Hyakujitsu no Bara

I will apologize beforehand because i am not used to making reviews. What you will read is my opinion. However, keep in mind that I am writing in the most objective view as possible (hopefully).

Story 9/10

There IS actually a plot. There is a reason behind the main characters' romance, and the bond is deep. Although, I feel that certain needed details were neglected or not brought out clearly. Sometimes, I felt that the plot was rushed.

Art 9/10

Personally, the art style is not to my taste. However, the animation is done beautifully, and I think the art style grows on you. The art style does match ... the characters' personality. The backgrounds brought out the mood of the scenes. For an example, during heavy and dark scenes, the backgrounds were dark.

Sound 10/10

The background music was very nice and brought out the mood the scenes. I especially liked the piano bgm.

Charcter 9/10

If only there were more episodes! The only real character development you really see is when you compare the characters in the present to them in the past. Still, the character themselves are not so simple. They battle with what they need to do and what they desire. It's nice because it seems that the main characters seem so different, but somehow the meet on the same page.

Enjoyment 10/10

Despite little things, I was VERY tempted to give this yaoi an overall 10, but i cannot. However, I enjoyed it a lot. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to watch a yaoi with a real storyline.

Maiden Rose is a very resumed compilation of a manga that has much more into it than what we could expect at first sight. We have two countries in a war, a prince from a country that has a knight from the other country. A Shakesperian plot, that - due to lack of film time - was never explained. And this is the main flaw of this anime. However, it counters for having a plot. This by itself is already a great achievement for a BL animation, where they often forget about plotlines and characters to please the rabid fangirl.

The art was cared and clean, ... pretty but not amazing. The animation can't be considered a master piece, but it's skillfully done. And that's enough. The same can we say for the OST and effects, not to mention voice acting. For something supposedly sensual these actors seemed rather shy.

However there is something that counters this, which are the characters. They are solid and suffer development, even with the 60 minutes of screen that they were allowed to have. The designs are gorgeous and even though we may consider some actions flawed according to what we know of them I believe that it is part of their personal achievements to surprise the viewer.

Overall, a very good work. We were needing something like this into the genre. Sexually tense, violent and creepy sometimes, but very sweet in the end. Highly recommended to the rabid fangirls.

If you wanna see a guy get r*ped by another guy where he's pleading for it to stop, and it causes him to pass out due to blood loss from his ass then this anime is for you!!

It made me physically sick, I dislike r*pe culture in anime because it really disturbs me and makes me feel ill

*SPOILERS*

There isn't really a plot at all to be completely honest, there's two r*pe scenes in it and it completely put me off the whole show.

I thought it was gonna be about war and stuff but it actually hardly went into that and focused more on the toxic ... ass relationship between Klaus and Taki, people can argue that "oh but they fell in love at the end" i really couldn't care less, it doesn't forgive the fact that Klaus r*ped Taki TWICE!

So yeah, I hate this.....

Read the manga...seriously. The actual story hardly comes across in this OVA but the manga is pretty deep and goes into the characters backgrounds and builds up the relationship between Taki and Klaus. The manga is IMO a work of art full of feels. Also, THAT scene in the OVA isn't half as brutal in the manga and in the manga there is explanation around why it happened. Anyway, its worth watching for the chibis at the end.

Sorry if this is a sucky review, I just wanted to put it out there that the manga is actually excellent so people don't miss out!

_Warning, Spoilers_ This was a very good ova with a nice set of art, music and characters. It seems to be based around the second world war and centers on the Gay relationship between a Japanese man (and Prince I believe) named Taki and a German man named Klaus. The art was good and the voice actors fit the characters perfectly. I liked how cute taki was especially in the chibi specials at the end of the episodes and Klaus was for the most part a nice guy.

But Despite the good points of the anime, I found the story lacking somewhat. As ... Most of the story centres on their relationship, It's sad that their relationship is forceful and slightly abusive towards the start. As because he was a seen as symbol of hope to the japanese soldiers and as a prince was supposed to refrain from sexual acts, Taki begins to feel guilty after his first time with Klaus. He also begins to distance himself from Klaus because of his feeling of guilt. Klaus misunderstands Taki's distance towards him, thinking.....honestly I have no idea what he was thinking, because he then Brutally rapes Taki until he passes out from pain.

Which was really sad and actually made me tear up. The story does have some good points, like the tale of how Taki and Klaus met and fell in love, the specials at the ends of the episodes and How Taki Saves Klaus from being killed For treason after the rape incident. All in all, i'd rate it 8 out of 10 and recommend this to anyone ok with yaoi romance, abuse and rape.

I'm gonna be quick, don't watch it. I'm just writing a review seeing how high people rate this.

Story :
There is a war and that's pretty much it. Some dude r*pe another and at the end they kiss. I know in 2 episodes you have to be very quick but this is just bad.

Art :
They looked bad. The argument of it being old isn't one. I think they put some effort only in the r*pe scenes.

Sound :
Generic and bland. The H-scenes weren't hot because of its context and the seiyuu sounded like they didn't care.
...
Character :
Big blond german looking guy r*pes tough on the outside, fragile on the inside asian looking guy. Oh and the german guy is a softie at heart. That's all. I didn't understand these characters nor their actions. Like they kiss at the end but dude he r*ped you twice because he was angry.

Enjoyement :
It's more of a horror anime that it is Bl. It's wasn't the dumb fun of Papa to Kiss, it was only pain.

Overall :
Don't.

Like most short shounen ai/yaoi given only a short amount of OVA it really falls short compared to the manga. If you're curious about the manga or just the story/setting/characters it still might be a great place to start.

I do however feel sorry for the anime in this aspect as I feel like how the anime portrays their relationship isn't as beautifully or true as in the manga, might be due to the short amount of time of course. From what you can get out of 2 OVA's the anime isn't bad, you just wish for more like always.

If you are short on ... time or just want a short yaoi story I could see myself recommending this one compared to many of its similar ones. It was my first military/historical type of anime/manga so if you already know that might not be your piece of cake, this might not be for you? Also the sex scenes are kind of intence, but doesn't last that long.

All in all it was good in the given time it had to tell it's story. ( pick up the manga if you want the full experience)