Neppuu Kairiku Bushi Road

((May contain some spoilers!))

I honestly had fun watching this series. Yes I agree the series could have been better if it were longer, but it wasn't bad either. If you enjoy some action with a taste of romance, then you might like Neppuu Kairiku Bushi Road.

Story - 7/10
The story itself was intriguing. The poison called "Shinobi" which are attacking the human race is what caught my attention to this series. Although it was a unique plot, at times the story felt rushed. It especially felt rushed when you could tell where scenes were cut to make the movie shorter. Things escalated quite quickly towards the ... end of the series, causing a bit of confusion for the viewer. The ending, I surprisingly liked. I hope to see more of this series in the future, mainly because I want to see more of what Neppuu Kairiku Bushi Road could really be.

Art - 8/10
One thing that drew my attention to Neppuu Kairiku Bushi Road was its art. The animation and character designs are both good, no faults there.

Character - 4/10
Although I adored Suou and his relationship with Ame, I do feel as though the characters could have had better development. Again, if the story were to become an anime or more to the series was added, I would hope to see more character development. Suou wanted to grow stronger in order to protect Ame however, I felt as though this character development fell a bit short. Neither Suou nor Ame's character seemed to grow, except towards the very end where Ame realized what she had caused for everyone. If you are not bothered by no character development, then still watch this series. The interaction between the main characters and the characters themselves were still enjoyable and made up a little for the lack of development.

Enjoyment 7-6/10
The movie did not bore me in the beginning and though I hate to say it, the ending was less exciting for me. I enjoyed the bits of action the show carried out, however, the second half of the series seemed rushed. I had also hoped to see more epic fight scenes than what I saw. The scenes between Ame and Suou were also quite enjoyable and gave the series a warmer feeling.

Overall - 6
Neppuu Kairiku Bushi Road was not a bad show, however, it could have been so much more. With this being said, if you are bored and are looking for something to watch, then feel free to watch it. The show is neither good nor bad, it sits somewhere in between, but nonetheless is still an entertaining movie.

5/10

It's surprisingly decent, the ending isn't shit like oh so often. And all endings which are just that, ENDINGS, deserve praise. So points where points are due.

Other than that this is a one and a half hour long episode of any generic sci-fi post apocalyptic shounen anime.
It doesn't bring anything new to the table, but it pulls of what it aims to pull of;
nothing special at all.

There was some cringe:ing. but I don't hate myself for watching it. However i don't really think it was worth the time spent.

Not something I would recommend, to anyone really, but I guess some people potentialy could enjoy it. ... If you REALLY like shounen shows, consider watching.

[Note: there are some minor spoilers contained in this review, but none that aren't already glaringly obvious as one watches this special. I've marked it so you know where to skip if you want absolutely no spoilers.]

For some parts, Neppu Kairiku Bushi Road can be considered a decent series. But at the end of the 90 minutes, I came away with the feeling that it was a work where much potential went to waste.

Let's start with what makes it potentially a great series. Bushi Road is set in a world where humanity, while warring amongst themselves, was threatened by monsters called the shinobi. Princess Ame, ... the main character, lost her country to a massive shinobi invasion. Along her journey, she met Suou, who descended from an ancient lineage known for its exceptional combat abilities. She then decided to find and revive Giga Lord, a lost ancient mecha, to destroy the shinobi once and for all. So far, nothing special. However, given that there are a lot of good ideas that can be explored (for instance, a lost continent that remains mostly untouched), Bushi Road holds a lot of promises. Not to mention that the setting of samurai-era mannerism mixed in with modern mecha combat (complete with flying castles) makes it pretty entertaining to watch.

But as you can expect from my opening, things also went downhill from the beginning. First, it's not difficult to tell that a lot of things were cut out just to save time. In fact, this special adopts a method whereby it cuts off right at certain scenes, shows the aftermath, and uses brief flashbacks to fill up the missing parts. This method isn't an issue in and of itself. However, the number of times it's used makes it clear the director is basically attempting to cut as much time as possible just to fit the 90-minute mark. And it takes away significantly from the immersion experience because as a viewer you constantly get lost as to what happened and end up looking for explanations that aren't there.

Second, the character development not surprisingly becomes an utter trainwreck. [Here is where some minor spoilers are.] Near the beginning, Ame had her key to the Giga Lord (an inheritance from her mother) taken away from her. At that time, the person who took it from her asked her whether she had the resolve to protect her people. Later on, to no one's surprise, she gets it back. Presumably, she should've already matured from the events that took place in between. But no, when she came across the shinobi again, she went on full revenge rampage mode again, as if she basically remained as she was at the beginning of this 90-minute special. [This is where spoilers end.] Throughout the entire special, neither Ame nor Suou seemed to have grown. That would've been fine if character growth wasn't necessary. But it was, at least where Ame was concerned. Under these circumstances, it's hard to feel for the two because the viewer ends up seeing them as essentially static entities. Perhaps even peculiar ones, since change should've taken place.

Moreover, there are just so many plot holes in this special it's hard to justify a lot of what happened. The final sequence in particular came off as being pretty nonsensical. In all honesty, I simply don't think that Bushi Road worthwhile given the flaws that it has. Sure, the animation quality is decent, and so is the soundtrack, but at the end of the day, the plot and the characters simply fall short of what one might have expected, as charming as the interaction between Ame and Suou has been at times. If you have extra time to kill on your hands, be my guest. But if you're looking for quality work, I don't think Bushi Road is one. Maybe it could've been if it was serialized, but this special pretty much killed the chances of that as well. A shame, really.

I don't really write reviews, but I couldn't stop thinking about how disappointed I was. I will not write any spoilers even though I think that it would be useful to defend my point.

Story- 2
The story had a nice introduction for what is essentially a 90 min movie. It sets up a world full of potential and gets the introduction across without too many questions and fairly quickly. Unfortunately, that's all I have good to say about the story as it goes downhill from there. From what I have read before, people usually lump this in with character (and I'll do ... that too), but the interactions between characters was detrimental to the plot. There is no real meaning behind the words they speak because of poor development and therefore a lack of motivation/ reason for their actions. Another thing wrong were flashbacks that added nothing to the story because they could have been done at the time of the event. It seemed like a way to shave that extra minute off. The only reason this got a 2 was because of the potential this story had.

Art- 9
Actually the only thing I really enjoyed. Animation was smooth and really captured the scenes well. To be honest, I couldn't really find anything I didn't like so I had to give it a 9.

Sound- 8
I'm not a sound guru and as long as it goes with what is happening I'm happy. Nothing spectacular here but a solid performance nonetheless.

Character- 5
This was hard to judge because of the limited time, but it had to be mediocre. As I said before, there was little to no development of the characters. I finished watching without really caring what happened either way. Might I have push for the "good guy" to win? yeah, but I didn't necessarily want the main characters to win. With that said, there is a spark of personality in them that comes out every once in a while to showcase that this had potential, but that's really all it was. Also the romance part was just ridiculous and either more depth or needed to be taken completely out. I vote for the removal because I think it would make a better story, but that's beside the point.

Enjoyment- 5
It was fairly enjoyable up until the end for me. I am biased on the fact that I hold the story (and above all the end) to be the make or break of a show. I was willing to block out all of the shortcomings, but the ending amplified the weaknesses of this anime and let a lot of the enjoyment that had built up to be squandered. I still give it a 5 because for 60/90 minutes I enjoyed it.

Overall- 3
This is actually the first time giving a 3 and I was quite surprised. For me, Art and sound don't play much into the overall score, so based on story, characters, and enjoyment were the real deciding factors. The story, even with it's potential, just did not make this anime any good. It leaves a sour taste in the mouth and brings everything else around it down. If they come out with a tv series, I will definitely give that a try and update my review for that as it could learn from the mistakes of this and draw out it's potential.

One of the worst movies I've ever seen.

Starting with the group of girls who walk with the hime, what is their use? passed the entire movie without doing anything, without ever fighting, it was the most useless side characters I've ever seen.

Second, the development of things is horrible, super poorly done.

Third, the villain is ridiculous, it is that kind of villain with pathetic motives that only serves to irritate.

Fourth, there was no need for the hime to die in the end.

... Was a total waste of time, would not recommend.

This movie is mediocre in every way.

(Warning: Spoilers included)
Story: 8
I love the story's originality and how relatable it is. Ame has no home and Suou is feared and hated for him not being a human, even though he saved a town.
Basically, Ame goes to find the weapon said to end the existence of monsters. On the way, she sees a girl about to be sacrificed and saves her. Then, a few monsters arrive and she goes to fight them off. Suou arrives to help her, but he's wounded. She uses her hair tie as a bandage before he comes with them and joins them to find the Holy Weapon later ... on.

Art: 10
The fight scenes, characters, backgrounds, etc. were well drawn. Especially the ending where Ame and Suou finished the endless battle.

Character: 9
The characters, like I said, were easy to relate to and interesting. All of them were brave and strong. The only thing is that the development of the characters was a bit slow, mostly Ame and Suou in my opinion.

Overall, I would give this anime an 8 for the originality and hard work on it. It was great, not the best, but I will probably watch it again.

Bushi Road can best be described in one word: rushed. The pacing, the story, any possible character development, all of this is very rushed, which is a shame, because there is serious potential. The setting is interesting, the characters, while mostly flat, possess a glimmering hint of depth, the animation is well done and the soundtrack is very enjoyable.

The problem, however, is that Bushi Road is only 90 minutes long. Which means that essentially it's the Spark Notes version of what could have been a great anime. If you gave the setting and characters 24 episodes to do their thing, this could have been amazing, ... but as it stands, with only 90 minutes the character arcs are very confusing (with some of them vowing to be together forever after having met each other about five minutes ago) or are practically nonexistent. The setting is never explored and only serves to provide well illustrated but otherwise shallow backdrops with no context, characters are introduced and simply discarded, and the entire thing is a shining example of something that should have been a series as opposed to an OVA.

Good points, however, is that the action sequences, though few in number, are beautifully animated. The computer imagery for the Shinobi and the mechs look fantastic, and as mentioned previously the soundtrack is really quite engrossing.

Overall, Bushi Road is little more than a popcorn flick to watch in your spare time. It's shiny in some parts with a bit of spectacle but many viewers will come away from it confused and dissatisfied, and will have forgotten what it was about in a week.