Cestvs: The Roman Fighter

I really liked this anime. The 3d was jarring at first and made me nauseous, but then I got used to it and even liked it because it made the fights and bodies very detailed. Compared to other fighting anime, the fights are realistic and the ones in the second half are thrilling, I was tensed up like it was an action movie. I might have to read the manga because there was a large time jump and I bet there is fun character development that happens.

The characters do have more flat personalities. This did not bother me too much, because it was mostly ... fighting and not drama.

If this anime had 12 more episodes or a second season I think it would have more fans. One of its flaws is the rapid pacing of the plot, but there are many anime out there where a fight takes 10 if not 20 episodes to get through and it makes me want to watch the episodes at a faster speed. Cestvs kept me on my toes and there were no moments of boredom. I watched it in one sitting.

Cestvs has been an interesting experience for me. I never read the manga and went into this with absolutely no expectations whatsoever. Perhaps it was because of my low expectations, but I actually quite enjoyed this show.

The story is pretty average. The world building is minimal and the story often jumps around the place. As an example, the first scene of the anime only shows up again at the end of the 4th episode. This was supposed to be a smart hook then a slow build up to an interesting reveal. However those of us who were watching this as it came out had ... to wait 4 weeks, and had all but forgotten the start. To add to this, none of the assets and backgrounds look all that unique, so all the fighting arenas more or less look the same. This hook was so poorly done, that at the end of that episode, the narrator actually had to say "and now we have returned to the start of the first episode" to remind the audience that the first episode even existed. The show has numerous problems like this. The pacing is wack, the characters are surface level at their best, and at worst are nothing more than background set pieces that spew exposition. When you consider the terrible plot direction and dialogue, the question arises, how could anyone possibly enjoy this show?

This brings us to the art. The art is objectively bad. All the fights are 3d, and there are many non-fight scenes that are also done in 3d. That's fine. What is not fine is that there is 2d animation mixed in with the 3d. The issue here is that if you watch a 3d anime for long enough, you start to adjust and get used to it. Your brain tends to become a bit more lenient. And so then awkwardly shoehorning in another style ruins any appreciation you can have for the 3d because it feels so distracting.
What redeems the art, and led me to rate it so highly is the fight scenes. This is the one situation where I can honestly appreciate the choice to go 3d. The fight scenes are really well grounded. They are anatomically correct and are more intellectual than emotional. Objectively the fights aren't that good, but as a martial artist I really appreciated the attention to detail and realism that these fights bring. I've never seen fight scenes where I could actually follow and understand the choreography without having to turn off my martial arts brain and suspend my disbelief. The CG was the best choice for animating these fight scenes as all the proportions and body movements remain hyper-accurate for a fraction of the cost. I personally think it's a smart choice that paid off (probably the only smart choice in the entire show) and the fights carried the entirety of Cestvs for me.

At the end of the day, if you want to see good, accurate and realistic fight scenes and don't mind CG, then this show will be pleasant to watch, nothing more. If you are a fan of the manga or care about story and characters than avoid this show like the plague. Overall the show makes me interested in the manga, which is purportedly 100x better. Might check it out at some point and once I do I'll go back and re-write this review. I hope this provided some insight to the very, very, very, incredibly miniscule number of people who are interesting in Cestvs: The Roman Fighter

I decided to watch this anime because I'm a sucker for history and I'm a huge Hajime no Ippo fan, which is an anime about boxing. This sounds like the perfect anime for someone like me, right? Let's start off with the visuals.

Animation:
1) CGI usage most of the time. Character movement seems incredibly slow, clunky and worst of all, it breaks immersion;
2) Not a fan at all of the character design


Sound:
1) the soundtrack is okay
2) Most of the voice actors hired are incredibly experienced and famous. However, the seiyuu chosen for Cestvs is a rookie and I find that interesting. ... He did a solid job, giving a believable performance to the role.


Story and characters:
1) It pretends to be historically accurate by throwing random pieces of trivia to the audience;
2) The characters are boring and so is the narrative. Ancient Rome's brutality and violence are absent from this anime. Slaves, fighters and gladiators weren't killed easily for no good reason. The Roman nobility loved violence and gore. To have Nero, a real Roman Emperor and one of the most vicious ones, be confused and scared of violence was a major turn off. This guy used to doom ancient christians to serve as torches to light up the roman streets at night. Even as a kid, he would already be numb to violence as a roman noble. There are too many examples but this gives you an idea of what to expect throughout the 11 episodes;
3) I didn't read the manga but I was told (and certainly seems that way) several events were skipped between the 1st and 2nd episodes. These events aren't addressed again, except in very brief flashbacks with little to no explanation. It's a major flaw in storytelling and hurts the flow of the story. It's hard to feel connected to a character and his struggles if you don't get to experience it. This is one of the major flaws on this anime;
4) Slaves interactions with roman nobles is way too inaccurate to take this anime seriously
5) Some episodes begin with some very obnoxious and long flashbacks. Some of them took about 4 minutes in total just of footage already shown previously.
6) The ending is obviously trying to get a sequel announced but I honestly hope it doesn't happen. If you want to do a story set in a historical setting, you have to respect certain historical aspects because otherwise it feels that the audience was tricked into watching something entirely different.


In conclusion, it gets a 4/10. Awful visuals, boring characters, historical inaccuracies and skipped important events that later on the audience is supposed to understand through very brief flashbacks.