan-girl, I admit that I enjoyed the bishies. Personally, I like the look of this show more than [B]X TV[/B] .

[B]Music[/B]: Not too bad, but it does make sense in that it contributes to the overall atmosphere of the show--serious and tense. [I]However[/I], I absolutely loove the acoustics in it too. Very nice.

Um. That's all I got for now. Can't you just tell that this is one of my favorite shows?

I love Naoe and Ougi, so much! And Chiaki kicks ***!

[Dagger]

[quote name='Dagger IX1']I recently read on ANN that a three-episode Mirage of Blaze OVA is currently being produced. Since I'm very interested in MoB and have yet to buy the series, I'd love to hear other fans' thoughts on this news.[/quote]

[quote=Monkey_Orange][color=darkorange]Simply to put it: I am VERY happy *^^* even though it won't come to the US for a while longer *sad*

I enjoyed watching MoB. Yes, it's definitely Shounen-ai. BUT, don't think that it has comedy or anything--it's a pretty serious story with lots of Japenese history [very interesting--you better be good at keeping track of names].

*sniff* I loved the story. Sadly, the 13 episode series was just NOT enough to cover the entire story of the novels themselves. After I finished watching the series, I kept banging my head against the wall crying out loud "why oh why do I not know Chinese?!?" If so, then I could easily go out and buy the rest of the novels!

Well, I'm happy about the OVAs because hopefully it'll tell the viewers more of the story. *sighs* Of course, more Naoe is also a good thing *drools* ^^;[/color][/quote]

Those replies were posted in another thread, but I thought I'd duplicate them here just so we'd all be on the same page (so to speak).

Anyway, the aforementioned OVA recently came out in Japan. I'm still holding out for the Mirage of Blaze box set (which is going to be released sometime toward the end of November), but it'd be sort of nice if the OVA were fansubbed. To my knowledge it's still unlicensed; hopefully that will change fairly soon.

A quick summary and some nifty screencaps can be found [url=http://anime.blurry-eyes.com/archives/cat_honou_no_mirage.php][u]here[/u][/url].

~Dagger~