Wonderful character development!

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Disturbing yet enthralling

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Much to my disappointment, this movie is not that great. It's about a young girl who has been trained as an assassin and her ultimate goal throughout the film is to find and kill the people who killed her parents. Not a terribly original story, but in can be done right. This is a case of doing it wrong. With no explanation, our main character, Sawa, already knows who killed her parents and she's just waiting for the right time to kill them I guess? I don't know why she waited as long as she did to kill them, but whatever. That's not the main problem I have. The main problem is without the hunting down the killer story line, the film is very uninteresting and quite boring. If you want a good revenge film, watch Kill Bill instead.

NOTE: This review is based on the chopped-to-sh!t U.S. release...KITE is basically an all-filler, little-substance anime with some semi-twisted pedophiliac undertones. Unfortunately, the copy that I have has all the hardcore hentai material cut out of it, which is extremely disappointing and knocks it down a few notches in my book.Sawa is young female assassin being "pimped" by a sleazy police-detective named Akai and his partner. Along the way, Sawa meets another young assassin, a boy named Obury, who is also being exploited by Akai. The two decide after a few encounters together that they wanna leave "the life" - but find that it's not as easy as it may seem...KITE has a good bit of action packed into it's (U.S. release) 45-minute run-time. Some of it is well-done and "exciting" - some is over-the-top and ridiculous. Regardless, there's plenty of gun-play, explosions, and bloodshed to keep the more hardcore anime fans happy. The exclusion of the hardcore sex material, like I mentioned before - is a huge disappointment to me, but personally - I can't say I liked this one enough to bother seeking out the uncut version. The storyline seemed (as other reviewers have rightly noted...) a bit rushed and the ending was abrupt. The pedo undertones will probably bother some (apparently, in the uncut release there are several graphic sex-scenes involving Sawa - who looks about 13 except for her big-ass titties and is often referred to as "young" - often meaning under 18...) - but being that it's a cartoon, it didn't bother me in this case. Worth a look to violent-anime fans - I SERIOUSLY suggest tracking down an uncut version...6/10 (probably would have been an 8/10 had the hentai material been intact)

To put it out flat, if you are into chick flicks, or movies with commendable plots, you probably won't like this anime.But if you are simple in your tastes, this anime is good. It has just about everything you could hope for. Its especially good for a late Friday night rental. Revenge, violence, unique love story sub-plot (I believe), and a slightly dramatic ending. And even though this anime showcases the wonderfully cliché components of a naked girl, guns, and action violence, the plot itself is very interesting and different from your run-of-the-mill mecha or Tokyo-pop girl/boy out to save the world, or at least the city of Japan.8 out of 10.

Great anime! Actions scenes, blood, and a decent story behind it. You'll know what I mean when you watch this movie when I say " What goes around comes around ". The end of the movie seems a bit abrupt but the overall quality of it makes up. 10/10.