King of Bandit Jing

Publisher
ADV
Director
Hiroshi Watanabe
Production
Kodansha, Sony, Studio Deen
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
25 minutes, 13 episodes
Year
2002

King of Bandit Jing Volume 2

By John Huxley
19th May 04

One of the most overlooked and misunderstood qualities of anime is that can, and does, appeal to a wide range of age groups, from the very young to the very old. Regardless of your age, sex and personal preferences, I'm positive there is an animation out there, somewhere, that you'd be able to enjoy. The difficulty lies in convincing the people who assume all anime is grotesque sex and violence to actually sit down and watch something they might enjoy. Luckily, for the generations weened on Pokemon and Dragonball Z, this isn't an issue; to their eyes, anime isn't an unusual curio or geeky pastime, it's just a form of entertainment like any other.

This is where King of Bandit Jing steps in. The latest entry in the ever growing list of anime aimed at the younger generation, this would quite happily sit alongside the likes of Yu-Gi-Oh or Final Fantasy Unlimited. Here, everything from the opening theme music to the design of the central characters has been designed to appeal to the young teenager's sensibilities and interests. But don't let this put you off if you're an older (or younger) reader; King of Bandit Jing may be ideally suited to its intended audience, but much like the Mario videogames, that doesn't mean the rest of us can't enjoy what it has to offer. It's very much a show that all the family can sit back and enjoy without having to worry about the possibility of mature content.

This second volume sees our young antihero Jing and his winged sidekick Kir once again wandering the land in search of the most wondrous treasures to plunder and inflate his reputation as the king of bandits...incidently helping those in need of help and smiting those in need of a good smiting along the way. In a similar fashion to Ulysees 31 and shows of that era, the towns and cities Jing and Kir visit each have their own unique and often bizarre attribute that also acts as a handy plot device. This is a timeworn narrative technique and not one that particularly impresses, although the implementation is relatively solid and the preachy, moral lessons so often associated with this style of story telling are thankfully kept to a bare minimum. Even so, you'll be cursing the writer's lack of imagination when you're five minutes in to an episode and you've already figured out how it's all going to end up.

The overly familiar plots are helped along by some nice lighthearted comedy moments and the occasional burst of action, both of which showcase the wonderful design work on offer in King of Bandit Jing. The characters and locations show an abundance of imagination which helps lend the series some real personality despite a few poorly rendered backgrounds and the average animation. You're given a real sense that this is some fantastic fantasy world a million miles from our own mundane existence, not just an ambiguous location that could have been Earth circa 1000. And with Jing's constant travels, you're treated to new fantastical setting almost each and every episode, which helps keep interest levels high.

Outside of Jing and Kir, the characters are ill-defined and wholly forgettable, lacking the required screen time to really make an impression. No sooner have we been introduced to a new character than we've left them behind for a yet another unfamiliar location and yet another set of fresh faces. Perhaps the directors were hoping to create a feeling of adventure, of exploring new locations and meeting new, interesting people along the way...and while they undoubtedly achieved this, the price we pay in underdeveloped characters and a lack of continuity outweigh the advantages. That said, the stories that stretch over multiple episodes (such as the two-part story on this disc) do benefit from the extra running time, giving the secondary characters more space to develop and more time get themselves noticed. Still this is not enough, and if King of Bandit Jing were to settle down and introduce a set of characters that stick around for more than a few episodes, I'm positive it would make for an infinitely more enjoyable experience. Unfortunately I don't think we'll ever get the chance to find out if this is true or not.

When you take in to account King of Bandit Jing's target audience, it's much easier to overlook many of these shortcomings. That's not to suggest that the younger audience is less discerning - far from it - simply that they might not be looking for intricate, involved stories that centre around complex characters. This is simple family friendly fun, and there are few better animated alternatives on the shelves right now.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: English and Japanese 2.0 audio, English 5.1 audio, English subtitles, production sketches, clean open/close, ADV previews.

Notes: With only three episodes on this disc we're forced to leave the world of Jing and Kir a good hour or so earlier than we might have liked. This lean running time doesn't help the bare-bones extras, which include all the familiar audio settings, clean open/close and a few production sketches. Everything is cleanly and neatly presented, however, and the picture quality is close to faultless, as was the audio. A solid package, but one that could have benefited from a few more extras.

-- John Huxley 19th May 04

King of Bandit Jing Images