Hey, I took Fencing in college I bet I would totally rock at Kendo....Bhahaha. I got nailed in the nuts twice while fencing with girls so I best be keeping away from Kendo if I ever want to have kids. I'm just that lucky. So the lovely little story is a bit off but after watching Bamboo Blade I'm sure other viewers probably thought that taking up Kendo might be fun. Finished Bamboo Blade a while ago and am now just getting around to writing my review about it.
What is BAMBOO BLADE: Bamboo Blade is a slice-of-life anime centered around a Kendo club at a high school. The goal of the instructer is to form a kendo group made up of girls so that he can beat his friend's (another Kendo instructer) team so that he can get a life time supply of home made Sushi. Turns out he wins and gets one free dinner from the McDonalds of Sushi places. Just one of the many LOL moments of this anime The club is made up of Five very different girls and four boys (two of who only ever make sporadic appearances, and end up causing major issues for the club) During the time the club is together we see each of the individial club members grow into becoming a successfully winning club who face many obstacles along the way.
My Opinion: Bamboo Blade was by far one of the more enjoyable animes of this winter season. When I first heard of the anime I was interested by the end of the first episode I was hooked. It is hard to find something not to like about this anime but the pacing could have been a bit better. If you watched one episode at a time it seemed to lag a little watch a few at a time and that went away. But I couldn't wait to do that so I watched mostly one episode at a time eagerly awaiting the next one. What I liked the most was that it wasn't all Kendo all the time. We got to see outside the box and see the club grow individually as well as a team and the outside world was a lot of laughs which breaks up the drama rather well. But when it got down to the Kendo it was serious business and some good action. Kendo brought the drama and the club brought the laughs. While all the characters were great I enjoyed Tama-chan the best but then I think the majority of the viewers would have said the same thing. It's hard not to really. She's just so dang cute and kick ass it's not even funny. I give Bamboo Blade two hearty thumbs up and would definitely recommend buying and watching this to anyone. I'll be looking forward to a US release.
