Episode 22
I'm not a negative guy, so instead of criticizing El Cazador for having no buildup or payoff, I'll offer three suggestions for improving it.
1. Cut the show to 13 episodes
Back when I gave El Cazador de la Bruja a generous B- for its midterm grade, I was under the assumption that show strategically got all the filler out of the way during the first half so that the second half would be nonstop action. I was totally wrong. Towards the end of an action series, shitty sidequests about chasing random animals are totally unacceptable.
Episode 22
90% of relevant scenes took place in the first episode and episodes 23-25. Add the obligatory hot springs episode, some character development episodes, a few background info episodes, every scene with Jody "Blue-Eyes" Hayward, and 13 episodes would be more than enough.
Acceptable filler.
2. Decerebrate Ellis
Following in the footsteps of Noir and Madlax, El Cazador was supposed to be a girls-with-guns anime. Instead, it turned out to be a girl-with-guns-teamed-up-with-a-useless-girl-who-fails-to-do-anything-productive anime. She was almost as useless as me in my operating systems programming group with MF.
Ellis had potential. Her badass witch powers (El Cazador de la Bruja means The Hunter of the Witch) could've made things exciting, but she was only able to use them when she was psychologically traumatized, which regrettably only happened about 4 or 5 times in the whole show. That's why I suggest decerebrating her.
Decerebration is the removal of the cerebrum, the portion of the brain where thought and higher function reside. It's my understanding that scientists perform decerebration experiments on animals all the time, and the decerebrated animals go berserk. Surely the same would happen to Ellis (or she'd die, as certain medical authorities inform me). Regardless, it couldn't possibly make Ellis any less boring.
Useless characters are occasionally acceptable if they're complemented with the right character type, but Ellis didn't have that luxury. Her partner was Nadie, the levelheaded type.
3. Make Jody "Blue-Eyes" Hayward the main character
I've said a lot of controversial things on this website, but none of them come close to the statement I'm about to make:
If you think that's outrageous, you must either be a pedophile or prefer men. I haven't called a single anime character hot in the 21-month history of this website, so when I'm calling Blue-Eyes hot, I mean it. How hot is she? I'd says she's about 30,000 Kelvin with a luminosity of one million solar units.
Instead of solving the mystery of Ellis' past, El Cazador should be about solving the mystery of Blue-Eyes's hotness. Everything about Blue-Eyes is hot, except for her nickname. Lets just ignore the fact that half of the cast has blue eyes.
Blue-Eyes: hot secretary by day, hotter secretary by night.
Why don't the OL's (Japanese term for office lady) get more love in anime? The only fetishes you see these days are maid, nurse, and catgirl. Secretaries are so much better. They can bring you coffee and explain the laws of thermodynamics:
She can excite my molecules.
The best part about secretaries in anime is that they won't sue you for sexual harassment.
Mmmm...enhanced interrogation techniques...
Blue-Eyes is of witch descent, so you wouldn't even have to change the title to make her the main character.
I demand a spinoff series/OVA. Fanart and fanfics are fine too.
| Well developed minor characters |  |
| Simultaneous subplots | |
| Unforeseeable plot twists | |
| Comical victimization | |
| Recurring random character(s) |  |
| Badass mid-episode transitions | |
| Soundtrack by Yuki Kajiura | |
| Catchy dance sequence | |
| Themes of Hatred/Suffering/Revenge | |
| Topics of Hatred/Suffering/Revenge | |
| Lesbians | |
| Hilarious ambiguously gay dude | |
| Stylish visual effects | |
| Dinosaurs | |
| Tournament Competition | |
| Rivalry | |
| Graphic violence | |
| A character vaguely resembling myself | |
| Mangled English | |
| Mangled Spanish | |
| Pimp in a white suit | |
| Time Travel | |
| Interdimensional travel | |
| Supernatural Power | |
| Fight in a Ballroom/Casino/Cathedral/Theatre | |
| Catch phrases | |
| Obligatory hot springs episode | |
| Alternate universe filler | |
| Self-parody | |
Final Grade: C
Without the soundtrack by Yuki Kajiura, you're looking at a C-.