A Kite

After her parents were brutally murdered, school girl Sawa was taken into custody by Akai and Kanie, a pair of detectives assigned to her case. Corrupt and immoral, they train the girl to become a weapon, dangling the promise of vengeance in front of the hapless orphan. From celebrities and politicians to influential businessmen, Sawa is tasked with assassinating targets selected arbitrarily by her crooked overseers. She executes every mission without fail, and her distinctive weapon has become infamous among the city's police officers.

Physically abused by Akai, who is no more righteous than her victims, Sawa begins to dream of a life unhindered by the shadow of her "guardians." One day, Sawa meets Oburi, a fellow orphan and vigilante. They quickly form a bond born of desperation and disgruntlement at the unjust world, envisioning a future free from the stain of murder.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Sawa Main

Yoshida, Konami Japanese

Oburi Main

Oyamada, Shingo Japanese

Akai Supporting

Shibusawa, Gorou Japanese

Kanie Supporting

Yamada, Tatsuo Japanese

Koshinaka, Osamu Producer

Umetsu, Yasuomi Director, Storyboard, Screenplay, Creator, Character Design, Animation Director, Key Animation

Tsuruoka, Youta Sound Director

Kusakawa, Keizou Episode Director

Reviews

Sep 28, 2025

Rogersss

Recommended

This ended up being a lot better than i expected honestly, good animation, great fight scenes, good music and atmosphere, interesting themes even if the story was just OK and they handled them well given how short it was, interesting direction and Sawa was a very solid main character again considering it’s a short movie. It was fairly impactful which was surprising given I just expected some crazy adult 90s OVA with little substance.

When it comes to the sex scenes, I absolutely think they were necessary but the studio almost tried to have their cake and eat it too, they actually did a very ... good job of portraying how awful and disturbing rape/grooming is, with the direction and some of the cuts, and the dialogue (something anime/manga/hentai rarely do when it comes to rape, 95% of the time they don’t present it as rape in either the writing or the visuals) but then it was drawn and animated to be hot and appealing to people who wanted sex scenes, I’m not necessarily complaining but it’s an accurate critique but I still give them credit for portraying rape and even grooming better than the vast majority of these media, even if it wasn’t perfectly done.

And then there’s the ending… i really don’t understand all the complaints I’m seeing, most of them come down to missing the point or not paying attention, it was very fitting with the themes of the series up to that point, like the cycle of violence and the loss of innocence etc, it was also unpredictable despite some foreshadowing, honestly I don’t think they could have had much more of a fitting ending and imo it elevated the whole thing.

Honestly this was an experience, far from perfect, had its issues and some inconsistencies BUT the kind of thing I come away from imagining that I won’t find many other anime like it, a real gem of it’s time that I’m very glad I watched.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 30, 2024

beenielson

Mixed Feelings

I liked this much more than I initially thought I would. On the surface, it does seem to be a sort of edge-lord "everything is terrible" kind of story, but there is more going on underneath all that than you might initially think. It can be graphic, but the violence is nearly comical, with how unrealistic it is. The most important thing to my viewing was the visuals: Sawa's red eyes, the red earrings, splashes of blood. The sex is unpleasant, and not eroticized like other similar works have fan service. Personally, I did not watch it, and it is easy to skip when it ... happens. The ambiguous ending could also be an issue for some viewers, but adds to layers for interpretation and potential rewatching. Mixed Feelings was selected because of the tone: Kite is not a pleasant work, and some people just don't want to engage with that kind of media, which is completely okay. The thing I enjoyed most was the animation, and as previously stated, the visuals, so if you see a clip or something and can handle graphic violence and sexual content, I would recommend watching that.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Sep 27, 2025

Achi88

Not Recommended

Do you like your hardcore rape-scenes to be as sadistic as possible? Do you enjoy watching crying young women get railed by older men on the reg? Do you enjoy substandard animation and bad sound design? Then this is the anime for you!

All the flaws mentioned above are contained in a poorly told story about exploitation and revenge. My hopes were high after the initial elevator scene, that was quite well made. But the story quickly devolved into sadistic (and way too graphic) nonsense. Some scenes were enjoyable in a comedic way, a highlight is when a small war breaks out between the characters ... in a tiny public bathroom (lol). The main characters looked lifeless, like dolls, and sometimes it's like the artist had a stroke (hands that should be resting on a shoulder are just gripping thin air, a characters legs suddenly look like elongated noodles, etc), but he's not alone. The sound designer seems to have similar problems (what sound should we have for a scene where vomit slowly and way too detailedly slides out of a characters mouth? Somebody stepping on an orange with a microphone stuck inside, of course, "SPLLORRTT", perfect). The story is told in a very disjointed and odd manner, it feels like I'm watching some kind of one-hour compilation that is speed-running through a full season of another anime that I haven't watched (I even had to look it up, but no, this one hour is all that exists). The story is very dark as well, and not in an enjoyable manner, but in a gross, sadistic and sticky manner.

Give this one a skip.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Kite Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 ) MaxCrazy7 - Apr 23, 2009	60 replies	by JizzyHitler »» Dec 4, 6:34 PM
	LAME ass ending mugwump - Jun 17, 2008	35 replies	by Rogersss »» Sep 28, 8:53 AM
	Can this be considered the Goblin Slayer of 1998? SOT_Daemon - Jun 22	0 replies	by SOT_Daemon »» Jun 22, 2:29 PM
	Kite: Integral Version Adnash - Aug 14, 2024	1 replies	by Redlinkkid »» Mar 19, 7:19 PM
	Poll: Kite Episode 1 Discussion MaxCrazy7 - Apr 23, 2009	21 replies	by Burayan »» Feb 16, 2024 9:10 PM