King of Bandit Jing is all about a boy... who is the Bandit King because of all the bandits he is the best. Imagine that, a 15 year old boy who can steal anything he wants with no trouble. In this animation feature it is acceptable, but do that in my home town of Hackney and get the Police smacking your face into the pavement.
Anyways, as this is an animation let's focus on this fantasy feature. Jing is suave, cool and very smart. He never loses his temper and always has a way out of any trouble whilst making it look like it's no sweat at all to perform. Has to get into a fight? A flick of the wrist and a hidden blade appears from beneath his sleeve. Accompanying him is his trusty, wise cracking, very preverted and very annoying sidekick - Kir the crow. Now, what also makes Kir special is that somehow he can make his ribs come out, use them to grab onto Jing's right arm like some kind of crab, and then fire a green ball of fire out of his beak. "GIMME A KIR ROYALE!" BOOM!
Like all Jump Comic characters (a japanese comic company that releases comics with characters like Jing, their version of Marvel or DC comics), Jing is the best fighter of the series. Not only is he the smartest, the coolest and
the best fighter, but he is also the most normal looking human in the series. I always wondered why the most human looking, normal walking person is the main character. But this is a cliché with most japanese animations that I have come acquianted with.
The adventures of Jing and Kir lead them all over the world whilst they try to steal things that the denizens of the area deem impossible. An impenetreble castle with a magical jewel? Not a problem. A dragon that cannot fly because it has wings too small and no one has been able to make it move an inch off the ground? Jing can make it fly. The people that Jing and Kir run into all, at one time or another, become amazed at how Jing manages to do what he does. I am like... what the heck?
A supporting character that helps Jing and Kir while they travel is Postino, a postman who rides a motorbike everywhere deliverying mail and just so happens to bump into the duo at the right time to give them advice. Can't get over a bridge because there is some sort of magical code to get across? Along comes Postino when Jing is slightly stuck with a hint: "Try pressing the button, the path may appear to those who are looking for it."
If you are like me, as you watch it you will be very confused. Imagine an Italian man holding both hands out palms up towards the DVD and saying in his Italian-influenced english: "What the hell is this men?" Because honestly this is one weird yet mellow japanese animation. It is very colourful and the DVD allows every line to appear sharp and detailed. The quality of the drawing is spectacular with all it's weird star shaped canyons, curly mountains and biped-animal bad guys. It's like an abstract painting come to life with characters straight out of Final Fantasy.
However, the voice acting, the storyline and the animation really let it down. Voice acting is so shoddy, using cheesy one-liners that only the Americans can come up with and crap word fillers because the lip sync has to be accurate. A lot of it doesn't make sense, so dialogue can be very confusing as you don't understand what on earth is happening half the time. The storylines that this series has are very weak; you'll see Jing and Kir running around stealing things you wouldn't really want to see stolen and doing some impossible things to steal it. Every story uses the same cycle, so it becomes very repetitive very fast. The animation is the worst offender. The animators cheated so much with the animation, imagine holding a picture and shaking it up and down very quickly. That's the effect they use for running scenes, earthquake scenes etc, nothing else moves. For climbing scenes they just drew Jing in different positions and then fading him into the next position instead of a fluid climbing motion animation. They also repeat animation used before to same time and fill up the episode. As an animator myself, I found it very tedious to watch.
What rating was this DVD given? A PG? It really should be 12 at least as it mentions 'Killing' a lot and has perverted references as well as a lot of violence. I personally wouldn't allow my children below the age of 12 to watch it else they pick up being perverted, telling people they would kill them or getting into fights just to be like Jing. It's up to individual opinion, but that's mine.
This DVD comes with the first 4 episodes of the King of Bandit Jing series. They are:
The Capital Of Thieves The Ghost Ship Of Blue Hawaii The Adonis Capital Of Time (Parts 1 & 2)
These episodes introduce you to Jing and what he does, and also how Postino aids Jing in his thieving quests. The extras on this DVD are not much, you can watch it in the original Japanese voices (with subtitles and it actually makes it slightly better to watch) or check out the pre-production sketches of the series. This DVD has very little else, so don't be surprised with its lack of options when you view it.
This series can only be something you have to watch to see if you enjoy. I find it average and not worthy of a second viewing. If you can find it cheap then why not check it out, otherwise in my opinion just borrow it off a friend.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Production Year: 2003 - Action/Adventure - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Tom Welling, Kristin Kreuk, Michael Rosenbaum, Sam Jones III, Allison Mack, Eric Johnson, Annette O'Toole, John Glover, John Schneider
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Production Year: 1977 - Action/Adventure - Director: Clint Eastwood - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring:Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney
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