Reviews by Fernando Leonel Alba

I got to know about this documentary seven years ago thanks to a professor and finally got to watch the first hour of it last year, and rewatch it from the beginning some days ago, taking me four days to finish it, because I almost didn't watch anything during one day.

And what can I say that wasn't said already? It's an amazing film on practically every aspect, capturing a huge variety of testimonies of such a horrible topic, noticing and asking for the contradictions of some answers (something very important that not all documentaries do), having a variety of voices from victims to witnesses and perpetrators, and even going to the extent of not using any archive footage and relying entirely on the people that lived through the Holocaust themselves.

Another good detail is how it doesn't focus just on it and includes opinions about the situation of the places it took place in, as well as the relationships between the Jews and everyone else, showing the anti-Semitism present on some of those even at the day of the filming (and of course, way later as well), and also how bad it was even for the non-Jewish people whose towns and villages were occupied and exploited, giving the documentary an even bigger sociological aspect than it already had.

If the content wasn't good enough by itself already, the presentation and directing are AS good as well, no music except for songs or themes sung or played by the people themselves, immersive sound mixing, no archive footage as previously mentioned, visualizing what the testimonies say whenever possible, and following the path of the train to not only cover all the places on which such a thing happened, but to also move to a different aspect and different people with different things to say, as well as giving the viewers the impression of both travelling to the camps themselves, thus making the whole thing more immersive, and also making it seem that the documentary itself is "moving", on the rails, thus using them as a sort of transition from one footage to another.

I can't help but admire this work also just because of all the job that had to be done as well, from investigating, travelling, contacting and hiring translators, making contact and establishing the interviews with the interviewed, doing the interviews themselves, capturing all that footage, and then doing all the editing that had to be done afterwards. The whole process took more than ten years to finish, and it even left out a lot more content that was released later on, and although I didn't watch all that yet, I bet based on descriptions that those other documentaries are also worth a watch, and not just some cashgrabs of barely any worthy extra material, as it happens in other mediums, I know about that pretty well myself, being an anime and old bands fan.

For minuses, there was a testimony of a man dedicated to deliver letters, sometime near the eight hour, of whom I don't think he added much of substance, and sometimes the director tended to zoom on the faces of the people when they seemed to be close to break in tears, which I find emotionally manipulative, and not something ethical to do nor positive for a product.

What more can I say? Despite its challenging nine and a half hours runtime, its obviously not meant to enjoy content, and some minuses, it's an amazing piece of work and in turn excellently presented, and on my mind easily one of the very few close to perfect media I've consumed in my life.

Since I already covered every major Monogatari (anime) part, I figured I could do the same with the manga and make it my last review about the franchise. Comparisons will be made but nothing regarding major plot points, of which I already wrote about, so this review theoretically could work for newcomers as well, though it’s better to read those other reviews before, I think.

Although somewhat praised and still quite popular, the Monogatari manga seems to be seen as an inferior version within at least the western fanbase of the franchise. How do I think it fares as someone outside of it and that didn’t really enjoyed it?

The first big difference that fans aren’t pleased about is the visual style. Certainly, usually you can’t expect to match all the craziness of such an anime with a manga, and although Oh! Great is a good artist, he didn’t do much to fare with the wild directing of its anime counterpart. Not to say that he doesn’t do his own things, like drawing a character between two vignettes, making it seem like they are “jumping” off the manga on certain scenes, or drawing over black paper (I think, at least it looks like that to me) during some dark moments for a more shocking effect, or going for the typical comical gag of having just one character in a page that is otherwise full of dialogue, to mimic some moments from the anime and novel where, well, the characters talk a lot, but otherwise aren’t really saying much. This was done before on different titles, some even by the Monogatari author himself, like Medaka Box, and it’s present here as well.

But still, what Oh! Great goes for obviously can’t compete with the visuals of the anime. Not to say that his art style is bad though, he is still an overall good artist who keeps a permanently consistent artwork and very good special effects, and is usually very good at drawing fighting scenes, which are more prominent and violent here than in the anime counterpart, and he also keeps the same bizarre and dreamy feeling of the backgrounds, although nowhere near as much as the other version. He also does an accurate imitation of the art style of different manga whenever there is a reference, as it happens in the different animated series and movies of the franchise.

The worse aspects of his are his character designs, you can tell he is the artist right away if you ever read something from him, despite all the hairstyles, hair colours and clothes which he uses to make his characters stand out from the others, he tends to repeat faces a lot, and it happens here as well. Not to say that you won’t notice which character is who, but if you are a fan of the character designs of the anime, the difference might be quite big to accept.

Finally, the worst thing about this artist, is the fanservice. If you don’t know a thing about him, let me tell you the two biggest problems of his, he tends to overstuff and overcomplicate his plots and from a certain point take them very seriously despite his silly premises, and yet still fill them with loads and loads of naked minors. So, Monogatari seemed like a match made in heaven for him. There isn’t a single one of my Monogatari reviews where I didn’t bitch about the fanservice, and it is actually worse as a whole in here, more present, more prominent, more explicit, thrown in more inappropriate moments, but at least he keeps it away from the youngest characters for the most part, along with the pedophilic humor, which is something that the manga has in its favor compared with the anime.

As someone who doesn’t pay all that much attention to the visuals and doesn’t consider them as important as other people do, and finds liking or disliking something entirely because of that aspect to be incredibly fake and superficial, I didn’t mind all these changes much. In fact, I preferred the visuals of the manga, as I was never a fan of the antics of the anime, I like the more straightforward but still quite artistic presentation of the manga a lot more, and I especially like not having to pause every few moments to try to read a wall of text representing the inner monologue of a character, taken from the light novel. But I also really wish it toned down the fucking lewdness. As a whole, despite my personal preference, the artsy visuals of the anime franchise are still better than what’s present in here, but I want to make it clear that the visual presentation of the manga is overall still very good, besides all that fucking excessive nudity.

Now we can finally move to what really matters, plot and characters. And if you are a newcomer that doesn’t know the first thing about this franchise, is a harem located in a weird city where supernatural things happen and supernatural creatures and deities appear, mostly at night, having a direct effect on the mentality, and even the looks, of the characters, and the plot structure, much like almost every other harem in existence, has the protagonist helping his potential love or lust interests with their problems and making them fall in love with him for his kindness and stuff, like in a dating sim videogame, that much didn’t change, the premise stays the same.

What Oh! Great changed, is making the overall plot far simpler and more straightforward than the anime counterpart, which is rare for him, as he, like I previously said, tends to overstuff and overcomplicate the plots of his works. I don’t know why this was done this way, but that’s how it is.

The overall basics and important plot points are still there, but several relevant details are modified or even skipped, the reasons for things within the setting are explained differently or even skipped, secondary characters have a much minor role and exploration here, and even entire arcs, both of the plot and the supporting cast, are nowhere to be found, heck, a big part of that secondary cast doesn’t even appear, as the manga focuses almost entirely on Kiyomi Araragi, Tsubasa Hanekawa, Hitagi Senjougahara and Kiss Shot Acerola Orion Heart Under Blade. This way the plot is faster and far more focused, but also loses a lot of the layers, scope and mysterious vibes that played a big part on drawing such a huge fanbase in the first place.

As someone who didn’t like all the pointless talking and slow pacing of the franchise as a whole, I much preferred this far more straightforward version, but it is understandable for the fans of it not to like it as much, as part of what they found appealing in the first place is now either gone or heavily modified.

In specific, Bakemonogatari (arc/volume/part, however you want to call it) is kept practically the same, as a buildup of a season for what’s to come in the future. It has the same ups and downs of the anime, fleshing out every girl but at the cost of not moving the plot. Since this is a manga, one can read it at their own pace, and since it doesn’t have all those inner monologues from the light novels thrown in as walls of text for split seconds like the anime, it is a much easier and more pleasing and tolerable experience than the endless, and a lot of the time pointless, talking of the anime, but that still doesn’t change the fact that most of the arc is still lots of pointless talking that doesn’t let the plot move in the end. There is a reward for toughing through that in the anime franchise, but since most of the secondary girls don’t have their own arcs here, it is all not only pointless, but it also doesn’t lead to something worthwhile in the end, making it an overall inferior version of its anime counterpart in retrospect.

A good thing of this version, however, is how it completely skips the absolutely pointless, useless and disgusting part that was Nisemonogatari. Sure, it presents characters that are relevant in the future, but since they do not appear here, erasing it from the continuity, along with all of its crappiness, was a really good thing.

Instead, the manga goes directly into flashback territory, as it adapts Kizumonogatari, the only part/arc/whatever I enjoyed in the whole franchise, and that’s actually thanks to this version, which I consumed before I watched the anime movie trilogy. Skipping Nisemonogatari but adapting this one makes it perfectly clear that the overall manga focuses on the characters I mentioned earlier, as this arc shows how they got to know each other and form their relationships, as well as how the protagonist got his super powers and got himself into a big mess of an enmity between different super powerful supernatural entities, along with all the cool action that comes along with it.

Compared with the anime, it’s equally or slightly more brutal and explicit about it, but not gruesome or exploitive. The ecchi aspect of it is, again, worse, and somehow even more stupid, perhaps you have seen an infamous memed panel of Araragi walking into the mountains that are the boobs of Hanekawa, yup, stuff like that is present throughout this arc. Another issue, which wasn’t on the previous arc, is how sometimes the author throws very silly comedy between the serious moments, something that doesn’t happen in the other adaptation, even though it does in the, surely coincidentally, worst seasons of the anime.

What’s better in the manga, however, is being more psychological, as it has all the main characters introspecting about their pasts, how they show themselves to others and interact with them, and their flaws, thus being closer to the other parts in that regard, something that was missing from the anime. And also, the exposition is far better in this arc, as it has a flashbackception where Kiss Shot not only tells her past, but also the mangaka chooses to actually show that, instead of having characters just talking about it, as it happens in the anime.

Anyways, just like the movies, this is an arc that explains and actually shows why the characters are the way they are, instead of just being extreme versions of common anime, and harem, stereotypes, and fleshes out each of them while setting up events and character dynamics to come, along with cool and brutal action, thus it’s fine even though at the end of the day it’s still an arc without real stakes because the protagonists are practically immortal and far stronger than their enemies.

After that, the manga follows with a heavily modified version of Nekomonogatari and Second Season, focusing itself entirely on Hanekawa, Araragi and Kiss Shot, showing how the first got to put up an image of a perfect know it all harem girl because of all her familial troubles, in an even darker, as in, more messed up and brutal way than the anime, with some of the darkest scenes and visual metaphors in the manga. Unfortunately that also means that it needlessly takes it to the extreme at times, in a far more violent fashion than needed, as this manga is far gorier and action oriented than its anime counterpart.

Like I said, Second Season is heavily modified, as Araragi basically rejects every secondary, not fleshed out girl and rushes to…well, where the plot needs him, you know if you consumed any of the other two versions. While that is happening, Hanekawa is fighting and accepting her dark and true self, both mentally, and literally, since, as I said, this version is far more action oriented and at times needlessly gory, and don’t forget the fanservice and poorly mixed comedy, there is a lot of that as well. The messages are perhaps delivered more directly than in the anime, and some details are changed (Tsubasa never goes to the Araragis’ house here, is Hitagi’s father the one that tells her to stop running from her problems instead), but as a whole it was a good alternative version of both Neko Kuro and Shiro/Tsubasa Tiger.

Unlike the anime, which would run an entire arc in its entirety before showing what was happening at the same time, here both the aforementioned arc and the second one from Owarimonogatari are shown simultaneously, the manga goes back and forth between Hanekawa and Araragi, and what he was doing regarding Kiss Shot and the other vampire, in a more comical but still very similar fashion, and since over here neither Izuko nor Yozuru are present, Koyomi is the one that makes the deal, thanks to being influenced by Meme, which was a cool detail honestly.

Anyways, this part of the arc shows the beginning of how the setting came to be, everything basically being the result of a tragic, kind of unrequited or perhaps forgotten love, as it was in the anime, and kind of cheesy as a whole, but good in making the characters face their pasts and move on from them. Things are not as well explained nor in a satisfactory way as in the anime, but it was still fine, except for the part where the main antagonist of the arc turns out to be the main antagonist of the whole thing, of which I have a mixed opinion about, him being a proactive antagonist instead of a semi tragic figure that couldn’t do anything to prevent his actions was a nice detail, but it came with the cost of taking away proactivity from other characters, such as Tsubasa, and that’s a bit of a shame.

Still, the connection between the two arcs and the split presentation of the narrative, as well as the messages and themes explored through it make it a decent double arc, with some major changes in its favor, but it is still not as good as the anime version, except for the aspect of being faster and not having all the silly comedy from the beginning.

After that is over and practically the whole plot covered, the manga moves on to the date of the last arc of Bakemonogatari, skipping Hanamonogatari, Tsukimonogatari, and thank fuck also the disgraces of Koyomimonogatari and Zoku Owarimonogatari. As I said, as an alternative version it can weird out longtime fans. There isn’t much to say about this final part, it’s there to give Senjougahara some spotlight which she didn’t have for a good while, and also to give a needed closure for both the characters and the romantic aspect of the plot, as well as the story as a whole. The one off chapters about each secondary girl were a mixed result for me, the ones about Hanekawa, Shinobu and Kanbaru were fine as a closure for the characters, the ones about Hachikuji, the Araragi sisters and Sengoku were disgusting, a failed attempt to rush through the most famous or infamous parts of their anime arcs, and they don’t even address important plot points even when they are mentioned, it would have been better to skip them entirely like the manga was doing before instead, this way the it feels like the manga was initially going to be longer but had to be rushed and compressed for some reason.

My final opinion about the manga is that it’s more casual friendly, as a tighter, faster, simpler and easier to follow version, without all the weird antics in the visuals and directing of the anime, reasons why I preferred it over the other alternative. Despite my personal enjoyment, and the aspects which I found better done here, I also have to admit that Bakemonogatari, as a single arc or season or whatever, was done poorly in retrospect, exactly because it took away the later importance of almost everything that happens in it, as it also happened with several details in world building and characterization for the supporting cast. Fine as an alternative version mostly for newcomers, as long as they can stand big amounts of fanservice, but most likely a disappointment for longtime fans. Inferior than the anime, but still ok as a whole.

The second season adapts the divisive Farmland arc, which mutates the plot from a manly war drama to mostly an introspective slice of life drama in a farm. The change is huge and it’s understandable why many don’t like it, myself included, I found it to be a very dull season for the most part, at most I liked 2 out of 24 episodes, and I don’t really intend to watch anymore from this franchise, since the next arc is infamous as the worst, even among the fans of the manga.

In fact, this season is the reason why I dropped the manga in the first place, first by holding it for three years, and a second and last time as soon as Olmar appeared, screw him, such a disgrace of a character to the franchise.

Despite that, since I already watched other shows about former assassins or soldiers wishing to redo their lives last year such as Jigokuraku, Rurouni Kenshin, and in a sense even Pluto, I thought why not watch this one as well? And so I did.

Aesthetically, the second season is simultaneously better and worse than the first season, which I guess is not much of a surprise with the studio changing. To star with the positives, the character designs and models are as great as they always were, some characteristics of some characters even reflect their names well, Snake fights with a curved blade and the way he moves around did remind me of one, Fox is not only cunning, but also the way his eyes, usually closed, look most of the time made him look like an actual fox. Also, the animation during fights, although not as interestingly directed as the highlights of the previous season, was overall better. Perhaps it’s due to this sequel having less action, but the few fights in it had far better motions, and some even used rotoscoping. But despite that, the artwork was actually worse, even affecting the character models at times, and there was more and more prominent CGI which was even worse that the one used four years earlier, affecting the quality of both the backgrounds and special effects. Oh and there was also more censorship, so I guess this is one title which you expect the Blu-ray releases of. The directing did have some cool moments when the mentality of the characters was the focus but other than that it didn’t impress me nearly as much as during the first arc.

The atmosphere remains unchanged, voice acting and special effects are as great as ever, but the music is still forgettable, although a bit better used and more fitting, since this is overall a far calmer season, and that goes specially for the songs, which I skipped most of the times, since they were just some pop songs I didn’t care about.

Now for the plot. Besides of Thorfinn farming there is also Canute doing his things to become and establish himself as the one and only king of both Denmark and England, and that ended up being the only part of this season which I enjoyed somewhat, seeing him doing horrible things for his goal in the patch he chose, and I still enjoyed like two episodes out of 24. The pacing is considerably slower, since most of the series is watching Thorfinn farming and meeting people, so it takes a while to establish character dynamics and mentalities before you feel that the story is moving forward.

The tone is a lot calmer and there is a lot of one of the worst aspects of the first season, that damn comedy, which is now thrown in even during supposed serious moments, fuck that shit, I was already disliking the series when it was Stardew Valley, and with this I came to dislike it even more. And then there is Olmar, a comic relief type of character at best, since he exists only to be a failure, be mocked, and making you want to drop the franchise, eventually the author does something good with him, but he still remains the worst character in the series so far.

Themes and characterization are otherwise as strong as before if not even better handled. The presentation is not as subtle, since several characters are willing to easily forgive or do favors to the same people that made their lives miserable, and Thorfinn can come off as a bit preachy at times, especially with that super idealistic finale that even made Canute laugh out loud for the ridiculousness of the whole thing, but the exploration of said themes and messages are still good. Unlike the romanticized versions you can find on North American tv and cinema, Vinland Saga isn’t afraid to show war as a horrible thing, innocent lives are lost or ruined because of it, an example of that is the very same Olmar whom I dislike so much. He is essentially what Thorfinn would be like if he had an easier life than Canute, he wanted to become a warrior and show off, but as soon as he was made to kill someone, saw many people died, his family was affected by all the fighting, and was horrified of his own brother, he realized what a fool he was all along, and chose the same lifestyle which Thorfinn came to have during the season.

Look at Thorfinn himself, at the end of the season he was an empty husk of a person, he didn’t even care for his own life, he suffers from PTSD for all the killings he did, and even sees the once so aspired Valhalla of his as a nightmare fuel hell akin to the Sañjiva Naraka in Buddhism. Thus he became a reformed man and a pacifist looking for peace and compassion for both him and everyone around, making that his ultimate goal at the end of the arc, despite learning and accepting that sometimes you don’t have any other option than using violence to defend yourself or someone else.

Look at Canute, when he is not pillaging a village for funding, he is threatening people, killing his own family for political reasons, or becoming crazy for being haunted by his own dead father.

This also goes for the other theme, slavery, treated with a lighthearted tone within other anime such as Shield Hero or Ancient Magus’ Bride, where the slavers are presented as kind and the slaves fall in love with them because of that, so it’s magically fine. Well not in Vinland, slavery is a horrible thing, it destroyed the lives of several characters, it caused the dead of Einar’s family, it ruined Arnheid and Gardar’s lives, it’s a system abused by many of the free workers higher in hierarchy than the slaves, and even a seemingly kind slaver like Ketil, who doesn’t want to resort to violence, can become a beast and take it on others below him when things go sour.

Despite that, Farmland doesn’t have any very simple character, each one has a backdrop, circumstances they go through, and all the important ones have strong developments and/or catharsis, you are not watching Texhnloyze right now, there is hope for some of these characters after all the misery they suffer.

The finale is otherwise not very strong, not only because the story ain’t over, but also because it felt simplistic, easygoing and idealistic considering the events and the connection between the two different plots that led to that. And don’t get me started on all the comedy that was present on the last episode.

The minor issues from the previous season are still present, minus the rule of cool, since this one doesn’t have nearly as much action and as such it lacks all the exaggerated moments the previous one had.

This is a point which truly defines who really cares about the themes and characterization of Vinland Saga, even at the expense of the plot and excitement, since they otherwise remain as good as before, if not even better. Well sorry, I care about the themes and messages but I also care about not wanting to drop something every few episodes, so you can count me out of this franchise forever. Even with my dislike of the season and arc because of its plot, pacing, comedy and presentation, theme exploration and characterization are as strong as ever if not better, thus it’s still a good season for me, even if I don’t think it is as good as the previous one or as it is made out to be by some people. There is one already teased arc left to be adapted, considered the worst by even the biggest fans of the manga, and another one left to be written, by I give up on this franchise, I wish everyone who reads this a good time with the rest of it and a bit late Happy New Year.

Kinda similar stuff

Rurouni Kenshin (similar protagonist, worse in everything else).

Jigokuraku (similar but inferior protagonist, and only in the manga or later anime seasons to come, worse in everything else).

Pluto (Most major characters are like Thorfinn, better in most aspects).

Gin no Saji and Hyakusho Kizoku (Farming slice of life and coming of age comedies written by Hiromu Arakawa, the woman who made Fullmetal Alchemist, they are not as good but there aren’t many farming anime out there).

Farming games like Stardew Valley

Back in 2019 I remember starting two big titles within the medium at the same time. I began watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes and reading Vinland Saga and switch between them two whenever I didn’t find one of them fun, so after some point in the “second season” of LOGH I would focus entirely on the prologue of the manga because of how fun it was, before I dropped it for three years after I reached that divisive Farmland arc.

Anyways, since I clearly liked that first arc of the manga I had to watch the anime, which begins with an extended beginning of the protagonist Thorfinn as a kid thanks to its own original material. Those first three episodes are fairly dull to watch if I’m being honest but help in making clear what type of story you are getting into. Despite being labeled as a simple fighting shounen by some, Vinland Saga is to its core a pacifist coming of age anti-war and anti-slavery story, that’s why the slavers are depicted as cruel as they are in the series, without coming off as the one dimensional assholes you can expect from other series, and that’s why Thorfinn’s family is ruined because of an incident regarding a slave. Likewise, that’s why Thors tells Thorfinn that they have no enemies even if he was a warrior in the past, something that many that were disappointed with its second arc apparently didn’t catch the first time.

Look at Thorfinn himself, he sees Vikings as cool as a child, he wants to become strong, grow to become a warrior and go fight in the war, and his family and whole life is ruined as he keeps on seeking revenge and running from his close ones, he becomes a puppet in a larger scheme of the very same person that took everything away from him, and also a murderer, gets seriously injured while fighting against stronger and more experienced opponents, and yet, since he is a kid and is out for revenge, he doesn’t grow up and learn, he refuses to let go because of that code of honor and Viking spirit he grew to aspire to, even when he admits and call other Vikings madmen as he grows later on.

The other important character is Askeladd, who goes from being a cool and cunning antagonist to the most and best fleshed out character in the whole season. Despite being aware of his hatred for him, he becomes a mentor of sorts for Thorfinn, as he is basically an adult version of him, given that his own life was ruined because of the war, and instead of pursuing revenge like his young impulsive counterpart, he slowly polished himself, up to the point where he could make a profit out of the very same thing he hates the most, and planned a political plot behind his initial simple presentation to strike directly that thing he hated the most in the long run, even giving himself up for it.

There is another relevant character in Canute, but he is not as well handled in this season at least, since he is just a quiet and pampered guy who doesn’t know jack when he appears, and his development into a masterful tactician, politician and even philosopher is cool, but also rushed to the point of not being convincing.

The rest of the cast may not be as important in the plot nor have as many dimensions as these three, but they serve the theme exploration just fine, the Vikings like Thorfell are all crazy, they like war so much and became such warmongers they are basically sociopaths, which is something that, for example, Hellsing Ultimate attempted to show in the past, but did it in a way that felt like it was trying to have a cake and eat it too, since it was presenting those characters as cool while doing it so. Not Vinland, these characters are demented and come off as horrifying…when the directing allows it, but we’ll come back to that later.

Besides the main focus, there is also a succession war going on which the characters either take an active part on their own or get dragged by it, and some of the best and most memorable moments and developments as well as character dynamics in this particular season are related to that specific plot point.

The pacing is good ever since the beginning, since every moment is dedicated to either the theme exploration, the plot progression, or the characterization, and in fact it was actually enriched by the adaptation thanks to its original material. The anime combined the retro approach of adding stuff to the original that could make it better, and still kept the modern pacing, and yet some people complained about it because of some CGI horses or something, can you believe it?

The finale, although obviously not conclusive in the sense that there is a lot of more story to come, is perfect for this one season, and atypical too, since the protagonist ends up having the exact opposite of his goals being accomplished. In a way, it is similar to the ending of the first season of Kaiji, since both protagonists could have stopped ruining their lives further, but because of their own stubbornness and thirst for revenge, they ended up having it worse, look at how much Thorfinn’s life was destroyed at the end of this arc partially because of his own fault, and people say this is just another fighting shounen that glorifies violence.

With all that said, Vinland Saga is not the masterpiece it’s made out to be for different reasons of varied importance.

First of all, it’s not that well animated. The overall artwork is fine, the character designs and models are great, the backgrounds are usually good, but sometimes the action scenes are poorly choreographed or animated, and there is some questionable CGI here and there, especially for water and horses, which damage the otherwise very good special effects. The directing is a mixed bag as well, sometimes an episode can be among the best presented in the medium, sometimes there can be interesting action scenes done with first person perspectives or dynamic camera movements, but other times they look poor and are presented even more poorly, an infamous example was a certain episode with completely different paneling than the manga, which didn’t manage to convey its point as much, which was Thorkell being a horrifying crazy warmonger, and let’s not talk about the scene where he chops down some dudes as he is running, that was seriously pathetically animated and directed.

The audio department has some similar issues though not to the same extent. The voice acting and the sound effects are superb, the sound directing is awesome, especially on that one episode where Canute and Askellad are walking towards the king, really conveying all that tension. The music is otherwise pretty forgettable or misused, and that includes most of the openings and endings as well, which I never understood why they became so popular in the first place. They sort of fit THE RAAAGE of the main character but they otherwise don’t fit the story, setting and time in history that the series take place in that well. The only song I liked was Torches by Aimer, the first ending, since it reflects the saddening tone of the series well, but even then I liked it mostly because I like the artist herself more than anything else.

If you want accuracy on your historical fiction then you will have a problem with this series for a few reasons.

First of all, the events and characters themselves, which were modified for the sake of the story. This is something the mangaka himself admitted to do in some of the early chapters of the manga, and if you happen to read a fansub of it, those always include some notes of their own where they detail the changes in events when they translate historical works.

Then there is of course the fact that this is, DUH, a manga and anime, thus you will have the characters talking and at times acting in ways that don’t fit the time and place of the story, and that can be immersion breaking for some viewers.

Related to that point is the comedy, for some reason most anime and manga like to include that awful comedy even in some of its most serious titles. Yes, it makes them not as tedious to consume but the changes in tone can be so different that they can be immersion breaking for some, myself included, thankfully here is not thrown in during serious moments and thus they don’t result in serious mood whiplashes.

And then there is the rule of cool. Sometimes you would have Thorfiinn jumping a laughable amount of meters in the air to land an attack or aboard a ship or fortress where he continues to do acrobatics and cut people down, or again, you could have Thorkell cutting down people in half for the sake of spectacle, or that one scene where these motherfuckers are running down a mountain, I think, while carrying the boats? Rule of cool can make something more exciting and more enjoyable to watch alright, and manly men doing manly things in manly ways is always fun, especially at a time when the medium is full of pussies, but on an anti-war historical drama, the action scenes can be way too over the top for some people.

But in the end, the most important criticisms are the ones I already talked about, how the story is not over, how Thorfinn doesn’t mature, and how Canute changed completely on one or two episodes, thankfully both characters get a lot more focus on the second season.

Despite those rather minor issues, I consider the prologue of Vinland Saga a great historical and political war drama and the second best anime to come out in the last decade, only behind Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, at least until I watch something better (though I don’t see it happening), and I’m glad something like this got all the attention and positive reception as it deserved for once.

Kinda similar stuff

Vikings (tv series)

The Last Kingdom (tv series, in turned based on The Saxon Stories book series)

The Northman (Movie adaptation of the real story that inspired all revenge plots and this franchise).

Berserk (Similar political plots and protagonists).

Hidamari no Ki (One of the main characters is a warrior that fights against bandits and refuses to change and also faces a bittersweet ending, while the other tries to get him to live a peaceful life, kinda like Thorfinn and Leif).

Note: This will cover the whole franchise up until this point, since I don’t find much to say about each entry on their own.

I didn’t know about this series until the ova mini-series came out and got me interested in the concept right away, as it seemed to be like a fantasy version of The Sixth Sense or something, with the protagonist being the only one able to see supernatural creatures. It didn’t turn out like that at all, but still, a young girl learning magic and finding out about all the supernatural stuff lurking in her world was catchy enough, the occasional tragic deaths, dark elements and great visuals and atmosphere added to the positives, even though at the end of the day it was just a media res demo of sorts.

Then the tv series started and part of that magic was lost to me. Not on the presentation though, as the visuals kept the gorgeous artwork, backgrounds and special effects, that make up for the usually static animation and simple character designs with repeated facial features, while the sound retained the immersive sound effects and atmospheric soundtrack, along with cool and atypical openings and endings, that were also accompanied by a fine voice acting.

The drawbacks were in the plot, as it starts in a very creepy way, with a young human girl being bought as a slave by a skeleton, undead, monster, thing who even has a hidden much more hideous form, thus giving off very bad vibes. Everything seemed to be fine when he intended to make her his apprentice, but as soon as he revealed that he intended her to become his wife, with every secondary character supporting them, everything became hella weird and creepy again.

Aside from that, the atmosphere from the mini-series, while still there, was now interrupted by the typical chibi comedy that you encounter on a shoujo series. It’s still better than most comical moments on a shounen series, mind you, but it still clashes a lot with the rest of the series, resulting in a very annoying mood whiplash.

The setting is somewhat interesting because it takes place in Europe, and because of the influence of European folklore that makes for somewhat captivating vibes and aesthetics, even though the series plays out in a typical fashion for a contemporary fantasy series. The occasional dark themes and violent moments that are presented in a tasteful way are a nice touch too.

Despite that, as much as the series tries to make it seem that there are stakes and the main characters are in danger, both are exceptional and whenever they encounter a threat, they come out fine, are cured by either a super powerful supernatural being that favors them or a risky procedure that comes out just fine, and they get allies and power ups every so often, or reveal to have a hidden super power that lets them face anything just fine.

As for characters, they are memorable more for their characteristics than their personality. A redhead suicidal young female mage that can see creepy supernatural creatures and gets power ups by being cursed, apprentice of a skeleton undead thing that turns into a…I don’t even know how to describe it. Other than that, Chise is mostly an excuse for the viewer to learn about this world, and Elias doesn’t know how to communicate well. Secondary one off characters are somewhat one note but at least have an explored dramatic and sad back story to flesh them out, even though they don’t appear again. Development and catharsis are otherwise nonexistent for the mains, and the secondary ones don’t get that because they disappear from the story soon after they appear.

Thus, I began watching the series thanks to the ova mini-series that presented it as a darker Ghibli movie, and what I got is the most off-putting non-pornographic version of Beauty and the Beast ever, that even though it is a shoujo series, plays out like a typical shounen action series, by giving the super special protagonist favors from super powerful creatures and big powers ups, even with former enemies becoming her allies. The presentation, the dramatic secondary stories and characters, and the occasional dark elements, make it a watchable time waster for me, but nowhere near as promising as it seemed to be.

Then, a later mini ova series came out some years later while the second season was already announced, but unlike the first one it wasn’t liked much. The studio changed, the artwork was a bit compromised and the special effects now included a bit more crude looking CGI. The story was another semi-dramatic story about a secondary one off character, but the uneventful finale and the slow pacing in the beginning and the rushed pacing in the end of it made it very passable and forgettable as a whole, so it’s understandable why it’s the lowest rated entry in the franchise. The sound department was on par with the previous level, so there weren’t complaints there.

Then the second season came out and it wasn’t nearly as popular nor liked as the first, why is that?

No recency bias, no longer a new show, second season of a series with already three entries, with thirty episodes amongst them.

Split cour, the majority doesn’t like that, especially when it comes to a sequel of a two season series.

Also, since the studio changed, the visuals aren’t as polished as they used to be, even though they were improved from the second ova mini-series. The second part in particular has a lot more crude CGI than the first, thus being the worst entry so far in that regard.

Audio wise, the special effects and the music kept being captivating, and that includes the opening and endings, so no complaints there, again. The voice acting for the newly introduced characters include both more veteran and young seiyuus, with everyone doing a good job, so that was actually improved as the franchise went on.

The plot changed slightly though, what used to be a learning process across the countryside with its creepy and captivating encounters with some supernatural horrors, was replaced with a Harry Potter-esque magic high school and arc, Chamber of Secrets for the first cour, with someone attacking others with a dark magic book, and Prisoner of Azkaban for the second, with everyone trapped in the school, in specific. Thankfully, the creepy creatures and vibes, the secondary characters with tragic backstories, the newly introduced conflicts among different families of wizards that reminded me of Fate/Zero and the Waver spin off and led the author to explore the closed, caged, oppressive world of wizardry, along with some slight level of development for Chise who opens to more people and learns to be not AS suicidal, while Elias slowly learns about humans and how to communicate with others, are there, it’s just that the sense of adventure and exploration was lost. The plot progression wasn’t lost however, even though some claim it did, the series was about Chise learning about this world, and it still is about that, only on a school instead of the countryside, ok? The only major difference is no death for a secondary character, but other than that the series remains the same, only on a more limited setting.

What’s unforgivable is how the series had the chance to fix the most off putting aspect of the relationship between the main characters, by revealing that Elias is confused about what his intentions for Chise actually entail, and both of them questioning said relationship, only for them to go “well, as long as we are together, it doesn’t matter if we’re husband and wife, master and slave, teacher and apprentice, father and daughter”, fuck that, it made things even worse.

The opening of the second cour made it look like it was going to be far more action oriented, and although there is a bit more than before, that was never the strongest aspect of the franchise. It also set off all of the alarms for a time travel sort of subplot to take place, but thankfully that wasn’t the case, it was just the characters going down the memory trip.

As a whole, this is a franchise you follow not for the plot, which isn’t very special and progresses very slowly, not for the action, which isn’t very spectacular nor particularly well animated, and doesn’t have much stakes because of how powerful the main characters are or become, and hopefully not for the dynamic of the main characters, which is off putting as hell. You watch it for the presentation and atmosphere, the setting and its creatures, the creepy vibes, and the secondary stories and characters. A mixed bag of a series, but in the end an ok time passer.

I had this ridiculously unnecessarily long title under my radar for a while before it aired because it seemed like it would be cute, but I was also worried because, as other manga and anime before it, it could go down a perverse route at any moment, thankfully it didn’t and remained as it began throughout all of its duration.

There’s nothing special about the show, it’s a typical lighthearted adventure in a typical fantasy setting with a typical class system that makes you think that the characters are in a videogame.

Ok, there is a political plot, and there are powerful demons hidden somewhere affecting the setting in one way or another, but the first is resolved quickly and conveniently, while the second is hardly given much importance, even though it’s hinted that the main girl herself might be another one of those creatures as well, something that the studio seemingly tried to hide by changing a little her original character design.

So, there kind of is a plot and some drama, but honestly, the series is at its weakest when it focuses on that, as things are resolved easily and conveniently, so no attempt at a serious plot is believable nor very enjoyable, the show is at its best when it focuses on what the stupid long title tells you, how the main girl, one of the strongest characters in the world, as protagonists end up being a lot of the times, is a daddy’s girl that cares about going back to her father more than anything else, like saving the world or some shit. That’s why coup d’états can be taken down easily, antagonists are defeated almost instantly, and if they are children, they are forgiven instantly for everything they did, and reformed right away.

There is some action but honestly that’s weak as hell as well, very short, most of it is kept out of screen and from what I understand heavily shortened and altered from the source material, resulting in some really badly planned, storyboarded and scripted scenes, and since the main characters are so strong, they hardly face any threat. It doesn’t help that for a 2023 anime, the visuals in it just plain suck, very simple character designs, generic even for the girls, very inconsistent quality for the artwork, affecting even the models which go off very often, beautiful backgrounds that are unfortunately also affected at times, very bad motions even during the simplest scenes, very simple and uninteresting directing, and the special effects are just the worst, they look at least two decades old.

The audio is good, decent sound effects and ok voice acting, generic but fitting background music, opening and ending that go well with the overall feeling of the show, nothing much to complain or explain in details here.

The characters are very one note, they fit within an archetype when they appear and they stay like that for the whole series, at best they get a bit of their backdrop stories revealed but that’s about it.

At the end of the day this is a series you watch to casually relax with it, for its lighthearted adventure and laid back feeling, of seeing a strong protagonist being a daddy’s girl, as well as many other girls that for some reason all are needing of some fatherly love, whether because they lost their families or because, well, that’s just how Bel is, always charming everyone with his strength, sword technique, good manners, very respectful and understanding way of speaking, and always helping people, reuniting families, and taking care of children or teenagers. There is some underlying message about how no one is truly naturally evil, and that nurture and how we are helped to control our emotions and redo our lives define how we come out to be, even for the demons, thus making the anime standing on a middle point between the victimized ones from Helck, and the pure evil ones from Sousou no Frieren, both airing in the same season. Thus, the message adds to the feel good type of show it is.

If that’s up your alley, despite some very crude visuals, you might have a little good casual time with it, however, if you go into it expecting something like a plot or serious theme exploration or strong characterization in it, you’ll be completely disappointed by it.

Despite probably being one of the least hyped anime in history, I really wanted to watch Bullbuster as soon as I read its premise, because it was about mecha, and because it sounded really retro, immediately making me smile. Unfortunately, besides the meme initial reaction it caused because of the combination of its name and studio, the one behind Deca-Dence, and the second reason why I wanted to watch this, its reception was almost completely negative since the very first episode based on its elements alone, which is sad because it proves that shows like Patlabor or Dai-Guard would be very negatively received today on concept alone.

Granted, Bullbuster has serious issues in its execution, but most of the criticisms towards it come from its elements alone, and not because of its handling of them.

Visually, Nut isn’t a very good studio, and Bullbuster is a very solid proof of that, it looks outdated and uninspired, from its artwork, character designs, five backgrounds being repeated throughout the whole series (water, forest, office, laboratory, restaurant), so-so motions, and crappy CGI monsters, giving it a very mediocre visual presentation as a whole.

The audio is the best part of the anime, even though neither the opening nor the ending nor the background music are remarkable in any way, they do their job just fine, as does the voice acting, which is nothing special either. The sound effects are of inconsistent quality, some are incredible and very immersive, while others are really weak, giving them an average to just good result as a whole.

The premise is about a small company that kills giant monsters with their giant robots on an island, while dealing with issues of funding, bureaucracy, relationships between co-workers, scientists that don’t want to help them or that don’t want to spend money on that, other companies suspecting them, the people that they fight for being disappointed in them, and there’s even some character drama as some of the main ones are directly involved with the starting point of the conflict and the monsters they fight against.

All these elements enrich the plot despite its low stakes and scope, but are also what alienated a lot of the public that went into it for, I guess, a silly comedy based on its name and studio, and received a real mecha type of show that tries to combine all of these elements with different tones.

And that ends up being the main issue of Bullbuster, it doesn’t know how to handle such big mix of many very different elements and tones. There is action and some battle choreography put into it, but at the end of the day every fight is resolved in the exact same way and the so-so motions and the crappy CGI monsters with very uninspired designs for them don’t help one bit. There is some minimum level of mystery about what the monsters are and where they came from but it comes mainly from the people that can find out about it not wanting to do their job properly. There is an attempt of taking the plot seriously, but its progress is slow and its execution leaves a lot to be desired because most of the conflicts come from the characters acting like idiots instead of doing what they should, plus, the comedy prevents from taking seriously anything that happens in the show.

Said comedy is quite goofy and it could be enjoyable in its own, if the series didn’t want to take itself more seriously than it should, there is some character drama but it’s not the best nor the most original thing, it’s something that you can find in any monster movie or show, plus the plot is stopped for a good number of episodes because of it, and the comedy clashes with it, there are also classic naïve and idealistic ideals and ideas that belong more on a super robot than a real robot type of mecha show, here they come off as immature and the cause of problems instead of giving the anime the epic feeling it normally would. Also, despite all the serious issues that the company the characters work for face on a daily basis, each one gets a convenient and naïve solution almost right away, in the same episode or the next one. It’s true that every solution leads to another problem, but that in turn leads to another easy solution, thus any attempt at seriousness and realism is completely ruined.

The revelation, along with the plot twist, of the origin of the monsters is quite good and could have flipped the whole series up until that point, from every inconsistent thing in the writing, to the relationships between companies and even characters, but even that led to nothing special and easy resolutions, and even a finale that feels like sequel-bait.

It doesn’t help that the characters are quite awful. Leaving aside two women, one because she is the only one with a little bit of a backdrop and emotional conflict within the story, and the other one because she is the only one that tries to do things right, everybody else is rather stupid or useless in the plot, if not both things, remains a character archetype throughout the whole anime, acts stupidly and creates conflict in superficial ways because of that, and is overall just not a good person nor an enjoyable character to follow for a whole season.

At the end of the day Bullbuster had an enjoyable first episode in my opinion thanks to being and feeling like a retro real robot comedy in the likes of Patlabor, which was a short silly episodic comedy before it was made into a long episodic slice of life series, and before it was also alternatively turned into a serious crime mystery on separated entries, or Dai-Guard, which had many of the same elements as this anime or Patlabor, but remained mostly a comical take on the usual super robot mecha premise. After that first episode, most of the conflicts in this show came off as superficial because they are all the result of the characters being written like complete idiots and jerks, and any attempt at seriousness is ruined by the bad writing and the poorly timed mixed of action, drama and comedy. Its low rating and negative reception are perfectly understandable, but the reasons behind them are not, since it’s the execution that’s the problem, not the concept alone, as the titles I compared it with proved in the past.

I was initially interested in this anime because its premise made me think it would be a medieval fantasy alternative of Hoshi no Samidare but with a retro protagonist, but the recommendations and comparisons to it mentioned Berserk, which made me even more interested in it, but aside from a few characters dying, I found no similarity whatsoever between the two titles. More people said it’s similar to I’m Quitting Heroing, so I guess I’m gonna watch that at some point for the sake of comparison or something.

Another comparison that was made was with One Punch Man, and initially Helck does play out like a comical take, though not necessarily a straight parody, of the typical fantasy and fighting shounen tournament arc. The plot revolves around a strong human dude that sides with demons and is suspected to be an infiltrator, in the silliest way possible, at least in the beginning.

With one exception, every character acts stupidly, which combined with the superiority of the main character, allows the latter to go up his way in becoming the next demon lord quickly and easily.

If you are a fan of the early episodes and the two, later on three, main characters interacting in silly ways and getting to know each other while interchanging little catchphrases between them, you might get bored or disappointed with the following events, which are an invasion from forcefully mutated humans, while for plot reasons the main characters are either stranded on an island, or go into flashback mode for a quarter of the season.

If, like me, you prefer character exploration, and more or less serious stories, perhaps you might prefer that second half, as the backdrop and mysteries of the main and titular character are revealed and answered, along with the reasons for various characteristics of his, such as his smile, broken weapon, objective, dark power and stuff. Also, the dynamics between the two protagonists evolve as they open to one another and come to understand and trust each other.

While the two main characters are taken away from the plot, and while the series is not in flashback mode, you also get to see other characters doing things, and showing more of their serious side, which they didn’t during the early episodes because comedy equals everyone acting like idiots. One of them plans and strategize, others take down enemies, one infiltrates, and in general is cool to see characters waging war with some sort of strategy and tactic instead of just brawn, at least until the powerful main characters can get back and wipe out every enemy with ease.

The problem is that all of the above comes with the cost of sacrificing plot progression, as about a third or perhaps even half the series is spent on that, main characters introspecting while travelling, allowing the author to explore the setting, and supporting ones and antagonists fighting seemingly with no end.

Speaking about the fighting, since the main characters are so powerful, the enemies are remarkably weaker for plot reasons, and the visuals are rather low budget, this is not really a series that you watch for the action, which is usually short, simple, one sided, low on stakes, and well, not very good looking, as Helck is a series that despite coming out in 2023, looks like it aired back in 2008. The artwork and the coloring, even though they don’t have very noticeable quality drops, look simple, outdated and lacking detail, the character designs are very simple, the backgrounds are ok, the motions are ok in the beginning but become worse later on as the artwork becomes better for some reason, and the special effects look even older and more outdated than everything else.

The music is ok, generic but serviceable, the endings are two cute ballads, and I skipped each of the two openings every time because of how upbeat and unfitting they sounded to me. The sound effects and voice acting are ok as well, though I did not expect a second serious role from Tomokazu Sugita on a single season.

What I didn’t expect from Helck was it being another one of those “humans are the real monsters” type of stories were we are the real bad guys even though actual monsters or in this case demons live in the same world. Regarding this point, the anime does a good job at times, showing more races than just humans or demons, and having some good and bad ones amongst them, or show some completely bad ones being like that because of the setting, which does a good job in exploring the world the story takes place in and builds up more mysteries.

On the other hand there is a serious issue in its theme exploration, since even though several characters say that there are good and bad people everywhere, and humans wanting revenge on the demons for all the killings they did in the past, not a single bad demon is actually shown in the plot, while there are almost no good humans anywhere, while the ones that are shown go as far as killing their own kind for the sake of wiping out their enemies, with over the top, illogical and unbelievable actions, thus the message and theme come off as simple and one sided, as one side of the conflict is completely demonized while the other is completely victimized.

Similar things happen with the other theme of conflict between classes, as the nobles are complete assholes and the real main villains behind everything, while the lower class are all good people and poor victims of the rich.

There are no grays whatsoever in the themes, they are explored in a naïve, simpleminded, one sided and superficial way, so I guess they at least go well with the equally presented protagonist, but it would’ve been better for the show to remain a lighthearted comical adventure if its serious side would turn out like that.

As for the characters as a whole, they are fine, definitely stronger than the simple, kind of weak, and slow moving plot, they become more memorable and are more fleshed out through flashbacks, which show how interconnected most of them are, while others show more of their characteristics, capabilities and come to accept others in a way as the series goes on.

At the end of the day, I feel like you watch this for either the comedy, or the adventure, or the drama, definitely not the action, but not all the elements all together as one single whole, as it feels half-baked. The comedy gets replaced heavily by the drama, which doesn’t come in until half the series, and only after some really silly humor, so those who might prefer the second might not go through the early half to watch the latter. And the adventure is fine for showing the setting, it’s just that at the end of the day said setting it’s quite simple and generic, so it’s not like there is much nor very strong world building thanks to it anyways. The weakest aspect is for sure the plot, which is simple, illogical, slow moving, constantly stalled in one way or another, bad at exploring its themes, and remains incomplete.

If you don’t like any of the above, you might still enjoy the show for its characters, but you’d have to power through the first half of it for that. Or well, you might not like anything in it because of the half-baked way every element is combined with the rest, so you just wasted your time with a 24 episodes series.

Or maybe you are the definitely more rare type to enjoy the whole package. Good for you for enjoying this show as a whole, while everyone else gets bored or disappointed by it in some way or another thanks to one or another element in it.

Dai-Guard is essentially a series that comically combines the super robot type of mecha anime and the real robot type of mecha anime by handling elements of the former in the setting of the latter. It’s simultaneously a comical take on the classic formula and a tribute to some of the most iconic old school titles in the genre.

Visually you can tell the series is outdated, even by its time it isn’t very good. The artwork is kinda weak, the character designs are simple, the coloring has several issues to the point that one character has two different hair colours throughout the series, one seemingly done digitally while the other seems to be done by hand, why’s that? The special effects look cheap and old even for its time, and there is some crude CGI here and there as it was common back then. The motions are also not very good, but at least there is a lot of weight behind them, which is a nice touch, adds to the aesthetics, and fits within the setting and story presented. The backgrounds, especially the inside of the robots, are the best part of the show for the most part, except for the moments when CGI is used.

The audio department is very weak, easily the worst part of the whole series. The music? Generic, forgettable, simple, repetitive, just there most of the time, and that includes the opening, which at least fit the atmosphere of the action part of the show just fine. Both are meant to have that retro and classic feel that the show aims to mimic, and they succeed at that, but the results are still weak on their own. The ending is a cute song that fits the slice of life part of the anime with lyrics that both reflect those bits and are aimed directly to the audience. Not amazing in the least nor very memorable, but the best part of the soundtrack as far as I’m concerned. The voice acting is ok, every seiyuu did their work just fine, it’s just that the series and characters themselves didn’t allow any of them to shine in any particular way, as what was required of them was pretty standard and typical. Akiko Hiramatsu was the best out of the whole cast and showed her range once more, simply by playing the most emotional and explored character in the whole series. The sound effects are laughably weak even by 1999 standards, almost nothing has a fraction of the impact it should.

The plot is about a public relationships team from a security company using the giant robot titular of the show to fight against the token monsters of the series, classic monster of the week formula with a comical spin on it, not only because of the people piloting and repairing it, but also because of its approach itself to it. The mecha doesn’t really look cool, it wasn’t used for so long that it is rather obsolete and broken, it doesn’t have any cool super attacks, all of its said attacks are down to Earth and comical copies of iconic attacks from classic mecha titles, all of its upgrades are simple weapons, it constantly malfunctions, it has to be repaired or refueled in battle, the monsters it fights against have very simple and uninspired designs that range from a freaking giant baseball to a Mega-Man boss reject, minus the last two which came out of Evangelion or something, and in general the characters are reluctant to fight or care more about their daily lives and relationships, their salaries and vacations and the funding to do all the repairs the giant robot needs, than about the fights and the monsters themselves.

Not to say that the battles aren’t given the importance they deserve, despite the comical approach, the same outcomes and weapons used and the low level fights, every monster is different from the others despite having the same weakness, thus every fight requires a certain strategy and a certain field tactic, and it’s cool to watch Dai-Guard itself being affected by the different terrains on which the fights take place and having to adjust to them.

The plot structure follows the typical monster of the week formula, but several elements are added to it to add realism and flavor. Because of all the destruction and funding issues caused by the characters, they eventually have the military controlling what they do and even placing a tactical advisor for them, who of course has another mission behind that position, which eventually leads to the creation of another robot and the army becoming an antagonist of sorts on its own. There is also a member of the board of the company wanting to take over its presidential position and change the division of the main characters, themselves included, new pilots and a new tactical advisor trained by the army taking over the Dai-Guard at some point, political issues with another country and army, and of course evolving monsters, and the everyday things the characters have to deal with. All of that enriches an otherwise dried out formula, even with its own funny spin.

The pacing is good in the initial episodes, as you are shown the concept, premise, main characters, the personal drama of the main ones, the army and board members slowly taking over, new members that are troublesome, changes in the mecha that make things more difficult, the discovery of what the heterodyne (the monsters) are and their natural formation, and there is a bit of character development especially for Shirota the first military advisor, who learns how to talk with common people and do needed things on the fly in the battlefield, as well as for Akagi, the hot-headed, idealistic and impulsive main character who wants to be some kind of hero of justice because of the mecha anime he watched as a kid. The relationships between these two couldn’t be worse in the beginning, yet they are together so much time they come to find a common ground and noticing what the other has that they themselves lack, thus improving the cooperation during the battles against the heterodyne. The series also bothers to show how the common people are affected by the fights, albeit with a lighthearted approach, nothing really tragic in it. So, it does everything that Bullbuster, which finishes tomorrow, does, but better, and with a much better pacing (Dai-Guard does in, let’s say 4 or 5 out of 26 episodes, what Bullbuster does in 10 out of 12).

The middle episodes (let’s say 6 to 18) are the weakest, not so much of the everyday lives of the characters is shown, thus there is no character fleshing, and the fights are weak and silly, to the point of even contradicting the information that was initially provided and having the cast acting out of character at times. There are some good bits in it, like the second robot being made and the army and second advisor becoming a problem, as well as a good message (the public relations division help out people even when they don’t use the robot, giving a new meaning to the catchphrase of the teasers of the next episodes), but in general the plot points presented during this portion of the anime are somewhat poorly handled and not even last long enough.

The army and the board member take over, but everyone is incompetent or an asshole, which goes against the cooperation and common ground presented earlier with Akagi and Shirota, there is a heterodyne that contradicts the earlier information, even if it refreshes the formula for one episode, on which the characters act out of character, a second robot appears but disappears soon after for the damage it receives, when Dai-Guard has taken worse time and time again, there is a really unneeded recap episode (aired first week of the year 2000), the division is dissolved but reformed soon afterwards, and you star questioning yourself why aren’t more pilots being trained and how can it be that there is just one scientist in the whole show. Yes, those things are like that on classic mecha as well, but Dai-Guard was supposed to be a comical and down to Earth spin on it, things should be different in this series.

The final episodes (19 onwards) have some issues, such as the political conflict being resolved easily in just two episodes, a so-so emotional montage, some characters acting differently than they did during the rest of the show, and the directing of episode 20 being way too experimental to the point of being weird, but in general the last bunch, especially after episode 20, are the best portion of the anime, with more character immersion and even a bit of development (especially for Ibuki, the main girl of the show), heterodyne that actually feel like a threat and that you can take seriously, the second robot reappearing with a proper explanation, the feeling and message of cooperation between the civilians and the military for the sake of the country being recovered, a more serious approach to the destruction caused and how the common people is affected, actual evacuations being made, the best directing of the whole series during episodes 21 and 22, and one hell of a final showdown in the last three episodes.

Of course, at this point you ask yourself why they didn’t evacuate on earlier episodes during other attacks, and there definitely was need for some actual deaths at some point, while the ending is not conclusive because there is no actual end for the heterodyne (they are a force of nature), but for the type of lighthearted action show that Dai-Guard is, the final third of the anime is pretty well done.

As for characters, I already talked about Akagi and Shirota, Ibuki is the most and best explored one in the whole show, from her backstory and personal drama, her family wanting her to stop piloting because of it being dangerous, the different pressure she has to face for being a woman, how she slowly becomes a bit more like Akagi, and of course two episodes dedicated to her psyche, repressed memories and development near the end of the show. The third main character is Aoyama but he isn’t explored as much besides his personal drama and slowly taking his job more seriously. The interactions between these three and the side characters are otherwise strong, bouncing off each other during the humorous parts, which I wished more anime had and knew how to make. Development and catharsis are otherwise simple and a bit inconsistent, but fine for this type of show.

As a whole I found Dai-Guard to be both a cool comedy in the likes of Patlabor on its earlier episodes and a cool tribute to classic mecha thanks to its main character and the final third of the show, and a series that’s worth the watch at least once, but it could have been far better if the middle episodes were better handled or some of them skipped entirely.

Similar stuff

Patlabor-Real robot mecha and slice of life comedy franchise (except for the movies that turned into crime thrillers and are far more serious).

Martian Successor Nadesico and Gekiganger 3-Parody and tribute of old school super robot type of mecha titles.

Kenzen Robo Daimidaler-Lewd super robot mecha parody.

Gravion-Lewd and goofy super robot tribute mecha title.

Bullbuster-Very similar but inferior 2023 title.

I’ve seen many comparisons with the previous anime which I found a bit unfair so I thought why not write something about it? With my own take on said comparisons.

In terms of visuals, this remake follows the same idea as the new Bastard!! which was also made by LIDENFILMS. Compared to the previous adaptation, the overall artwork here is more consistent and doesn’t have the same quality drops, and of course the characters look closer to what you can find somewhere else this day, instead of the typical 90s look they had in the 1996 anime. The models are also more consistent, as another decision made with this series was to be more faithful to the source material, which means that this show has less comedy which in turn is not as exaggerated, and thus the characters don’t turn into chibis during the funny moments. Still, from what I’ve seen and read, even the manga has more comedy than this, so clearly there´s an idea of presenting an overall more serious story.
With that said, at some point even the artwork begins to suffer from quality drops and being more inconsistent and with the character models going off.

The coloring is also obviously different from how it was back then, and even the directing seems to focus more on showing the characters, with very little of the backgrounds and even less long shots. A good example of this is the scene where Kenshin closes the door of the dojo and goes towards Kaworu on the first episode. Which is also the reason why the backgrounds on this newer version are such a mixed bag, all the crowds besides the main characters talking and moving instead of just standing still is fine, but the buildings and environment look so…uninspired and unpolished, especially every time that grass and water are shown.

The special effects are overall ok in both versions but don’t really make sense in either of them, as sparks and beams come out when swords clash or just move during an attack. Well, I guess not much can be done when the action is limited to just people jumping and fighting with swords. Also, just like the older series used negative colors at points, the newer show seems to have its own version, as you can see when Kurogasa paralyzes people on the sixth episode. I don’t know, this stuff looked cool to me when I was a kid but come off as silly to me now.

As for the actual animation, the idea behind it is to present the stronger characters as being way faster than everyone else. The 90s anime did it with a few frames followed by speed lines, the newer goes for teleporting the likes of Kenshin or Kurogasa with some light beams here and there to represent the slashes of their swords while everyone else falls to the ground. Since this version is more faithful, Kenshin isn’t AS stronger as he was in the previous anime, and some of the more over the top moments have been changed, as you can notice with how he stuck a dude on the ceiling with his barely visible sword and not just his finger as he was shown doing it in 1996. Both versions have quite limited motions but the 90s version is slightly superior.

As a whole, as a kid from the 90s and someone who watched the original Rurouni Kenshin as one of his first anime at, like, 13, I am biased towards the aesthetics of the previous version. The coloring and models may be more inconsistent, and the chibi bits unnecessary and clashing in tone, but there was a certain charm and warmth in it that the newer anime simply lacks, making it a bit more soulless. With that said, the highlights of the show are still left to be adapted in this version, so visuals and directing might surprise us all once the big arcs are adapted.

What’s undeniably worse in the new version is the sound department. The original Rurouni Kenshin has one of the best and most iconic soundtrack in any fighting shounen anime, for some even in the medium as a whole. Personally I don’t rank it THAT high, but I consider it to be very very good. The remake has a serviceable music, nothing wrong with it, but it just can’t even begin to think of competing with the older one.

Something I was never fond of in the original were both of its openings. I know they are some of the most cherished of all time, but to me that has to do more with nostalgia than anything else. The music in both is…acceptable, and the visuals and songs flow together really really well, but I just can’t stand the voice of the singer, which I rank among the worst I have heard in the whole medium. And I still prefer them to whatever the new anime went for in its first intro song, which not only do I think it sucks and skip every time, it doesn’t even fit the series, though to be honest, I thought the same thing with the classic ones. The second one is much better in my opinion, even if it’s still just fine.

As I mentioned in my Ravages of Time and Oooku reviews, what pisses me off not only about the Kenshin remake but other series like Vinland Saga and Golden Kamuy is that they are historical series, yet don’t even try to mix some elements from their time periods and setting to their intros. Just look at the latest one from the third anime I mentioned, which is half rap and half English, for a series that happens during the Russian-Japanese war and a big part of it is showing the Ainu culture. But apparently none of that matters as long as the song hypes you up, even with series that are not supposed to hype you up.

To me, openings and endings are not important nor do they reflect the quality of an anime in the least, but since they exist, they shouldn’t just promote an artist or sell on the product to be considered great, they should also reflect what the shows are like. Otherwise you end with the Death Parade situation, one of the most dramatic anime of all time about dead people, where the intro has one of the most unfitting upbeat songs ever while the characters dance like idiots to one of the silliest sounding voices I have heard in my life. If they don’t, they are just like those misleading trailers for movies and stuff, and since those are criticized, I don’t see the reason why these shouldn’t be as well.

Something that I always preferred in the 90s anime where the ending songs, there were seven of them if I remember correctly, and although they didn’t fit the anime that well either, by themselves they were pretty good songs, and just like the openings, the directing in all of them was great. The new anime has a first outro so bad and unfitting I couldn’t even finish it the first time, and I proceeded to skip it every single time. The second isn’t as bad, but I still find it unfitting and nowhere near as good as the ones from the previous anime.

The sound effects are…serviceable on both versions. The 90s one had good ones for its time that are outdated by now at times and surprisingly good at others. The most iconic fighting scenes and techniques haven’t been covered yet, so maybe this will change once that happens, but so far the adaptation from this year has presented some very stock sound effects. Again, not bad, but very generic and forgettable, and inconsistent in how impactful they are in different episodes. As a whole, this aspect is the one where both series are more on par with the other than anything else.

As for the voice acting, I can’t help but think that no version is really good, and ultimately, deciding which is the best one comes down to personal preference. The 90s anime had a curious cast, where a big portion of the most important characters were voiced by people that either weren’t voice actors, or barely have had experience in the field at that moment. Yet at the same time, others were performed by people that were already veterans, or would become veterans just some years later. The end result ends up being a mixed bag by itself. The thing is, the newer one was well selected and the voices fit the characters well and their performances are good, it’s just that it has a huge legacy to face. As so-so as the original voice acting was, those people voiced the characters so many times across so many different products, they inevitably got better at it, and practically became the characters themselves for long time fans.

To speak a little about the most noticeable changes, Kaoru sounds sweeter and younger now than she did back then, not just simply because Rie Takahashi sounds like that, at least when she uses her cute tone, but also because in the 90s anime, Kaoru was a lot more violent, a trait that many female leads had around that time for comical effect, that as a far as I remember from the little I read of the manga, she wasn’t like that in the source material, thus making her newer self to be more faithful to the original. In the end, both are good and fitting for the different takes on the character.

I don’t know who voices Sanosuke now but he sounds like Yuuichi Nakamura to me, his voice sounds good and fitting to me, and frankly I prefer this voice actor to Yuji Ueda, who I never liked much. With that said, the new voice lost the raspiness of the original, again, it’s not bad, but this way the character lost a little of the aggressiveness and the idea of a “badass sounding guy” from back then.

The biggest, most notorious and most divisive change was of course Kenshin, who now is voiced by a man and not by a woman. The thing is, the casting choice back then wasn’t just because, there was an in-story and directing reason for it. As he is supposed to be based around a supposed real samurai that was rumored to be a woman or a boy for how young he looked and sounded. Also, because that voice was simply funnier during the comical moments, which were drastically changed or removed in this anime. Since the new adaptation goes for a more serious approach and tone, the male voice fits better with the new take on the character, just like Kaoru. This way, the change from the normal Kenshin to the angry Kenshin or the Hitoriki Battousai may not be as impactful and noticeable as it was before, but eh, you gain some, and lose some.

Tomokazu Sugita as Kurogasa. He is a good actor that always gives his best on every performance, but I just can’t take him completely seriously for some reason. He did very well with his character, who was remade to look and sound younger than he was in the previous version, but he is simply not in the same league as Akio Ohtsuka for me.

Satoshi Hino as Saitou. I expected Ken Narita to take over what was once a role of the late Hirotaka Suzuoki and nailing the performance once more as his perfect replacement, but whenever this actor, Hino, uses his serious voice he isn’t bad, here he did a great job.

As a whole, the sound department is overall better in the original anime, but the voice acting is on par on both versions because of the different takes on the characters and tone on each one, and if for some reason you must choose one over the other, it ends up coming down purely to personal preference.

As for the writing, the plot revolves around a samurai from the Bakumatsu era reflecting on all the killings he did for achieving peace, and defending innocent common people in the Meiji era, as he is constantly challenged and faced by his past in one way or another. The show as a whole follows a very standard classic fighting shounen formula, in the first episodes Kenshin finds what comes to be the main group of characters, while he goes around saving folks from the corrupt authorities like Zorro, basically. Then a short arc establishes said group for good as well as his main rivals during the series, and then two (or three) big arcs follow, and then the series ends.

This essentially means that at the beginning, the anime is rather slow moving, even more so if you only watch this version and are used to the pacing of newer action shounen. Still, in terms of writing and pacing, things that I consider are most important, the new anime beats the original as far as I’m concerned. This season decided to adapt a short prequel manga which wasn’t all that good, even if it served to explained a major aspect of the main character, before stopping at the beginning of a big arc, one of the most highly acclaimed in the whole medium, so its quality is affected because of that compared to the previous adaptation, but in its favor it removed all the filler present in that version.

Not to say that fillers are bad by themselves, sometimes they can add more build up for a better pay off (Dragon Ball), rearrange events for the better (Hokuto no Ken), or show more fights that are completely skipped in the source material (Yu Yu Hakusho), but in the case of 90s Rurouni Kenshin, they were mostly used to stretch the duration with minor fights in between against clearly outclassed enemies, and then finishing the series with 32 episodes of original material that, before the so called big three, were considered to range from average to the worst filler arcs in all anime, before ending incomplete, with a sequel that was half recap and half rushed storylines, with a divisive original ending, which I personally found good and fitting. As good as the Kyoto arc may be, it can’t make up for so much inferior content.

Even when taking differences from both anime aside, I still don’t consider the writing in any of them to be that good. Sure, the characters talk about the new and the old eras, there are clashing ideological and political views, which in turn serve to flesh out the cast and what not, but the dialogues themselves are quite simple and come down to preachy monologues, as you would expect from a politician during a speech, basically. Plus, on a series where Kenshin is faced and challenged about his ideas and past actions, and what they led to, it’s a bit of a flaw when he is clearly right all the time since, besides Hajime Saito and Aoshi Shinomori, every other guy he fights is presented as a psycho, while he is the only one that makes a real point, and has grown and matured over time.
The exposition is awkward in both versions, since information and backdrops for the characters are presented in quite random ways and moments.

Speaking of characters, since the anime is all about fleshing out Kenshin, he is hands down among the best protagonists in all fighting shounen and the medium in general, while everyone else fills their role just fine. Kaoru is an ok love interest, and despite her naivety, she brings him the peace he so much longed for, and serves as the representation of his ideal new era. Yahiko is an ok student of both, he begins as weak and very rude but grows consistently in later arcs, and Sanosuke goes from a brute that fights against everyone just because, to the biggest bro that ever broed as the series goes on, way before Roronoa Zoro. His backdrop story was changed a little in the original anime, but both are good on their own.

Since the new adaptation took away all the filler of the previous one, that also means that the main cast no longer interacts with some recurring minor characters from the 90s anime, they added nothing on their own to be honest, but served to flavor the main ones during the relaxing moments and give the previous version that certain charm and warmth that the newer series lacks for the sake of plot progression, gain some, lose some.
Aoshi and Saito like I said are the only decent rivals Kenshin has in the early episodes and arcs. The former for his code of honor, the latter for being the strongest not psycho opposition to the protagonist in both strength and ideals.

As for what’s in for the future, the highly acclaimed Kyoto arc will present a whole new decent set of antagonists with strong backdrop stories and even different dynamics amongst them, while keeping all the themes from the series. If the remake adapts that arc with the same seriousness as this season, it will increase its overall quality by a lot. With that said, said arc will still have typical fighting shounen issues, such as characters fighting one against one while calling out their attacks and fighting styles as they already did so far, in unrealistic fights, especially for an historical series and setting, but at least all of that will lead to an epic and bittersweet finale.

When comparing the value of both series, the new one is clearly at a disadvantage, as the 90s anime was one of the most famous and beloved from its era, with some of the most praised arcs and soundtracks in the medium that made it super memorable, and it didn’t have much competition out there, while the newer one, while I’d bet it was big in Japan, didn’t have nearly the same impact in the west, partly because of nostalgic bias in favor of the previous version, but also because of all the competition it has right now, as well as many refusing to watch a series made by a pedophile author.

As for what is the version that I personally enjoyed the most, it’s the prequel ovas followed by the live action movies, but limiting it to these two, I have to go with the newer one by a little. As much as I prefer the aesthetics and the 90s feel of the previous anime, keeping the core story without all that inferior filler made it a more pleasing experience altogether for me.

In the end, I give the edge to the original anime only by a little thanks to its aesthetics and legacy, and only compared with this particular season. If the following ones do a job as decent as this one, or even better improve it with more polished dressing, I will rate those ones higher, and place the remake altogether as better as the older series.

Remake 6/10 for now
Original 6.5/10