Has anyone seen this new awesomeness yet?
If you haven't here are a few tastebud enticing things you should know...
- Hot Mom
- Hot action
- A loli
- Great background story courtesy of Top Cow
- Mark Silvestri and Mike Turner approved art
- Superior Opening tune and ending tune.
- Nice Opening
- Plenty of Boobs and fanservice, without neglecting the meaning of the show.

Related sites:
http://www.witchblade.jp/

Subber(s):
http://www.bakakozou.com/ H264 Format/ MKV format only.

Here is the sypnopsis:
Modified from a poorly scripted synopsis from FansubTV
Category: TV
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
Themes:
Year: 2006
Studio: GONZO　DIGIMATION, Top Cow Productions Inc.

In the near future, there are two syndicates seeking for the strongest powers. They are Doji Heavy Industry developing the ultimate weapon, and NSWF creating superior humans through manipulating genetic structures and genetic science.
What they want is "Witch Blade" that only selected women can wield, and the power to control it completely.
Six years after a massive earthquake, Amaha Masane and her daughter Rihoko (Riko) arrived to the desolated sunken cities of Tokyo, seeking asylum away from an organization that seeks to protect the welfare of children by forcefully adopting them, which Amaha cannot agree with, and thus escaped with her daughter to Tokyo. Little did they know of the latest bloody killings and incidents that are ravaging the alleys of Tokyo and even lesser they know that they are tied to the intrigue mystery. What awaits them?

- verdict
I personally enjoy the first episode, the well done opening, although not too flashy, highlights moments of the show that seems worthy of attention, as well as the great song, which strums action and adrenaline which is to be expected in later parts.
The ending chills down with a touching little number and very chill out beats, and sweet relaxing vocals, while seemingly highlighting the mother and daughter's feelings of unable to be together.
The action showcases little, but fluid animation from Gonzo is highlighted as well as showcasing the importance of the attention to detail armor of the WitchBlade when awaken.
I like how they managed to tell of history of characters short and sweetly, while not sacrificing details, and then of course, the main part of the meal, the witchblade action was really well done. I can only expect to see more good than anything else.

A scan that was not in the galleries due to dimensions:
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/7792/11453312617563fa.jpg

The first episode:
Ah hell, these guys done it better than I did: http://wrex-anime.blogspot.com/2006/04/witchblade-ep-1.html

SPOILER (click to view)

Dreaming of something, dunno what, Amaha Masane was having a nice deep sleep, when she was awaken by her Daughter Riko, who tells her they have arrived to Tokyo, they are on a rusty old boat, and some funnies and fanservice here, a quiet conversation blah blah...

forward to a murder scene, someone or something drilled a man apart, police investigators gather looking for clues and managed to detain a seemingly drunken man, meanwhile, a specs wearing man, who seemed related to a company is observing the happenings at this murder scene and receives commands from his superior to follow the detainee.

Then forward to the mother and daughter having a meal... when they are confronted from the said agency they are escaping from. After being caught, they went into discussion who should take the child. Through some heavy persuasion, Amaha reluctantly signed the agreement to let them take Riko away to stay with them.

Halfway, she realized her mistake and immediately gave chase, through an intense car chase with Amaha's limited car driving skills, she crashed the stolen police car.

Rescued, she was sent to detention/ jail, little did she or anyone realize that drunken man was also there, and something is making him very crazy, that madness ravaged, and he morphed into some kinda talking drill (which I have no idea how to mention), and thus, attacked everyone there and killed them, then went to search for Amaha who is cowering in the cell, hurt by something inside her as she writhed in pain.

(at this point, Riko was escaped from the asylum or agency by telling the lady she needed to use the loo, and jumped out of the window. With the help of a camera man, she managed to persuade him to look for her mom, where they arrived at the scene of action at the jail/detention center )

Then something happened, she transformed and the WitchBlade awakens, with some smooth moves, she gave the talking drill a VIP treatment and quickly finished him off. Turning away, she was being filmed and followed by two people, the cameraman, and the specs wearing fella seen at the murder scene earlier, however, she seemed unaware, and continued to search for her daughter after she escapes the scene.

However, she seems weakened, probably by some tranquilizers being shot at her from a distance without her being aware of. Slowly she reverted back to human form, and fainted while calling out her daughter's name one last time.

If you haven't seen this, I recommend it.

I say the character design for Witchblade will be the main reason why guys will follow this title.

Animation is quite good. Lines are decently sharp and crisp and motion is quite fluid. I do have a fond liking for the way the characters are designed. Reminds me of Gravion's character design style which I liked.

OP and ED might need a few more listening runs to develop a fondness for it. OP ain't too bad. Quite rockish and fast-paced (I can't get the feeling of Gravion's OP by Jam Project out of my mind here). The ED is a bit more slow-paced which threw me slightly off-guard considering the action that took place in the last few moments in that episode.

I don't know about the story but I do hope it turns out for the better along the way unlike Bakuten which was total boredom. They better not make Rihoko into another Meg character. Being kidnapped all the time ain't funny.

The first episode was enough to keep me watching for at least several more. I think I own only the first issue of witchblade and nothing more, so I don't really know too much about the universe. Hopefully they will do a good job of making sure we unknowledgeable people know what is going on. :)

Too bad it's done by Gonzo Studios. I honestly do not have a good opinion of that animation studio because almost 90% of the anime they did always had a good promising start which later developed into very disappointing results, and always in terms of plot/character development. Not to mention their usual weird way to use CG as well lol.

I'll give it a try though, mostly because I'm curious to see how they'll adapt this in comparison to the american comic. Oh and I got nothing against huge racks but it kind of ticks me off that all the 'important' female characters so far seem to be naturally and extremely well endowed. (;;°A°)

Funny that I just finished watching the first episode. It was really good IMO. I find Masane to be quite the looker and an interesting character so far. So I'll definitely be following it to find out such things as how she became a Witchblade wielder and more.

For those who wanted a pretaste, here is a blog = http://wrex-anime.blogspot.com/2006/04/witchblade-ep-1.html
spoilers do apply.

This part caught my attention.

- Great background story courtesy of Top Cow

Does that mean Top Cow is overseeing the story plot? Or Top Cow just lay the foundation for the whole Witchblade history via their US comic releases?

Dias

This part caught my attention.

- Great background story courtesy of Top Cow

Does that mean Top Cow is overseeing the story plot? Or Top Cow just lay the foundation for the whole Witchblade history via their US comic releases?

I heard that Top Cow does indeed have people from their side overlooking certain aspects such as quality checking and production, not to mention characters and so on, although the crew seems mainly to be people from Gonzo, I highly doubt Top Cow would let their brainchild going astray into hands of companies they are yet to familiarize themselves hence why I included that quote.

whether or not it is overseeing the story plot, or beside laying out the foundation for the story (which indeed is, since the story and design follows more to one of the alternative universes (I think it was the movie version)) rather than the original story, which has ancient undying creatures and so on... If you look for the movie version http://www.themovieblog.com/archives/2005/12/witchblade_movie.html
it seemed to be quite nearly similiar. At least at that aspect.

I believe in that at least. Mark Silvestri did make remarks in comics that it was gonna be done nicely, assuming he said that for a reason, this would be it... Not just some blind remark made by an artist who is related to the story itself.

Anyhow, I have no real proof, beside that little quote from the author notes/editor notes. That said, check the Top Cow site for details. or Image Comics.

I have to say tho, if you are patient, wait for the uncensored DVD version, get more asses and tits, and a few extras... LOL
(I hope I am not dead already... cause I did saw the DVD preview.)

I just watched the first episode. I'm not too impressed with it just yet.

SPOILER (click to view)

The first monster that she kills is extremely lame looking. It was a machine looking thing. How ridiculous.

I hope that the story picks up a bit. So far it seems like it can develop into something great.
I like her transformation :D But I need to see more story.

I to also watched the first eposide just recently and thought is okay after the first eposide. The aniamtion is clean and fluid, the music is okay and so far there's plenty of room for it to improve. I like the character designs, and will give it a few more eposides before I decide weather to drop it or not.

Well since its Gonzo...we should have expected 1. Hot girls 2. Fan service. 3. a possible loli or 2. It's Gonzo...come on, they are known for such things: ie. Kiddy Grade, Bakuretsu Tenshi. I'm not going to complain about the character designs (since I happen to be ONLY able to draw like Gonzo...curses) since even in the American comics of "Witchblade" she is still damn sexy, in the American flare of course. Well so far the premise of the story is not bad...global crisis, some individual have developed powers due to the crisis. Not bad at all...however there seems to be a lot of room for this anime to become a great one...or...a bad one...only time will tell.

Namheart

Well since its Gonzo...we should have expected 1. Hot girls 2. Fan service. 3. a possible loli or 2. It's Gonzo...come on, they are known for such things: ie. Kiddy Grade, Bakuretsu Tenshi. I'm not going to complain about the character designs (since I happen to be ONLY able to draw like Gonzo...curses) since even in the American comics of "Witchblade" she is still damn sexy, in the American flare of course. Well so far the premise of the story is not bad...global crisis, some individual have developed powers due to the crisis. Not bad at all...however there seems to be a lot of room for this anime to become a great one...or...a bad one...only time will tell.

that is generalization, but quite true, if they followed the movie and failure TV version, I might drop it, plus the fact that the enemy is another large organization and so on brings me to think, it might fail badly.'

Hardcore necrobump, episode 2 and episode 3 was just released by a combination of three subbers, and the quality was not to bad and available now in .avi hardsub format, very cool.
Now we actually get to see:

SPOILER (click to view)

Hot mom getting in action down and dirty with enemies machinery, defeating it quickly.
Rihoko was taken to a restaurant like place where they offered to let her stay for the night until the welfare agency comes for her.
Naomi was plain cute when she is so damn annoying and accurate... "It is not Na-o-mi! the O is not extended!"
as for Douji companies, apparently they created the experiments that mom is defeating now, it can be considered as a reclaiming project, so they can reclaim and destroy the defects that ran away during the earthquake.
Douji offered mom a trade, offering she and her daughter a place safe from the welfare agency.
Also, apparently, the welfare agency founder have other intentions for the witchblade as well as one of the big players in the industry.

Seen up to Ep.3 And i really like it so far, but the microwawe dude is was kinda wierd

She has HUGE boobs and butt! O_O

I haven't liked it, maybe because when I think of witchblade an image of cool kick-ass detective Sara Pezzini comes to my mind... From what I've seen the story is not that original either... The music is nothing special, it's alright. It does have a very good and fluid animation, although I didn't like how they re-used the same transformation from the opening (yeah I know I'm being a bitchy elitist but it reminds me of magical girls and sentai series). Asides that, it's too bad that witchblade is not getting a more faithful and successful adaptation.

As another comment I want to say the real actors series had a great witchblade-glove, too bad we don't get to see a transformation scene (that'd be for a movie, too much CG and money).