Mirage of Blaze
Date of last revision: 07/18/04

Alternate Title: 炎の蜃気楼 | Honoo no Miraaju | Honou no Shinkirou
Genre: Shounen-Ai | Drama | Historical | Samurai/Japanese Feudual | Supernatural
Companies: SME Visual Works | KIDS Station | Madhouse | Shueisha | Sony
American Liscensing Company: Media Blasters
Format: 13 episodes
Dates: 01/07/2002
Original Creator: Kuwabara Mizuna (novelist) | (ALSO) Shoko Hamada (manga artist)
Age Rating: 15 and up

Synopsis: During the Warring States period of Japan, lasting for some 100 years from about 1500 to 1600, a young warlord named Uyesugi Kagetora of the Uyesugi Yashashu clan, committed suicide in the wake of his defeat. In the past 400 years, the war has not stopped, and is now fought on a spiritual field, full of the warlords who have reincarnated and ghosts of defeated soldiers. These reincarnated lords are called possessors, who force their souls into new bodies at a human’s birth, and come to life again with their memories of the past. Now the battle still continues, as the lords of the Uyesugi Yashashu clan try to put the ghosts to rest and keep the enemy clans at bay.

Thus enters Takaya Ohgi, a normal, seventeen year old high school boy, until he encounters a man named Naoe Uesugi (also a reincarnated warlord under order of Kagetora) and several other people who claim he is the reincarnation of the great warlord, Kagetora. Takaya does not want this responsibility as a reincarnated warlord and just wants to protect his best friend, Narita Yuzuru from people attempting to hurt or kidnap him for unknown reasons. However when Takaya meets Naoe, his powers and abilities of being a possessor come to the surface, and he soon finds he can exorcise evil spirits and fight the Feudal Underworld.

But, unlike his previous reincarnations, Takaya does not remember being Uyesugi Kagetora or any of his other past lives this time around . . . it may be because of an incident between himself and Naoe in one of their past lives, thirty years earlier.

SCORE: 85%

Plot: If there is one word to describe this series, it is this: complicated. And it is made worse by the fact that it is set in historical settings based on real Japanese warlords (who often have multiple names and titles). . . and unless you are well versed in Japanese history (or have a little basic knowledge), this story may be hard to follow. That is the misfortune of watching a series like this when you’re not Japanese.

This thirteen episode series is based off a novel series (not in English) that now in its thirties in number of volumes, by Kuwabara Mizuna (published by Shuueisha), and also based off its own manga based on those novels by Shouko Hamada that currently numbers about 5 in volumes (published by Hakushensha, the company that brought us the magazine Hana to Yume that serializes the Yami no Matsuei and Fruits Basket manga). So, to have a series with only 13 episodes . . . a lot is left out, and it ends far before anywhere near where the novel series is right now. But, with that much material, it is a popular series, and an anime for it was just something to eventually come in existence.

Like I said earlier, this story is a complicated one. Worse for me, I actually saw volumes 2 through 4 first, and did not get to see the first volume until I bought it myself. I would like to think that I am intelligent enough to catch on to the story however (and I am usually better than the average person on catching on and keeping track of Japanese names). Admittedly, I still do not have track of the names of most characters in this show, but hopefully if you watch this, you’ll be able to follow it pretty well like I did.

All of this is just little stuff to sweat. Undoubtedly the story of a feudal war still continuing is supposed to be the biggest deal in this series . . . but the intense relationship of hatred and love between Naoe and his reincarnated lord, Takaya/Kagetora, overshadow this all. And the creators did that on purpose; they knew what they were doing. Undoubtedly, people who watched this series did it for the drama of the two main characters, not so much for the Japanese feudal warring. This does cause problems, as the warfare talk can often leave the audience wondering what exactly is going on at times . . . and make them also antsy to forget about the whole warfare deal and get back to Takaya and Naoe’s relationship plot.

Naoe and Takaya’s complicated past and entanglements is a tense one that will keep any yaoi fan be highly entertained. However, plot twists not expected will also surprise you. Slightly clichéd? Maybe . . . but perhaps not. The twists of the irony and evils of supernatural happenings and reincarnation keeps this show interesting.

There’s not too much more to say about the plot, unless I wanted to ruin it for you. If you have the patience to keep track of everything that happens in this series, try it out.

Visual: While not overly amazing, the animation was very clean and lush, but not an overpowering blend of colors. While the color was very vivid, it was not saturated, and tended to be slightly muted colors of browns, grays and even blues and greens.

The shoujo/shounen-ai touch of this company that animated this series comes through very much; apparently they had just finished animating the X tv series not too much earlier. Minus the trademark stylization of eyes and even slightly more skinny proportions from CLAMP, this series very much resembles the X tv series in style. However, the visuals, and even the story itself seems a bit more grown up and even more mature than the styles and drama of X, and that sets it apart.

The CG of this series was a bit off however, usually when it came to the shields the characters put up to protect themselves. The CG almost seemed too real and didn’t fit in with the flow of the rest of the animation, making characters look slightly flat, in the way similar to the special effects of Yami no Matsuei.

However, special effects were not extremely bad, but not very impressive, since so much of this series was set on conversational drama, rather than action/fight based drama. Very good, but not extraordinary. I like the special effects myself, but they still are a bit off.

Character design was interesting. While the characters do not really have too much of an extreme stylization difference between each other, the facial structures were varied enough to keep characters separate and identifiable, even to the point of really showing their personalities. This was a very good trait of this series.

Also, unlike so many other shounen-ai/yaoi series, while the men are beautiful, they do not lack masculinity. Takaya can be seen as dominant or not depending on what characters he is surrounded with or if he is able to handle his current problem or not. He is a strong character that doesn’t fit the stereotype of male characters in a shounen-ai/yaoi, even if he is a confused young man with many problems. In a way, the Takaya character is very much like Rikki from Ai no Kusabi (this kind of personality really comes through since both are voiced by the same Japanese voice actor).

The men of the series are drawn in a stylization that shows strong and masculine bodies, and are not fey, whispy and anorexic like those of many other series. Even with the supernatural jazz, this series tends to have a pretty realistic note to it.

Sound: The sound. Certainly, it’s not like I haven’t heard sound effects and music like this before. Pretty standard.

The music is pretty good. Not too much variety on the tracks, but good nonetheless. Blaze 2002, the opening theme however, is very wretched. I do like my share of J-pop, in Japanese, English or otherwise, but this song was not good. It’s definitely an acquired taste if you like this song. It really sounds like a cheesy 80s song . . . or rather, just plain cheesy. However, the soulful, painful instrumental ending theme is wonderful . . . I love that piece. That alone would make me want to get the soundtrack on CD.

Of course, the voice acting is superb, as I would expect from Toshihiko Seki (Watari in Yami no Matsuei, Rikki in Ai no Kusabi, Legato in Trigun and a long list of other roles) as Takaya and Sho Hayami (Muraki in Yami no Matsuei, Wolfwood in Trigun, Raool in Ai no Kusabi and also many other) as Naoe. Truly their acting is always great and marvelous, and being able to listen to their work is always a treat.

The Dub: The dub is not perfect, but a lot better than Media Blaster’s previous works, like on FAKE or Yami no Matsuei. Takaya’s voice actor sounds a bit off, but is okay. Naoe’s voice actor is also very good. On a whole, the voice actors sound like they are really acting. And that’s pretty rare from a Media Blaster dub.

Dub Letter Grade: A-

Extra Rants and Bitching: I really enjoyed this series, even with its lack of action sequences and a good opening music theme. This series is all drama with some nice sexual tension tied in . . . a excellent series for the shounen-ai/yaoi enthusiast, even though the plot is exceedingly complicated.

Score Comments: Even for an anime with slightly historical backing, the show tends to lose its focus on the drama and a bit too much on family feuds and warfare. That makes this series not the best, and it being a tv show also kept the sexual innuendoes to a minimum.

However, I am looking forward to the Mirage of Blaze OVA being released in Japan VERY soon (first part comes out this July 28, 2004 the next two parts around September and November) and making its way to the United States. An OVA means less restrictions . . . even better animation, music and . . . less censorship. I’m hoping it lives up to my expectations for an OVA quality.

Websites:

Aestheticism: Mirage of Blaze
Aestheticism's fact page about the novels and some of the manga. A lot of the background facts I know about Mirage of Blaze are from here.

Anime News Network
Another source for my facts.

Boys on Boys on Film
My review of this series will show up on this site soon.

Have a website about this series, or do you know of a good one? Want me to link to it on this review? Well, the feel free to email the sucker to me! Just make sure to put "Review Link" in the subject.