Mirage of Blaze
Reviewer: MusashiChan69 [email]Overall Rating: B+
Media Reviewed: DVD
Creator: Kiwabara Mizuna
U.S. Licensed: Yes
Released by: Media Blasters
Run time: 13 episodes
BL Content: Very soft (emotional, touching)
Genre: Drama/Historical/Fantasy
Other media:
English OAV DVD: Rebels of the River's Edge [review]
Japanese novels
Japanese manga
Now, I will start the review with one thing to keep in mind-some of this show just confused the hell out of me.
Regardless of this, I still enjoyed it. There was an interesting plot, good character design, and heavier yaoi vibes then a 100-pound weight.
Yes, it's true. Mirage of Blaze was a yaoi manga written by Kiwabara Mizuna, and it is NOT just slashable-it's yaoi. If you watch the show with the idea of it being completely yaoi, you'd be wrong. Not that there's a lack of yaoi moments.
First you have Takaya Ougi, your average-at-first-glance high school student. He's extremely protective (though it's not elaborated as to why he is) of his friend Yuzuru Narita, another cute guy student. Strange things start to happen one day, when Yuzuru unwittingly beats up a gang of students who'd been harassing him (we don't know why this is, either). At some point, Takaya and Yuzuru see a woman kneeling on the ground-however, Yuzuru doesn't see the flames engulfing her. From there on, you're thrown into what feels like a more dramatic version of a history lesson.
No, I don't feel that it was boring. It was very complicated, however, and you have to be fully awake to understand it. The plot has to do with an ancient feud between two clans, and apparently some restless spirits out of the bunch are coming back to start the war again. Vengeance, I suppose.
Takaya, upon meeting Nobutsuna Naoe (does ANYONE else see the resemblance between Naoe and Seishirou of X fame?), learns that he himself is the re-incarnation of one of these ancient lords. Strange thing is, he's been totally unaware of this fact. So he has to deal with three things: protecting Yuzuru, dealing with these angry ancient spirits, and re-discovering his identity.
Not to mention unravelling the apparent history he had with Naoe, which is vaguely mentioned in Vol. 1.
That's where you have your yaoi. Takaya/Naoe is the most blatant couple (hell, my seven year old nephew asked me if 'those men wanted to kiss each other'), but there are also vibes between Takaya/Yuzuru-though I figure those to be from a good friendship. Throw in a girl who's got the spirit of a gay man inside her body, and you're good to go.
Storywise, I felt that there was something missing. It's interesting, but they need more time to explain it. Well, there ARE three more volumes. The dub was pretty good, too, though they threw in a lot of big, unnecessary words to fill out the 'mouth-flaps'.
I would recommend at least renting it if you're into samurai and all that stuff, and if you're a yaoi fan. That would be why you're here, wouldn't it? Give it time to even out, and I'm sure you'll have another great yaoi series to watch.
