Bamboo Blade

Bamboo Blade is not part of the Winter '08 season, but has instead been airing since October in 2007. It's a seinen comedy about Kendo, how can you not love it!

PLOT SUMMARY: Ishida Toraji is the supervising teacher of the Kendo Club at Muroe High School. He is dull and so poor that he finds it hard to make a living. However, his life changes dramatically when Ishibashi-sensei, who went to the same school of Toraji, asks him to have a competition with Ishida's all-girl kendo team. Since then, Toraji, Chiba Kirino, the club leader, and two new boy members, Nakata Yuji and Eiga Danjuro, are recruiting girl members. Going through various events, three members, Kawazoe Tamaki, the strongest swordswoman and only daughter of a Kendo school, Miyazaki Miyako, who is a beginner and Eiga's girlfriend, Kuwahara Sayako, who used to be a club member but has been skipping out, join the club and they begin to train vigorously for the competition. However, they still need another member for the competition.

What is Toraji's secret plan for the competition? What is his true purpose?

MAIN CHARACTERS:



Toraji Ishida - Nickname "Kojiro", politics and economics teacher at Muroe High, and the Kendo Club instructor. He's an overall lazy guy who lives the desperate end of a paycheck to paycheck lifestyle. Used to be extremely good at Kendo, even beating his friend Ishibashi in a tournament, but his laziness in recent years has led to a slow depletion of his skill. Will do ANYTHING, and I do mean anything, to win the bet with his old pal.



Kirino Chiba - Lion-chan! Second year student and captain of the Kendo Club, she is one of the stronger members who dreams of leading her club to the national championships. Pretty much your average genki girl. Her family runs the Chiba Deli. =o



Sayako Kuwahara - Aspiring guitarist, novelist, second year student and childhood friend of Kirino. She has a passion for all things tl;dr and often quits the Kendo Club for short periods of time. Very similar to Kirino personality-wise, however she is much taller. The tallest member of the club, even.



Tamaki Kawazoe - First year student and the smallest high schooler this side of Chiyo-chan, Tamaki's family runs a dojo that Tamaki has taken part in since she was a child, making her a child prodigy and the strongest character of the series. She's very quiet and somewhat akward, but she has a very strong sense of justice. Harbors a love for super sentai anime.



Miyako Miyazaki - Girlfriend of Danjuro and first year student, Miyamiya (for short) is a very beautiful girl with an extremely dark side that her boyfriend is quite oblivious to. Extremely sadastic, she stays with Kendo after she finds out that she enjoys hitting people. What a surprise!



Satori Azuma - (Kirino: RAPE TIME) Another first year student, she is the second strongest team member (one of the few who can keep up with Tamaki), but unfortunately her poor grades keep her from joining the Kendo Club, despite her love for Kendo. She doesn't make an appearance until around episode 11, but if you pay close attention you can see her in the background of several early episodes. Oh, and she's also extremely clumsy.



Yūji Nakata - Childhood friend of Tamaki, Yuji has been practicing Kendo since middle-school, and is pretty good at it to boot. Unfortunately, he is a guy, so he never actually gets to do much.



Danjūrō Eiga - Dan-kun for short, he is Miyamiya's boyfriend and is a rather plain-faced, short build guy. He's a first year who joins along with Yuji, who swears up and down that one day Danjuro will surpass him in Kendo. Yeah, right.



Kenzaburō Ishibashi - Kojiro's old Senpai and Kendo coach at Machido High, he lost to his junior in a high school tournament, and has secretly held a grudge ever since. Makes a bet with Kojiro that his team of five girls is stronger, with the stakes being the old tropy if he wins.

There's a secondary cast of characters from Ishibashi's high school who get their own time, but the show for the most part the show focus' on Kojiro's high school.

IMPRESSION: I actually picked this one up on a whim, and I was presently surprised. The show manages to be one of nonstop laughs, but it also manages to keep the plot going along at a smooth pace, and all the characters (even secondary) all get enough screentime for you to get to know them. Definetly worth watching, and even if you don't think so I'd suggest at least giving the first episode a change. There's two main groups that I know of doing it. STAR is of acceptable quality, although I hear Doremi's are better (but they release slower).

Torrent List:
(AVI)
STAR Episode 1
STAR Episode 2
STAR Episode 3
STAR Episode 4
STAR Episode 5
STAR Episode 6
STAR Episode 7
STAR Episode 1-7
STAR Episode 8
STAR Episode 9
STAR Episode 10
STAR Episode 11
STAR Episode 12
STAR Episode 13
STAR Episode 14
STAR Episode 15
STAR Episode 16
STAR Episode 17
STAR Episode 18
STAR Episode 19 NEW!

(MKV)
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 1
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 2
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 3
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 4
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 5
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 6
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 7
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 8
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 9
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 10
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 11
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 12
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 13
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 14
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 15
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 16
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 17
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 18 NEW!

(AVI)
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 1
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 2
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 3
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 4
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 5
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 6
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 7
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 8
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 9
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 10
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 11
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 12
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 13
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 14
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 15
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 16
Huzzah-Doremi Episode 17

Jam it back in, in the dark.

some more random links

Bamboo Blade @ AnimeNewsNetwork
Official Site (moon runes here)

Bamboo Blade is sugoi, especially the stellar voice acting cast (many of whom are big names). It's too bad the OP and ED are boring and useless, though I hear the DVD releases will try and fix that.

I follow Huzzah-Doremi's subs, but in this case it looks like either fansub group is an acceptable choice (as long as you don't get AEN).

All hail Saya's Nintendium rear.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Also yeah, AEN's subs are complete rubbish, reason why I didn't even bother listing them.

I don't mind the OP though. ;__;

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Tails

Miyako Miyazaki - Girlfriend of Danjuro and first year student, Miyamiya (for short) is a very beautiful girl with an extremely dark side that her boyfriend is quite oblivious to. Extremely sadastic, she stays with Kendo after she finds out that she enjoys hitting people. What a surprise!

Miyako Miyazaki even has a Wikipedia entry WAIT WHAT

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Oh Bamboo Blade! Someone finally started a thread on this!

For me, it's one of the best animes of the 'last season' - Funny, cute and awesome!

The OP and ED aren't that useless - I still love both songs and the visualization isn't that bad - can't say anything against the ending and I somehow love the beginning of the opening

btw. where the hell did AEN come from?

I was speaking idiomatically.

No idea where AEN came from.

Also, updated the list of eps in the first post. We're up to 18 now! Although apparently after this just about most of the fights in the manga have been animated, or so I've been told. If you're not watching yet, you need to hurry the hell up! Remember...



What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Okay, putting 17 episodes into queue. It's about time I get something new.

FELIPE NO

Finished watching. Pretty cute, quaint, and there were a few epic moments, like Tamaki's rivalry with that one girl.

Quote:

Satoru Azuma

Don't you mean NEGI FUCKING SPRINGFIELD?! Same VA, the works ahaha.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?