Blade -Marvel Animated Series-

Product Description Eric Brooks – known as Blade – seeks revenge on Deacon Frost, the vampire who killed his mother while she was still pregnant with Eric. With all the powers of a vampire and none of their weaknesses, Blade's quest leads him throughout Southeast Asia in search of Frost. In the Golden Triangle, he discovers a vampire plot that threatens to take down the whole world. Amazon.com Blade marks the final collaboration between Marvel Entertainment and anime giant Madhouse Inc., which previously released Japanese-influenced adaptations of such iconic comic titles as Iron Man, X-Men, and Wolverine. The Blade series also transposes half-vampire Eric Brooks to Japan, where his search for Deacon Frost, the monster that murdered his mother and transformed him into a "daywalker" at birth, leads him to a cabal of vampires known as Existence that plague the whole of Asia. The 12 episodes that comprise the complete Blade series follow his pursuit of the undead creatures with the help of a young vampire hunter named Makoto, which invariably leads to chanbara-style action. Blade obviously lends itself well to the anime style, interspersing exceptionally violent action with moments of introspection that reveal much of Blade's back story. Where the series stumbles is the quality of its writing, which never rises above the purplest of pulp levels; fans may wish to utilize the disc's subtitled Japanese-language track instead of the English dub, which features the capable Harold Perrineau as Blade. The modest extras are comprised of three brief featurettes on the show's development and execution. --Paul Gaita