Weiss Kreuz: Anime Breakdown

ANIME BREAKDOWN
WEIß KREUZ
ヴァイス･クロイツ

Overview:

Florists by day, angst-ridden assassins by night. If the improbable plot doesn't kill you, the animation will. Weiss Kreuz (a.k.a. Knight Hunters) is melodramatic, overblown and a hell of a lot of fun to watch. Not to be taken seriously, obviously.

Episode Guide:

Knight Hunters 1: Dead Ringers (#1-5) MISSION 1: LOCKVOGEL (Feast of Bait) Computer genius Michiro is tricked into decrypting an MO disk for a bunch of evil assassins. Enter Weiss (Aya, Ken, Omi and Yoji - florists by day; good-hearted assassins by night), who kill the evil assassins and foil the Japanese energy department. Say goodbye to Michiro, as we'll never see her again. MISSION 2: FORT LAUFEN (A Cool Stampede) Evildoers are amusing themselves with "human chess", which resembles chess about as much as a game of hopscotch does. Takatori and his evil assistant (Brad Crawford) attend, only to have Omi and Aya utterly ruin the game by killing the host. Takatori gleefully escapes. By the way, what happened to Ken during the final showdown? MISSION 3: PARADIES (Paradise is Hell) Yoji goes undercover in a whorehouse run by Takatori. He sleeps with two women and rescues a hooker (Maki) who reminds him of his ex-partner (Asuka). A lot of women remind Yoji of Asuka. Maki is later recaptured and strangled to death. Yoji vows revenge and strangles the bad guys who strangled Maki. Mission accomplished. MISSION 4: VERRAT (An Execution of the Betrayed) Weiss is ordered to kill Kase, a former soccer player-turned-organized crime friend of Ken's. Ken protests Kase's innocence, and threatens to quit Weiss. Manx threatens to kill Ken if he leaves. It turns out that Kase did betray Ken, thus ruining his chance of ever moving out of J-league soccer. Ken kills Kase. With his dying breath, Kase tells Ken that he'll be waiting in hell for him. MISSION 5: SCHICKSAL (The Fate of the Hunter) Urk. If we didn't get enough of Ken in the previous episode, we get another episode with him and his motorcycle girlfriend (Yuriko). Life would be great, but Yuriko has a nasty addiction to "vitamin enriched" water which is killing people. Takatori's chemical company is behind the poison water. Yuriko comes clean and flies off to Australia, leaving Ken behind.
Knight Hunters 2: Lost Boys (#6-10) MISSION 6: FRÄULEIN (Girl in the Shadows) Sakura's having a lousy day; someone stole her kidney at night while she slept. Turns out Takatori's son (Masafumi) is creating a market for slightly-used organs. Adding weirdness to the matter, Aya is convinced that Sakura looks just like his sister (also named Aya), who's been in a coma ever since Takatori gunned her down in his car. Aya (er, boy Aya) eventually kills the people stealing organs for Masafumi, but Sakura never gets her kidney back. MISSION 7: ENTFÜHREN (Rising Memories) Omi stumbles across a kidnapped kid (Shota) while jogging. This leads to a series of painful flashbacks to his own childhood, when his father refused to pay ransom for his kidnapping. Omi promises to save the rest of the kidnapped kids, only to fail miserably when Masafumi kills them all. Shota is rekidnapped, but saved by Omi, who's getting parts of his memory back. First appearance of Hell from Schreient. Omi bawls a lot in this episode. MISSION 8: RAUBTIER (The Night of Wailing) When people start turning into beasts, Weiss knows something is amiss. Turns out Masafumi Takatori and his lovely, evil assistants/assassins, Schreient (Hell, Neu, Shön & Tot), are busy transforming medical volunteers into beasts. Takatori pays a warning visit to his son, bringing along his own evil henchmen, Schwartz (Brad Crawford, Schuldig, Farfarello & Nagi). Both gangs glare threateningly (yet glamorously) at each other. Later, Schreient faces off against Weiss. MISSION 9: SCHREIENT (Everyone's Own Memories) Schreient beats the snot out of Weiss, who are otherwise occupied battling deranged man-beasts. Yoji marvels how much Neu looks like Asuka, Shön bemoans the tiny cut on her face, and Nagi from Schwartz pays a friendly visit to Tot. Farfarello and Schuldig mock Nagi's romantic overtures towards the child-like Tot. Weiss tracks down Schreient at home and re-engage them in battle. The women fiercely defend Masafumi, to no avail - he's downed his own potion and turned into half-man, half-beast. Masafumi captures Omi, then startlingly calls him "Mamoru." Omi spits a dart at him and the building collapses in flames on everyone. Schwartz notes the destruction with grim satisfaction. MISSION 10: BRUDER (The Dizzying Ties) Someone is hunting club kids, and if you guessed it's a Takatori (Hirofumi), give yourself a brownie. Omi volunteers to go undercover in the Roppongi clubs. Oka trails him and forces him to dance for an almost painfully long time. Naturally, Hirofumi kidnaps Omi & Oka for his man-hunt. Omi moves in for the kill, but Hirofumi opens his arms up and cries out "Mamoru". Yup, Omi is actually Hirofumi's younger brother and a member of the evil Takatoris. He sobbingly lets his brother escape, much to the disgust of Aya.
Knight Hunters 3: Lonely Heart (#11-15) MISSION 11: ABKUNFT (Separating from the Spell) Aya's snubbing Omi, and Oka's hitting on Omi. The Seventh Jigan Party is having a promotion party, and Oka's bringing Omi to meet her dad (Takatori - whoopsie). At the promotional party, Omi narrowly avoids meeting his (and Oka's) father. Manx and Persia are also in attendance, Manx dressed in a kicky kimono ensemble. Oka and Omi briefly kiss (ew!), only to have the glamorously evil Schuldig interrupt by abducting Omi. Schuldig brings him to Hirofumi, who proceeds to beat Omi for information about Weiss. The rest of Weiss eventually comes to Omi's defense. Later that night, Omi kills his older brother in cold blood on a deserted bridge. MISSION 12: ABSCHIED (Why?) Schuldig catches Omi returning from Oka's and taunts him for killing his brothers (Masafumi & Hirofumi). Schuldig also pays a visit to Oka and tells her that Omi is her brother and that she might want to lay off the smooching. Omi confronts Persia about his dad (Takatori), and Persia admits that he, too, is a Takatori (Shuichi, not Reiji), and is Omi's uncle and Reiji's brother (and, er, Oka's uncle). Whew! Schuldig kidnaps Oka, and Weiss faces off against Schuldig and Farfarello, as Omi rescues Oka. Farfarello aims for Omi, but accidentally shoots Oka. She dies in Omi's arms as Schwartz hastily flees the scene. Omi cries over the body of his sister, as the rain falls on Weiss. MISSION 13: BRUCH (The Rain of Revenge) Takatori beats the crap out of Schuldig & Farfarello for killing Oka, and Schwartz gears up for a confrontation against Weiss. Meanwhile, someone is framing Weiss by planting bombs around the city. Aya deserts the team to pursue Takatori on his own. Unfortunately, as Aya attacks Takatori's car, Brad and Farfarello emerge, out for blood... MISSION 14: FLIEHEN (The Capital Under Martial Law) The rest of Weiss is doing horribly without Aya, and Omi has been badly injured. Brad and Farfarello attack and nearly kill Aya, but Persia and Manx come to his rescue on the condition that he help the rest of Weiss out. Aya agrees, and they defeat Takatori's troops. Persia and Manx drive off, stranding our boys on the battlefield. Weiss deserts the flower shop and goes into hiding, and Schwartz deserts Takatori and goes renegade. Persia and Manx worry about their jobs. MISSION 15: DUELL (Avenging Hunters) Takatori's Self Manifestation Party is gaining power in Tokyo, despite it's awful name. Takatori smugly arrests Persia for treason, but Persia smuggles in a weapon and holds Takatori at gunpoint. Takatori distracts Persia by mentioning that he's also a lousy human being, what with training assassins (Weiss), sleeping with Takatori's wife and (dum-dum-dum) fathering Omi. Bingo! Which is why Takatori didn't pay Omi's ransom. Meanwhile, Weiss invades Takatori's place, and Schwartz escapes from Takatori's clutches. Takatari shoots Persia and heads for the roof. With his dying breath, Persia tells Weiss to kill Takatori. Weiss heads for the roof and Aya runs Takatori through. Mission accomplished.
Knight Hunters 4: Shining Cross (#16-20) MISSION 16: SCHATTEN (Returning to Battle) With Takatori and Persia dead, you'd think the Weiss boys could finally retire. Ah, but there's a new evil in Tokyo in the form of three old, suspiciously German, people (Esset). Omi's been attending school, Yoji's been picking up women that look like Asuka, Ken's been teaching soccer to kids and Aya is one of the more glamorous construction workers around. Meanwhile, a group of evil-doers have been kidnapping high school girls and burning them on crosses. If that weren't bad enough, Aya's sister has been kidnapped and Schön & Neu from Schreient have reappeared. Weiss rebands together at the behest of Burman and Boton (from the good assassin group, Kritiker) to defeat the evildoers and find Aya's sister. MISSION 17: KRITIKER (Nameless Pride) Someone has been setting innocent bystanders aflame, and Kritiker wants Weiss to find them. Kritiker's even gone so far as to computer-generate Persia to give them assassination orders (weird). Sadly, this seems to work just fine with our boys. Sakura (of the solo kidney) makes a reappearance, and Boton (Button?) does his damnest to recruit Aya back to Weiss. Turns out that Schuldig is behind the burnings, using his mental powers to persuade a conservative political group to torch kids. Boton eventually sacrifices himself for Aya, which guilts Aya back into joining the team. Alas, Aya's no closer to finding his sister. MISSION 18: SCHULD (Farfarello) Time for everyone's favorite psycho to get his own episode. Farfarello has been busy killing priests with acid, which he dubs "holy water." Perplexingly, a kind nun, Ruth, wants to give Farfarello a quilt from his childhood. Turns out that Farfarello used to be a good, Christian kid named Jei, who turned evil when he found his parents and sister murdered, lying in a pool of blood, wrapped in Ruth's quilt. Don't feel too bad for him, though - it also turns out that Ruth (the nun) is his biological mother and that he killed his family in anger afterwards. Farfarello eventually kills Ruth (his mother), much to the sorrow of Ken and Omi. Loveable guy. MISSION 19: SEHEN (Prelude to Madness) An evil musician named Wunder X is killing off his fans with his vile music. It's not the quality, but more the pitch of it. Naturally, Brad is behind the evilness. Weiss, after listening to the music, decides that earplugs are the way to go. Sakura, who's becoming a bit of a drip, sees Aya killing Wunder X. Oopsie. MISSION 20: RECHT (The Arrow of Judgement) Omi has a truly boring episode in which one of his female classmates hijacks him and makes him sit in on her dad's court case. Turns out there's an evil lawyer (no!), defending the criminals. The evil lawyer (Kinugawa) mentions that Weiss may eventually need to use him, a point that's not entirely lost on Omi.
Knight Hunters 5: Midnight Finale (#20-24) MISSION 21: TRANE (In My Memories) Yoji's got it bad. He can't stop thinking about how much Neu from Schreient looks like his former partner, Asuka. Schreient decides to take advantage of this, and Neu goes undercover in Weiss. Meanwhile, Schreient, at the behest of Schuldig, are busy ripping out spines from humans in an effort to resurrect Masafumi Takatori. All we really learn this episode is that Asuka was a bit of a drip and Yoji really needs to get a life. Of course, Neu/Asuka betrays him, and Yoji ends up sadly strangling her to death. This episode only works if Neu truly was Asuka; otherwise, Yoji just looks like a mean chump. MISSION 22: MITEID (When Colors Fade) Schwartz is gearing up to take Aya's sister away from Schreient, who's been holding her hostage to lure Weiss into battle. Hell, Schön and Tot are all depressed over the death of Neu, and agree to hand her over only when they've defeated Weiss and restored Masafumi back. Farfarello wants to kill Hell, but Brad calls him off. Schreient sets a trap for Weiss, and Tot sneaks off to meet Nagi for a sweetly romantic interlude, which Yoji spies on. Weiss evades the insipid traps and enters Schreient's headquarters. Omi & Ken are quickly taken out of battle when Omi embarassingly falls through the floor and injures himself. Schuldig scoops up Aya's sister, and Schön attempts to block their exit. Brad shoots and kills Schön and Farfarello shatters Masafumi's storage tank, finally killing Masafumi. Tot runs to block Schwartz and Farfarello stabs her. Bad move, as Nagi goes ballistic and pulls an Akira on everyone, blasting the mansion and everyone in it to pieces. Brad, Schuldig, Farfarello and Aya's sister fly off in the helicopter, and Weiss unearths themselves from the rubble. Yoji finds the bodies of Nagi and Tot, and puts their hands together. Final shot is of the shell-shocked Tot rising from the rubble. MISSION 23: SCHRAUBE (Everything For Love) Sure, Sakura's missing a kidney, but she's also annoying as hell. She's been growing her hair out to look like Aya's sister in hopes of luring Aya to her. Schuldig and Farfarello notice her wandering near the flower shop, and get an idea: convince Sakura to shoot Aya. For some unfathomable reason (something about helping Aya and his sister), Sakura agrees. Sakura may just beat out Oka for "Most Annoying Weiss character" in the series, but Oka still wins the "Creepiest" award. MISSION 24: ENDE DES WEIß Schwartz is busy preparing Aya's sister's body for the evil, old folks of Esset. Sakura is feeling bummed about shooting Aya, and Schuldig compounds her guilt by adding that Aya's probably really pissed at her. He's not, but Aya does want to get his sister back. Schwartz has been systematically eliminating the members of Kritiker, but Burman is able to escape and relay Aya's sister's location to Weiss. Weiss goes there, only to find the hospital deserted and Aya's sister shoved in a closet. Yup, it was Sakura doing her good deed for the day. Aya perplexedly takes his sister out of the closet and back to the flower shop. That night, Nagi (he's not dead!) pays Weiss a visit and asks for Aya's sister in exchange for Sakura. Seems like a lousy deal to me, but Aya agrees to it. He doesn't actually bring his sister with him, but he does meet Brad and Sakura in a deserted area. Sure enough, it's a setup, and the plan was to lure Aya away from the shop. Back at the flower shop, Ken and Yoji are waiting for Schwartz. Schuldig crashes through the window, utterly defeats them both, then lets them live, because he wants them to see Esset's new world order. Nice to see Schuldig has a sense of humor. Farfarello has found Omi and Burman guarding Aya's sister, and beaten them both to a pulp, abducting Aya's sister once again.

Akward Weiss Moment #1:
Omi offers Aya a joint?

Akward Weiss Moment #2:
Where's Omi's bottom half?

Character Guide:

AYA (Codename: Abyssinian) Aya is the emotionally aloof head of Weiss. He wasn't always such a bastard - he used to be a sweet kid until Takatori blew up his parents and gunned down his sister.	KEN (Codename: Siberian) Ken used to have a thriving amateur soccer career before his evil best friend Kase destroyed it. Ken is the "athletic" member of Weiss.	YOJI (Codename: Balinese) Yoji's the oldest member of Weiss, and a bit of a Lothario. He used to have his own private detective firm until Takatori ruined it. Now, he spends most of his time pursuing attractive women.	OMI (Codename: Bombei) Sweet kid, but a little messed up. He's blocked most of his childhood, thanks to a terrifying kidnapping incidence in his past.

BRAD CRAWFORD Evil, American leader of Schwartz. Brad worked temporarily as Takatori's personal secretary, before getting sick of the gig. Brad is able to predict the immediate future, a handy skill when battling Weiss. Reminds me of an evil Asami from Sanctuary.	SCHULDIG Schuldig is the resident glamour boy of Schwartz. He drives around in a fast, red convertible and can communicate telepathically with Nagi & Farfarello. Schuldig thoroughly enjoys psychologically tormenting this opponents - gotta love Schuldig.	FARFARELLO The resident sickie, Farfarello enjoys killing people. A lot. He has severe religious issues, due to a disturbing childhood where he learned his mother was actually a nun (whoopsie!) Farfarello licks his blade altogether too many times to be comfortable in the series.	NAGI Nagi's a lover, not a fighter. Instead of killing Weiss, he'd much rather concentrate his psychic energies on wooing Tot, much to the disgust of the rest of Schwartz. Had a rather bad childhood (full of name-calling and stone-throwing) which Brad rescued him from.

HELL The brilliant, beautiful scientist and head of Schreient, Hell is undyingly devoted to Masafumi Takatori. We've all done stupid things in the name of love.	SCHÖN Schön is the resident glamour queen of Schreient. She's a former model and neurotically vain, but has hidden depths with wielding whips. Eventually killed by Farfarello.	NEU Mysterous member of Schreient, Neu spends most of her time hiding behind an impractical motorcycle helmet. May actually be Yoji's former partner, Asuka. Eventually killed by Yoji.	TOT Tot has regressed to a child-like state, clutching her stuffed bunny and babbling in baby talk. She's undyingly devoted to Masafumi Takatori, kind of fond of Nagi and actually survives the entire series.