The fact is, console gamers eat the Anime stuff up. Final Fantasy is the console gaming RPG in North America. It doesn't matter how much you hate the series, that's a fact. Most people aren't playing the PS2 for Ultima, they're playing it for Final Fantasy and all the other anime-themed RPGs Square Enix and other Japanese devs can pump out.
If you're looking for Americanized RPGs, you should be playing PC - or maybe Xbox, although most of it's RPGs wind up on PC anyway.
Anyway, about the game. If this is a prequel, that would work for me, seeing as I missed the first one! I can't view the screenshots right now, so I have no comment, the art looks nice, although I'm not crazy about the BK character designs.