Burning Blood

Synopsis:

Characters:

• Takagi, Ryou (Main) - Voice Actors: Inoue, Kazuhiko
• Katou, Minoru (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Seki, Toshihiko
• Kitsunebi no Atama (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Ootsuka, Akio
• Matsubara, Koyuki (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Hidaka, Noriko
• Moriyama, Jin (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Hayami, Show
• Otobe, Makoto (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Genda, Tesshou
• Suu-chan (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Mizutani, Yuuko
• Takagi, Gentarou (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Ikeda, Masaru
• Wakabayashi, Kouichi (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Hori, Hideyuki

Staff:

• Matsuzaki, Yoshiyuki (Producer)
• Sugita, Tsutomu (Producer)
• Dezaki, Osamu (Director, Storyboard)
• Hanyuu, Naoyasu (Episode Director)
• Mizutani, Takaya (Episode Director)
• Shinohara, Toshiya (Episode Director)
• Nakajima, Yuuki (Theme Song Arrangement, Theme Song Lyrics, Theme Song Composition, Music)
• Yuuki, Risa (Theme Song Performance)
• Abe, Yukio (Art Director)
• Aoyagi, Shigemi (Key Animation)
• Arai, Torao (Art Director)
• Dezaki, Tetsu (Planning)
• Ishiwata, Osamu (Original Creator)
• Katou, Yoshitaka (Key Animation)
• Matsuda, Akihiko (Sound Effects)
• Mizuhata, Kenji (In-Between Animation)
• Morita, Minoru (In-Between Animation)
• Nakahara, Kiyotaka (In-Between Animation)
• Sakamoto, Shuuji (In-Between Animation)
• Sasaki, Mamoru (Key Animation)
• Sugino, Akio (Character Design, Key Animation)
• Tsuruyama, Osamu (Key Animation)
• Uchida, Hiroshi (Key Animation)
• Unozawa, Shin (Planning)
• Yagi, Motoki (Key Animation)
• Yuki, Shinzou (Art Director)

Reviews:

• User Kamezuki (Score: 6/10):
  “Burning Blood” is an aesthetically pleasing, well-produced 3-episode OVA about a high school delinquent training to be a boxer to defeat his rival. After a rocky first episode, the story becomes solid and intriguing, although overdramatic and unrealistic at times. Unfortunately, it ends on an inconclusive note, and seems to have been made to advertise the manga (which had just ended around the time this came out). The OVA’s story centers on a high school delinquent named Ryo, whose nickname is “B.B.” or “Burning Blood,” a nickname given to him by American servicemembers who got in a fight with him a few years prior to theevents in the series. It’s set in Yokosuka, a port city with a large American navy base. Ryo plays the trumpet in a band, and they’ve entered a national music competition. Meanwhile, Ryo’s friends get caught up in some local gang violence, and one of the main members of the gang is a guy named Jin Moriyama. Ryo fights him, but gets beat badly. When he finds out that Moriyama is a boxer, he decides to go into boxing himself to defeat him.nnThe first episode is difficult to get through, mainly because there’s an implied scene of gang rape at the end, and the somber aftermath of that is shown. Also, there is no boxing in the first episode, so the lyrics and the visuals of the opening and ending themes don’t fit this episode at all. The mood is also a mismatch — it ends with a rape and a guy lying on the ground having been beaten to a pulp, only for the peppy “you can do it!” music to kick in immediately afterwards. The juxtaposition is jarring.nnThe second and third episodes are much better. Once the plot gets started and the characters work to advance that plot, the story gets interesting and I grew invested in knowing the outcome. However, unfortunately, to find out the eventual outcome, you have to read the manga, as the OVA ends part of the way through. Also, there are a number of issues with this series that hindered my suspension of disbelief. For one, Ryo exhibits the superhuman traits that are often seen in main characters of delinquent anime: he gets beat up to the point where any normal person would have died, but his doctor says that he miraculously sustained no lasting damage, and what's more, Ryo recovers to 100% remarkably quickly. At one point, he even swims the 2km stretch from an island to the mainland and back — in a typhoon, no less. In addition, despite all of the violence occurring in public places, we never see any police or security guards anywhere, which seems a little unrealistic.nnThe characters besides Ryo are memorable, but not necessarily likable. The teacher, Otobe, is your typical “tough love” coach. He beats up Ryo frequently, sometimes to the point where he knocks him out, and one time he even tells Ryo’s friends to take him to a…
• User Not_Joaoo (Score: 9/10):
  Gave it a try since its an old anime, and i do like them, and you should give it a try too. Gotta love the these old soundtracks and animations In the first episode i thought that it was a little forced that they were almost perfect in every thing they did, don`t matter if it is in basket, motorcycle, musician hahahah... a little too much, the better in everything they did In the last 2 episodes i got attached to the protagonist, his background and his motivations. Would have love to see a sequel, but unfortunately, it`s very unlikely ahahahaha
• User Cayusashi (Score: 7/10):
  Burning Blood is a solid three episode OVA leaving me wishing an entire series was adapted for the manga. I can smell the potential here, but there isn't enough time to develop all of the characters and their motives. Many times, you're left wondering why characters' severity in their actions will drastically change. The first episode's back half was a little iffy and didn't need to go quite as far as it did to send the same message. Burning Blood wants to be up front about how edgy and dark it's going to be by wearing its Ashita no Joe inspiration on its sleeve, butI want more time to explore motivations and backstories to give it true edge instead of SA. The old school music is charming, but forgettable. However, the ED is extremely catchy. I want to recommend this to people trying to dip their toes in the water of boxing anime or wanting to watch something a little older, but despite having not read the manga it seems to be the better version if you can find it online.nn6.8/10

Forum Topics:

• Burning Blood Episode 3 Discussion
• Burning Blood Episode 2 Discussion
• Burning Blood Episode 1 Discussion

External Links:

• AniDB
• ANN
• Wikipedia

Related Anime/Manga:

• B.B (manga - Adaptation)