There is so much anime in the world that sometimes it is hard to take it all in. Everyone has their favorites and new series are being produced everyday. While going through Crunchyroll, I stumbled on a trailer for an original series that begins airing on Jan 5th. The show is called Katana Maidens and it looks to be an interesting show that I could start following.
Sword-Wielding
Since as long as there have been “aratama”, mysterious creatures who attack anyone human, there have been the Toji. These special girls use their swords in order to destroy these creatures and protect the modern world. They might go to school like ordinary girls, but they always carry their weapons on them. They attend a few different training schools, but the best way to become better fighters is a tournament that pits these girls against each other. As the brackets are set up, who will go to the top?
The genre of “magic girls” is a well rounded part of anime. This series provides an interesting twist. These girls have special powers, but their main method is their swords. These are fighters, not magical witches. There also seems to be a stronger emphasis on their ordinary life. Sailor Moon was a ordinary girl, but everything seemed to be about her fights. If this series lets us know the girls when they are not fighting, it will give us characters we can relate to.
Shrine Maidens
The art style looks gorgeous. While it might be harder to make non attractive women, all the girls have a particular look about them. They seem like different people, not just the same girl with different hair. I have not seen any of the fight scenes, but I hope they are fast paced and exciting. One of the hardest parts is to create new looking fight scenes for a medium that has a million of them. If the same amount of attention is paid to the fight scenes as the character design, this might provide the action in a way we have never seen.
There is a lot of thought being put into this franchise. Studio Gokumi is the creative force behind the series and the dub is being handled by FUNimation. That is not the only factors that some heavy hitters are behind the project. Square Enix is developing a mobile game based on the series that will be released sometime this year. We can only hope that the belief in this series is warranted and deserving of all the hype.
I will watch this series, if only to see something new at the beginning. With an interesting story and some beautiful artwork, Katana Maidens might be an interesting addition to the anime genre of magical girl or fighting. Let us hope that it becomes popular on both side of the ocean.