El Cazador eps 1 to 2 review

And here’s the second of the new spring ’07 anime I’m managing to squeeze into my limited free time, El Cazadar (de la Bruja). After reading about the story, it sounded interesting, though nothing that special. But I decided to check it out anyway…and so far, I like it. I’m skeptic as to whether or not it’ll be able to keep up its coolness, or if it’ll eventually fall into a predictable formula. But I’m enjoying it in the meantime…I can tell it’s a very difficult series to judge based on just two episodes, but I’m gonna try anyway ^^

LOL, the first thing that came to mind after watching just 20 seconds of the opening song was “Noir”. But not only are the opening song and animation sequence extremely similar to Noir, the series has a great number of other similarities to the classic girls-with-guns series. You got your two lead heroines, both with mysterious pasts, one being introverted and seemingly amnesiac, and then partnering up with the other, who makes a living off of her gun (slight difference is that Nadie is a bounty hunter while Mireille is a hit woman). Also, the series takes place in a foreign, non-Japanese setting (Mexico in El Cazador, France in Noir), the two heroines are being led around/pursued by a shady organization, and the show uses a lot of eerie, ancient-sounding, chant music, especially during the suspenseful gun action scenes (though these scenes don’t seem to be nearly as brilliant as in Noir). I guess it’s no wonder the music is similar, since Yuki Kajiura wrote the score for both series’. So…do I have a problem with El Cazador being so similar to Noir? Of course not, ’cause I loved Noir, and I’m open minded enough to appreciate a series that’s similar to (though not a total copy of) it ^^

Well, despite its resemblance to Noir, El Cazador has other things going for it so far. Our two main protagonist, Nadie and Ellis, seem like they’re going to turn out to be well-developed, likable characters (for some reason, Nadie reminds me of Lina Inverse from Slayers). Their personalities aren’t too angsty, forced, or over exaggerated. You can’t help but want to learn about their mysterious pasts, and even though we have vague ideas as to why Ellis has a bounty on her (and in episode 2, that Nadie was actually hired to protect her), there are still plenty of details and mysteries to reveal as the series progresses, especially about Ellis, the other secondary characters, and the organization that’s after her.

So the story/plot of the series seems to pretty much be finding out the answers to these mysteries. I was really impressed with episode 1, and how it introduced the plot and characters so well, but episode 2 wasn’t quite as good. It reverted back to a typical anime storyline, with the two main characters getting side-tracked on their journey by personal problems of guest characters and helping them solve the problems in the end. I guess a few of these kinds of episodes are okay, as long as there aren’t too many and they don’t get too stereotypical. But there was a lot more humor in episode 2, and thankfully none of it seemed too silly and out of place with the somber mood of the series. Many times I’ve seen serious anime like this one attempt to become a comedy series for a few minutes in an episode, and they usually fail miserably.

Well, that’s all I’ve got to say about El Cazador so far. It’s got a fascinating story, nice character designs, and engrossing music going for it. I doubt it will be as good as Noir, but let’s hope it at least puts up a good fight =)