Nazca: Blades of Fate [DVD]

Features

• Type: DVD
• Studio: Geneon [Pioneer]
• Subtitle(s): english
• Actor(s): Japanimation

Can a past life affect the future? Kyoji, the only member of a small Kendo (traditional Japanese wooden swordplay) club has his world turned upside down! Sudden visions of past life events during the age of the Incas revive ancient rivalries and ambitions, clouding modern day relationships and turning friends into deadly enemies! Kyoji's former mentor, Tate fully accepts his past life as Yawaru, an Inca warrior, and has adopted his old ambition to cleanse the world of its weaker elements. However, he also remembers it was the betrayal of Biruka, Kyoji's past life, that thwarted his original attempt! Does the past really play an important role in the future? Nazca is a story of past lives and present conflicts. A story of friendships shattered and reformed by events that happened hundreds of years ago during the days of the Incas! At a kendo match, 17-year-old high school student Kyoji is stunned when Tate, his coach, momentarily transforms into an exotically armored warrior. Over the next few days, Tate behaves erratically, alarming his students and his fiancée, Yuka. Kyoji discovers he, Tate, and their friends are the reincarnated spirits of Inca warriors. But Kyoji is Bilka and Tate is Yawaru--enemies in a blood feud dating back to the Spanish conquest of Peru. Yuka and Kyoji travel to South America, hoping to find the missing Tate--and figure out what's going on. Their visit leads to more flashback episodes. The Matthew Broderick-esque Kyoji looks particularly incongruous in a trailing feather headdress; his friend Daimon is tricked out in a rig that looks more Arabian than Peruvian. The improbable plot gets a boost from some handsome computer-generated imagery, including an animated version of a Nazca Line figure and a golden fortress modeled after a ceremonial Inca knife. Using the different media to suggest separate worlds works more effectively than the combinations of drawn and computer animation in many Japanese films. But the idea of Japanese high school students as reincarnated Inca warriors seems farfetched, even by anime standards. Contains the first three episodes: 1. "Those Who Awaken," 2. "Reunion in the Andes," 3. Meeting of the Sleeping Souls." Rated 13 and up for violence, profanity, and brief nudity. --Charles Solomon