The Hakkenden

Let me start by saying that the first episode is by far the best. In fact, I would have given this a much higher rating if the show consisted of just the first episode. It is a truly great episode filled with epic battle, desperation, and crazy folklore. Unfortunately, the show takes a real dive afterwards and as it goes on it seems more and more like the writer and staff lost interest and even forgot what they had originally planned. Sure, there's some more awesome fight scenes, but most of the show is characters that haven't been properly introduced with either unexplained or so ... uninteresting motivations that you've forgotten what they were, aimlessly walking around and eventually bumping into people with whom they get in fights who are guess what? also Hakkenden! No way! You mean you've got a glowing birth mark too? but we were just fighting. Oh well, no point in explaining or even differentiating between the characters, hopefully this show will end soon. Or at least that's how I imagined the creators were thinking. Still, it's not without merit, some episodes are directed by different people and the art style changes too, which is cool because sometimes it looks really good. Also, as I mentioned, there is some good action and some truly sadistic happenings. This could have been a great show as I had been anticipating but I ended up having to struggle through to the end. They really kept meeting allies up until the last episode, it's like they didn't even plan it out. Very confusing. Still, if you're starved for Chambara as I am I guess it's worth a shot. If you can find it.