Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls

With its gorgeous landscape and prosperous people, Great Japan is the envy of all other nations. But a serious threat hovers over the country. Mysterious guardians known as Master Samurai are Great Japan's only defense.

At the behest of the student council, young samurai Muneakira Yagyuu arrives at Buou Academic School. Run by the Tokugawa Shogunate, here children of warriors are given aristocratic education required to run the country. The school is led by the student council president Yoshihiko Tokugawa and his sister Sen, who also happens to be Muneakira's childhood friend.

Upon arriving at the academy, Muneakira finds himself in the midst of a terrible fight. During the chaos, the sky fills with a peculiar white light and a mysterious girl named Juubei Yagyuu appears and suddenly kisses Muneakira. With his kiss, she awakens an unknown power that protects them.

Just who is this girl, and where did she come from? Muneakira finds himself entangled in the fate of the country and a threat that will shake Great Japan to its core. He must learn the secret behind the Master Samurai and the kiss that awakened Juubei's power in order to protect his country.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yagyuu, Juubei Main

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Sanada, Yukimura Main

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Tokugawa, Sen Main

Kotobuki, Minako Japanese

Yagyuu, Muneakira Main

Hirakawa, Daisuke Japanese

Naoe, Kanetsugu Supporting

Toyosaki, Aki Japanese

Yagyuu, Gisen Supporting

Mizuhara, Kaoru Japanese

Gotou, Matabei Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu Japanese

D'Artagnan, Charles Supporting

Koshimizu, Ami Japanese

Tokugawa, Yoshihiko Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Hattori, Hanzou Supporting

Gotou, Saori Japanese

Tanaka, Shinsaku Producer

Usui, Hisato Producer

Hatakeyama, Takurou Producer

Koshinaka, Osamu Producer

Reviews

Dec 28, 2010

DangoSadge

Recommended

Oh man.. It's another samurai harem. What's with Japanese people and turning historical figures into high school girls? Anyways, this anime series is based on a light novel series written by Akira Suzuki. Wait a minute. I know what are you wondering.. "Hey isn't the main male lead name is Muneakira?" Yes you're right. I mean if you're writing a story about a harem, wouldn't you want to be the center of it? And let's just add "Mune" to your name and nobody would even notice.
(Yes, I know Mune can also mean breasts..)

I really had high expectations with this one. No kidding. It's been a ... long time since I've watch an anime about samurais. Unfortunately, as promising as this anime looks, here comes the hundreds of unnecessary fanservice and fillers to drown out the story. Oh sure, I'll like a few fillers now and then but they're rush the entire plot buildup right to the end of the series.

Now on the positive side, the reason why I sticked to this anime (No it's not because of the fanservice...) it's the astounding art this anime brings forward. It's a bit nostalgic as this reminds me of the game I used to play about a b*tch.. Umm I mean about a wolf (Ookami was it?)
Anyways, rarely I've seen an anime which uses the traditional ink style for all it's censorship and transition point however it gets annoying over time.
I have no complaints about the sound either.

And here comes the characters. What? Only three girls in his harem?? Lame.. However, all three of them have some useful personalities to assist with their ever useless male harem lead. And Im suprised there's more tsunderes than Ive expected! As usual, as the story develops, each girl had their chance to express their feelings to Mr "Breast" Akira here.
Oh boy, once again the male harem lead is there as a wallflower for every battle. Every battle when you think Muneakira is going to take charge and battle, prepare to get disappointed. Remember, this anime is aimed for people who loves fanservice so they wouldn't want to see a guy in the battle now would they? Hey, at least he isn't dense unlike some other male harem leads.
And what about the villains? Twisted as usual. Nothing new here.

Personally, I quite enjoyed this anime. That's because unlike others, I did not take the story seriously from the start after watching a few episodes of fillers. If you're looking for a nice samurai story with a decent plot then go look elsewhere. As entertaining as this may be, I wont be watching it again as this sort of anime is where you watch it once and you're already content. I mean, can you watch 12 whole episode about "Love", "Honor", and "Bond" all over again?

Overall, it's a good time killer if you have nothing better to do. Definitely a must watch anime for all you harem lovers. Just don't let the whole ideology of "Love and Honor conquers all" get stuck with you. Remember, an anime is an anime, and real life is just like an anime, without those big eyes.

Haremu Kingu,
Signing off..

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Dec 21, 2010

8thSin

Mixed Feelings

'Hyakka Ryouran SAMURAI GIRLS' is the 40th anniversary media-mix project by Hobby Japan, a plastic model / video game magazine publisher.
This series is an interesting watch because it's not only a "media-mix" as in franchise with products in multiple media platforms, it also feels like many popular anime series are mixed together. However, it represents everything that went wrong with today's anime industry.

ART:
Series like 'Gankutsuou', 'Mononoke', 'xxxHOLIC', 'Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei', and 'Yojouhan' have such distinctive and unconventional art style or character designs that you'll never forget once you've seen it. Sounds pretty cool, we should do it too! And there we have it, sumi-e (wash ... painting) style backgrounds, ink drops and brush strokes for censorship and scene transitions.
I have to admit that the style was unique, background is visually pleasing, and there were couple of breathtaking scenes. However, this art style was executed very poorly in many aspects. For one, the character designs were rather ordinary and they looked out of place in the picture even with the thick outlines as a buffer. The presence of modern day gadgets and use of CG made it seem awkward at times because it did not conform to the era or the style. The censoring technique was fine in still pictures, but it was unsightly and annoying when character is moving because the way ink dots follow and disappear screams of "look at me! I'm different!"
The action is cool, and labeling of people and attack move's names were done rather well though.
The animation in this series will certainly be remembered, but it simply did not work for the most part.

SOUND:
Yagyuu Juubee's voice is really cool when she's transformed into Master Samurai, but sounded way too cute/loli despite her appearance in normal form. Muneakira sounds too girly for the macho hero who's supposed to be all about samurai honor. Otherwise, the side characters' voices were done pretty well and sound like they should.
BGM was pretty generic. OP is a really good intense rock song, not only is it very catchy, it also had the Japanese flavor, and the vocal was amazing.

STORY/CHARACTER:
The title "Hyakka Ryouran" has two meanings. The first, more literal meaning is "Profusion of Flowers Blooming in Chaos", as in girls (flowers) of various (profusion) backgrounds are unlocked (blooming) into master samurai and wreak havoc (chaos). The second meaning is "Appearance of Abundant Talent in a Short Period", which describes the resurgence of Master Samurai after a considerable draught in awakening. This series has a great naming sense in its own title, and also the names of signature moves for each character. For example in Sen's "DenKouSekka", a lightning attack which reads "Lightning Fast" in Japanese, "Kou" is deliberately written in wrong kanji that has same pronunciation that means "Royalty". D'Artagnan's ice attack that seals enemy movement "Zettai Reido" means "Absolute Zero", but written "Absolute Slavery(Imprisonment)".
A lot of moves have such creative names like that. However, the originality ends there.

The setting is really, really bad. Sure, it's an alternate universe where the Shogunate rule survives, and there's zero Western influence in Japan, but then you have all the advanced technology (from the West) like air planes, cameras, and computers. It got so bad at one point that commando units holding guns were guarding ninjas and samurais. Talk about awkward.
The premise is basically Evangelion ripoff, you have a chosen hero who unlocks the power of super-powerful beings to fight ones that want to end the world, and an organization trying to prevent that. The secretive organization functions through unethical practices (human experiments/sacrifices vs child labor), and yes, there was mass production of the super-beings to build up the force.

Then all the characters were for manufactured harem. All the girl fighters except Sen have names of MALE historical figures or fictional characters of major literature with similar attributes. It's not even 'Sora no Otoshimono', and girls literally fall from the sky, and yes, one of the them is a cyborg. The initial villain is identical to Vegeta, he thinks he's above all others (emperors and kings), he does have a good purpose but uses any means to achieve his goals, he even wears a Power Level Scanner, and of course, he joins the hero and heroines in the end.
There were many other similarities to DBZ, from "Her power level is over half a million!" to "They are far beyond our capabilities, we can only watch". The girls basically power up like Super-Sayan, and then a heroine even flies like one, before getting spirit bomb-like power recovery from allies. The whole action is like 'DBZ' meets 'Sengoku BASARA' with ridiculous power and constant yelling about love, honor, and justice. While this could've been quite funny if it was parody, there was nothing in this series to suggest that was the case.

And there's these random fan-services with explosion ripping off girl's clothes, a girl wearing thongs all the time (historically some men did, but still...), dumb activation of power (kiss), and 'Sailor Moon' ripoff naked transformation.
Character behavior in general made no sense, and things happen just to advance the plot.

ENJOYMENT/OVERALL
It's nearly impossible to create a completely original story or characters in this day and age. For example, one of the villains in this series also had a magical eye like Alpha Stigma, a ripoff of Geass, which is a modified Sharingan, which is a souped up version of Hiei's evil eye, and then you can trace that all the way back to Medusa.

However, good storywriting can camouflage similarities well enough that they won`t be easily noticeable and bother us. On the other hand, the mix of themes and reference in this show is blatant and shameless. They are so poorly executed that the apparent lack of originality is obvious to the viewer. And then you have excessive moe and ecchi fan service, failed art style innovation, and manufactured harem environment to distract us from the flaws in story and production. Like many similar harem anime today, 'Hyakka Ryouran' was a very poorly produced and forgettable series.

That said, the story is shallow and cliché, but it does have a good pace and some of the tried and true formula do work, and the action scenes are exciting. The show is a true mix of previous anime and lacks originality, but it does offer quick entertainment.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Nov 6, 2015

Luquillo

Not Recommended

Taking place in an alternate 21st century where the Tokugawa Shogunate still rules Great Japan, the generals of the country relied on Master Samurai's; very powerful women with special powers to fight their battles. As time passed, this breed of warrior has become more scarce. Muneakira Yagyu heads to the Buou Academy to meet with his long time friend Princess Sen, but he ends up in the middle of a battle taking place between students of the academy, and their rival Yukimara and her assistant who both represent Toyotomi. During the battle a girl falls from the sky claiming to be Jubei Yagyu before she ... passes out after the fight. Who is this girl? And what was that display of power? These are only some questions leading to the coming events. -summary

I really wish that I stuck with my gut and avoided this atrocious anime title like AIDS. I've just about had it with Sentai Filmworks and their ridiculous line of anime titles. At this point in time, I've completely seen four of their titles and every last one of them rank amongst the worst anime I have ever seen including Samurai Girls. Despite not getting into the trailer at all, I came into this completely from a level-headed perspective. I gave this anime the benefit of the doubt and it made me literally cringe during the entire duration. Samurai Girls is almost completely devoid of all imagination, and it heavily relies on those same tired old harem comedy clichés. It features the same old mousy loser who's completely afraid of pussy, and is surrounded by a host of women for the flimsiest of reasons. The tired old love triangles, the girls who berate him for things that's not his fault, it just goes on and on. I am so sick and tired of this weak shit.

In all honesty, and I'm not trying to come off offensive or like some type of elitist, but Samurai Girls is for that type of anime fan who either has no standards at all, or are completely new and really haven't experienced the absolute best titles the genre has to after. The only positives I can think of lies in the visuals and music score. The anime is indeed stylish with a heavy manga influence filled with dark lines, and very nice looking backgrounds that reminds me of Super Street Fighter IV. Visually, there's just nothing bad to look at here and the character designs are very sexy for the women. There's some great detail in the loads of fan service provided. In addition, black ink blotches frequently drop down to the screen, and later on in the series, they feature different colored blotches that really does look cool. The action scenes contain many flashes and light shows reminiscent of Bleach and Dragonball Z. The BGM which is provided by Tatsuya Katou complements the anime well, when working for the action and comedy. Unfortunately, although these things stand out, they really didn't make getting through this anime any easier.

Samurai Girls was a chore for me. The visuals tend to overshadow the characters, plot, action, and story, because none of those things are anything special. The plot spins its wheels very early with little to no progression at all. The characters soon learn that the female samurai's can be transformed into Master Samurai's by kissing Muneakira, this pits at least three of them in this unoriginal, by the numbers love triangle that grows boring and annoying very quick with lots of bickering. To add to the lack of originality and completely insipid, the main character Jubei goes through a Lucy/Nyu-esque of Elfen Lied fame transformation, from powerful samurai warrior to an infantile retard that is nowhere near as annoying as Nyu, but is annoying as hell in her own right. None of the characters were the least bit interesting to me. If it wasn't for the fact that they were named after real samurai's of the Sengoku and Edo periods, I would have never even known their names.

This anime features one comic relief after the other, and even though I chuckled here and there to the characters antics. I felt the writers were trying way too hard to be funny, and more than half of the time the jokes were completely flat. They get even worse due to the constant rehashing. Later on around the ninth episode, something of a plot develops when the heroes learn they will have to face a demonic threat that could wipe them all out. Unfortunately, it's too badly paced and thanks to all of the filler before it everything feels too tacked on and very rushed. The action, which should be a stand out, is made up of flashes of action and falling bodies, with way too many high energy attacks. The writers cut way too many corners as there aren't any choreographed sword on sword exchanges, which is completely ridiculous for a show with a samurai setting.

There's no doubt that I personally believe I sat through a certified shitcapade, but what keeps these DVD's from being certified coasters, is that the anime never attempts to take itself too seriously. There are no tonal shifts, it's a straight forward light hearted ride meant to be fun; but the problem is that it doesn't accomplish any of its goals in the areas it set out to excel in as far as I'm concerned. This anime is an ant amongst giants when compared to series close to its type such as Excel Saga and Slayers.

Samurai Girls is a very poor excuse of a samurai/harem show. The only area it really stands out in is the prodution values; character designs, flashy action moments, fan service, music score, and for me, this just isn't enough. I hated the characters, their played out interactions, non choreographed action scenes, that troll final episode. It was just a bad experience for me. I only recommend this to the very easy to please. If you enjoyed Needless and High School of the Dead, then you'll love this.

Highs: Production values


Lows: Plot, characters, comedy, etc.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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