Kaze no Stigma started out as a moderately promising show, but it went down the crapper after episode 7. The main character Kazuma is pretty much the only reason to watch this show, although Ayano has her moments every 5 episodes or so. I had really hoped that this show would focus on the more entertaining aspects of:
- Kazuma’s Hard-Luck Past: Why did Vernhardt have to tentacle Tsuo Rin to death? How many football hooligans did Kazuma beat up in the U.K.?
- The Rotten Kannagi Family: I enjoyed the parts where all the scrubby branch-family members got owned, and Juugo tried to pimp out Ayano to get new blood into the family.
- Ayano x Kazuma: They had some really nice partner moments, but every time Ayano would go back to being weak and annoying.
Ren got his chance to be cool when he dropped off and roasted the vapors in the first arc, and no one really needed to see more of Ren and his friends. There were way too many episodes wasted on Ren’s stories, and this was a major mistake. All of those episodes could have been cut out, with the budget money used to enhance the sad, sad production values of the rest of this series.
The last two episodes were ok, but even Kazuma was not enough to save this series. The OP/ED were mediocre, and I don’t remember the background music being anything special. The voice work was ok, but I didn’t really care about most of the characters. Again, way too much time was wasted on Ren who should have only been brought out for comedic effect. So while Kaze no Stigma started out with the potential for a good story, in the end it was a big disappointment.
Kabitzin’s Rating: 2/5
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This post was written by...
Kabitzin – who has written 1938 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I wanted to pick this up earlier but was scared off by the GONZO tag.
Looks like yet another squandered great for the studio.
Stuff like this makes me understand how people can hate Gonzo. I don’t know if it was a squandered great (I don’t think this series had a very high ceiling), but it was definitely underwhelming and disappointing.
I can’t help but think what could’ve happened if Kaze no Stigma was directed by someone else. A great director in charge of the storyboard or what, could’ve made wonders for this show.
Now that I think about it, the novels aren’t really fit to be adapted as an anime unless some major changes will be made in terms of the pacing or some major overhaul in the storyline. It’s like, there’s not much proper transition / foreshadowing to move from one arc to another (or, one volume to another, novel-wise).
The novel was a good read, but having it made into an anime where you’re supposed to see it as an entire series, that’s where all the loopholes come in. The Tsuwabuki arc particularly, seemed like a random arc insert, considering that it doesn’t have anything to do with the Almagest, or anything major in the plot.
Kazuma was the only good point of this show. Unlike your average “hero powers up, defeats boss”, Kazuma consistently kicked ass from the first ep (up to the lame end).
Hmm I finished marathoning this yesterday. I almost stopped after two minutes when I saw Gonzo pop up on the screen, but I kept going for some reason. I thought this show was so dumb that it was awesome. I mean the only thing that really interested me about the show was Ayano going tsuntsun every 5 seconds. Oh well, it was something mindless to watch on the side while I worked on an art project. ^.<
This anime was fine, i liked it alot. stop complaining.
The anime was crap, I hated it, stop forcing your own opinions on other people.
Your comment is exactly the same as his you moron.
He liked it, you hated it.
You both had the same sentence structure, so if he is forcing his opinions, so are you.
Try educating yourself in the art of English before you open your mouth, philistine.
Ders Should Season 2 I love this Story wahhahaa
Princess of Enraiha I Love Her
This series sucks ass, don’t waste your time with this crap with so many other awesome anime around waiting to be watched.
Kaze no Stigma has been one of the better shorter animes I have ever seen. I have seen a lot of animes and I don’t say that about very many of them. I enjoyed it and I was sad to have it come to an end. The only thing I really seen it lacking was character growth and a few plot holes that never got explained. In my opinion it has the potential to be one of those 100+ episode animes. Kazuma WAS a bit too strong as a main character, but that didn’t really turn me off of it any.
To each their own I guess