Wrong Item, wrong description, This IS Knight Hunters Eterni
Jason Smith | 11/25/2007
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I ordered this item thinking (based on the picture and the title and various other references in the site) that I was getting Knight Hunters Complete Collection. Instead I was sent Knight Hunters Eternity. When I contacted Amazon about this I was intially told basically tough luck, we'll give you a refund, but that's all. Then I called back agian and despite the fact that Amazon misrepresented this item, I was told that the only thing they could give me for my inconvience is $20 off the extremely expensive Knight Hunters Complete Collection (which this is advertised to be) and a refund INSTEAD of properly replacing my product and sending me what I ordered. DO NOT BUY THIS THINKING IT IS KNIGHT HUNTERS COMPLETE COLLECTION! It is instead Knight Hunters Eternity! [...] is misrepresenting this product and they are not doing ANYTHING about it. Shame on them and their horrible customer service."
A simple Review
Daquan Wright | New Jersey | 07/11/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Weiss Kreuz Gluhen is a decent series in my opinion. It's not on the great level but it's decent. I loved the characters and the plot went along smoothly. I haven't seen the original series but I hear the character designs were changed due to legal issues. The characters in this season are different from those in the other seasons. This is definitely enjoyable but it's not over the top excellent."
On its own merits...
John Ronald | Sugar Land, Texas | 09/22/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Many reviewers are expressing their frustration at this short series for not living up to the original. Not having seen the original, I can offer an opinion of the series unbiased by comparisons. As with most Anime, I looked up the series on Wikipedia to distinguish between the characters, the different iterations of the series, etc. Amazon *does* describe this product accurately, if you read the series description. If you read the Wikipedia entry, you'd know to be wary of this.
Weiss Kreuz Gluehen (lit. "Glowing White Cross") - Knight Hunters Eternity IS separate and different from the earlier series as a result of a lawsuit. Just the way it is.
That said, artistically I found this series quite beautiful. The plot starts off a little bit slow, to establish the new characters introduced in this series. But soon enough the plot thickens, there are twists, turns, betrayals, defiance of orders, and retribution. Like much Japanese anime, this series does not shirk from killing off major characters, and the body count in this series is staggeringly high.
There's a goodly bit of blood and gore, though not as extreme as say, Elfen Lied.
The animation is well done, the characters have very convoluted, troubled pasts that weigh heavily upon each of them. The ending of the series is a nominal victory for Weiss, but it takes a heavy, tragic toll on all of them. Still, it is an emotionally satisfying ending, if you have a sufficient appreciation for tragedy, irony and poetic justice.
I hold back from giving the series 5 stars because of the horrible mispronunciation if the German words used in the series in the English dub. I cringed at hearing "Rosenkreuz" pronounced "Rosencruise", and there was not one hint of a German accent among any of the voice actors doing the German characters. This series was recorded in NYC, and they couldn't cast a single actor who could do a passable German accent for those characters? Unbelievable (and for comparision, Satella Harvenheit in Chrono Crusade was a bit exaggerated in her accent, but at least it was still believable)! Still, the voice actors did a great job fleshing out their characters, there is a lot of emotion and pathos that went into their various performances, and my hat's off to them. My favorite voice actors are still the Houston-based ADV Films crew, but these (NYAV Post) were acceptable.
Don't forget to check out the "outtakes" feature of the individual volumes...mostly bloopers, and the voice actors/director screwing around & having fun--they are hysterically funny, and this is something I wish ADV Films would do for their DVDs...
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