Realbout High School

Director
Shinichi Toukairin
Production
GONZO, Project Realbout High School, Team Sigel
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
13 episodes
Year
2001

Real Bout High School

By Aki
28th May 04

I picked up this anime, saw that the cover showed a girl with a sword and a summary of the series that promised sword fights. I was intrigued, decided to watch, and was impressed by the first episode, which was actually pretty cool. What caught my interest was the fight scene between the main character, Samurai Girl Ryoko, and one of her rivals, Azumi. As far as fight scenes go, it wasn't fantastic, but it was cool enough to make me think, "If this is what the fight scenes are like in episode one, imagine how much cooler they'll be by the end of the series!"

Sadly, this is not the case. The next big fight scene was built up very well, as another major rival of Ryoko's, by the name of Shizuma, demanded a championship battle. Unfortunately, the fight was interrupted mere moments after it began, and never resumed. Very disappointing. After that, there really were no more good fight scenes. The few that came later in the series were short and lame, at least in comparison to the Ryoko/Azumi fight in episode one.

Another disappointing feature of this anime was the 'alternate dimension' scenario which was introduced in episodes one and two, and dragged through to the end. It made absolutely no sense, and even the main characters confessed to that. In the last episode, during the final battle, Ryoko herself didn't know what was going on - she said it in her own dialogue. The only thing I could figure out was that it had something to do with fighting against fate, and breaking the connection between the alternate dimension and Earth. Of course, I had no idea what the alternate dimension was doing there in the first place, or why the connection needed to be broken.

The ending of the series didn't make much sense either, as the scene cut right at the end of the final battle and continued with an almost identical repeat of the opening from episode one.

I actually lost interest in the series after the sixth episode, but for the sake of giving a review, I figured I should at least see it all the way through. Actually, there was an episode on disc three that was quite humorous - it had absolutely nothing to do with whatever the main plot might have been. It was merely a parody on Magical Girl shows (like Sailor Moon). I for one enjoy making fun of Sailor Moon, so I thought it was funny. Sadly, it's the only episode that I can say I really liked.

The series also seems to take the role of villains pretty loosely. There was a trio of 'bad guys' who showed up out of nowhere, for no reason, and began fighting with Ryoko and Shizuma. Later on, all three were apparently allies, helping Ryoko and Shizuma out in other battles against more bad guys and evil creatures from the alternate dimension. Again, all of this happened for no apparent reason.

Some characters also had special abilities with no explanation as to how they got them. Shizuma would get some sort of flame power whenever he threw a punch; the trio of villains, whom I mentioned in the previous paragraph, apparently had electricity, wind, and earth powers. A seemingly minor character came in at the last episode with some kind of magic ability that was powerful enough to subdue the final villain.

Overall, Real Bout High School was pretty random and very disappointing. Sorry, but I wouldn't recommend it. It really isn't worth watching.

3/10

-- Aki 28th May 04

Realbout High School Images