Soul Taker DVD

Kyosuke Date's ordinary life ends the night his mother plunges a knife into his chest and leaves him for dead in a cathedral. He should be dead. He isn't. When a strange girl digs him up from his premature grave, Kyosuke wakes to a world that makes no sense: the city is a post-apocalyptic ruin, a powerful and ruthless megacorporation called Kirihara Heavy Industries is hunting him, and he has apparently always had a twin sister named Runa — a fact no one in his life ever thought to mention. Worse, whenever Kyosuke is severely wounded or killed, he transforms against his will into the SoulTaker — a massive, winged, nearly indestructible mutant creature of terrifying power. Scattered throughout the world are Flickers: fragments of Runa's fragmented soul taking the forms of girls from Kyosuke's past. If he can find and reunite them all, he can find his sister. But Kirihara's forces, a shadowy organization called the Hospital, and his own increasingly unstable transformations stand in his way. The truth about his family, his past, and why his mother stabbed him runs far deeper than anything he can imagine.

The SoulTaker is one of the most visually audacious and stylistically distinctive anime series of the early 2000s — a supernatural action thriller wrapped in Akiyuki Shinbo's signature avant-garde aesthetic: fractured compositions, psychedelic color shifts, expressionistic shadow work, and deliberately disorienting visual grammar that long predates his celebrated work at SHAFT. Produced by Tatsunoko Productions, it was the studio's first fully digital anime and the first anime broadcast in high-definition in Japan. The series features music by Ko Otani and an opening theme performed by JAM Project. Originally released on four DVD volumes in North America by Pioneer/Geneon Entertainment, then rereleased under the Geneon Signature Series label in 2004. The series aired in the U.S. on TechTV's Anime Unleashed and later on G4.

Notable Staff & Voice Talent

Director: Akiyuki Shinbo (Madoka Magica, Monogatari Series, Nurse Witch Komugi)
Screenplay: Mayori Sekijima
Character Design: Akio Watanabe
Studio: Tatsunoko Production
Music: Ko Otani (Outlaw Star, Haibane Renmei)
Opening Theme: "Soul Taker" performed by JAM Project

Cast:
- Mitsuki Saiga as Kyosuke Date (.hack//Sign, Gundam SEED)
- Haruko Momoi as Komugi Nakahara
- Michiko Neya as Runa Tokisaka (Nadesico, Battle Skipper)
- Masaya Onosaka as Shiro Mibu (Trigun, Vandread)
- Ikue Otani as Maya Misaki (Pokémon, One Piece)
- Akiko Hiramatsu as Yui Kirihara
- Masashi Ebara as Dr. Richard Vincent
- Minami Takayama as Mio Date (Detective Conan, Slayers Try)

DVD Features

- Holographic Foil Cover (individual volumes)
- Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation
- Textless Opening & Closing Animations
- Art Gallery
- 16-Page SoulTaker Encyclopedia Booklet (Vol. 1)
- Geneon / Pioneer Previews

Spoken Languages: English & Japanese Audio, English Subtitles

Edition Details

Japanese Title: THE SOUL TAKER 〜魂狩〜 (Za Sōru Teikā ~Tamashii Gari~)
Runtime: ~325 Minutes (Complete Series, 13 Episodes)
Director: Akiyuki Shinbo
DVD Release Year: 2002 / Signature Series Rerelease 2004 (U.S. Release)
Original Release Date (Japan): April 4 – July 4, 2001
Publisher: Geneon Entertainment (Pioneer)
Rating: 16+
Region: Region 1 (U.S. / Canada)
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, Horror, Dark Fantasy
Themes: Mutant Transformation, Corporate Conspiracy, Lost Siblings, Fragmented Souls, Avant-Garde Visuals

Media assumed VG+ unless otherwise noted.