Utawarerumono is an Action Adventure set in a world of Fantasy. Just think Lord of the Ring, but minus the Ring and Hobbits. Following the disturbing opening scene, we our introduced to our protagonist, a mysterious masked man with no recollection of who he is and why he has an immovable mask on his face. Now this amnesia plot device is one of the most over used but taking into account that this is based of a visual novel, it’s certainly a good way for the player to start off with a clean slate. Now as for the story, a good amount of time is spent bringing this fantasy world to life, in what looks to be a very mild mannered series. But soon after being lulled into a false sense of security, the story develops into that of a war between nations. So instead of harem filled romance you can expect bloody battle after battle, in an ever developing storyline. Sure it would have been better if more thought was put into how to kick start this warfare plot but as a whole, the series did prove to be very exciting to watch. If only it remained that way throughout however in the last batch of episodes you’ll witness one of the most thoughtless plot developments ever, which did a good enough job in ruining whatever impression I had of the series.
The male protagonist did suffer from this drastic change but before that he was a really interesting and mysterious character. It’s a great thing seeing him develop from a nameless nobody to a charismatic figure and the other characters that gravitate towards him certainly have their own appeal or role in the story. Not to forget the female characters, who are what make it this an obvious adaptation from a visual novel but that isn’t really a bad thing. The only negative aspect is the few really stupid and annoying characters (the Emperors) that stifle the quality of this anime.
The quality of the animation is really good as there’s a fair amount of detail put into the characters and environments with some good water, fire & smoke effects. Yet a lot of corners were cut, like when it came to animating the fight scenes. At times it just looked cheap, with a lot of recycled scenes and who could forget the poorly implemented CGI character models in the armies. At least the music is truly special as it manages to go well with the anime, especially during the battles or when it is building up to something epic and I am particularly fond of the ending theme (R.I.P Eri Kawai).
Overall Utawarerumono turned out to be a great Fantasy, Action, Adventure that pulled off a tale about one man and his journey onto greatness. There is quite a lot going for this show to get anyone into it, like the way the characters interact with one another and how the battles & politics were handled. Personally I was disappointed by the number of flaws that plagued the show, from the corners cut in animation, to the terribly erratic pacing and the few stupid decisions the characters made. But none of that really compares to how appalling the last couple episodes were handled. If you can overlook these then you’ll enjoy it.
^_^
