Anime Reviews (2010-2019): Killing Bites – Complete Collection (2018)

“Killing Bites” is an anime series for those who love violent, action anime series.  A lot of fan service, blood and violence is probably what stays in your mind about what this anime series is mostly about.  But the twist ending does make things exciting and makes one hope for a second season.

Click here to Purchase This Blu-ray on Amazon

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TITLE: Killing Bites – Complete Collection

ANIME RELEASE DATE: 2018

DURATION: Episodes 1-12 (300 Minutes)

BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, English and Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0, Subtitles: English subtitles

COMPANY: Sentai Filmworks

RATING: TV MA S

Release Date: January 26, 2021

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Originally created by Sumita Kazasa, Murata Shinya

Directed by Nioshikata Yasuto

Series Composition by Akashiro Aoi

Music by Takanashi Yasuharu

Character Design by Watanabe Kazuo

Art Director: Yokomatsu Norihiko

Anime Production: LIDEN Films

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Featuring the following voice talent:

Uchida Maaya as Eruza Nakanishi/Cheetah

Amamiya Sora as Hitomi Uzaki/Honey Badger

Uesaka Sumire as Ui Inaba/Rabbit

Hatano Wataru as Yūya Nomoto

Shibata Hidekatsu as Yōzan Mitsukado

Yoshino Hiroyuki as Den Ōnuma

Suwabe Junichi as Narrator

Konishi Katsuyuki as Ryūji Shiina

Koyama Rikiya as Reiichi Shidō

Koyanagi Ryōkan as Takeshi Kido

Harada Sayaka as Oshie Nodoguro

Taketora as Jerome Hongō

Toru Ohkawa as Ichinosuke Okajima

Yoshino Nanjō as Seira Son

Yūichi Nakamura as Taiga Nakanishi/Tiger

Ono Yūki as Yūgo Tani

Kobayashi Yūsuke as Shōta Yabe

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Yuya Nomoto was horrified to discover that the vehicle he was driving was being used to kidnap a high school girl, but he’s even more shocked when the girl, Hitomi Uzaki, literally tears her kidnappers to pieces instead! Then she forces Yuya to drive her to an arena where she bets the value of his organs on herself to win in a death match against a half-lion hybrid! Even more astonishing: Hitomi wins! That’s because she’s a Therianthrope, a genetically engineered fighter created specifically for the underground death matches known as Killing Bites! And now that Yuya has been pulled into this dark underworld, he has no choice but to continue working for Hitomi. Because who’s going to fight against a girl who’s part honey badger? Get ready to enter the most savage competition ever in KILLING BITES!

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Since 2013, manga fans of “Killing Bites” (written by Murata Shinya and Sumita Kazuasa) have read the tournament battles in the manga “Monthly Hero”.

With 16 volumes published, the manga series is ongoing and in 2018, a 12-episode anime series produced by Liden Films was streamed on Amazon Prime.  And now the series will be released on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks.

The series begins with a group of guys trying to rape a girl named Uzaki Hitomi inside a van.  Meanwhile, the driver Nomoto Yuya (who happens to be a second year university student) wants nothing to do with it.  While he stops the van, the girl Hitomi is alive and well, but also bloody.  She has killed everyone who has tried to attack her.

Nomoto is spared but he is introduced to the world of “Killing Bites”, a fighting tournament and Nomoto will now be Hitomi’s guardian.

“Killing Bites”, the tournament features battles among Therianthropes, humans who are genetically engineered hybrids with other animals.  In Japan, four Zaibatsu Conglomerates sponsor underground death matches and each Zaibatsu have their own Therianthrope to compete.

As for Hitomi, she is a Honey Badger (ratel) hybrid and because of the Honey Badger’s DNA of not feeling fear and always wanting to attack, she is quite deadly.

But she must defeat other Therianthropes such as Nakanishi Eruza (a cheetah hybrid), Inaba Ui (a rabbit hybrid), Okajima Ichinosuke (a hippopotamus hybrid), Nakanishi Taiga (a tiger hybrid) and many more.

As one can expect from the Blu-ray release, the anime is quite vibrant and looks wonderful in HD and the soundtrack features and English and Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 which is a little immersive.  Special features including clean opening and ending animations and Japanese promos.

As far as the anime series goes, I wondered if this was a fighting video game anime adaptation because it seemed like it at first.   In the first glance, I thought it was your banal fighting anime series, tsundere female protagonist and more of a violent, fighting popcorn action anime series.

But surprisingly, while the first ten episodes focus on the tournaments, the last two episodes is when you eventually find out how deep the anime series can be.  Because it ends with a major twist that completely changes your perspective of the anime series.

With that being said, as the manga series is ongoing in Japan, one can only hope that there will be a second season of “Killing Bites”.

Overall, “Killing Bites” is an anime series for those who love violent, action anime series.  A lot of fan service, blood and violence is probably what stays in your mind about what this anime series is mostly about.  But the twist ending does make things exciting and makes one hope for a second season.

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Click here to Purchase This Blu-ray on Amazon