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Review: WeiB (Weiss) Kreuz, aka White Cross, Knight Hunters
Last revised: 11/10/02

Anime/Manga/Audio Drama/Doujinshi/Merchandise/Fandom

Reviewed by: Lianne

Title rating: Never below PG-13, often R (fandom/doujinshi can go NC-17)

Article rating: PG-13

-24-episode complete TV series (1998), 2nd TV series (Gluhen) (2002), still running
-2 episode complete OVA (1999-2000)
-Music Clip Animation (1999)
-15 Drama CDs to date (1997-present); radio show collections
-2-volume complete manga (1997-1998)

As far as "plot" goes, four bishounen (pretty boys) run a flower shop by day and assassinate drug lords, murdering politicians, and other villains the justice system can't pin by night. Why such an unusual civilian guise? "No one suspects the florists," I suppose, or perhaps, in the way of Clark Kent, the idea that the sissier a civilian identity you have the safer you are. But that could also be overlooking the exceedingly strong shoujo (girls') influence on this show: the four boys each have their own trademark flower, which you'll find them posing with from time to time, and an assassin code name corresponding to a particular breed of cat. The name of their flower shop? "Kitty in the House," all but confirming Weiss to be the most ridiculously shoujo title to not feature a female lead or, well, shounen ai (boy/boy love).

Apparently, the Weiss boys are comfortable enough with their masculinity to sit in a big pile for photo shoots.

The story progresses in a fairly episodic manner, with the Weiss boys tackling a number of missions ("This cult group is crucifying high school girls--go kill them" sorts of things) while their personalities develop and bigger issues build up over time. As seems to be the trend, the boys' personalities fit the profiles of The Brooding One (Aya), The Small and Energetic One (Omi), The Playboy (Youji/Yohji), and The Variable. Whereas the variable in Saiyuki is the Nice One and in Sono Te Wo Dokero, the Nonexistent One (there is no fourth male lead), Weiss has Ken the, uh, Jock, I suppose. All the boys have angsty pasts and love interests that come and go, a few have chips on their shoulders due to family problems; it's a many-layered, many-threaded tapestry of despair, etc. etc. Multicultural aspects abound, as several of the villains are from different parts of Europe/the West, and German is used as a sort of "cool image/code" language although it's rarely used or even explained in the story (Weiss is the common way to write out the German word WeiB--"white"--in English, where we don't have that big funky B). Oh, and a group of four bishoujo (pretty girl) villainesses called Schreiend--"scream" in German--and four not-so-bishounen, surprisingly tough villains called Schwarz--"black" in German--also repeatedly kick, or try to kick, Weiss's collective backside. The fact that one of the bishoujo evils is a former model and has a whip is of particular note.

Schwarz: Cooler than you, cooler than me, cooler than this terrible show.

That's not to say the show can't be enjoyable. If you aren't a real stickler for "quality over entertainment" (i.e. you like Outlaw Star better than Cowboy Bebop), Weiss TV is quite entertaining with all its violence, depressing concepts, the few funky plot twists, and character interplay if you like the boys well enough. Schwarz is an added bonus, as is the star-studded voice cast (more details on that below), so feel free to mark down Weiss as a possible guilty pleasure.

Oh, and as an added note: the Region 1 DVD's supposedly contain some wicked extras and plenty of episodes per disc but a horrendous dub. Well, it's a show based on a Japanese audio drama, so I have no idea why anyone would want to watch an English dub anyway. And a second Weiss TV series, entitled Weiss Kreuz Gluhen, just began on Japanese TV this fall. It was actually supposed to be out some time ago, but Kyoko Tsuchiya was "suing the animation company for repeatedly using her character designs without asking permission," or something to that extent. Gluhen will be using these new character designs. You can collect info, pictures, and even screenshots of Gluhen at Kuro Koneko's Gluhen page, which I highly recommend. Amethist also recently got her hands on the first few episodes of Gluhen, so when she hooks me up in the near future I'll update with more info.

Ken and Youji perform their newest and deadliest assassin technique: blurring across the screen Shinobi style.

On the subject of animation, this OVA is a huge leap ahead of the TV series. The animation quality is substantially higher, the story is quite good and raises interesting questions, and Ken ... Ken actually has some great characterization (OK, you can stop laughing now). The OVA still pulls off a few of what I like to call "Weiss Impossibles," AKA unbelievable stunts that really detract from the overall quality of the story, but whatever--this OVA is still a vast improvement and stands as a very solid OVA even when not compared to its pathetic TV counterpart. It's a short two episodes, but I believe it's been bought for a domestic release, so it'll probably be a very sweet disc when it comes out here in the West. Thumbs up, baby.

There were four original music videos animated in Japan, directed by four different people (I think?) and featuring the Weiss boys to Weiss music. No, no choreographed dancing or anything--original scenes, tweaked scenes from the manga, one shot of an angsty Omi watching TV that seemed straight from a Team Bonet fic, etc. These are decent and sometimes decently artistic, but not that big of a deal. Of note is the really creepy fight between Crawford and Aya in one of the videos and that strangely intimate moment between Aya and Schuldig in one of the others.

Like the OVA, the Weiss manga is more along the lines of what the TV anime should've been like. The mangaka (manga writer/artist), Kyoko Tsuchiya, is a wicked artist (even if she does do some ... hentai manga as some of her other work, if I'm not mistaken?), and her delicious drawings and succulent CG are worth a nibble even if you hate Weiss. The manga is a short prologue, and the plot isn't really ... there, but the concept is done in a much better fashion--the Weiss boys don't seem to take their flower shop front very seriously, and their mix of jaded/angsty is appropriate and even cool. Ken unfortunately loses his interesting naiveté and sadness from the animation, but Youji is nicer, Aya is more human, and Omi, thank God, is done right. The two-volume, very oversized manga set contains color pictures before the black-and-white manga begins and is absolutely lovely. I think Tsuchiya's character designs are the original ones, and are, if the rumors don't speak false, based on the appearances of the four seiyuu (voice actors) who voice the Weiss boys. This makes sense when you realize Weiss first started as an audio drama.

Unfortunately, manga Omi still looks like a girl.

The concept of Weiss is the brainchild of Takehito Koyasu, the popular seiyuu who has countless anime fan favorites under his belt (Hotohori from Fushigi Yuugi, Zechs from Gundam Wing) and, not surprisingly, voices Aya from Weiss. Since the radio show followed by the audio Drama CDs were the first forms of Weiss, it's suddenly no surprise such a low-budget TV series has such famous voice actors. To give you an idea, Youji is voiced by Shinichirou Miki, AKA The Guy Who's Been in Everything (Allen from Escaflowne, small parts in just about every anime ever), Omi is Hiro Yuuki, AKA I Look Like a Woman and My Voice Never Matured Beyond Age 12 (Arc in Arc the Lad, Taikoubou in Houshin Engi AKA Soul Hunters), and Ken is Tomokazu Seki, AKA My Hero (Van in Escaflowne, Touji in Neon Genesis Evangelion). That's not even mentioning the side characters; surprisingly, Hikaru Midorikawa (Tamahome in Fushigi Yuugi, Ein in Dead or Alive) brings Schuldig of Schwarz to life, and made me believe for the first time that Midorikawa could actually voice a villain well. As far as the actual quality of the audio dramas go ... I dunno, they don't really strike me as great. There's definitely more Weiss story in them that hasn't been adapted into anime or manga form, so if you're a Weiss fan they're worth checking out for that. Since I'm not willing to shell out the ridiculous amount of money I'd need to buy the all-Japanese Drama CD's, I'm not really one to judge.

Doujinshi (fan comics)

You can probably guess that most of the Japanese and English doujinshi for this show is shounen ai/yaoi despite a heterosexual anime, and well, and you'd be darn right. I'm not really into Weiss doujinshi so I can't go into detail, but the anthology set Ja! Weiss is quite funny and quite light on the shounen ai jokes/parts. You should never pick up a Weiss doujinshi if you're young and/or impressionable, because you never know when Youji and Omi will suddenly ... I probably shouldn't tell you that. Darn disturbing.

Ken's inability to zip his pants properly has been censored for the sake of mankind.

Corporate heads basically took the greatest thing Weiss TV had going for it--its attractive boyos--and merchandised the living bejeezus out of it. It's hard to find a product out there that doesn't have a Weiss laddie on it: pencils, towels, cardboard cut-outs, rocket launchers, crowd control signs, etc. Since the Weiss boys are undeniably pretty, there are plenty of us--I mean, uh, plenty of fangirls who wouldn't mind pinning up grinning bishounen on their walls regardless if they like (of have even heard of) Weiss and its terrible terrible TV series. The Weiss boys are also infamous for their "fangirlish posing," AKA posters and whatnot that feature out-of-character positions and outfits that were clearly chosen to please the ladies. Even to the point of being ludicrous (see left). Since TV Weiss is cheap anyway, further being cheapened by blatant commercialism is no real surprise or disappointment. Unfortunately, the more respectable manga fell a bit into the whole merchandising problem, but not to too much of an extent.

This is an interesting story. There are tons of Weiss fanpages all over the net, some quite decent, some quite funny (that one's R without warning, careful), and some neither, and there's a smattering of fanart around with a few artists like this one producing nice work. What's most of note, though, is the fanfiction. On Fanfiction.net it's not much of an exaggeration (if an exaggeration at all) to claim four out of every five Weiss fics involve some sort of shounen ai or yaoi content. Shounen ai/yaoi in the show? Basically none, unless you count the way Schuldig smiles at Omi, or the way Ken and Aya occasionally hold a conversation in the manga about how life bites--a sure sign they want to sleep together (clearly). Once again, I'm not really one to judge since I don't read shounen ai/yaoi, so we'll leave it at that.

But, the fanfic writers I absolutely must mention are Team Bonet, a group of college/post-college students who've produced a handful of Weiss fics that are some of the most amazing pieces of writing I've ever read. Most of the stories are very adult and sometimes contain shounen ai/yaoi content, so the young and impressionable should steer clear; as an adult, though, I must say these fics can save Weiss for you. Just don't eat beforehand--not for the squeamish!

As far as leaders of the online fandom go: Aya no WeiB Kreuz Corner is basically the head Weiss site, though I also find myself going to Endlessly Clear White and Kuro Koneko (where I got all these pics; she's also the fanartist linked to above) a lot. For seiyuu pics and other great stuff you can't beat the white pages, and the crossroads has some remarkable and rare scans/info. Remember, always surf with caution. Shounen ai/yaoi likes to grip most Weiss fanpages.

The Weiss TV series is a terribly done anime. If you like pretty boys and blatant, violent, angry-bishounen-driven entertainment, it's worth a watch; if you want to have a good party where the audience can heckle the screen until they're hoarse and half-asleep, it's worth a watch. If you want to watch the series so you can try out the gorgeous manga, solid OVA, and disturbing and amazing Team Bonet fics afterwards, it's also worth a watch. Weiss is hard to pin an overall rating to since the aspects of it are of varying quality, but on an average I'd have to give it 3 stars out of 5. That's maybe a higher rating than what a male/more objective female reviewer would give it, but hey, what can I say. Stupid violent bishounen. Rock!

Ken is thrilled to get stars. To celebrate, he plans to play a nice game of soccer, followed up by killing a bunch of guys.