[.ca] King Of Bandit Jing: V3

From Amazon.com:
Based on Yuchi Kumakura's popular manga character Odorobou Jing, the self-proclaimed King of the Bandits is a sort of pubescent Robin Hood. He wanders from place to place, picking up treasure and nonchalantly aiding people in distress. He breaks the bank when he breaks up an illegal gambling ring aboard a ghost ship, and rescues a lovely girl condemned to death for the crime of tardiness in Adonis, a city ruled by the "Demon of Time." When the inevitable fight begins, Jing relies on his lightning-fast moves and the sword blade concealed in the sleeve of his outsized coat. Kir, his parrot-like sidekick, transforms into the formidable monster Kir Royale when bad guys need blasting. The tone remains firmly tongue-in-cheek, with Kir trying to romance every girl in sight. (Rated 13 and older, but suitable for viewers 2-3 years younger: violence, brief nudity) --Charles Solomon

The worst of the 4 DVD's.:
I start this review by saying, that out of the 4 DVD's this one is the worst of them. Out of the 3 episodes on it only one of them is actually good. The first episode is "Don't drop the Porvora". In this episode Jing and Kir are searching for the Sunstone which is said to be in the land of Sungria. On their way to Sungria they are given an offer to take 2 creatures called Porvora's to Sungria. These are creatures than can explode if their irritated and are often used as explosives. Jing accepts the offer, despite Izarra's (The girl in this story.) attempts to change his mind. This single episode was also in the manga, and it was a much longer more drawn out story than in the anime. Which could have easily been a 2 part story here. That would've been much better than including the next episode that was on here. Because as it is packing everything into one episode, things felt WAY too rushed. The next episode "The Musical Island of Coco Oco" is another original episode and is the worst episode on this DVD. (And in my opinion the worst in the series.) Jing & Kir visit the musical Island of Coco Oco, a place where the people really love music. They are in search of a legendary Ocarina that is said to be found there, but upon there arrival Kir gets irritated with Jing, who doesn't even seem interested in finding the treasure and splits up to search on his own.(And to find some beautiful girls.) And in turn ends up bumping into this episodes girl. We see a lot of Kir by himself and trying to help this girl out. While at first this episode does seem kind of promising with the introduction to the musical island as we see virtually everything on the island making some kind of musical sound. But even that ends up falling short, because besides at the end we don't see it epxand upon that at all. The last episode on here totally took me by surprise. (I'm sorry I can't remember the name of it.) This is the last of the original episodes, and as the previous 2 weren't very good, I wasn't expecting much out of this one. In this story Jing and Kir accidentally get off at the wrong stop on there way to Zaza (This is the only time you every see any sign of continuity in the series.) and in turn end up discovering Bluwari, the land of the Porvora. Which is watched over by the lovely Elixir ( I wound up really liking her a lot for some reason.) who takes care of the Porvora. But while Jing and Kir are being shown around the place there are thieves at work trying to bust in because they believe there is some great teasure hidden there. I really liked this episode because it had a lot of mystery to it, and the land of the Porvoras was a much cooler place than I thought it would be. As with the last DVD this one has a few spelling errors in it. The only major one was getting Izarra's last name totally wrong. It says it Danbura, but it's actually Tumbler. In that respect though this DVD wasn't really that bad, but be prepared, because it gets really bad in the last DVD.

The King of Anime (and Bandit):
Take a helping of The Nightmare Before Chritmas, add a dash of Charles Dodgeson's Alice in Wonderland, and throw in anything by Hayao Miyazaki, bring to a boil and distill. The resultant delicacy is King of Bandit Jing (that's right without the "s". Why? I have no idea, but it's cool either way). Having salivated over the manga, I couldn't wait to get my hands on the anime (don't even begin to ask about the boxes and packaging that it came in, there's not much left...). I had taken on a gamble on the manga when it came out (hey, it was shiney and it was just sitting there all alone, so how could I not fork over ten bucks and read it?) and ended up loving it. The art direction is fantastic and the elaborate, completely unique, stories Yuichi Kumakura spins are a joy to be in the presence of. So, the anime was a must. While Jing receives a slight makeover in the hair, he is still the unmistakable orange-coat-wearing-bandit-king who steals the show (and a street, or anything else fantastical that most bandits would snub their noses at, either because of difficulty, or uselessness). The episodes play out nicely, leaving out not as much as one would expect (one review had mentioned the battle in the City of Bandits at the top of the tower with the ogre (of sorts)was rushed and much more drawn out in the manga, but, frankly, in the manga we see a few frames of action (albeit cool action) nothing to indicate a long scenario. Heck, most manga is fast-paced as it is to help focus solely on the story (hence, as well, the grayscale pages as color is believed to draw the focus away from the story). Also, most episodes are their own stories from Jing's travels so there is not need to say the previous story happened in another episode. The animation is simply top-notched and highly detailed (take a good look at those backgrounds) as well, very fluid. The voice acting is very well done as all the actors seem to fit their character (thank the heavens a girl wasn't used to voice Jing, I hate that...). The sound is superb, and if the opening credits, don't immediately get you excited (for both the animation and song are stellar), then go home son, go home. Entracing stories, amazing animation, and freaking-cool characters make Jing King of Bandit a stellar anime (if you're cursing me for saying Charles Dodgeson wrote Alice in Wondeland, allow me to say that Lewis Carroll was merely a pen name).

One of the greatest shows ever!:
This is one of the best shows I have ever seen! Jing the Bandit King and his trusty bird sidekick Kir set off on journeys to find the best treasure. With awsome action, weird comedy, and even some girls this is a great anime and I suggest that you look in to geeting it!..............Ben Lankford

Not bad, but the manga's better.:
If you've read the manga (Like me.) you should have a good idea of what to expect from this series. It's about a teenage boy & his talking bird named Kir (That can shoot out bursts of energy.) as they go from place to place trying to find different treasures to steal. In each of those places they alway encounter some cute or beautiful girl. And though Jing never really seems to be interested in them, Kir is always trying to put the moves on them. Which is where a lot of the humor comes from. Though sometimes it can get annoying. One other thing that will probably annoy some people is that this series doesn't really have any kind of continuity to it. And as far you can tell none the previous stories ever even happened. And like I said before about the manga, it's no so much about the action, as it is about the intrigue (Even though in the last few episodes there is some really good action.) leading to finding the next treasure, although no as much so as in the manga, because at times things feel more rushed than in the anime. One reviewer complained about the fact that Jing used Kir for everything, and I can kind of agree with him on that because when I first read the manga I felt the same way. Not only that, but the way the first story comes off in the anime it gives you the feel that the rest of the series is going to be like that, because compared to the manga, the first story feels TOTALLY rushed. Because when Jing busts into the place to steal the "Double Mermaid" we see this huge many armed creature, then Jing busts outs the Kir Royale and blows it away and that's it. And having read the manga prior to that it got me pretty angry, because That whole encounter is a lot more drawn out because of complications with Kir. But after that intial first episode things go pretty well, and you'll actually see Jing use the Kir Royale in some cool ways. And there are only 2 other parts in the whole series that I can really say felt rushed. One thing I noticed right off about the anime was that the animation is excellent. That and just how AWESOME Jing looks compared to how he does in the anime. In the manga he looks like some just some punk kid, But in the anime Jing looks very slick. Which is good because that's the kind of character Jing is. As far as music goes it's hard to say if I really liked it or not, but I can defintely say that I loved the opening theme. Probably one of my all time favorites. One other thing I want to mention is that this series is only 13 episodes and for some reason not even all the episodes are pulled from the manga. Out of the 13 episodes, 3 of them are only in the anime. And while I thought this was cool, only one of those stories is really any good. If after buying the first DVD you aren't sold on the series, then chances are the 2nd DVD wont change youre mind, though the 2nd DVD does have my favorite story in it. But I'll get more into that in a later review.

My personal favorite out of the 4 DVD's.:
In my last review I just gave an overview of what to expect from the series. In this review I'll talk more about what's on this DVD. In this DVD there are 3 episodes. The Little Girl From Technicolor Town is the first. This is one of the 3 original episodes I mentioned before. In this episode Jing and Kir find a girl who is being sold in an auction because she is considered to be a work of art. Jing and Kir try to protect her and also to find the last true masterpiece of her Father "Van Kuot". (Forgive me if I misspelled that.) As one of the 3 original episodes in this series, this one is all right, but it isn't the best of the 3. The next 2 episodes are "The Lost City of Reviver" Parts 1 & 2. (Ignore that it says Reviva in the sub and dub, because it's wrong.) This is the reason why This is my favorite of the 4 DVD's. This is one of my favorite stories in the manga (Out of the 5 volumes I've read.) and is my favorite in the anime. The story starts out with Jing and Kir causing a ruckus in the city of Corpse and escaping on a giant PAPER Airplane. Upon their escape they are greeted by a girl by the name of Vermouth who tells them of a story that could lead them to the secret of eternal life. SO they set out in search of the Lost City of Reviver. Hounding them every step of the way are Pernod and his assistant China Lilet. Now this story more than any other story in the anime follows what I said about the intrigue leading to the find the next treasure taking precedence to the action. Because on each step of their journey Jing and Kir have to solve riddles to find out where to go next. Plus you get to see Jing use Kir in a rather cool way. Anything else I said about the last DVD is the same for this one, but there is one thing I forgot to mention before. To be frank, ADV's subtitling job sucks. They get some characters names wrong and they sometimes even mess up whole sentences. For example, as I mentioned above they got Reviver wrong on this DVD. It wasn't really apparent to me just how bad of a job they did though until the 3rd DVD where they get quite a few names wrong. And in that respect the last DVD was the worst of all of the DVD's. I shall get into more detail on that in my later reviews. So until then, goodbye.