Arslan Senki (TV)

Prestigious parents often bear a burden of expectations for their children. Much to the doteful disappointment of the audience however, “The Heroic Legend of Arslan” turns out to be something of a black sheep. Lovechild of original creators Yoshiki Tanaka (LOGH) and Hiromu Arakawa (FMA: B), Arslan shines a bright glow of mediocrity under the shadow of its peers.

Arslan bases itself on the manga, which in turn bases itself on the original novel, which at last takes inspiration from a loosely compiled set of Persian tales. If you weren’t already familiar with the term “suspension of disbelief”, then you’ll be quite capable by the ... end of the 25th episode. The story begins climatically as the “undefeated” king of Pars is defeated by the Lusistinian [European infidel] army after Pars is betrayed. Our titular main character, Arslan, is then thrust into seeking the crown because apparently, inexperience and innocence are signs of excellent leaders. Along the journey, Arslan attracts several companions who force the plot forward, exploiting an array of stupidly overpowered abilities.
If this summary sounds somewhat familiar, it’s because you’ve already watched Akatsuki no Yona. As it turns out, “the King returns” is hardly an original plothook. Arslan fails to differentiate itself from this association. Case in point, Arakawa goes as far as to replace Daryun’s sword from the novel with a spear, in a direct parallel to Yona boyfriend #1. The most disappointing thing about Arslan’s story however is not predictable plot structure, but rather the entire journey we take up to the final episode (queue 2nd season). When Arslan encounters problems, solutions are always in stock. Any meaningful consequences the story has to offer are whimsically avoided. The utter lack of tension stems from the fact that characters are never seriously threatened. This is fairly attributable to the abysmal performance of enemy soldiers, who switch on their autistic mode when faced with the slightest manifestation of “enemy planning”. Such mighty power seemingly retains divine superiority above all things, no matter how terrible the planning actually sounds. Antagonists rarely attempt to think of counter tactics, or even provide a contingency plan. There is little semblance of planning beyond the word “charge”, as depicted by the Silver Mask who just cannot resist the opportunity to place himself in the most dangerous position possible, imitating the likes of Bronze LoL players. And even though they constantly outnumber Arslan’s forces, there is never an attempt to use superior numbers to any tactical advantage whatsoever. In simpler terms, they demonstrate a consistently remarkable incompetency.
But if tactical engagements become so predictable, then what does Arslan have left to surprise us? Magic, apparently. If you had any more than a sniffle of expectation for rationality left, then you’re oft for a nasty awakening. Slightly more halfway through episode 12, xx_sketchy_pedo_assassin11_xx phases through the ground like a clipping ragdoll, staring menacingly at Daryun’s behind before attacking [torpedoing] him. Just… why? Like many characters, magic exists solely because the writers were too lazy to provide coherent explanations for events in the story, shortcutting the pacing of plot progression. This has the added effect of cheapening out the audience’s expectations. When it is revealed that the only reason Pars even lost in the first episode was because of “magic”, Arslan’s entire premise falls apart. Given how ridiculous most of the non-magical events in the anime already are, there doesn’t seem to be much difference.

The prime instigator for the intellectually-triggering planning is Narsus, Arslan’s near-omnipotent advisor. The party constantly relies on Narsus to deal with nearly every possible situation. Need tactical genius? He draws out half-baked bat-shit strategies and maneuvers like they were Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Political know-how? He may have only had court experience for a few years, but he acts the part of a cunning court wife. Family man? Somehow, this guy finds the time halfway through the series to pick up some random hobo broad. Definitely one of the less-human characters.
Daryun serves as Narsus’s “Dynasty Warrior”-esque counterpart, rescuing Arslan himself countless times. He goes beyond the physically impossible, as in episode 12 where he blitzes through time and space, bullet-timing several eurocucks in order to save the prince [princess] from xx_sketchy_pedo_assassin11_xx. I took a few moments to laugh at how ridiculous this shit looked when I saw it, but then I realized that they no longer had any intention of making Daryun even vaguely human. Yona at the very least justifies boyfriend #1 by pitting his efforts against attractive dragon boys. The only time Darius even appears to struggle is during his fight against the giant, where Darius appeared to be on the verge of defeat. Or at least, until we learn that he was faking effort all along so he could one-shot his opponent. Again.
Gieve and Falangies serve little purpose beyond filling in as niche solutions to problems, what with Gieve… being there, and Geese inflicting Stormtrooper-level aiming at will (not that they would have hit anything anyway). Gieve constantly attempts to woo her in an effort at comedy relief, but their relationship doesn’t get any deeper than the surface. Beyond that, I fail to understand why they even exist in the show.
It’s precisely because of the swiss-knife efficiency of his party that Arslan himself undergoes minimal growth all throughout the series. The constant coddling reduces him to the role of “figurehead king”. His first foray into battle actually seems to inspire PTSD in him, as he deals with the horror of slaying a man- Or so you’d think. A few episodes later, he’s back to happily sniping down cavalry. Likewise, he gives minimal thought to his companion’s continuous slaughter of men, instead opting to save his compassion to slaves. In fact, Arslan bases the majority of his motivation for kingship on the abolishment of slavery. In the same manner as post American civil-war, he eventually learns that simply removing slavery does not always make a happy slave- Or so you’d think. Towards the end, he proceeds to announce his intention to eradicate slavery without bothering to plan for an afterwards… But that’s okay since his companions are so terribly OP he never truly needs to learn from his mistakes. This ignorance appears to be something of superior monarchal quality however, since it is the only reasoning his companions provide when asked why they serve Arslan. A truly remarkable display of loyalty.
Of special note is Etoile, a fanatical tsundere crusader who’s given a chance to rise above the communal pit of shame. Her kidnaping-adventure with a young Arslan is what first inspires him to reassess Pars’s slavery, later serving as justification for seeking the crown. Their third meeting performs likewise, spurring excellently reasonable motivation in our timid prince. He finally begins to somewhat confidently takes the role of decision-maker; a quality lacking throughout the rest of the series. It seems that out of all the characters in Arslan, Etoile is the only one that doesn’t pamper or take advantage of him. There is an attempt at backstory in the second half, but sadly, it is rushed over quickly and reduced to nonimportance.

Although sound design is not a common aspect of discussion, the usage of JoJo-like sound effects in combat is very overt. Scenes depicting heavy impacts are accompanied by a blearing amount of bass. What works in JoJo should, nevertheless, stay in JoJo. It sounds terribly misused in an anime that struggles to convey justification, instead suggesting that it merely exists to sound “cool”.
Despite sharing Brotherhood’s character design, Arslan’s general art and animation is a far flung fantasy of a comparison. The opening battle introduces us to a use of CGI that is heavily parodied by modern cinema. An ineffectually zooming camera cuts across a blob-like engagement between two factions of generic, faceless soldiers for an inordinate period of time. This use of clay-soldiers seemingly holds true for any fight that involves large groups. Suffice to say, it is quite ugly. 2D horse animations are frequently terrible, closely mirroring the infamous “quality” horse animation in Spice and Wolf. For a series that sees fit to utilize horses in every single battle, you’d think that they’d have at least put some effort into this regard.
Battle choreography is similarly held in lesser regard. Characters often show little understanding of any martial technique that isn’t a left or right slash when using swords. In fact, Gieve in episode eleven parries the same exact L/R pattern THREE times in a row, a brilliant example of what it might be like to fight Kirito’s mook reincarnation. There are of course, two exceptions to this. In the first OP, animator Satoshi Kimura (probably him) makes excellent use of 3D backgrounds in the Daryun vs Silver Mask duel to incorporate a rotating 360 degree shot around the fight, an innovative technique that not nearly enough animators take advantage of. The penultimate episode’s fight (once again featuring Darius and Edgelord) similarly excels. After whiffing his thrust, Daryun gores into a pillar, lodging his blade deeply into the structure. But instead of trying to free his blade, he gouges across the fucking thing into a follow-up horizontal swing. This no-fucks personality painted by animation certainly doesn’t come across when all we see is character mindlessly one-shotting mass produced soldiers for several episodes.

In the end, perhaps you could say that this particular heroic legend just wasn’t the kind for me. You could go on to suggest that warfare was never a crucial element to the story, and that perhaps, the emphasis of Arslan should be based on its portrayal of woefully ignorant royalty identifying problems within his Kingdom’s internal practices, and going on both a physical and figurative journey to his maturity. But no matter how deficiently optimistic you choose to put it, Arslan never intended itself to be something great. Instead, Arslan basks quite happily in the rays of averageness, and we contentedly conclude that there really shouldn’t have been much to expect anyway.

When this anime was announced, many expected the best show of the millennia. The reason was the story being written by the author of Legend of the Galactic Heroes and the artwork being done by the mangaka of Full Metal Alchemist. Both titles are exceptional and are even in my top 10. Unfortunately, Arslan is not even top 1000 material. Compared to its predecessors:
- It lacks the semi-realistic character designs of LOGH
- Its cast lacks the charisma and individual importance of FMA characters
- It looks bland compared to the ethereal artstyle of the 90s version of Arslan

Another way to view it is like the 2 ... Star Wars trilogies. The 70s trilogy was a space opera masked as a fairy tale, thus keeping expectations low and succeeding in the longrun. The 00s trilogy on the other hand was a fairy tale desperately pretending to be a space opera and self-imploded in the longrun by promising way too much. It’s the same thing with Arslan; it’s not as good as it wants you to think it is. It’s a silly fighting shonen that tries to present itself as a serious historical epic and fails miserably at it.

The general premise and overall plot are fine; it’s always cool to see a prince trying to gather an army and protect his kingdom from various enemy factions. It reminded me of a simpler Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The problem lies in how it was written in a very dry way since it was inspired by the famous contemporaries of that time (Conan the Barbarian, Erlic of Meliborne, Guin Saga) and as such it is a hard sale when it comes to a more modern audience. The storyboard planners didn’t adjust an anachronistic plot so it won’t be boring to Zoomers watch it.

As a result Arslan the protagonist comes off as the most boring character. Everybody around him is ten times more capable and interesting than he is. I understand that the show is the coming of age of a naïve prince, slowly becoming a capable king thanks to his interaction with all sorts of mentors. It still doesn’t make him an interesting lead. He’s completely worthless and passive to the most part, and even looks like a girl. Why does he even have so many loyal subjects? Ok, fine, he is the lawful heir to the throne, but in those chaotic times the moment you were showing weakness you were executed and the throne was taken by the strongest man available. The story is not plausible from the get-go because of that simple fact. In a more realistic scenario Arslan would be a puppet at the hands of his subjects, if not a decorative head on some pike.

Compare that lead to LOGH and FMA. You can never complain about the protagonists in those shows. They were capable, charismatic, and the story doesn’t begin with them being greenhorns. We saw how they improved in flashbacks and whatever happens in present time is the peak of their power. That’s what makes them compelling. To make an analogy, it’s as if you are watching Romance of the Three Kingdoms from the perspective of the Han emperor, a completely worthless ruler that was being manipulated by everyone. He sucks compared to every general and advisor around him, and that’s exactly what Arslan is in his own story.

Speaking of everybody else besides him, they are a fine bunch of cool guys and gals, each one usually specializing in some sort of skill. It’s ok as long as you see them as no more than rule of cool, but falls flat if you bring in a bit more realism. They are closer to the Avengers than masters of ancient warfare. It’s not like Romance of the Three Kingdoms had that much realism either; it’s just that it can be very immersion breaking when you are supposed to be watching historical events that happened in ancient Persia and everybody is breathing fire. I didn’t have this problem with LOGH, since that was taking place in the far future and most head scratching moments had to do with technology and physics that could be excused simply as futuristic science. In FMA it was a setting where everyone could use magic. Arslan has no such excuse. People fly and breathe fire in what is supposed to be our world.

Do you know what else LOGH and FMA didn’t have that Arslan does and can be very immersion breaking? CGI crowds! I can tolerate plastic looking cars or spaceships but not hundreds of Lego toys pretending to be fighting each other. It made everything fake looking and cheap; I didn’t care about anyone dying because of it.

I can go on bitching about a dozen other things, but you get the gist by now; it’s not a good show. It’s poorly animated, the protagonist is terrible, the plot is childish, and as a whole it was promoting itself as legendary when it’s just a throwaway mediocrity. Once again modern sucks and retro wins.

Arslan Senki is pretty awful.
I really tried. I mean, I watched 19 episodes of this crap before dropping it. But to be fair, Arlsan Senki's beginning is decently executed, however the drivel that follows is inexcusably bad. I understand that Arslan Senki is based on the novel, but even then, as long as the characters remain the same, it's all terrible. I don't care which adaptation I'm reading or watching, the series as a whole is pretty poorly written.
First off is plot armor. You know it, I know it, we all know it. Arslan Senki, despite wanting to be a historical drama/war show, it ... horribly oversimplifies and just butchers most strategies and fights. Of course, what I'm referring to is the OP existence that is Narsus. Infallible and probably will never be wrong on his own merits, Narsus is a convenient plot device and omniscient tactician that is able to win battles in 6 vs 500 situations, turn around 10,000 vs 50,000 on a normal day, and of course, predict any and every plot against the crown prince, Arslan. As a result, every single fight that Arslan's side will end up fighting is just a landslide victory for Arslan. Of course, this is offset by the Silver mask, or who I like to call, budget Eren Yeager.
I mean, Yuuki Kaji voices for them both, and I'd imagine Silver mask to be Eren if Eren were not the main character of the show, got no screen time other than his edgy final form, and as such, I would have no empathy or investment in the character. But yes, budget Eren does get the plot armor that he deserves still, able to defeat and win battles against an enemy that have basically triple their own numbers, and able to overturn and overrun the royal capital in mere days despite sieges being notoriously hard, requiring months or years even to do. But hey, despite clear indications that slaves are going to revolt, the people within do nothing to stop or hinder them from having access to the lifeline- the gate of the capital- to them. Ah, yes. The problem was that the other plot armor device, Narsus, wasn't on the scene yet for Arslan's side.
But yes, it's extremely boring to watch as Narsus just pulls out yet again, some strategy that overwhelms the enemy as if the enemy has no tactician of their own. Because yes, even if they did, they couldn't outwit the omniscient Narsus anyway.

Other than the ubiquitous plot armor around Arslan and Silver mask, we got typical "kind and meek" MC in the form of Arslan. First of all, it's only the narrative of the story that makes Arslan look like a good guy. Like sure, whatever, he doesn't like fighting or killing, and even wants to free slaves. What a good guy! Yet, he also directly assumes that he should be against Lusitania, liberating the city. Well fine, the story is framed that Lusitania are savages that will kill anyone who are not of their faith, even invading under the pretext of a holy crusade, and will also kill children. Ok, fine, but Arslan is paradoxically able to kill enemy soldiers trying to kill him, yet also is naively and stupidly "kind" to his enemies. He frees them, negotiates with them, whatever, and it just goes in his favor that these people that he shows kindness to repays it to him later on in the story because of course, he has plot armor as well.

Ok, but why doesn't Arslan ever have any hesitation when it comes to sending people to die in battle? Or, it's being repeatedly hammered into your mind that Arslan is super kind, and treats his subjects like companions, unlike the evil, heartless rulers. Yet, he's also the type of guy to send Daryun into a death match, representing a king that might not even help Arslan out in the end. If Arslan TRULY cared for his companions, I doubt he would have ever accepted that Daryun would be sent to a death match. Yes, I get it, Daryun is always the first in the battlefield, but Arslan is consciously making a decision for Daryun to fight. It just seems a bit weird to me.t Arslan has no redeeming or interesting traits other than that he's kind, yet he still does what rulers do, which is send his men to battle and even his good companions to battle as well.

Arslan Senki also has a slew of side characters that range from decent to just horrible. Anyways, almost all of them basically turn bad just because the life gets sucked out of them, little by little. Gieve, Narsus, and Daryun are decent characters to start, but they end up just being loyal retainers to Arslan without much of a reason why. It's just a given that they end up having undying loyalty to Arslan. Especially with Gieve. Like really? Their charm as independent characters slowly get whittled down since apparently, they're willing to serve Arslan with no complaint.

But Alfreed takes the cake. I guess her role is comic relief? It's really cringe. You'd think for a more serious historical novel, we would be rid of the "cute girl that gets saved and now wants to marry the MC," except in this case, it's Narsus. And I mean, the story frames Alfreed as a good person to begin with, but is she really? She was in a bandit group that robs and kills people for a living, and she ends up having her clan slaughtered when trying to rob/kill Silver mask's group. Should I feel bad that her bandit group was weaker, and as a result died to Silver mask? That really doesn't make sense to me. Oh wow, the tables are turned, I really should feel bad for the literal bandit group.

I could go into more detail, but there's just so much plot armor, and so many convenient, loyal characters that are OP that serve Arslan it's kind of insane. None of the fights seem very realistic, and enemy numbers are extremely arbitrary in fights, apparently. One good strategy is enough to overpower anything, even if you are against insurmountable odds. It's terrible.