KARAS OVA 01 – 02 (E01 – 06)

If you were to divide Batman, Kamen Rider and Devilman into equal chunks, throw them all together and then chuck in some liberal interpretations of traditional yokai, KARAS is probably something close to what the end result might be.

The two OVAs I watched – The Prophecy and The Revelation, compiled together from shorter episodes I believe (in true Manga UK style) – are a very mixed bag representing a storyline that is divided between pale pastel colour character design and warm backgrounds and sharp, tokusatsu style CGI.

In terms of actual DVD presentation, I can’t help but feel that, once again, Manga UK have failed to understand the audience they helped to create. The insistence on translating ‘kappa’ as ‘water demon’ makes as much sense as translating Great Dane as snow dog. The use of the words ‘ghost’ and ‘demon’ to replace ‘bakemono’ and ‘yokai’ was another source of contention for me, partly because of how much of a fan I am of yokai but mostly because I don’t feel the notion translates well when put in English terms. The word ‘demon’ just isn’t as clear as yokai, especially not when called upon to begin to break up the idea of supernatural monsters into classes and races.

I was, however, pleased to see the English dialect colloquialism ‘arse’ make it into the subtitles on Disc 2 though!

Whilst talking of the actual DVD properties, a quick glance at the dubbed English language version reveals it to be another one of those hatchet-jobs for the US market. This might sound contentious but I’m a little in the dark as to why these dubs are still making their way onto Region 2 European discs.

But back to the actual series: KARAS is a story of revenge in a very broad sense. Taking in all the tropes of modern day Kamen Rider shows, the OVAs revolve around a new Karas – of which every city has one – standing against the former wayward Karas with a handful of confrontations with monster-of-the-week evolved yokai to boot.

Some of Hayama Kenji’s character design is truly great, both Yurine and Homura as well as the Jorōgumo character’s requisite ’sexy nurse’ fanservice disguise are really awesome but the series, for me, falls apart with the messy semi-mech reinterpretation of yokai that have become Mikura (half-machine/half-monster creatures in league with central villain and former Karas, Eko). The main offenders here are Wanyūdō and Kamaitachi, who deviate so radically from the recorded information and folklore that they might as well be new villains. Ushi-Oni is a bit more straight forward, looking like an evolved sort of Digimon designed by Nagai Go but for the most part the Mikura are a right-off, as is much of the CGI work.

It’s somewhat well documented elsewhere that I’m not a fan of this kind of intrusive CGI in either tokusatsu or anime. Karas is no exception. Just looking pretty isn’t a good enough excuse for such a distinct and jarring change from the style of the material surrounding it.

I hate to talk bad of a Tatsunoko show but this would have earned a lot more respect from me had the show been both more considerate of its source material and its audience.

The three primary influences, mentioned at the beginning of this post, still remain as more deserving choices for your time and money.