Anime Review: Bamboo Blade

Review Bamboo BladeWritten by WarpshadowRating very good

For a while I have had a bit of an anime burnout but fortunately Bamboo Blade was there to carry me through my time of difficulty. The show may not do wonders for you but overall I found it to be really fun.

Toraji Ishida is a poor teacher and kendo instructor who has made a bet with a friend and fellow kendo teacher which may help him get out of poverty. All Ishida has to do is form a girl’s kendo team and beat his friend’s. The problem though is that there is only one girl currently in the kendo club, Kirino. While searching for more members Ishida and Kirino run into a girl with an amazing talent for Kendo named Tamaki. The question is can Tamaki and three other girls be convinced to join the kendo club so that they can have formal matches?

Bamboo Blade a sort of sports show that is really more of a slice of life comedy. The reason I say that this is a not really a sports show is that the flow of the story is rarely dictated by sports tropes. For example even the clubs best fighter, Tamaki, isn’t driven by a need to be better at kendo and in fact skates through most of her matches. I know many slice of life shows can be quite boring but this show is not only funny enough that boredom in seldom if ever a problem. The humor comes from a cast of characters that are not only quirky in their own right but also play off of each other well. Even though this is show about five high school girls and not a shojo anime show the fan service is very light. Overall I found Bamboo Blade to be a very pleasant show that I think would appeal to a broad audience.