Lance N' Masques

Eight words describe the feelings of Youtarou Hanabusa: "I just want to live a normal life." Unfortunately for him, as a member of the Knights of the World, his training in this ancient and international order has left him with a condition he calls "White Knight Syndrome." This condition causes Youtarou to instinctively act heroically and chivalrously whenever he encounters someone in danger.

To protect his identity in such embarrassing moments, he carries a mask with him at all times. Then one day, he saves the life of Makio Kidouin, the young daughter of an elite and affluent family. Little does he know that this singular act of heroism will change his life forever. Soon, he is simultaneously blessed with a life in the lap of luxury and cursed with one of abnormality, for his new friend Makio lives a life far removed from the everyday.

Between coping with the hijinks of six-year-old Makio, and dealing with a cast of odd friends and scheming enemies, Youtarou must protect his new friend while keeping his identity hidden as the masked hero Knight Lancer.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kidouin, Makio Main

Ozawa, Ari Japanese

Hanabusa, Youtarou Main

Yamashita, Daiki Japanese

Cleveland, Alice Main

Mimori, Suzuko Japanese

Sudou, Yoriko Main

Numakura, Manami Japanese

Hanabusa, Shin Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Shirohime Supporting

Suwa, Ayaka Japanese

Sun, Dafei Supporting

Koyama, Mami Japanese

I, Gil-ha Supporting

Hoshi, Souichirou Japanese

Ming, François Supporting

Yamaguchi, Rikako Japanese

Chiyoko Supporting

Hayamizu, Risa Japanese

Aitani, Atsushi Producer

Fukuda, Jun Producer

Sumitomo, Eiji Producer

Mukaida, Masato Producer

Reviews

Dec 17, 2015

kuuderes_shadow

Recommended

Lance N' Masques is not a series for everyone. In particular, if you are someone who needs their anime to be heavily realistic, or full of grit, or to have some deep message to it, then you might as well just close this page now and walk away as this anime won't satisfy you in the slightest.

If, on the other hand, you are after a fun and quirky series, that mixes together a fairly large number of genres in a way that still feels comfortable, then this might just be what you are after.

There are many different ways of interpreting and watching this series, but ... in my view this series is, at its heart, a comedy, although there are certainly sections that are not comedic in the slightest (including, incidentally, pretty much the whole of the last episode). However, I believe that in general treating it as a comedy is the best way of watching it - enabling you to appreciate that the lack of realism is deliberate, and done for comic effect. This, the absurdity or at times sheer imagination of what is being presented, is the main source of entertainment in the series, rather than gags or laugh out moments.

Some of the action scenes, particularly those not involving the main character himself, seem designed to attract the curiosity of the viewer rather than to engross them with the suspense of the action, whilst others are more of the more standard type, rooting for the hero's success. Whichever type they fall under, though, there is nothing even remotely realistic about any of them, and indeed several of the fights are won in ways that wouldn't even make sense in reality, which would obviously detract from the series still further for the viewer who craves realism.

The cast of the series is centred around Yotaro, the protagonist, but each of the fairly large number of characters has a distinct personality, and every one of them has their own distinct relationship with Yotaro, which vary from the obvious to the outright absurd. The characters are, indeed, another of the series' strengths.

That said, not all is positive about this series. The art style in particular is, to say the least, rather unusual, and most noticeably so when it comes to the characters faces. Some of their heads are literally as wide as they are high, and I swear there's something odd about the noses as well. This will likely take a few episodes to get used to.

The plot itself is in some senses rather repetitive, and not everything that happens fully makes sense either. Certain themes, such as kidnapping/hostage taking, show up rather more often than they should do, to the point where someone just watching for the plot may find themselves getting tired of it by the end. There is, though, enough variety that this doesn't detract from the series if you don't let it do so.

In short, the plot is weak, and the art style can take a bit of getting used to, but the characters are good and so is the humour.
Given that, as already mentioned, this is a comedy series (no matter what MAL's genres may claim at the time of writing), the latter two things are, in my view, rather more important than the former two, and thus, again in my view, the series is a good one overall.

(My scores for the individual sections, incidentally, were: story 5; art 3; sound 7; character 9; enjoyment 8; overall 7.)

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Dec 29, 2016

Duckielover151

Mixed Feelings

Ironically, I decided to watch this anime in the first place because I'd never heard of it... It kind of got lost amongst all the other shows that came out that season. I find this ironic, because my overall impression of Lance N' Masques was that it was... forgettable. So maybe 'ironic' isn't the right word. Perhaps I should say... fitting.

Although the character design in Lance N' Masques was a little more... cutesy than what I typically prefer, this show did have its good points. More than anything else, this anime strikes me as the type of show where the creators didn't know how to ... work with what they were given. Without going into spoilers, I ran into the first downfall very early on. The entire series could have been made with just the plot for the first three episodes, and maybe it wouldn't have stood out as anything AMAZING, but it could have been Good. Unfortunately, what we ended up with was just mediocre.

The knight aspect of the story was interesting enough to serve as a backdrop to the story, although the political workings of this world could do with a little more explaining. Even Yotaro's 'White Knight Syndrome' which I expected to be unbearably cheesy, was played off in a palatable way. This could have been a great story about loyalty and family, and while they kept hinting at that depth, it ultimately got buried in rushed plot points and under-developed characters.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 20, 2015

Avalynch

Not Recommended

As you can probably tell from the rating, I absolutely despised this anime. There isn't a single redeemable quality about it. I do not recommend this anime to anyone.

Story: 2
The story is very simple, the protagonist has White Knight Syndrome, and he's a Knight. How very convenient. the rest of the story consists of saving the same 3 people over, and over. getting kidnapped over and over, and gaining protagonist powers due to the plot.

Art: 2
The adults are lolis, the horse is a loli, the lolis are lolis. Oh, and there is also the background which looks okay, the style didn't appeal to me.

Sound: 3
Not ... much to say here, the sound was pretty average. except there are too many lolis, they all sounded like toddlers.

Character: 1
I'm just going to reference a connection between 3 of the characters here.
"You saved me, so you are now my daddy. This girl who is younger than me is my mommy."

Enjoyment: 2
If too much of a good thing is a bad thing, wouldn't too much of a bad thing be a good thing? Well no. This anime was absolutely dreadful, and it is still absolutely dreadful.

Overall: 2
I'm going to crawl back into my cave now. There is nothing more to say.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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