Shigurui

I recently watched a 12-part Anime series on Blu-ray, which was available in English 5.1 and the original language (2.0). The series was translated well, and its atmosphere and presentation were quite impressive. The series features good voice acting, with great ambient sounds and an artwork that is both impressive and hypnotic. While the story may seem a bit complex, it comes together in the end.

This isn't your typical Samurai-Anime series, and if you're looking for something action-packed like Ninja Scroll, you may not find it here. However, this is the perfect series for you if you're into Ghost in the Shell's more arty ... and trippy style and appreciate the atmosphere and animated art. The Samurai mostly duel, building up tension with dialog and great scores before bursting into short but intense fights. There aren't any huge battles or war scenes, but the series does feature some pretty graphic violence, making it only recommendable to adults.

've watched a lot of anime, but this one is one of the most unique out of all of the ones that I have watched. I've never seen an anime that is this violent, explicit, and drenched in darkness and stark realism. This is probably the most realistic samurai anime that one will ever see. Fights end quickly and characters die in gruesome fashion.

The animation and framing of the scenes make it so that it invites the viewer to pay close attention to bask in gruesome ends to characters and so that they don't miss clear cases of foreshadowing and symbolism methodically placed in ... the anime.

This anime is clearly for mature audiences. Not only are scenes gruesome, but there is explicit sexual content. Clear shots of female nudity, sex acts, sexual assaults, etc. However, the anime doesn't show these things to simply be edgy. Overall, these scenes are meant to portray the setting has a very awful time in Japanese history. Women are treated like objects, characters die in horrific circumstance, and samurai are portrayed either as glorified attack dogs are complicit pawns.

Characters are a bit of a mixed bag. The character that you initially might hate eventually will gain your sympathy and some characters you can't describe. Some characters are the vilest scum ever portrayed and yet you wonder why other characters ignore this fact or don't address it the same way the viewer might think they should. The story revolves around a rivalry between two main characters: one with a clear motivation and backstory and one with none of that. He just seems like a blank slate with no clear motivation or personality really. However, I appreciate that this anime takes its time to tell a story at the pace it needs to be told. It is unfinished which lowers the quality to an extent with some key details left unanswered at the end.

To a degree though, I found the show to be wrapped up satisfyingly enough for me. I did hate how weak the musical score was for me. It failed to make me feel tense during the scenes I was supposed to feel tense. The opening was forgettable and the soundtrack made it feel like the viewer is hearing silence instead of being in a show.

I would recommend this show if one wants to see an anime that portrays samurai in a different light than usual and tells an interesting, albeit slow at time and unfinished story. I will say that this is a show that will make you think about characters and appreciate a show differently than you normally would.

It will be a mixed bag though: some will be able to appreciate the show for what it is and some will be turned out by its grotesqueness and slow pacing. It is worth giving a try and drop it if nothing seems interesting.

Right, ill cut to the chase, this show isn't good at all. Its trying really hard to depict a brutal time in Japans history and trying way to hard. This anime has a lot of horrible scenes. So if you are a little sensitive to extreme violence or sexual assault, some of which is at the same time then for a start this isn't for you. Equally, if you like shows with great animation and great story telling coupled with great character development, this show also isn't for you.

Ill start with the only positive and to be fair, its still not great. ... The music is minimal here and attempts to provide tension and a sense of foreboding. Instead you just get bored of hearing it. It may be hindered by the fact that what is accompanying the music is mindnumbingly uninteresting, but still, its gets really boring. Don't get me wrong, i appreciate what it is trying to do, and in some circumstances do a good job with the atmosphere. Sadly, its more of a miss than than a hit. 5/10

Animation is a shocker from Madhouse, which i never thought i would say. Every scene is always really close to the characters. This provides little context to the visual element of story telling in anime. Further, most of this is inside dark rooms with absolutely zero character. Sadly, even if there is the possibility of some textural character, you can barely see it due to how close the characters appear to the 'camera'. A lot of the time scenes go by without even seeing the characters full face. I am assuming this too is to create tension in the dialogue or the story but its just really irritating for me. Moving on to the violence etc, its just unnecessary. I have no issue with depicting such things providing they serve a purpose either for the narrative of the tone of the show, here it really doesn't and comes across as trying way to hard at the cost of a controlling the tone and atmosphere of the show. 3/10

Moving on the the story...its just really boring. I didn't care about the characters, all of which are unlikable. No attempt was made to get you invested in any character and i get it, its trying so so hard to depict the times of the shows setting, its just really boring. I haven't been as bored watching an anime in a while.

Overall, I thought this was rubbish. Definitely not the worst i have seen, but not too far off. Its baffling to me how the aggregated score is so high. Clearly my feelings towards this are closer to the minority.