Ranked #1028

Hyouge Mono

I will give very high ratings for this anime, and I am sure as hell that a lot of people will disagree with me. But it all comes down to the argument about whether grass root popularity determines the quality of the show. I am aware that this anime is not for everyone. Average anime fan may only enjoy it to a moderate extent, but for those who are interested in the Sengoku Period, this is a must-watch. I for one am familiar with the history and I can safely say that this is THE most well done anime of the year, if not of all-time. Again, I am here to represent myself and not appeal to the people who are not interested, so take my ratings with a grain of salt.

The English subs are updated very slowly and most people are not up to date. At the time of this review I watched 22 episodes out of 39. So I will not give any spoilers. But after these 22 episodes, I think I have a pretty good grasp of the show in general, assuming there's not extreme decrease in quality in the last few episodes.

In my opinion, to FULLY enjoy this anime, you MUST know the history. However, this is not to say that it is impossible to enjoy it if you don’t. I have friends who recently got into it without knowing any of the history at all. But maximum enjoyment is still reserved for the sengoku fans. If you watched the first 4-5 episodes and decide that you don’t like it, DON’T waste your time. Pick something you could really enjoy.

In the following blocks of text I will talk about this anime’s relationship with real history, if may bore you to death of you are not a fan of it, so skip ahead if it makes you dizzy.

This anime does a great job and filling in the gaps of history. There are a lot of things that are obscured in the historical records. The author provides a hypothesis as to how those events have occurred. The main character, Furuta Sasuke, is a real historical figure. He was influential in art but was not as prominent as a samurai as the show suggests. The author's version of Furuta Sasuke provides alternative explanations to a lot of known facts of the other historical figures at the time. If you are familiar with the history, you would find it very amusing and satisfying. Not to mention that the author has a really bizarre sense of humor.

For example, as its first attempt at a major event, this anime takes a closer look at the Incident at Honnouji and the events that lead up to it. The author has an alternative explanation of what really occurred internally without changing the incident's appearance to a common bystander. You still get Akechi Mitsuhide's betrayal of Oda, but with a significantly more astounding flavor of conspiracy.

The anime walks you through the major events of Sengoku from the perspective of Furuta Sasuke, as insignificantly as he was actually involved in these events historically. It starts off with the siege of Shigisan, where Matsunaga Hisahide immortalized himself with his explosion with his Hiragumo. Later it moves on to Araki Murashige’s betrayal in Arioka, the building of Azuchi Castle, Oda’s campaign against Takeda Katsuyori, incident of Honnouji, Battle of Yamazaki, etc. Interestingly enough, the author perfectly fits the protagonist in these important events and creates original stories for him without altering the outcomes at all. Animes these days about sengoku really loves to bend the history to fit the plot, but this is not one of them. It does a much nuanced job at it and leaves the viewer satisfied. At the time of this review, Hideyoshi is engaged in the Kyushu campaign. And many clever interactions between Furuta and historically important figures are depicted.

It should also be noted that although this is a historical anime, it does have its focus on aesthetics and tea art. As much as you think this is just history channel, it isn’t. After Hideyoshi defeats Akechi Mitsuhide at Yamazaki, the anime skips the Kiyosu Conference, the battle of Shizugatake, the siege of Kitanosho, and lands right at the second half of the battle of Komaki-Nagakute(Fans of Hideyoshi battles may be disappointed, but oh well). It has a good balance of tea aesthetics and historical events. Sen no Rikyuu, obviously, will be the focus of many episodes. And the anime will provide a novel approach to the reasons behind his death in the upcoming episodes. I’m assuming fewer people are fans of tea than fans of sengoku, but it really broadens your horizon even if you just half-heartedly listen to their explanation of aesthetics. Personally, I think aesthetics is extremely subjective and is all bull, but knowing a bit of this arbitrary art may serves as a good conversation piece.

Many people either love or complain about the extreme facial expression of the protagonist. I, however, see this as the most fitting thing the author can come up with. I couldn’t find a better way to depict Sasuke’s obsession with his art and his dilemma of balancing art with the way of the samurai. At the end of every episode, you are reminded of this dilemma, and it really is a major conflict of the show. Every decision he makes regarding this has serious ramifications. From the way the show is going now, it may lead to very shocking outcomes toward the end of the series. I can certainly identify with him. In fact, I think the majority of the otaku would find it analogous. For me, it’s like this: Sasuke tries his hardest to be a successful samurai while keeping his passion for his hobby of tea art. I try my hardest to obtain a successful job position while maintaining my passion for my sick hobbies of anime figure collection, dakimakura and other niche otaku stuff. To succeed in this society, you always have to do what is proper to do. But your mind wants what it feels good to do. This internal conflict is present in all of us. This was the main reason I was drawn to the show when I started watching it.
I think the art and music of the anime is very appropriate. Not outstanding, but 100% adequate. I wouldn’t change a bit of it.

In summary, this is THE PERFECT ANIME for any hardcore fan of sengoku. I’m not sure if you NEED to know the history to grasp the sick sense of humor, but I sure did. It had been the anime I look forward to every week since it aired. I have been watching anime for a long time, and for the longest time, Evangelion had been my top anime of all time. It might be a temporal bias, but this anime recently dethroned Evangelion for me and became my top anime of all time. It may be an unfair assessment because the show is not over yet, but I’ll see what happens when the show is over.
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Hyouge Mono is a radical departure from the standard moe fare that you get these days. Instead of bishounen with super powers or high school girls acting cute, you have old balding people discussing old politics and fighting for territory. It's a very niche anime, but it does what it does well.

This series is just a TREASURE TROVE of facial expressions. It is a series that relies heavily on dialogue, to help convey what they say and make the show more intresting, some of the silliest or awesomest faces have been made. I mean, who couldn't love a face like this
http://www.japanator.com/elephant//ul/19207-/Clipboard14-620x.jpg
or this
http://www.japanator.com/elephant//ul/19207-/Clipboard19-620x.jpg

What really got me was the characters. You could feel their emotions through what they do and their actions and reactions are portrayed realistically. For example, Oda Nobunga is usually depicted as a superhuman warrior with an ominous aura around him, but here he is just a regular man with a penchant for western clothes trying to unite Japan.

If you know your Japanese history, this series is a great treat, as it follows Sasuke as he works under Oda Nobunga in his conquest and unification of Japan. You get to watch history unfold while also getting a nice story about Sasuke's love for Aesthetics.

A shame that at the time of this review only 5 episodes out of 13 released have been subbed, and there are 39 episodes. read more