Book of Bantorra: Complete Collection

That having been said this anime is just plain bad. It is EXTREMELY long, cryptic, and confusing. You start the series thinking that you have missed something, like if you wanted to watch the Matrix movies, but did not know the first one existed. It jumps around in plot from flashbacks to current, not giving you a single chance to develop a relationship with any of the characters, so you end up not caring about any of it. This last part is a point of personal irritation: What massive global organization of existential importance is satisfied with a perpetual state of “acting directors”? I have a feeling that this is either A. Lost in translation (which is unforgivable) B. Explained in the last half of the series, which I was to intelligent to watch, or C. Not a big deal to most people and just irritating to me because I am a freak show. In any event, I hope it is some kind of oversight on the part of producers because...Really?P.S.: If Hamburger Mesopotamia is going to have breasts the size of basketballs then it is incumbent on the producers in the TV-MA series to actually display them.

3 1/2 to 4 STARS -- FILLED WITH SYMBOLISM, THOUGHT, AND LIFE MESSAGES .... IF A LITTLE TOO CONVOLUTED AT TIMESNOTE: There is a fair amount of division regarding this anime (and it is different). I have attempted to describe it for both those who will like the show and those who will not. Please accept this attempt to help both sides and allow each individual decide for themselves. There are many legitimate ways to view this anime.I like a complex anime that has a lot more effort and thought put into it. This excellent but imperfect example definitely fits into that category and I can appreciate it for the areas where it succeeds. Some viewers simply won't connect with it and their concerns are valid. It is filled with imagery and symbolism borrowed from other religions simply as a creative device. The religions in this anime are definitely their own, but are meant as a homily and analogy for world religions in general. That sounds ambitious and that is definitely what this anime is. This story attempts to craft a purpose for life echoed by religion, and yet contrasting religion. It is well meaning, but a little cheesy at the end.THE PLOT: This is hard to define in this case, but I will keep it relatively simple. When people die, their lives are condensed into a book that is more like a stone tablet (it is extracted from their chest). It is read by touching it and seeing the story of that person's life through visions. These books are collected from deceased persons and stored in the Bantorra Library. The Bantorra Library is protected by what they call Armed Librarians who all have individual powers and fighting skills. Bantorra is also somewhat like it's own country or city state and is led by the current Acting Director Hamyuts Meseta. The actual Director, named Ruruta Coozancoona, lies at the heart of the library and factors more into the later part of the story. Meanwhile, Hamyuts Meseta runs the Armed Librarians and is secretly committing atrocities to accomplish her aims. She works for good, but seems to have an evil side. She also cannot be killed save by one person which we are never quite sure of through most of the story. Contrasting this all is an evil organization, the cult like Shindeki Church, which is fighting against the Armed Librarians using tactics that include biological weapons and human bombs. The human bombs are people called MEATS who have been conditioned to believe they are not human and carry a bomb device in their chest. It is revealed to the viewer that both the leadership of the Armed Librarians - and the Shindeki Church are protecting many of the same secrets from the rest of the world. What are these secrets? What is the origin of the Shindeki Church and why does it fight against the Librarians? Who will ultimately be the savior of the world that is created over and over due to the mistakes of man? Who can kill Hamyuts Meseta? What is the Heaven? This convoluted tail is somewhat put back together again in the end if you stick with it.THE GOOD: Many characters are very compelling and interesting. The relationships at times are beautiful as well. Plenty of good messages are projected in the different chapters, though they can be contrasted with the bad. The worlds they create are many layered as are the storylines. The animation is beautiful in that it creates nice scenes, beautiful architecture and attractive, compelling characters. It can be a little simplistic in drawing the minute details like facial features though.THE LESS GOOD: The story tries to be so complex that the tangents don't come back together well sometimes. Characters that seem very important early on are merely side dressing for illustrating points while other characters seemingly unimportant emerge later to have significant roles. Lets call it - too many red herrings. You will have to mentally earmark the fire hose of characters, devices, organizations etc... just to keep track of them. The naming is alien in that it doesn't seem to correspond to any one specific language - English - Japanese - Italian - Egyptian or other. Names seem picked with random syllables that are reminiscent of languages we understand, but don't register well. This makes it all the more difficult to keep track. The "chapters" of this book, that the viewer is actually participating in, flip around so much that the threads linking them are not always well defined, leaving the viewer backtracking to mentally put it together.For those who just want to sit back and be entertained, this is probably not a good anime. If you are willing to put concerted effort into paying attention and enjoy intelligent anime, this may be for you. I don't know if the payoff is equal to the effort, but I still think this is an excellent anime. I suggest a rental, but you will have to watch the whole thing. It's impossible to draw any conclusions off just a few episodes.

This DVD may not be for everyone. Very complex story with rough & tumble episodes. One of those lengthy fables that you might have to "re-watch" one or twice to grasp all of the details of story. Characters are interesting, but don't get too attached to them, as they kill off most of them as the story winds down. Good graphics with several "star" voice over actors playing key roles. Not for anyone under 16.

👍👍👍👍

Excellent series full of intrigue for those looking for something different … Truly better story than most.

Anime fans will love it

My thanks for the comment from A. J. Abadsafian bringing out that this is a product review and not a seller or shipping review as I had posted it. I apologize for the slip up. As for the product review, the discs and case are normal and average. They come packaged as most anime Blu-ray titles, and with both subtitles and dubbed versions. This anime quality is about average which in my book gets it 4 stars. I subtract one star because the plot gets erratic. The story line wanders around a lot, and due to that I have yet to finish watching the series. For a series of this size that says a lot, since I bought this back in March of 2015 that puts it over the 4 month mark and counting. I can knock out 26 episodes in 2 weekends easy. The episodes are pretty disturbing and the little regard for life may be one reason that I am really only able to take a couple of episodes a week. I may change my mind on this review as I get closer to the end, but I don’t see going back up to 4 stars yet.

A+

great Story but take a bit to long to get going

A rather obscure title that truly pleased me in every way. The animation, music and story are all top notch. With this age of shortened seasons it is great to see an anime series one season long but a "real" season. Not 10, 12, or 13 episodes like the latest animes that all feel the same. This is a 27 episode extravaganza!Sadly there are no extras at all; no cast interview, no commentaries nothing.P.S: Josh Grelle; usually a harem series lead voice actor turns in an excellent performance as a villain.

BDレコーダーにセットすると日本では使用できない旨のメッセージが表示されて強制終了されますが、BDP-S5100では問題なく再生できました。OP、EDの音声、クレジットも日本語で字幕も消せます。