Home
Table of Contents
The Fine Print
Shoujo Anime
Other Anime
Shoujo Manga

Favorite Scene
Let's see. I already raved about The Bathroom Scene, so what else should go here? Well, one other Kite scene that stands out in my mind is the one where Sawa tried to get her earrings back from Akia. It was a pretty sad and touching moment, because the earrings contained her parents' blood. Her parents were brutally killed when she was a little girl, after which Akia took her under his wing. When Sawa tried to get her earrings back, she showed that she was actually capable of expressing emotion. The sentimental variety.

Kite
Synopsis | Review

This is a disturbing anime. I'll say it now and I'll say it again. I was incredibly depressed after watching this. Actually, I was pretty depressed for several days. This is yet another one of those titles where it's a good idea to have a feel-good anime nearby. Or have a good debriefing or decompression procedure. Because really, this is a disturbing anime.

Kite was created by Umetsu Yasuomi, who also worked on the well-received movie Grave of the Fireflies. Notably, Kite was the first anime where Umetsu had free rein, and boy did he show everybody what he's capable of. The original version of Kite was pretty much hentai. It was 85 minutes long. Unfortunately, producer Media Blaster decided it wanted to appeal to a wider audience and cut out the really graphic stuff. Currently, there are two versions of Kite: the censored and the uncensored, also known as the Director's Cut. The Director's Cut should not be confused with the original version. The main difference between them is that the original version will never see the light of day, while the Director's Cut is something you can get your grimy paws on. Yeah, there were still censorious scenes left over after the original version was edited.

Synopsis
There's really not much to tell because this was a 30-minute OAV--censored--unless I provide a blow-by-blow account of the whole thing. The Director's Cut was about 45 minutes long, and it's easy to tell where the added scenes were even if you watched only the censored version.

Kite was about Sawa, a girl who looked really nice and sweet and innocent in her school outfit. She also toted this cute little lunchbox. But those were the only things that were nice, sweet, and innocent about her. Sawa was actually a professional assassin, carrying a gun in her cute little lunchbox, and a protege of a corrupt cop named Akia. Actually, she was more than a protege as she had a sexual relationship with him. At the onset of the OAV, it seemed like a relationship she was resigned to. Sawa was generally trained by Akia to become a cold-blooded killer, an expert with a variety of killing gadgets and techniques.

Akia also had another professional assassin working for him, Oburi. He was about Sawa's age and was pretty much a bishounen with his ski cap on. He typically used bombs in his assignments to divert people's attention. He and Sawa first met during an assignment. They had to carry out an assassination in a train station. Later on, they started hanging out together. Oburi lived with a bunch of cats in a rundown apartment, where he and Sawa cultivated a friendship.

Things started going awry shortly after one of Sawa's assignments got messed up. She was supposed to kill a Hollywood movie star, but things didn't go as planned. The whole action sequence involving that event became known in anime as The Bathroom Scene. Yeah, with capital letters. That was probably the most kick-ass action sequence ever made, if not one of the most. Pretty insane to watch. Anyway, The Bathroom Scene was followed by this scene where Sawa was flying in the air (well, actually, she was plummeting from the building where The Bathroom Scene took place) with an assailant. That was pretty kick-ass also. Both The Bathroom Scene and the air fight were probably inspirations for No Doubt's "Ex-girlfriend" music video. The music video producers did mention that parts of the video were based on an anime that they did not name ^_~

Following The Bathroom Scene and the aerial attack, Oburi and Sawa tried to bring about changes, which involved breaking away from Akia. This led to more violent events, culminating in a shocking ending.

Review
This is a disturbing anime. How many times have I said that already? Doesn't matter. It's a disturbing anime. Just when you thought you could breathe in relief, Umetsu throws another nasty surprise at you.

Kite also would not give you closure. Well, maybe it would. It's something open to debate. It certain didn't give closure for me. That's why you'll just have to reach for that feel-good anime after watching this.

Given that Kite is disturbing and will not (or perhaps will) give you closure, it's a must-see. Definitely one of those powerfully shocking titles that people would be talking about for a long time. After Kite, Umetsu created another OAV called Mezzo Forte, where Sawa had a cameo. People have been comparing Mezzo Forte to Kite ever since, and it always falls short. In other words, Kite's incomparable.

However, if you're the type who gets depressed easily and takes things to heart all the time, then maybe this is something that you should steer clear of. That's okay, that doesn't mean you're a wimp. But really, if you're not into violence, watching this is sort of like hating horror movies but seeing Nightmare on Elm Street (or whatever the big-time horror movie is) just because it's legendary. At the very least, Kite shows what extremes anime is capable of.