So, I was browsing a happy little anime store yesterday (North Hampton Massachusetts, I love you) when I decided to flip through the latest Anime Insider. I'm a Newtype person myself, but it can't hurt, right? Wrong. I found a cazzy article. Shouldn't that be a good thing. No. I think anime insider hates fans. It's a nice 2 page thing, one side being the bubble pic, the other being the article with part of the first pic at the bar and a bit more of the side of the bubble pic. Here's the full article from the October 2007 issue (typed out by me because anything is better then homework).
Flash in Japan. Why overseas otaku dig El Cazador De La Bruja. By Andrez Bergen.
El Cazador De La Bruja may have copious gunplay, a murder mystery and a Spanish title that translates to "The Witch Hunter", but according to it's director, Koichi Mashimo, it's above all else a road movie in anime clothing- one that's headed straight to the border.
The highly respected helmsman of Madlax, Noir, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle and most of the .hack outlings drove the notion home in a recent chat with Anime Insider.
(Here, they place the bar picture of Nadie and Ellis, with a caption reading: On The Road Ellis (left) and Nadie have no time for mysteries, not when there are drinks to be downed and midriffs to be tanned.)
"It's a road movie-style story in which two girls, Ellis- a target of bounty hunters- and Nadie- a bounty hunter- join up and then head south," he relates.
El Cazador ranges well into Mexico, where the amnesiac Ellis is hiding from some relentless bounty hunters until she can figure out just why she's been accused of a murder she can't remember. Even Ellis' array of unusual powers can't keep the feisty, self-assured bounty hunter Nadie off her tracks in a dusty Mexican township. But instead of turning in the girl for the reward money, Nadie joins Ellis in her flight south to uncover clues about her missing memory.
It's the setup for countless shootouts and general mayhem in the style of Noir, yet Mashimo believes that the locale, the character-driven plot and the quirks in the style of the unfolding tale are the real strengths here.
"The story itself is serious, but this time I took a more cheerful angle, with a consciously light and easy sense of taste, in order to avoid too much doom or gloom," he explains.
"Putting a little gag into a serious scene, such as Ellis' innocent regular line, 'Yes Sir', makes for a different approach from my previous two projects, Noir and Madlax. And the story in Latin America, which is unusual for anime, also creates a more open atmosphere than the previous two series."
While the series continues Mashimo's pension for gals with guns, even stronger character development is part of a newly baked approach here, taken in tandem with his co-driver, writer Kenichi Kanemki (Hell Girl).
"I think that Nadie's character, who is an ace gunslinger but has another side as a silly soul who pushes her luck, plays a big part in the outcome of this story," he muses.
The same goes for Nadie's would-be-sidekick, Ellis, in this murder-mystery yarn where nothing is quite what it seems.
"In Ellis' background, there's a big secret about her birth," Mashino says. "That secret relates to a key person in the large-scale Project Leviathan plot, and the friendship between the two girls undercuts the suspense surrounding the mystery of that project.
"Another key point is that the two heroines don't actively clear up the mystery very well, and they don't seem to care! Although they hook up for their own purposes at first, they unexpectedly get along with each other and start to think that it would be pretty nice to continue traveling together, so they enjoy the journey itself, without hurrying forward at all. I think this carefree abandon reflects the Latin setting."
Femmes and firearms aside, Mashimo sees a direct path between El Cazador De La Bruja and his previous series, Noir and Madlax, in part because of the principal producer he worked with in all three.
"I discussed the project with producer Shigeru Kitayama of Victor Entertainment, who worked on the other two titles with me, and we drew up this project based on his draft," he recounts.
The director says he can't single out one individual character for praise ("I love all of them," he warmly declares) but he is forthcoming when it comes to his favorite snack food consumption during and after the creative process.
"I often drink coffee, but I hardly eat anything during work because eating slows the tempo down," Mashimo declares. "Still, I like potatoes, so there's nothing better than drinking a beer with french fries after a hard day's work."
(Under that their is a line, followed by this comment in italics: If real-world bounty hunters looked like Nadie, Tokyo correspondent Andrez Bergen would rack up parking tickets by the truckload.)
At A Glance
Airing: Weekly on TV Tokyo
Director: Koichi Mashimo (.hack//Roots, Noir, Irresponsible Captin Tylor)
Series Composition: Kenichi Kanemaki (Galaxy Angel, Hell Girl)
Character Design: Yoko Kikuchi (Noir, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle: The Movie)
Mecha designers: Kenji Teraoka (IGPX, Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex,) Seji Koezuka and Tadashi Koezuka
Music: Yuki Kaijiura (.hack//SIGN, Petite Cossette, My-Hime)
Producers: Shigeru Kitayama (Trigun, Excel Saga) & Mamiko Aoki (Beyblade: The Movie)
Animation Production: Bee Train (.hack//Legend of the Twilight, Noir)
Cast: Ellis: Ai Shimizu (Mikoto in My-Hime, Akari in This Ugly yet Beautiful World); Nadie: Shizuka Itou (Alice in Pumpkin Scissors, Shiori in Witchblade); Jody Hayward: Aya Hisakawa (Rem Saverem in Trigun, Yuki in Fruits Basket); Ricardo: Fumihiko Tachiki (Kenpachi in Bleach, Gendo Ikari in Evangelion); Douglas Rosenburg: Kenta Miyake (Tsume in Wolf's Rain, Takuya in Noein)
........At least someone loves L.A.
