Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen (Utawarerumono: The False Faces)

Waking up cold and alone in the woods, a nameless man is surrounded by unfamiliar scenes. Without any memories, he is utterly lost until he stumbles upon Kuon—a young girl with animal ears and a tail. She saves him, leading him back to her town while protecting them both from "boro-gigiri"—giant centipede-like creatures—and a mysterious red slime. After they arrive, she names him Haku after a prominent historical figure from the area. He quickly realizes he is one of a kind—the only one without animal ears and a tail. The two journey to the capital of Yamato, the country in which Kuon lives, meeting more people and making new friends, all the while unknowingly delving deeper into the politics and inner conflicts of Yamato...

Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen follows Haku as he slowly uncovers the secrets of this alien world. He works to solve the mysteries surrounding the red slimes, as well as to stop war from erupting among the nearby countries.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen is an adaptation of the visual novel of the same name.

Although it came out nearly a decade later, Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen shares a number of characters and voice actors with the first series, Utawaremono.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen
Prequel:	Utawarerumono, Utawarerumono: Tusukuru-koujo no Karei Naru Hibi
Side story:	Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen Specials
Sequel:	Utawarerumono: Futari no Hakuoro

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Kuon

Main

Taneda, Risa
Japanese

Haku

Main

Fujiwara, Keiji
Japanese

Karura

Supporting

Tanaka, Atsuko
Japanese

Touka

Supporting

Miyake, Kaya
Japanese

Aruruu

Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki
Japanese

Benawi

Supporting

Namikawa, Daisuke
Japanese

Ukon

Supporting

Tone, Kentarou
Japanese

Oboro

Supporting

Kirii, Daisuke
Japanese

Rurutie

Supporting

Kakuma, Ai
Japanese

Nekone

Supporting

Minase, Inori
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Motonaga, Keitarou

Director

Ebina, Yasunori

Sound Director

Mataga, Daisuke

Episode Director, Storyboard, 2nd Key Animation, Animation Director, Key Animation

Matsumura, Juria

Episode Director

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Opening Theme

	1: "Fuantei na Kamisama (不安定な神様)" by Suara (eps 2-12)
	2: "Ame Kakeru Hoshi (天かける星)" by Suara (eps 13-)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Yume ka Utsutsu ka (ユメカウツツカ)" by Suara (eps 2-5)
	2: "Hoshi Furu Sora Aogi Mite (星降る空仰ぎ見て)" by Suara

Reviews

Sep 4, 2022

Rhapsody-

Recommended

2022 Edit: minor fixing. And surprisingly my opinion after a new rewatch hasn't changed.

Second Season > First Season.

No, it's not a joke.

I guess if you're here is because you watched more than first 12 chapters, right? Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen, something that seemed to be a spin-off, was actually a sequel of Utawarerumono, hence why many people expected something very similar to its predecessor and, in that sense, they were disappointed, but... What so special is the first Utawarerumono?
...
Both series are pretty much the same in the basis: a "medieval fantasy world" where peace is apparent, although there are frictions between various kingdoms, and then, a person appeared, without a name or any idea of who he is, but whose fate will influence in many people, and the fate of one or more nations, while trying to find out who he actually is. The first Utawarerumono serie handled this in a more "serious" approach, war after war, almost without any break or slowdown throughout its 26 chapters. However, we must not forget this is also a "fantasy" serie, and as such, it also has elements of comedy, slice of life and stillness; basically the necessary calm moments of worldbuilding. In that sense, these were the major flaws in the first season: everything was moving in a frenetic speed, while time to introduce all the cast in an acceptable way was not properly given. 26 chapters of pure war and conflicts is not entirely productive, since there was almost no character development, to the point that only a few characters were important and the rest were forgettable. Even worse, after dedicating all its chapters to move the plot forward, this ended up being not well developed at all; it was notorious that a lot of content was left aside, everything was so rushed that certain topics were not properly handled (especially the one about MC's past memories), which resulted in several plot holes, and an ending that leaves more questions than answers (and it's not exactly a cliffhanger), plus the aforementioned lacking of character development. The first season was not bad, in fact its story is interesting and with a good potential, but its development left much to be desired.

Now, talking more about Itsuwari no Kamen, which started in a much slower pace than its predecessor. In this case, they decided to do something more "faithful" to its original concept, and dedicate its first chapters to characters introduction and early worldbuilding, so the viewer would had time to decide if take a like on them or not.

We can agree that expend 12 episodes on it was too much (I'd have given between 6 and 8 episodes), but it was in order to set the new setting, characters and their interactions, while showing us a good dose of comedy and slice of life moments (admittedly a hit & miss) as we get to know more about them. The second cour was where the real story began: The wars are unleashed again, with several clashes among these new kingdoms, but in this case we get to see them from the perspective of people who do not fight directly in them. We see Haku, our protagonist, who is not used to the horror of seeing people die in front of his eyes, and he has to deal with this situation, while trying to help his friends. We must not forget one of the main points that makes this franquice very interesting: the mystery behind our protagonist, which in this case, it's closely related to the origin of this new society, which in this season is admittedly less addressed, but more latent than it was in the first season; this was one of the many plot holes that I previously mentioned, although Itsuwari no Kamen couldn't avoid having its own plot holes especially on the final stretch. Even so, in these 13 chapters, Itsuwari no Kamen built a decent story that moves at a good pace, with serious, intense, intriguing and dramatic moments, the latter especially in the final chapter, with a great atmosphere that makes you reflect about the events that led to that conclusion, supported by a decent direction and an OST carefully adequate for every moment. Too sad the first cour of the serie, while not entirely bad, wasn't as interesting, and it felt very slow in contrast with the second cour. No surprise some people find this as a big issue for the serie.

The characters are not the most interesting ones in the world, but they work just fine. Haku is someone with a very apathetic attitude, constantly complaing about every activity he's gotten into, something that kinda work for both comedy situations, and for those moments where the character is getting into unexpected situations; those are actually the moments where Haku shines, since he has to show a change in his mindset if he wants to achieve his goal. Kuon is a fun character, but she knows how to be serious when the situation requires; she's actually a very solid character, acting as Haku's mentor and voice of reason, while knowing when to be rude and quite cute. Ukon is basically the one who moves the plot forward, knowing the most about Haku's potential while putting a lot of trust (and labors) on him, which motivate Haku to support him, although at his peculiar way. There is not much to say about the rest of the cast, they are all quite different in personality, but they fulfill their roles just fine; watching them interact is kinda fun, but not much else about then is told so they got little to no development, sadly.

At the end of the day, Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen has nothing to envy to its predecessor. With a different way to develop the plot, inconsistent pacing but satisfying in the end, a decent direction and pretty fitting OST, and acceptable and charismatic cast. Although it could improve in some ways, still handled to achieve its goal. The final cliffhanger showed that the series has potential.

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Mar 27, 2016

Alva_UwU

Mixed Feelings

Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen is one tough anime to review. I started watching it without having seen the first season (I probably should have done that, but in the end I felt like I was able to understand the story without it) and had some mixed feelings while watching it. Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen is an anime that starts out as a slice of life and fantasy type of anime and ends as an action and drama type. I'm having a hard time deciding if that was a good thing since it made it good in some areas, but bad in others. As stated before ... I have mixed feelings about this anime, and I will now try to share those with you.

Utawarerumono starts out with an extremely slow pace, extremely slow. Almost nothing happens for more than 10 episodes. The slow pacing is good in the sense that it introduces us to the characters and the world of Utawarerumono. The first few episodes are extremely relaxing to watch and easy to understand. As time goes on we gets introduced to character after character, that all gather around the main character. I can see why they all gather around him, I think he's a likeable guy with his casual lazy-type of personality. The characters around him get a fair bit of development considering how many there are. Too many for me to be able to count, and maybe not even remember. They each have some unique traits which make them avoid getting absolutely forgotten. But the side characters are too many to be able to genuinely contribute to the story, which is a shame since they also were likeable. All in all, the anime does a good job at introducing us to all these different characters, and sets us up for a promising ride.

After the characters have all been introduced you would think that the story would start progressing, but that is not the case. After the characters have been introduced and developed, either nothing happens, or even more characters get introduced to even more characters. The middle of the anime, after the characters have been introduced and before the all the action, the anime turns stale and a bit boring. Maybe it was to fill more episodes, but it doesn't work out very well. These episodes are just a composition of random events that does not progress the story at all. The episodes contain some sort of action, but it's badly executed with the characters fighting armies by taking on usually 1, rarely 2 or 3, opponents at a time. The different action segments are boring and meaningless since it does not progress the story nor offer very much to the viewer. It's a shame that the good build up was ruined by this sudden stop of progress.

Since the story of the anime stopped progressing, I had little hope that it would turn out good, or even decent. But at the end of the anime something finally happens, and it's actually something good and exciting. Since we get to spend so much time with the characters doing nothing, we are very likely to sympathise with them. When the story starts to unfold, we get to follow developed characters trough their adventures. This is great because we actually have feelings for these characters. Maybe not only good feelings, but we actually know these characters. The political twist (maybe not a twist if you've seen the first season) was nicely presented and executed. The power struggle was both fun and exciting to watch. The ending to this anime is great. It's bittersweet and definitely leaves an impact.

The animation of this anime is pretty good. It has a nice natural style which fits in nicely with the medieval type of universe. The background is detailed but at the same time it doesn't stand out too much. A fault with the animation is that it sometimes comes of as being lazily done. Mainly action scenes have too little going on. For example when armies are fighting, only a few people are fighting at a time. This makes the fights come of as unrealistic and genuinely bad.

The sound is not something that really stood out to me, all the openings and ending where decent, but not great. The soundtrack was also nothing that really stood out to me. Most voice actors where pretty good and the majority of the characters did a good job at impersonating their character.

I enjoyed some parts of Utawarerumono, especially the start and end to it. But the middle of the anime just felt stale and boring. All in all Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen is an okay anime. Would I recommend it? I would if you like slow build up, a medieval type of universe and animation and/ or political disputes.

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Apr 9, 2016

Silfie

Not Recommended

Warning: Review may contain spoilers.

Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen is a good example of why a second season is sometimes a terrible idea. I can't help but wonder if most of these "reviews" even watched this anime.

The "successor" to the charming first season of the series, which was a series with likeable characters that saw well-paced development, followed with a strong narrative and art/sound direction for the time and was an overall joy to watch.

Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen, however, falls flat on all expectations short of art direction and soundtrack. Characters lack any real depth, they don't grow, bond or build a real relationship, we can ... see characters lounging around for the better part of the series, 12+ episodes until anything happens isn't "slow pacing", it's poor writing and lack of actual content, and having a hack of a director in charge. The action feels forced and unnecessarily over-the-top compared to the first season when it does happen.

We're presented with Haku, an extremely unremarkable and outright idiotic main character with no redeeming qualities, who finds himself in the wilderness and is rescued by Kuon, an inferior and bland version of a character we had in the first season.
This second season regurgitates and reuses some narrative elements such as amnesia, a character rising to become a leader, and inheriting a weapon that belonged to someone else, in very cheap ways.
From the moment Haku shows up, he pretty much just receives everything, and everyone falls in love with him for no reason at all. He's lazy, ill-mannered, untalented and amnesiac. He is quick to form a harem of literal princesses from different countries through no effort of his own, there is no real development or storytelling to speak of. The first half of the series takes place in an inn where all the characters converge as if it were a cheap run-off-the-mill slice of life, the series tries to entertain with the "yaoi fangirls" trope every single episode which quickly gets old, even though it's not funny the first time, it definitely wasn't funny the 20th time.

By the time anything happens in the series, it's hard to take it seriously at all. Haku fails to care about anything other than drifting by and doesn't have any meaningful bonding with any of the other bland characters nor any noteworthy character development, he literally just lazily strolls through a war-zone while accompanied by the rest of the group who seem to think that going to war is a game, and after witnessing a single particularly gruesome event he pretends to be highly hurt by this for two episodes even though he has no reason to be. After 80% or so of the series has passed by, we're introduced to the cheap twist of "this guy is actually amazing" for Haku, he's supposed to be related to the late emperor! At this point the plot is trying to rapidly move forward in a rushed way, the empire is about to fall and the princess is rescued by Haku and his comrades, one of them dying along the way and entrusting the lazy good-for-nothing with the future of the empire, with absolutely no emotion or build-up at all. With basically no reason to do care or do anything, Haku accepts and pretends to be his fallen comrade and tries to rally his supporters to march towards the empire, and the series ends there. Astounding isn't it?

As far as the "action" goes, there's a clear exaggeration when it comes how strong and capable the characters are, as fights that were akin to medieval fantasy with some mild magic gets twisted into literally splitting mountains with a single slash, yet these people are unable to win fights against the old season 1 characters. This felt like an unnecessarily big narrative gap created by mindless shounen power-leveling and "flashy" fights. In the first season, characters had real reasons to fight, such as revenge and protecting their homeland and loved ones. In this series it's basically "these guys are challenging **US**, we'll kill them!"

All-in-all, Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen was extremely painful to watch, it's sad that the series which was solid and had laid the groundwork for something great was ruined by this. When it's not a mediocre slice-of-life harem with stale humor, it attempts at serious storytelling and fails.
I recommend watching the first season and skipping this one.

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Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen

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Kuon

Haku

Karura

Touka

Aruruu

Benawi

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Oboro

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Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen

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Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

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Characters & Voice Actors

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