Search - Eight Clouds Rising, Vol. 1 on DVD

Good, but short.

T. LaPonte | Connecticut | 08/21/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Eight clouds rising is the story of two young men. One is a college student who travels from Tokyo to a small shrine in the mountains during a festival that only occurs every 49 years in order to get his long dead grandfather's sword purified. The other is the 16 year old son of the temple's highest priest, who has strange and dark powers and becomes the wielder of one of 7 sacred swords.

It is comprised of two 30 minute parts, and the ending, while completing a piece of the story, is by no means a resolution. We can probably expect a series, or at least another video in the future."

Not worth the frustration.

J. De Salme | Maine, United States | 11/08/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Two years ago, another reviewer said to look out for a series follow-up -- Don't bother. There isn't one. Like so many others of its type, this OAV is stand-alone adaptation of an extremely long-running manga series that has not been released State-side. Whether or not it will be in the future, your guess is as good as mine.

The setting, story and characters are interesting and unique on their own. You're sucked in to a tale of magic and mystery, past lives, evil spirits and dark powers. I found myself rather excited for the next part, which I found out, to my disappointment, does not exist.

The art is serviceable, but has the feel of being a CLAMP wanna-be. It's solid, but a bit generic. Same goes for the audio quality.

The story has a lot of potential, which only makes it more painful when the OAV ends and the viewer is left hanging with the threads of a story that may never be translated into English. To quote a review off another site: "Eight Clouds Rising is a moody and atmospheric little two part prologue tale based on something much larger. The feeling that much is missing is there as this is a more compressed version of what probably made up several volumes of the manga. It's an interesting tale that when all is said and done you look at and wish that it would either be properly expanded or it piqued your curiosity enough to seek out the actual manga series itself. By itself, it's a cheap way to pass an hour but not something that you'll go back and repeatedly watch."

My opinion: Don't spend the money on it. There are far better titles out there and this one will only leave you disappointed."