Weiß Kreuz

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Weiß Kreuz (Kapitel) (USA Title: Knight Hunters)
ヴァイスクロイツ
(Weiß Kreuz)
Genre Adventure, Drama
Light novel: Forever White
Author Ken'ichi Kanemaki
Illustrator Kyoko Tsuchiya
Publisher Flag of Japan Tokuma Shoten
Published July 1997 – December 1997
Volumes 1
Manga: Weiß: An Assassin And White Shaman
Author Takehito Koyasu (story)
Kyoko Tsuchiya (art)
Publisher Flag of Japan Shinshokan
Demographic Shōjo
Serialized in Flag of Japan Wings
Original run 1997 – 1998
Volumes 2[1]
TV anime: Weiß Kreuz (USA Title: Knight Hunters)
Director Kiyoshi Egami
Kazutoku Tanahashi (ep.17 - 25)
Studio Studio Deen
Network Flag of Japan TV Tokyo
Original run April 8, 1998 – September 30, 1998
Episodes 25
OVA: Verbrechen and Strafe
Studio Studio Deen
Episodes 2
Released 2000
TV anime: Glühen (Glowing) (USA Title: Eternity File)
Director Hitoyuki Matsui
Network Flag of Japan Kids Station
Original run November 28, 2002 – February 20, 2003
Episodes 13
Manga: Weiß Kreuz Side B
Author Takehito Koyasu (story)
Shoko Ohmine (art)
Publisher Flag of Japan Ichijinsha
Demographic Shōjo
Serialized in Flag of Japan Monthly Comic Zero Sum (1-31)
Zero Sum WARD (32-37)
Original run January 2003 – August 2007
Volumes 5

Weiß Kreuz (ヴァイスクロイツ Vaisu Kuroitsu?, German for "White Cross") released in the United States as Knight Hunters: Weiß Kreuz by Media Blasters, is an anime about four assassins that work in a flower shop called "The House of Kittens", a reference to their feline codenames. The assassins are members of a group called Weiß (white), which is run by Persia of the mysterious Kritiker organization.

There is also a manga serial called Weiß Side B, authored by voice actor Takehito Koyasu and drawn by Shōko Ōmine. It is published by Ichijinsha; the first thirty-one chapters were serialized in Monthly Comic Zero Sum and chapters thirty-two through thirty-seven were serialized in the quarterly magazine Zero Sum WARD. Weiß Side B ended with the publication of chapter thirty-seven in the Summer 2007 issue of Zero Sum WARD. The final chapters have yet to be collected in tankōbon format.

Several drama CDs have also been released.

Contents

[edit] Characters

[edit] Weiß

An assassin group that is under the order of Kritiker ("critic" in German). Kritiker is a secret organization that falls under the Japanese police force.

Ran Fujimiya (藤宮 蘭 Fujimiya Ran?)
Codename: Abyssinian
Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (Japanese), Paul Juhn (English)
Aya (アヤ?) is a silent man whose sister is in a mysterious coma. His parents were killed and his sister run over by Reiji Takatori, and thus he joins Weiß seeking only revenge. As a constant reminder of the purpose behind his actions, he takes on his sister's name and wears one of her earrings, which actually were a gift from him to her. Because of his past tragedy and current resolve, he is strongly silent and seems very cold. Although Omi is the official leader of Weiß, Aya wields a great deal of authority over the team during their missions. His real name is Ran Fujimiya.
Omi Tsukiyono (月夜野 臣 Tsukiyono Omi?)
Codename: Bombay (Weiß Kreuz), Persia (Weiß Kreuz Glühen)
Voiced by: Hiro Yuuki (Japanese), Jamie McGonnigal (English)
Due to his computer skills, Omi (オミ?) is in charge of gathering information and planning Weiß's missions. He doesn't remember his life before Kritiker (the underground crime-fighting organization Weiß is commissioned by) at the start of the series, but as the action unfolds he discovers he is in fact Mamoru Takatori, son of Reiji Takatori - head of the Takatori family, who are in some way related to almost all the missions the boys have to take. He has a tough time trying to figure out where his loyalty should lie, but in the end realizes that what he truly desires is to stop the corruption his biological family spreads. Later, in the Dramatic Precious drama CDs, he finds out that he is really Shuichi Takatori's biological son, and this is the reason he assumes the position "Persia" in Glühen.
Ken Hidaka (飛鷹 健 Hidaka Ken?)
Codename: Siberian
Voiced by: Tomokazu Seki (Japanese), Brian Morey (English)
Ken (ケン?) was once a talented professional soccer goalie in the J-League, he was forced to quit due to a gambling scandal, despite the fact that he was completely innocent. It turns out his best friend, Koichiro Kase, drugged him so he would throw a game in favor of the gamblers. Ken doesn't know this, however, and is beaten up and left for dead in a burning warehouse when Kase tells him he found the leader of the gambling ring who set Ken up in the first place. Ken doesn't discover Kase's lies, believing him long gone, until he meets Kase some years later, attempting to figure out why his best friend is one of Weiß's targets. In the end, Kase, who is working very close under a man whom Weiß needs to kill, sets Ken up once more, giving him a false lead and then shooting at Ken himself. When Kase sees him one last time, Ken doesn't grant him any mercy, although he is tormented by his actions afterwards.
Yoji Kudou (工藤 耀爾 Kudō Yōji?)
Codename: Balinese
Voiced by: Shinichiro Miki (Japanese), Marc Diraison (English)
Yoji (ヨージ?) is a ladies' man and a former private detective. We discover by way of some painful flashbacks and explanations on Yoji's part that he once ran a Private Investigator Agency with his first love, a young woman with sunglasses and a distinctive beauty mark named Asuka Murase. Asuka, however, was shot and killed while investigating the members only Liott club, which hides a prostitution ring. He joined Weiß to protect all the other women of the world because he couldn't protect his love and partner, and this explains his insensitive-seeming practice of only accepting missions that have to do with women of legal age.

[edit] Kritiker

Persia (ペルシャ Perushiya?)
Voiced by: Juurouta Kosugi (Japanese), Christopher Yates (English)
The head officer of the police force by day and head of Kritiker, an underground organization fighting for justice, by night. His real name is Shuichi Takatori and he is brother to Reiji Takatori and Omi's biological father (with Reiji's wife; and that is the reason why Reiji did not pay the ransom for Omi when he was kidnapped). He uses the codename "Marigold" in the Eternal Rain drama CD and "King" in the Crashers: Knight and Ran drama CDs.
Manx (マンクス Mankusu?)
Voiced by: Mami Horikoshi (Japanese), Sue Gilad (English)
Persia's red-headed secretary, whom Yoji always flirts with but never gets anywhere with. She has feelings for Shuichi Takatori, but does not act on them due to their professional relationship and his remaining love for his brother's late wife. She uses the codename "Erika" in the Dramatic Precious drama CDs.
Birman (バーマン Baman?)
Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue
Along with Manx, Birman serves as a liaison between Weiß and Persia, bringing them their missions and information from Kritiker.
Botan (牡丹 Botan?)
Voiced by: Fumihiko Tachiki
A Kritiker agent who assists Birman in guiding Weiß, and takes a particular interest in Aya due to his own personal reasons for joining the organization.

[edit] Civilians

Aya Fujimiya (藤宮 彩 Fujimiya Aya?)
Voiced by: Yui Horie (Japanese), Rachael Lillis (English)
The younger sister of Ran who was run over by the car of Reiji Takatori on her sixteenth birthday. She has been comatose ever since. Despite the fact that she is now eighteen years old, her body has not physically aged at all. As a result, she becomes a target of Schwarz. Aya is commonly referred to as Aya-chan to differentiate her from her older brother.
Sakura Tomoe (巴 さくら Tomoe Sakura?)
Voiced by: Hiroko Kasahara (Japanese), Katie Adams (English)
A girl with a striking resemblance to Aya's younger sister. She becomes quite close to Aya, who pushes her away because he fears she will be in danger if she comes to know him, and somewhat because her resemblance to his sister brings him pain. She uses her physical resemblance to Aya's sister in order to protect Aya-chan from Schwarz later on.
Ouka Sakaki (榊 凰花 Sakaki Ōka?)
Voiced by: Minato Ayase (Japanese), Alissa Gordon (English)
A frequent patron of the flower shop, Ouka is a privileged schoolgirl who is especially fond of Omi. Unfortunately for both of them, she is also Reiji Takatori's illegitimate daughter, which results in her being caught up in Weiß's struggles against Schwarz and the Takatori family; the consequences, described in both the anime and the CD dramas, are especially gruesome; in the anime, she is accidentally killed by Schwarz, and in the Dramatic Precious drama CDs it is revealed that her body, along with her older brothers', has been perserved.
Ms. Momoe (百恵さん Momoe-san?)
Voiced by: Rachael Lillis
The kindly owner of The House of Kittens, the flower shop where the members of Weiß work. Her lazy white cat always sleeps on her lap, occasionally looking up when interesting things happen in the shop. Generally, however, neither Ms. Momoe nor the cat see any action.

[edit] Enemies

[edit] Schwarz

The main enemies in the series are another group of assassins called Schwarz ("Black" in German), all of whom have supernatural powers. Schwarz begrudgingly work as bodyguards for the Takatori family, and this is how they meet Weiß. Later in the series, Schwarz is seen assisting a mysterious group known as "Eszett" (the name of the German alphabetic character ß) in resurrecting their deceased leader. Weiß is to Kritiker what Schwarz is to Eszett.

Brad Crawford (ブラッド・クロフォード Buraddo Kurofōdo?)
Voiced by: Ryoutarou Okiayu (Japanese), Michael Tremain (English)
Crawford is the leader of Schwarz. Though Crawford seems to follow commands without so much as a question, he is not someone to be trusted. He is very focused, although what drives him is unknown. Crawford has the ability to see bits and pieces of the future. Because of this, he has shown to be quite difficult to deal with on more than one occasion.
Schuldig (シュルディッヒ Shurudihhi?)
Voiced by: Hikaru Midorikawa (Japanese), Jeff Swarthout (English)
Both sadistic and masochistic to an extent, Schuldig enjoys messing with people's heads, which is all too easy given his power of telepathy. He claims that people's minds taste like honey; however, he also complains that at times he can't tell which thoughts are his. Schuldig means "guilty" in German.
Nagi Naoe (直江 那岐 Naoe Nagi?)
Voiced by: Nozomu Sasaki (Japanese), Chris Fuller (English)
Nagi was shunned as a child by the people around him because of his telekinetic powers, and as a result he is very solemn and embittered towards the world. He joined Schwarz to take revenge on the world for the way he was treated.
Jei Farfarello (ファルファレロ Farufurero?)
Voiced by: Ryuusei Nakao (Japanese), Rick Mann (English)
Called demented by most, as his multitude of scars and ability to grin at insane acts of violence toward others and himself makes this accusation seem true. When he learned as a child that his real mother was Ruth, the nun who had been his teacher, Jei snapped and murdered his adoptive parents and sister, then blocked out the memory, developing a vendetta against God and Christians. His name comes from one of the demons in Dante's Inferno.

[edit] Schreient

A group of four female assassins employed and cared for by the scientist Masafumi Takatori. They are fiercely loyal to him and one another. "Schreiend" is the German word for "screaming."

Hell (ヘル Heru?)
Voiced by: Masako Katsuki (Japanese), Stacey Williams (voice actress) (English)
She is the leader of Schreient, carrying out her lover's will. She was once a member of the Japanese Self Defense Force. She is normally level-headed, but can be moved to great anger. Hell means "bright" in German, and her real name is Chizuru Aoi.
Schön (シェーン Shien?)
Voiced by: Miki Itou (Japanese), Shannon Conley (English)
She was once a model, and has more than a healthy appreciation for her own beauty: it is a scratch to the face that angers her the most in one battle. While she seems very self-absorbed, she does not put herself before the rest of Schreient. Schön means "beautiful" in German, and her real name is Karen Kitaura.
Neu (ノイ Noi?)
Voiced by: Kotono Mitsuishi (Japanese), Kaitlin O'Neal (English)
A strike to her face in one battle breaks her visor and reveals to Yoji the eyes of someone he believed dead: his ex-lover and partner, Asuka. The anime never conclusively states whether she is or is not, however, and she seems to have no memory of Yoji. In episode sixteen, she uses the name "Kyoko" when she tries to seduce (and then kill) Yoji. Neu means "new" in German.
Tot (トート Toto?)
Voiced by: Yuko Mizutani (Japanese), Rachael Lillis (English)
This seventeen-year-old girl acts much, much younger than she is, talking to her stuffed rabbit and referring to herself in third person, although a definitive reason is never given. It is implied that she was abused by her father, as she says that he was a "very bad man," and that Schreient actually rescued her from him. She is involved in a short, sweet love affair with Schwarz's Nagi before her apparent death at the hands of Farfarello. It is revealed in episode twenty-five that Nagi was able to save her from death, using his telekinetic powers to re-start her stopped heart. Tot means "dead" in German, and her real name is Nanami Kyouno.

[edit] The Takatori Family

A family that seems to be involved in all the crimes Weiß deal with.

Reiji Takatori (鷹取 玲司 Takatori Reiji?)
Voiced by: Norio Wakamoto (Japanese), Mike Pollock (English)
The head of the family. Once thought to be Omi's father. He killed Aya's parents to cover up the fact that he'd been embezzling from the bank where Aya's father worked, leaving Mr. Fujimiya to take the blame, and ran Aya-chan down with his limousine when she escaped the explosion he had set off in their home to cover his crime.
Hirofumi Takatori (鷹取 弘史 Takatori Hirofumi?)
Voiced by: Masaki Aizawa (Japanese), Patrick Lanczki (English)
Reiji's eldest son, the one who reveals to Omi who he truly is. Hirofumi supports Reiji's ambitions and carries favor with potential political allies by doing things like staging hunts where they can chase down and kill human prey. In the flashbacks that Omi has, it is revealed that he was the kinder of Omi's two brothers, but was corrupted by his father.
Masafumi Takatori (鷹取 雅史 Takatori Masafumi?)
Voiced by: Keiji Fujiwara (Japanese), Kevin T. Collins (English)
Reiji's second eldest son and the scientist who backs Schreient. Masafumi's goal is to create a chemical formula which will make him immortal and godlike, and to accomplish that goal he performs illegal experiments on unwilling victims. He seems to have a thing for pretty girls and boys, and at the beginning, he will only experiment on young children who are "pretty."

[edit] Anime

[edit] Weiß Kreuz Kapitel

Kapitel is the first of the Weiß anime series. It runs 25 episodes and follows Weiß in its mission to "defeat the dark beasts" that haunt Tokyo. The beginning episodes lend some back story to Aya, Ken, and Yoji, and show their motivations for being in Weiß. Omi's history becomes part of the Kapitel storyline and is delved into halfway through. Kapitel introduces Kritiker, Schwarz, Esset and Schreient. Kaptiel uses the character designs created by Kyoko Tsuchiya, and features the lowest quality of animation of the three Weiß Kreuz anime series.

Because the last two episodes were shown as an hour-long special in Japan, Kapitel is sometimes considered a 24-episode series. Media Blasters' US release considered it to be 25 episodes.[2]

[edit] Weiß Kreuz OVA: Verbrechen & Strafe

The second Weiß series, "Verbrechen & Strafe" (crime & punishment), is a two-episode OVA that takes place a short time after the end of the anime, and before the events detailed in the last set of Drama CDs. In hiding, Aya, Ken, Yoji and Omi work out of a mobile home, using their flower-selling business as a cover. Their location is never specified, but it is possibly in the area of Yokota Air Base or Camp Zama, which are both American military bases near Tokyo. Their first mission involves a target by the name of Col. Nichol who evidently has his own enemies in a later target for Weiss and a young man named Akira. However, Ken and Omi decide to decline the mission to kill Akira after they hear Akira's (and his younger sister Kaori's) story. They only want revenge on Nichol for killing their parents several years before. Kaori was also a classmate of Omi's and the only surviving member of her group of friends, all supposedly killed by Nichol. Kritiker doesn't take to Ken and Omi's defection, and amends the mission. Yoji and Aya are instructed to target their team mates as well.

The OVA is notable because of the darker, bloodier storyline and the higher quality of animation compared to the first series.

[edit] Weiß Kreuz Glühen

The third series, called "Weiß Kreuz Glühen," (white cross glowing) is a 13-episode series which is set after the first. Several of the original Weiß members are not immediately visible; two new ones are introduced in the first episode: namely, Sena Izumi and Kyou Aguri. Also, Omi has assumed the position of Persia left by his father. Glühen takes place at Koua Academy, where Weiß are investigating a series of unusual suicides. The animation quality is far higher than the original series. However, the character design is vastly different due to legal disputes with the original character designer, Kyoko Tsuchiya.[3] Schwarz also appears in Glühen; they also have changed appearances due to the lawsuit.

[edit] Spinoff

Koyasu also created the radio play "Crashers: Knight and Ran." This spinoff covers the time that Aya (Ran) spent with Crashers (another 4-person group that is also under Persia) before he joined Weiß. Crashers also appears in Weiß Kreuz Glühen.

[edit] List of Weiß Kreuz drama CDs

  • Crashers Knight and Ran I
  • Crashers Knight and Ran II
  • Weiß Kreuz Dramatic Image Album I
  • Weiß Kreuz Dramatic Image Album II
  • Weiß Kreuz Dramatic Image Album III Schwarz Ein I
  • Weiß Kreuz Dramatic Image Album IV Schwarz Zwei II
  • Weiß Kreuz Dramatic Collection I The Holy Children
  • Weiß Kreuz Dramatic Collection II ENDLESS RAIN
  • Weiß Kreuz Dramatic Collection III Kaleidoscope Memory
  • Weiß Kreuz Dramatic Precious 1st Stage SLEEPLESS NIGHT
  • Weiß Kreuz Dramatic Precious 2nd Stage TEARLESS DOLLS
  • Weiß Kreuz Dramatic Precious 3rd Stage HOPELESS ZONE
  • Weiß Kreuz Dramatic Precious Final Stage DREAMLESS LIFE
  • Weiß Kreuz Wish A Dream Collection I~Flower of Spring~
  • Weiß Kreuz Wish A Dream Collection II~A four-leaf Clover~
  • Weiß Kreuz Wish A Dream Collection III~THE ORCHID under THE SUN~
  • Weiß Kreuz Wish A Dream Collection IV~FIRST MISSON~
  • Weiß Kreuz Glühen I Fight Fire With Fire
  • Weiß Kreuz Glühen II Theater Of Pain
  • Weiß Kreuz Glühen Dramatic Soundtracks I
  • Weiß Kreuz Glühen Dramatic Soundtracks II

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Weiß Kreuz (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia. Accessed 2007-12-15.
  2. ^ Weiß Kreuz (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia. Accessed 2007-12-15.
  3. ^ Weiß Kreuz Glühen (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia. Accessed 2007-12-15.

[edit] External links

Official sites
Other sources
Fansites