Quick Anime Review: Sengoku Basara – Season 2

Following on after the events of the first season. Season 2 aims to have more characters, more scope and more battles.

It achieves all of these but it makes the series worse because of it. The battle scenes are still very well done and this one does feature battles with more troops, but it really isn’t much different from the first. If anything I prefered the battles in the original series as they built throughout the series until the finale which was reasonably epic in scale with all clans standing against the Oda clan. The second series never builds up to much and the final episode (not the amusing episode 13) is not all that great. It does try to cover more scope with numerous fights going on at once, but this just distracts rather than make anything better.

The characters are much the same as before as is the basic plot. It’s really more of the same and in this case it’s not better because of it. the first series kind of ended at the right time before it all got stale. this series just goes to show that it was right to end when it did. It’s repetitive and frankly quite boring.

The visuals and the music are top notch but the story and characters feel the same (if anything they feel more two-dimensional)

Even if you’re a fan of the first series I’d give this a miss. 4/10

Anime Review: Toaru Kagaku no Railgun (A Certain Scientific Railgun) – season 1

Academy City. A city ahead of the rest of the world in terms of technology. A city where 80% of it’s population are students. A city where the students are encouraged and in some cases forced to develop their Esper powers (Psychic powers). These powers are ranked from 0 – 5., with 0 being nothing at all (with pretty much no possibility of ever developing) and 5 being the most powerful (currently there are only 7 level 5’s).

Our heroine of this series is Mikoto Misaka who is currently ranked the third most power esper user in the whole city.Her esper power is the ability to generate and manipulate electricity, her signature move the rapid acceleration of metal objects to supersonic speeds through the use of electromagnetic fields, AKA the infamous “Railgun” from which she takes her nickname. .She is joined in her adventures in the city by 3 friends, one of whom Kuroko Shirai has a severe romantic interest in her.

Right….. I should probably explain that this is a spin-off series of a series named Toaru Majutsu no Index. That series is much darker in tone and focuses more on the conflicts between magic and science. I will say that although not needed to enjoy or even understand this series, it does make for equally amazing viewing. I watched the first half of this series before knowing about ‘Index’ and loved every minute of it. After watching ‘Index’ I rewatched all of ‘Railgun’ from the start and loved it even more.

I don’t really want to give much about the plot away but let me tell you the series covers two arcs, both of which are brilliant and end in amazing fight sequences. The series can go from being action heavy to rather subdued slice of life drama in the matter of a few episodes and it is one of the few series that I’d say pulls it off.

Mikoto Misaka is easily one of my favourite anime characters of all time. She is so well crafted and is such a brilliant character. The supporting characters are strong but never outshine Misaka. The audio and the visuals are among the best I have seen in animation and some of the action sequences need to be seen to be believed.

The only negative I can give the series is that I wanted more when I reached the end. I very rarely think that after a 24 episode series but I can happily watch more. (The series has a great ending, unlike lots of series that feel they should be longer because they don’t end. Railgun does end, it’s just that I want more) They did make an OVA of Railgun and a second series has been commissioned so I can’t really complain.

This, along with Toaru Majutsu no Index ranks as possibly my favourite anime series of all time. I recommend everyone see it as well as Index (as I’ve said this is a more ‘fun’ series that although has some dark themes is ultimately much lighter in tone) 9.9/10

Anime Review: Sengoku Basara – Season 1

Based on the Capcom video game series of the same name, Sengoku Basara aims to bring the large-scale battles that made the games so popular, to the small screens.

Loosely based on historical facts about Japan during the Sengoku period when political upheaval was at its most heated. During this period Warlords from all of Japan fought for each of the separate regions of the country. Many clans were involved in the conflict and most are featured in the series (especially the last few episodes) although the three biggest clans at the time, the ‘Date’, ‘the ‘Takeda’ and the ‘Oda’ are the main three that are focused upon in the anime.

The anime focuses on Sanada Yukimura and Date Masamune (known in real life as the one-eyed demon due to his lack of an eye), two young warlords who after becoming heated rivals, have to join forces to take down the Devil King, Oda Nobunaga (although to my knowledge no historical texts ever called him the Devil King). Throughout the series we get little historical facts from the narrator and some things, such as Oda’s over reliance on western weaponry are portrayed well (all be them over exaggerated.)

At its heart the series is an action series that uses the historical background to lead the characters from one battle to the next. That is not to say all of the battles are large-scale warfare. most focus on a few characters battling with strength that causes massive coloured auras to emanate from both their weapons and themselves. (it’s the classic anime technique to show power. Made famous by ‘Dragon Ball Z’) Part of me was hoping for more historically accurate battles and battles of a far larger scale but you can’t have everything. what we do have is very well animated one on one battles with lots of shouting about how powerful each person is.

When I started watching the anime I wasn’t entirely sure I liked the tone as it was far more jovial than I expected, but as with most anime, get past the third episode and you can see how the tone will be the rest of the series. (another great example of this is ‘Trigun’ which changes tone dramatically after the third episode.) Although still heavily corny and cheesy the tone settles down making the characters much more likable and making the series all the better for it. Some comedy continues during the series but never really interrupts the quite dark tone the series eventually gets to. (except of one moment in the 11th episode with a handglider.)

The series also never aims to be taken too seriously bearing in mind that Date Masamune’s horse has handle bars and motorcycle exhausted attached to it. There is also a samurai mech with a jet back featured in the early episodes. (a lot of this stupidity is lost with the comedy after the third episode but it is still worth being prepared for.)

This is also one of the few series that I actually prefer the English dub to the original Japanese track, mainly due to the fact that the corny English voices kind of go with the over the top action and kind of harks back to old martial arts films of the past. The music and the visuals are both of the highest quality and you can see that a lot of time and money has gone into the series to make it look and sound as good as it can (I’d even argue the action looks better in this animated form then in the games)

I will say that I kinda wanted more to series in terms of the final battle which I found at only one proper episode a bit rushed. (the 13th episode is actually set during the 11th episode from some of the other clans point of views.) But to be fair for what is essentially a 12 episode series, they cram a lot in and tell a pretty good story.

I’d say for any of those who like semi-historical samurai anime like ‘Kai Doh Maru’ and ‘Rurouni Kenshin’ who can accept some humour in the vein of ‘Naruto’, give it a go. As I’ve said, give it at least up to the end of episode 4 before you truly make up your mind (I will say that the final few episodes are pretty amazing and were kind of what I was hoping for all along) 7.5/10