*sigh* 49 episodes and I'm STILL disappointed in the ending!

I really liked this series. There were some...er...strange aspects to it. IE: Kazuki, who is always shaded to look like a girl and Genji's impecable ability to go chibi at any moment and time...especially when Akebane is around.

Akabane. I'll start there. I loved this character. Calm-spoken bad ass who never got riled, always has a cool costume, and possessed the strangest set of "ethics." (Ok, so killing because it’s fun isn’t really the same as having ethics, but he had personal…guidelines…I guess…) He was really well-developed for a side-character and having no back story just kinds added to his attitude.

Himiko. I want to slap her for sucking. She should have been cool, and instead she's the token mostly naked chic in every battle. She gets her ass kicked repeatedly, and even when she manages to win, she's somehow far more damaged than the other guy...
Shido. Heh. The relationship between he and Madoka kinda weirded me out from time to time...until I did the math and realized that the little blind girl was actually not twelve years old...although she sure as hell looks like it. Other than that, Shido is rather undeveloped and static. Almost boring.

Juubei. Ooook...he got used to being blind REALLY fast. Uhh...cool? Stop whining and hit things!

Kazuki. Bishonen are a must in any series, and I confess I have a deep love for them...but damn...the amount of HENTAI that the Kazuki scenes could have spawned was a little too much for me. I liked the character, don't get me wrong, but does he have to act like a lover to everyone else in the series? He's always featured within lip distance of Juubei, Uryuu, Genji, Ren...and countless other characters, mostly male.

Hevn. Those are the biggest boobs I have ever seen. How does she stand up straight?

And of course: Genji and Ban. WHY is Genji given so much attention in this series? Ban always made the stronger character to me, but countless times he passes on the more powerful enemy...they don't even finish filling in his back story. This series revolved around Genji, and that was a major problem for me. I found Ban to be far more interesting, until the end of the series when he became little more than the strong-arm of a fighting anime.

The beginning of the anime lacks an over all plot, but it was fun and perfect to watch while eating dinner after a long day. It made me laugh and I really did make attachments to several characters right away, especially Ban. I find it important to take an interest in at least one of the main characters before I can honestly say I liked a given anime. Genji I didn’t really care about at first, but I did little Ban’s attitude and Genji was at least amusing.

Towards the middle of the anime, it starts to drag on with about fifteen episodes of fights that were predicatable and boring. I was really starting to get into the plot...and then there came the strong of DBZ-style one-episode a piece battles that got old really fast. I blame Genji.

The ending of the anime was…meh. Like a lot of fighting anime, it leaves off without much of an ending. It closes up a story arc, leaves another wide-open, and gives you a hint as to where each of the main characters are headed.

But given that the biggest draw-back to the series was a sense of over-developement of a useless character, I give the series a 7 out of 10.