Kai Doh Maru

Title: Kai Doh Maru Kaidohmaru 怪童丸 Overall: Watch Keywords: 2001, Historical, OVA, Swordplay Notables: This story takes place during the Heian Period of Japan`s history, when evil spirits still resided in the forests, mountains and rivers. A girl, accompanied by her loved one, battles against these evil spirits, while she is disguised as man. This brave woman, aka "Kaidomaru", with a Chinese character "Flame" tatooed on her upper arm, was one of the "Four Devas". Kaidomaru fights for the honor of her lost love, Raikou Minamotono, who had sacrified his life in order to protect the capital Kyoto, from the evils deeds of a "princess" cursed by a malicious ogre. The princess, whom Kaidomaru used to play with as a child, has now become her ultimate enemy. (summary from ANIDB) One episode OVA (47min, released in 2001) Produced by Production I.G R1 Licensed by Manga Entertainment. "Kaidou Maru" may well be a normal person's name; then again, the individual kanjis all have a meaning: "怪" ("kai") means "mysterious", "童" ("warabe" when used alone, "dou" when being a suffix of a compound term) is poetic for "child", and "丸" ("maru") means "circle, completeness, perfection". So the name may indicate "the perfect mystery child".

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Overall	Art	Animation	Character Design	Music	Series Story	Episode Story	Reviewer
Watch 4							dhrachth	#
Kai Doh Maru This is one of those animes that is trying desperately to be artsy. The animation is novel. The opening scene is a truly cool sort of black and white effect. The rest of it is done in the pale colors of the artwork of that period, which is a neat concept but just looks drab. The characters are severely underdeveloped and thus hard to care about. The plot is very thin and the entire thing feels very rushed. There's nothing heinously wrong with the movie--none of the supposedly intelligent characters do anything monumentally stupid, for example--there's just not a lot of substance. On the bright side, there is some pretty neat action in this one. Last updated Wednesday, October 01 2003. Created Wednesday, September 17 2003.

Other Sites

Name	URL
Japanese Series Web Site	http://www.productionig.com/English/116/~/Kaidomaru/