BLADE: THE ANIME SERIES (2011)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*

Prior to this post I have reviewed only one of the four animated TV projects executed in a collaboration between Marvel Entertainment and the Japanese animation company Madhouse: X-MEN; THE ANIME SERIES. In that review I noted that few of the storylines had anything to do with the comics-work of Warren Ellis, who is said to have "overseen" all four productions. Since Wolverine appears in all four projects, Ellis possibly got the job because of his experience with X-books. He certainly contributed nothing of his own to the BLADE serial, because he never wrote the character. On that basis I think it's somewhat more likely that the Madhouse raconteurs are mostly responsible for the storyline-- not least because, in one of the DVD extras for the show, said raconteurs go into great detail about what they did, and no one references Warren Ellis.

I'm sure that the animators were largely familiar with the Marvel franchise through the 1998 Wesley Snipes film and its sequels, but there was a conscious effort to put aside all of the supernatural-vampire elements from the movies and the comics. The movie probably abetted this move toward "scientific vampires," though. The hero Blade is a vampire hunter with superhuman powers due to his mother having been vampirized when Blade was still in the womb, and the cinematic version was reliant upon modern medicine to control his urges to drink blood. From there I hypothesize that the Madhouse scribes decided that all vampires on their earth, despite having exited for centuries and having formed large organizations, are the creation of some supernormal virus. This ties in with their project of having the hero and his sidekick, plucky vampire huntress Makoto, travel through many Asian countries and fight Asian-style vampires. Most of these entities, rather than being undead humans who can sometimes change shape, are polymorphic monsters closer in nature to the Japanese creatures called yokai. All of these metamorphic beings, however, are also the creations of weird science.

The main weird scientist here is Deacon Frost, the vampire who originally fed off Blade's pregnant mother. The writers keep one salient aspect of Frost's 1998 incarnation: that he represents a breed of vampire seeking to overthrow the established clans. However, the film-version of Frost sacrificed all possible Oedipal vibes by casting in the role an actor younger than the hero he had "begotten," and playing Frost as a "young upstart." The Madhouse Frost is an older, white-haired white man, and at one point he even sarcastically calls himself Blade's "father." His reason for opposing the ancient clans is also tied into his paternal nature, for he's tampering with vampire breeds in order to eliminate all the old-style vamps to avenge his son's death by one bloodsucker. Patently the writers sought to make this Frost parallel Blade's own focus upon wiping out predacious vampires everywhere.

Though the revamped origin for the villain arguably improves on that of both the movies and the original comics, the series as a whole never reaches any similar heights with any other element of the franchise. Blade himself struggles with both the horrible traumas of his childhood and with his vampiric urges, but none of these take on dramatic heft. This may be because the writers wanted to emphasize his bonding with Makoto, who would be an identification character for the Japanese audiences seeing the show on their television screens. Makoto and her father are introduced as crusaders out to expunge vampirism even as Blade is, though with no great attention to their motives. However, during a vamp-battle the father is turned into an undead, and to save the girl's life Blade must execute her sole parent. However, Makoto only bears a grudge for two episodes before becoming Blade's full-fledged partner in undead-killing.

The motive for the two heroes to travel across Asia is ostensibly to track down Frost. Frost for his part wants to trap Blade and take samples of his blood for a new super-race that will annihilate the old vampires, so implicitly every time he departs a given country, he leaves behind minions to capture Blade. This gets a bit monotonous until Frost finally does capture his nemesis, though some of the Asian creatures, particularly those from the Philippines, are imaginatively rendered.

The original Blade of the comics concentrated on the use of knives as weapons against supernatural vamps. Movie-Blade built up the hero's image as a swordfighter, but Madhouse also posits that he learned his skills in a particular Asian country-- gee, wonder which one? I liked Blade's sensei but I could have lived without the irrelevant addition of a rival Japanese student obsessed with proving himself superior to the American adventurer. Similarly, the episode with Wolverine is also underwhelming. Since Blade has the market covered on taciturn characters for this series, the writers perforce mold the Marvel mutant more along the lines of the standard "snarky joker" type.

The action-scenes are easily the standout here, with both Blade and Makoto getting strong battles throughout-- which anneals one of my complaints about X-MEN THE ANIME, where I found the fight choreography merely baffling. Despite various compromises, BLADE is still worth a watch.