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is a six-part original video animation. Tatsunoko Production produced it to commemorate its 40th anniversary of anime production. Each ''Karas'' episode was first televised in Japan as a pay-per-view program from March 25, 2005, to August 3, 2007, before being released onto DVDs. Manga Entertainment compiled and released these episodes as two feature length, direct-to-DVD films for the English market. ''Karas'' tells the story of Otoha, a former yakuza, living in a fictional version of Shinjuku, Tokyo populated by humans and ''yōkai'' (Japanese spirits). He is one of the titular ''karas'', humans appointed as superpowered agents of the land. Able to transform into a car, an aircraft, and an armored crusader; the skilled swordsman is to stop his corrupt predecessor, Eko, from taking over Tokyo. Supporting characters such as Eko's former henchman, Nue; the ''yōkai''; and Homura, the ''karas'' of another city, help Otoha in his quest. A concurrent side story focuses on humans affected by Eko's scheme. ''Karas'' won the Best Original Video at the 2006 Tokyo Anime Award competition, and most reviewers were impressed with the images produced by fusing 2D and 3D art techniques. The story presents themes on the conflicts between cultural traditions and modern society, and the relationship between people. Reviewers, however, found its presentation was too confusing to follow; several of them felt it worsened the show by detracting from the strength of its art. ==Plot== Ibira initially pictured ''Karas'' as a horror story with a vengeance theme. It had a simple plot similar to the manga, ''Dororo''. The protagonist ''karas'' is on a quest, slaughtering ''mikura''s to recover the body parts of his murdered lover. Until he recovers all the parts, he assembles them into a katana to kill the ''mikura''s.〔 The final version of ''Karas'' was more of a superhero action story,〔 〕〔 〕 and originally intended for three leading heroes in the same vein as the Japanese period drama, ''Sanbiki ga Kiru!''. The characters Otoha, Nue, and the human detective Kure were the leads but the final version primarily focused on Otoha.〔''Karas'' Vol. 2 (DVD), Project K. 〕 The presentation of ''Karas'' differs in several ways from typical anime. The show maintains a serious tone and never indulges in slapstick, exaggerated facial expressions, or super deformed characters.〔 〕 It avoids heavy expositions. Dialogue tends to be short and viewers have to infer what is going on based on very little presented information.〔 〕 The team had left out substantial amounts of information from the show, printing them in a booklet of the final DVD package.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Karas (anime)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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