Chrono Crusade Gospel 1: A Plague of Demons - PopCultureShock.Com
- PopCultureShock.Com
- Christina Alexander
- 11/01/04
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"Fans of the devil hunting genre should make this a priority buy.
"
Chrono Crusade
Vol. 1 A Plague of Demons
Fighting evil with evil.
Ok, so the demon 'thing' is somewhat overdone in anime. Ever since Demon City Shinjuku, Doomed Megalopolis, and several other anime borne of the ideas of hell appeared in the late 80's-early 90's, shows about preventing evil spirits and devil lords from taking over the world have been a staple part of the wide world of anime. But as long as there are new inventive, and engaging stories like Berserk and ADV's new Chrono Crusade then this genre will always have a place.
Synopsis:
Chrono Crusade's title is a bit of a play on words as it consists of the name of one of he show's protagonists as well as the polite termiology for the ancient religous agenda of stamping out evil.
It's America's Roaring 20's. Filled with flappers, illegal gambling, and mobsters, prohibition is the key word of the day. However, drinking and gambling aren't the only vices being pursued by the rich and carefree. Disturbingly enough, satan worshipping has cropped up as a pastime of those with means. Looking for ever more exciting and forbidden ways to pass the time, the wealthy have turned to the raising of demons. More often than not, this gets them way in over their heads. In order to combat these new atrocities, the Magadalene Order has been put in place. This special division of the Church employs highly trained exorcists who hunt demons with extreme prejudice.
Sister Rosette is one such exorcist, and she's about as good as they come when it comes to ridding New York of pesky devils. Don't let her flippant attitude fool you. She takes her job very seriously and would put any Navy Seal sharpshooter to shame with her firearm skills. But there's something a little different about Rosette. She openly works with that which her order abhors in order to complete her missions. And his name is Chrono. Having discovered him years prior, Rosette has bound herself to Chrono with more than friendship. You see, Rosette is Chrono's contractor. In order for him to access his true form he must feed on a human soul. And that soul in Rosette's. Although Chrono hates having to absorb a bit of his friend's life force (resulting in a shorter lifespan for her), at times it is the only way. Sometimes evil is the only thing that can combat evil. When he's not in his full scourge-of-hell persona, Chrono takes the form of a young boy with pointy elfin ears and a rather pleasant and self-deprecating disposition. Altogether, the cutest devil you've ever seen.
Rosette and Chrono have been sent out to investigate and possibly rescue a young woman being held prisoner by a hotel mogul. It is suspected that the young girl may be an Apostle, one of the select few human beings imbued with the ability to wield some of God's power. Rosette and Chrono need to assess the situation and rescue the girl before her burgeoning powers are used to further the cause of evil. As if that weren't enough, Chrono will have to face off with a devil that knows him from his dark past and still has a bit of a bone to pick with him.
Storytelling:
Original Manga Author: Daisuke Moriyama
Director: Koh Yuh
Asst. Director: Hiroyuki Kanbe
In these first four episodes, Rosette, Chrono and the rest of the Magdalene Order are introduced, giving us a good look at what a holy exorcists' job really entails. Unlike many anime series, this first DVD does not fall prey to boredom as character developments are made in the middle of fierce battle. The story ramps up almost immediately as Chrono and Rosette are called to action within the first five minutes of the first episode.
Chrono Crusade's plot tends to jump from serious to humorous without warning, most likely with the intent of not allowing the story to get too dark. For example, even though Rosette and Chrono fight for their lives with a horned demon in a room littered with dessicated corpses and six pointed stars, the funny is never far away as Rosette gets a little triggerhappy forcing her and her partner to get the f-*&$! outta dodge as she brings the entire building down around their proverbial ears.
You might think that with this immediate jump into action that the character develpoment would suffer. But, not so, as the battles help frame the friendly symbiosis between Chrono and Rosette. Although the gun-toting exorcist is clearly the dominant personality in their relationship, often railroading the good-natured devil into being an unwilling accomplice in her hijinx, it's clear that Chrono cares for Rosette very much and takes his bit of browbeating in good humor.
Although the plot is definitely epsiodic at this point, beginning and endng in small story arcs in one or two epdisodes, a larger plot design is immediately visible to guarantee that this series is definitely going somewhere.
Art/Animation:
Original Manga Artist: Daisuke Moriyama
Character Designer: Kazuya Kuroda
Mechanical Designer:Tomohiro Kawahara
Art Setting:Akihiro Hirasawa
Animation: Gonzo
It's probably no surprise to realize that this demon hunting adventure is yet another fun series from Gonzo Studio. Even though Gonzo seems to be tireless in putting out new series, their work never seems to suffer because of it. So where does Chrono Crusade fit in Gonzo's scale? It seems to be around the level of Kiddy Grade and Gravion. So it's not their best work, but certainly of higher quality than most anime series. Chrono Crusade also seems to be lighter on the CG usage than some of their other works, which is no problem as Gonzo produces gorgeous 2-D animation as well.
It's hard to describe the style and design of Chrono Crusade because it does tend towards the norm and is very straight forward. The character designs don't really stand out from other series, but neither do they have that slap-dash good-enough feel. While still coming across as standard fare animation, it still exudes the feeling of above-par quality. Especially when the action gets going. What starts off as being a little above average during the slower scenes, immediately accelerates into the realms of beautiful as Gonzo animators show exactly why they are in the top levels of the Japanese animation market.
The animators also seem to know just when and how much old school flavor to add in these action scenes. Just so you don't forget that its STILL anime. One such scene is Chrono's transformation scene. All animation fans know that no one does transformations like the Japanese do transformations. Whether it's giant robot, or magical girl, or fighter power-ups. Chrono's own special metamorphosis from small cute devil boy to sleek, sexy, brooding, rip-your-still-beating-heart-out demon lord, is in a word, magnificent. It even ends with one of those ridiculously cool poses. It reminds you of why you started watching anime over the poorly drawn American fare in the first place.
Color usage in Chrono Crusade is also well done. Gonzo sems to enjoy using bright colors whenever possible, but other than the royal blue habits of the Magadalene Order and Chrono's crimson suit, the colors of this anime are suitably drab. After all, it is demon hunting in New York City in the 1920's. So all the backgrounds, while detailed, mostly tend towards shades of grey. But this only better serves to showcase the occasional glow of demonic aura or the bloody gleam of devilish eyes.
Voice Talent:
Japanese Voice Talent:
Rosette: Tomoko Kawakami
Chrono: Akira Ishida
Remington: Show Hayami
Sister Kate: Yoshiko Sakaibara
Hamilton: Tomomichi Nishimura
English Voice Talent:
Rosette: Hilary Hagg
Chrono: Greag Ayres
Remington: Jason Douglas
Sister Kate: Laura Chapman
It must be said that after hearing the dub job for Kaleidostar and now for Chrono Crusade, that ADV is indeed taking steps in the improvement of its vocal line up. Chrono Crusade, while not quite as good as Kaleidostar in English, is a far cry better than many anime. And considering that Chrono Crusade had a fairly difficult dub task then it definitely deserves a round of applause. Traditionally, spunky female protagonists accompanied by various demon lords are a recipe for an English-speaking disaster. But Hilary Hagg pulls off Rosette's voice in a satisfactory manner with a minimum amount of annoyance inducing moments. She especially excels in properly displaying Rosette's outbursts, which is a tough thing to do.
The various devil voices are all fairly well handled wihtout a single constipation sound in evidence. Chrono's voice is softpoken and disarming, but gets appropriately more gravelly and ominous during and after transformation. The only voice that came anywhere near excruiating was Jason Douglas as Remington. And luckily he is not a character who is given too many lines, so this can be forgiven. Overall this was a very acceptable dub job, so earplugs can be avoided.
DVD Extras:
Azmaria's Extra Classes
Background Info for Characters and Settings
Production Sketches:
Clean Opening and Closing
Original On-Air opening animation
Reversible Cover
Commentary
ADV has provided a fairly respectable amount of extras on this DVD, the coolest of which are Azmaria's Extra Classes. Starring Apostle Azmaria, these extra shorts are meant to be informative and humorous. The commentary also gives plenty of insight into the real vocal challenges faced by the English cast of Chrono Crusade.
Final Analysis:
Chrono Crusade is an enjoyable blend of humor and action that seems to be setting up to make a more serious move towards deeper conflict in later DVDs. As a first installment, it works extremely well to set up the overall story, introduce characters and not leave the viewer completely bored by a crush of too much set up or background information. While not yet showing extreme greatness like some of Gonzo's top titles, the potential is definitely there. Fans of the devil hunting genre should make this a priority buy.
Posted on Monday, November 01, 2004 (Archive on Wednesday, December 01, 2004)