Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen

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.

This is a review written after I saw it entirely. So, it'll diverge a lot in relation to those which had been written around the beginning. Is my first review, mainly cause of the controversial feeling about this anime.

Story: People may say that it hasn't a story, I say the otherwise. The first half can be a low-development kind. For those who compared directly with the first Utawarerumono, it really is slow and without a outter story development. Though, the second half goes on a exponential curve of "Give me the next episode!". So, we have character and environment presentation and later the rampage of ... the story. For those who searched about the anime, now that it is based on a 2-part visual novel, so, be warned that we have a "half" series, even so, I consider this season as a preparation to "I hope there will be a" next one.

Art: Well, the art is nice. The ambience is well made, and although there's a difference from the first one, in a few episodes you accustom to it. Well, the furry part is well made, as are the battles and "special effects". Some parts, considering the year of release, are lot better than the first one, which is expected.

Sound: I really liked the previous Utawarerumono opening (I love that one). They keep Suara's songs for the two openings (prefer the first one - really nice - but the second is really nice too). The endings are those slow-motion zen-kind songs, nice if you want to hear it (worst from all aspects). The general soundtrack is really good, mainly the last episode's ones; They match very well to the situations and ambience.

Character: Well, we have a half season for that, if it was bad the overall would be to. We have a whole set of cliches to not cliches characters. I, particularly, really liked the MC - because he is really different from the normal-MC-way, and has a great development -. Aside from that, the whole set (older Utawarerumono characters, "allies" characters and enemies alike) are well made, be the visual, the actions, reasons, thinking, whatever. Even the lesser things cab be see as a potential character development fuel.

Enjoyment: The fantasy slice-of-life that is the first part is, if nothing else, fun. I found it to be relaxing too. They have a equilibrium between fun and serious, a bit of overall development, new characters, being to know more of the world, etc. The second part is fun, cool, tense and all around some feels and emotions in some aspects (I'll refrain from spoilers, but mainly one part about the MC, and the finale). Basically, I watched one episode every week and waited for the next one from the first to the last episode.


So, the overall note is kind a mean between all of it. I'm bad with rating, never know exactly what I think, Thus, pay more attention to what I wrote than tho the rating.

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.

Everything about this anime is fantastic.In my most honest opinion,it is a good succesor to the 2006 season.The art is outstanding,story is very comprehensive and deep and expands its roots from the first season.The characters all have their own background behind them and very interesting and well-tought ones at that.While watching the first season will triple your excitement about this anime,you don't need to do that in order to see the fantastic story.It is honestly very rare for me to feel this way about an anime and encourage others to watch it as well,and not to give it a bad rating after watching only 25% ... of it :)

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.

- Be advised, don't read this review if you have not finish the anime as it contains spoilers -

Firstly, I would like to say that I like Utawarerumono, but I haven't play the Visual Novel at all. Contrary to the high scores that most people give to this anime, I would have to say that this anime is one giant mess, whether it's because of the original material or the director, there is nothing great about the sequel to great series of Utawarerumono.

The main issue with this anime is its story which I really dislike, especially with how the anime starts and ends. In my ... opinion, the first cour of the anime from Fall 2015 is nothing but a giant filler. Why? It's because unlike its prequel, the first cour is a slice of life anime that has very little purpose other than introducing the characters and providing service to fans of Utawarerumono, especially when they re-introduce characters from S1. It must have been painful to watch this anime weekly, especially if you are a fan of the Utawarerumono series. Based on the first cour only, there is little direction of where the anime will go. Will any of the characters have any used to the story? Will there any plot at all? Is this the best that they could do? These are the questioned that I keep on having as I watched the first cour of the anime.

The second cour of the anime is where a real storyline starts to come to light as the Barbaric arc and the Invasion arc are introduced. This is where our characters are introduced to one of the struggle that they must face during those time, war. Something they must win if they want to survive during those time. This is also when our characters from S1 and their country are introduced into the sequel, a way to remind us that they are still there, living among the characters from this anime. Furthermore, we are shown in the past as they bring back story from S1 like Iceman, the scientists, and the test subjects. We are shown here that the scientists are not evil, but they are the “necessary evil” as they have to deal with the curse and the mess that they bring to humanity. Just like the people of Yamato and Tuskuru, our scientists are there to survive and the only way to do so is to research the test subjects and Iceman to improve their genes. Finally, there's the ending that left a giant hole among the viewers heart as there is no sense of closure to the ending at all. The ending is a giant "Fuck you!" to the viewers as the relationship between the characters breaks apart and there’s no information if they will come back together again or it’s the end of their relationship. The ending makes all of the slice of life part from the first cour to be completely pointless.

Then there's the characters of this anime which could be considered as the weakest point of this anime. The characters have common traits just like many other anime, they have a bishoujo, fujoshi, tsundere, and the list goes on. There is nothing special with the characters (maybe except for Haku), and with the little to no character development from the first cour, I can't really feel attached to the characters. Not just that, some of the supporting characters like Maroro and Kiuru have very little purpose to the anime and if we are to take out these characters, the anime could still continue.

The second cour of the anime is where our characters begin to develop, although only a little. From here, we can see that despite how happy-go-lucky Hakku is, he is dislike and afraid to the idea of change. He couldn’t bear the fact that the people that he spent with all this time could easily go to war and kill people like it’s nothing. We could also see the extent of their relationship as it was quite fragile, especially when the characters didn't know how to act towards Haku after the war with the Barbarians ended. We also started to see the development of relationship between Haku and Kuon as Kuon is starting to have a romantic feelings towards Haku. Despite all this, there's very little to no development to the side characters of the anime as we see that they have a problem here and there that serve to develop the characters, but that’s the extent of their development.

Despite all the faults I provide previously, the art and the sound are likely to be the only strong point of the anime. There is a massive improvement with the art from S1 as almost a decade has passed by because every aspect of the design of this anime is great, especially the design for Akuruturuka for Vurai and Oshutoru. There is a great amount of details being put towards the characters and the world they live in. The Op, Ed, and Ost are great as well as they fit right into the theme of the anime, especially the vocals and lyrics of the music. I find myself not skipping the Op and Ed every time I watch the episode which just shows how lovely they are.

Overall, I can't really find myself enjoying this anime, especially as the ending was too open ended and with no information about any sequel, I feel disappointed with this anime (although there's a sequel for the VN). Watching the first cour of the anime was quite painful and I find myself wanting to drop this anime if not for the characters from S1. This anime really have lots of potential and it could have done better with how the story develops. For example, they could have shorten the slice of life part of the anime into 3-4 episodes and use the remaining episodes to show the Rebellion arc. I really want to like this anime, but I just can't with the amount of faults that it has.

*
I'd say there might be mild spoilers, but then again, there is almost nothing to spoil :'(
*
Before I start my rant I will state that I have enjoyed the art and soundtrack in this series (my reaction to the piano track was overwhelmingly positive) . Let us start with the fact, that I have liked the first Utawarerumono series quite a lot. That was mostly because of the narrative, character development and the relation between Hakuoro, Eruru and the rest of the gang. That being said, Itsuwari no Kamen tried to draw some obvious parallels and teased us in a couple of scenes, ... but failed. At the end of the day, it has very little in common with its predecessor. The elation between the main two protagonists: Haku and Kuon, is cut short in favor of overly introducing the rest of the characters. This is a product that one gets when the makers try to put too much in and leaving single components half baked. It feels unfinished, leaving many plot holes. Some of them are obvious, others explainable by logic. The last episode made me cringe.
-> [SPOILER] I knew that Haku would take Oshutorus place before watching the anime, but the build up to this event was non existent. It was way too sudden. He changes from a slacker into a responsible leader withing hours - really?! A+ on the character development #sarcasm. But the most irritating part was when Kuon cried over Hakus death. As if they were that close. That was so forced by the script that I stopped watching for a couple of moments. Why was she crying? There was no progression in terms of any kind of a relationship between them. No romantic scenes, e.g. holding hands, hugging, kissing... And now she weeps because she thinks he is dead. Give me a break. I was waiting the whole darn series for them to become a couple and all I've got was that? Was there another episode they have forgotten to air? The last episode was just insulting and infuriating. Had to rewatch the last episode of the original series to get my calm back[SPOILER]

TLDR; You could make a 5 episode OVA and it would contain a more complex narrative. As a fan of the original series, I got lured by the cheap trick called nostalgia. It has provided a very shallow story. It felt like a combination of a mediocre harem with some random fujoshi fanservice more often than I would appreciate for this title. Out of the whole series I'd probably recommend watching 6-7 episodes. A wasted potential of what turned out to be more of a filler than anything else.

This is a lax review that falls more to the compartment style (and being my first review).
After enjoying the first season of Utawarerumono, i wanted more! So i turned to Itsuwari no Kamen. Luckily i didn't watch the original show when it aired now 10 years ago because the wait and disappointment would have crushed me even harder than it just recently did.

Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen starts off with setting identical to the original, but quickly changes to your typical slice of life fantasy setting. MC starts building harem of sorts and nothing reminiscent of plot or traces to first season is to be seen ... until first few episodes in.
There are few major plotholes (just like in the original) that might someday get covered in future seasons but i wouldn't bet my money on that.
Just a little warning for those who loved first season; Itsuwari no Kamen is going to make you hate/feel angry towards the main cast at some point of story for some time. And you really wish you could see the original characters more often.
Luckily after slow start the story develops to better every episode towards the ending and after its over you're wanting for next season. Just hope it doesn't take 9 years again.

Characters compared to the 2006 original feel just empty (yes, there were some bad characters on the original, not denying that). Every girl is shoehorned to fill in cliche roles that make all harems so dull to watch. They act weak except in 2-3 episodes about battles where they're suddenly smart and powerful only to fall back to your sheepish little harem after the battle ends.
Male characters bonding with MC are all boring, empty wallflowers with the exception of 2nd MC. Boylove is everywhere (not that i mind, but it gets old fast).

After first season this was a big letdown, but its slightly above average.
Well worth the watch if another world/fantasy setting is close to your heart.

So, after watching the whole thing, even though i did not watch the first season, i do recommend it since because there are some ties regarding haku and kuon, so this is coming from a person who had not watch the first season, but do understand a few things from the first season, and who heard about the visual novel of this.

Story-10, i heard some things in the visual novel, and the first half, 12 episodes or so, were more like, character introductions and such. You know, that getting to know character to build more emotion to the characters. After the first half, then ... it started getting to the story, as i see other reviews on here, they only watched like 12 episodes or below, and that is not so helpful.

Art-9, I love the art they use in this, really great, just simply love it. had no problems with it whatsoever.

sound 7- i do not love, i do not hate, it just simply enjoy it. i like the first and 2nd op as well. The sound are pretty good, not gonna lie.

Character 8- As i said before, the character introductions, and such, its good. Hence at the last episode almost made me tear up, and so i got kinda attached to characters, well im the type of person to get attach to characters.

Enjoyment 10- there were funny scenes and action scene that got my hyped, including the ending which makes me want to know what going to happen next. each epison was good enough for me, got my attention and my "wanting" of more episodes of this.

Overall 10- i wished others would also watch this anime, i highly reccomend it, it is great to me. I also wished there were more Live Reaction videos to this anime, want to see their reaction to the interesting things.

*First review ever*

A lot of people complain about the fan service, but you have to remember what they were adapted from. This series has it's share of service, but the story is deeper than it seems, just like the first series it has mystery and a strange beautiful world that confuses and mystifies the MC. Sure this one could've been better, but all in all it is nothing more than a big build up to the next part. It has your suspense, wonder, fantasy, fighting and more, give it a shot before you judge it based on screen caps. The art and sound are one of my ... favorite parts as it reminds me of the first series, some of the characters don't feel as though they contribute much so that could've been better, but all in all it was enjoyable. The art style was the main selling point for me, and so was the story since i knew from the start it was gonna be a build up series. Overall i highly enjoyed this show.

Story: 4

Bland, specially within the first half of the anime and that’s 12 episode of runtime wasted on weak attempt to develop the characters. At best, the plot is mediocre. It again wasted the rich foundation the prequel built and the very detailed world already built. The show also failed to take advantage of a crucial plot event that should have made momentous changes to the story.Overall, very disappointing story but another element truly dragged it down.

Art: 8

Fluid animation and nothing hurts the eye, though nothing to give you wow factor either. Characters designs receive thumbs up and in my opinion it is superior compared ... to its predecessor and source material.

Music: 7

Those tracks from the game (I haven’t watched the prequel anime but played the VN) just kills you with nostalgia. Aside from this and the decently timed tracks, nothing is truly noteworthy.

Character: 1

When the supporting cast interests you more than the protagonist, you know you failed to write a credible lead to your story. Our dear main character showed no real development, even after the “big revelation” nor any progress in his relationship with the heroine, who’s been dragging him along for 25 episodes. But no matter how well written our Kuon is, Haku is simply doing a great job dragging the whole cast and the show itself down.

Enjoyment: 6

Utawarerumono is one of my favorite visual novel of all time and have a special place in my memory hence no matter how I dislike the protagonist I still found ways to enjoy this show with its lighthearted comedy and the cameos of old characters. Sadly it didn’t leave any sort of emotional crater of course all thanks to a terribly written protagonist.

Overall: 4

Overall this show’s stale plot and disappointing main character is the main reason of its downfall.

This had so much potential to be good, perhaps the game or manga[if there is a manga] would be better than the anime at delivering the finished piece of this utawarerumono story, but there is one glaring terrible thing of this series

The main character; i'm not saying his personality or anything is bad, it's how he's presented. He's constantly extolled as a character that gets things done, but what the story shows him really being able to do is fix a mill and teach the princess a lesson and even those weren't that great because with the mill he simply removes the stopper and with ... the princess he coat tails off of ushutoru's words.

It would have been an amazing anime if it simply showed him actually doing things to later pull back to when they praise him instead of just saying he can do things with nothing to refer to.

So first of all if you have not watched the original Utawarerumono anime you probably need to do that first or else there will be points in this story that you will definitely find yourself lost because this is a continuation of the original Utawarerumono story line.

I found this anime quite a bit more enjoyable than the first. You get more in depth with the characters and the tone is much lighter that in the original anime. I do like how well the story progressed through each and every character ultimately building to the conclusion which in itself is another beginning.

Most ... of the anime has a light feel to it, although it doesn't skip a more serious tone hear and there the largest of which comes at the conclusion. The animation is nice and clean and the sound and everything else is crisp. Overall it is an anime that I would definitely purchase should it be released here.

The one thing that did bug me about this anime is the ending of which there was none. I'm not going to spoil anything for you but in case you didn't know the entire Utawarerumono series is based off of a popular game franchise in Japan and so the anime ends right where the game ends essencially. So see no spoiler if you've played the game because you already know what is going to happen.

This anime seems to have been made as a tool to boost interest and promote the new game coming out this September which if I'm not mistaken is "Utawarerumono: The Two Hakuro". Now here is the rub, will there be a concrete ending this time or will this ultimately lead us into another game after a third anime release. The thing is I have no idea and I don't think anyone else does either. The only thing that I do know from the preview of the new game is that it will seem to have a far more serious tone as Tusukuru and Yamato seem to be headed towards full scale war.

So with that said hopefully there will be a third anime sometime in 2017 that will lead us further down the rabbit hole into the world Utawarerumono. At least I hope that there is because it sure has been fun so far.

NOTE: This is a VERY minor spoiler review. As a huge Utawarerumono fan, I had great expectations for the anime and will be comparing it to the visual novel (og source) from time to time (with context too for the people that haven't read the VN). Though I'll start by saying that the visual novel is so much better than the anime - I would give the rating such a higher rating if it were the visual novel.

Context:
This anime is an adaption of the visual novel called Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception (for English releases). There are two parts to this visual novel represented ... by two games. The first part is Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and is what this anime covers. The second part is the continuation of Mask of Deception and the anime hasn't come out for it yet.

Story 6/10:
The story from the VN is more like a 9/10 imo and is an essential part in building into the second game, Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth. However, the anime falls short in retelling the story. One thing to note though, I saw many people complain on Crunchyroll that there isn't much of a story in the anime. That is also kind of the case for the VN and that's because the first game is more focused on building the world, character and relationships (let's abbreviate that to WCR building) rather than the story. Doesn't mean the story doesn't progress but it's kinda like a slice-of-life type (somewhat reminds me of Konosuba). The second game is where the story, in a sense, truly takes place.

But anyway, the reason why the anime falls short in retelling the story is that they skip out on so many important aspects of WCR building. For example, they cut out an entire arc about Haku and the Tatari that is essentially for WCR building. They rather focus on the funny moments rather than setting the background for a grand story told in the second part. I get that it's impossible to fit a ~30 hour-long VN into a 25 episode anime but they should have focused more on the WCR aspect than the funny moments - or at least a better balance of it. Though surprisingly, the anime didn't feel too rushed but regardless, the anime doesn't do the VN justice with 25 episodes.

One last thing about the story is that the anime doesn't faithfully adapt to the VN. The overall conclusion of the story is pretty much the same so it's most likely a time constraint thing. I don't mind such changes but the anime makes certain parts considerably worse than the VN. Like in the introduction of certain characters is much well handled in the VN.


Art 8/10:
The art and animation are overall fine. The animation is pretty average but the art makes up for it. All the characters are very well drawn and adapted. Some scenes are especially beautiful. One thing, the anime makes the Akuruturukas into absolute BEASTS. IMO it's depicted better and more monstrous than in the VN. So, I'll give the overall art a high 8.


Sound 10/10:
Well, if the VN is known for anything it's that the music by Suara and the OST is really fucking good. Since the anime makes use of the same music, it naturally sounds as epic as the VNs. Other than the music, the voice actors once again show how cracked they are. The voices of the characters are so good and really bring out their personality (despite the anime not developing personalities very well). Every character has a unique voice that you'll know who's talking the second they talk regardless of if you're watching or not. Also, the anime chooses unique sound effects for certain things. They certainly sound all really fair - especially for the final battle. The sounds for that fight were crazy good, really captures the essence of destruction going on.


Character 7/10:
I think the characters were decently adapted. Many things disappointed me about the adaption but it wasn't all too bad. As I mentioned in the story, the anime skipped many WRC building plots. The VN had many plots (both minor and major) that were dedicated to each character throughout the story. The anime skipped so much on these aspects that I have to give a 7 for character. The source material had so much potential yet the anime delivers only lightly. In a sense, the characters felt a bit empty sometimes (like lacking personality), even without the context of the VN. Also, some characters in the anime also seemed a bit uncharacteristic too. Though, if I haven't read the VN already, there is a chance I would have given character a higher rating or even a lower one, I think?

Enjoyment 8/10:
Again, as a big Utawarerumono fan, even if the anime was garage tier (which I don't think it is), I probably would have still enjoyed it. The only thing keeping me from enjoying it more than an 8/10 is I was a bit disappointed in the adaptation aka my high expectations. What can I say, I really love the Utawarerumono VNs and so can only expect high quality.

Overall 7/10:
I think all Utawarerumono fan should give the anime a chance. It's pretty exciting to see the VN characters animated, it's a similar feeling to when I played Utawarerumono Zan. Might be a bit disappointing at times but not horribly shabby.
I also think people interested in Utawarerumono should give the anime a shot. It's an easy brief way to be introduced to the series so that you can be blown away by the quality of the VN if you get to that point.

Story
the story starts with Kuon which is the female main character of this series . The story overall was awesome if you loved the first season as it expanded on the story of which how the experimental beings from the first season or the people grew and became the prominent people we know in the story . It explains why Yamato is so advance and why Yamato is able to have the masks like in the first season even though its not nearly as strong as the original mask . Though the ending maybe abit of a disappointment but its still an ... awesome story non the less
Art
The art was amazing if you loved the art in the first anime this is just as good.
Sound
The sound is nice and matches all the feeling and emotions you face while watching it making it a more thrilling and fun anime to watch .
Character
The development of the story is quite slow but is always accompanied with humor and something new to learn about the characters . In every episode you can always feel the character has improved or grown one way or the other which is very interesting to watch .
Enjoyment
I enjoyed how the characters developed and learning more of the history and lore of the original anime Utawarerumono . There are many exiting and funny twist in the story making sure you are not bored especially in the last few episodes . Though i would definitely love it more if the ending wasn't so sad
Overall
I would say if you loved the first season and love to know more of the history and lore of the anime you should definitely watch it as its an anime full of fun adventure comedy and romance and would make anyone who watches it satisfied

This anime is a failure as a sequel, so much so that it made me make an account to this website just so i could review it. "A bunch of girls in a bathtub" would be another name for this anime. The anime is about random girls who just decide to move in with the MC for no reason at all take baths about twice per episode, talk about boys all night long, and meet new girls to take baths with. The MC has 0 skills there is nothing special about him he barely even shows up since the story just kinda focused the entire ... time on the girls in the bathtub but don't worry because you get to see some of the characters from the first season show up take a bath and never show up again. The girls are as cliche as they can possibly be there is nothing interesting about them and they all look the same. Okay so enough talk about the first 20 episodes in the last episodes a war just kinda happens for no reason some guy comes out of nowhere does some behind the scene shit and there was some fighting and what not the anime ended on a cliffhanger so there is probably gonna be another season but you can skip this one if you want because you will probably understand everything that happened in this season within the first episode of the next one. You dont really have to watch the first season to understand this one since, well nothing actually happen but you probably are going need to watch it for the third season if you are planning on watching it. Overall this season is an average harem anime with some yaoi jokes thrown in it.

In 2006, the world was graced with a fantasy world of animal themed people surrounded by mystery and war. The series known as Utawarerumono has since then become a bit of a cult classic with its mix of fantasy and science to formulate the world's backstory, in conjunction with the present day story with what is essentially a completely new world. And so, 9-10 years later after the first Utawarerumono, we have Itsuwari no Kamen, the false faces, the second installment of the Utawarerumono trilogy.

Story: Twenty years after the end of the first Utawarerumono ended, the world has been relatively ... tame. It is here where we find ourselves in a different, larger country to the newborn state of Tuskuru, where we follow the story of a woman by the name of Kuon and the man that she found that she names...Haku.

The story of Itsu, as I shall be referring this series as, is split into two parts, corresponding to the two cours that make up its entire runtime. Contrary to its predecessor, Itsu is a more character-based story, focusing more on the development and characteristics of each and every main character that they introduce to some extent. The entire first cour is virtually plotless, as it spends its time more on the development and building of its main cast, involving Haku, Kuon, and several other characters that each receive their own quirks and traits that make feel more like characters than pieces that follow a plot-based story. The issue that arises from this is the fact that the plot itself during this section of the anime really doesn't have much going on about it. By devoting itself to defining its cast, the show sacrifices any sort of plot development and doesn't feel exactly like what we were presented with back in 2006.

The second half of Itsu on the other hand is what would be considered more as 'Utawarerumono'. As the series was originally a tactical RPG game, the series dives into its traditional style of war and conflict, which really only benefits the series. Due to the fact that the series sort of slogs on with its first 12 episodes, only to give us a plot based story with more defined characters, the story overall in that sense just feels more well written and makes more sense overall. Character motivation during this second half is more defined, the different viewpoints of war and rule, what is best for the people of a nation; all of these are tackled with much more value to them.

Another thing that this series does, and is just a positive for the entire Utawarerumono series as a whole, is the idea of world building. Because we're in a completely different country to the one we see from the original series, the structure, culture, and overall feel of the place is completely different. Yamato is a very powerful country that has a lot of land and power over the rest of the world. And you get a sense of that with the way the country is set up, the daily lives of the citizens there, and the impacts when that powerful pyramid crumbles down. All in all, we get such great world building that there really isn't much for me to complain about.

All in all, while there were some bumps in the storytelling on account of the fact that there was virtually no plot in the first half and JUST plot in the second half, personally, I think that the story only benefitted from this, as the actions and events were more personal and impacted the characters in a way that would've otherwise been null if they didn't spend that time. The end is definitely a more open end, as the story is more or less setting up for hopefully, the third game's anime adaptation some time down the line. (White Fox, PLEASE get on this.)

Overview:
+ World Building
+ Good second half
+/- Good first half (This is dependent on whether you would appreciate the time spent on the characters or hate just the sheer lack of anything and the randomness of some of the stuff that happens.)
+/- Open end. (Does well for setup and is bittersweet, but doesn't REALLY finish the story.)

Characters: Itsu does a complete clean sweep in its character department, as the series focuses on an entirely different group to the characters that we knew before.

Up first is Haku, the 'new' Hakouro of the series. After waking up without any memory as to who he was (Gee, that sounds familiar), he is found by Kuon and is dubbed 'Haku' by her, now under her responsibility as she is his 'guardian' of sorts. (Ka na.) However, that's where the similarities between these two men ends. Haku is more or less the opposite of Hakuoro, being less willing to do physical tasks and has a very negative outlook on war and the kind of destruction that comes with it. As the series progresses along, Haku becomes a hardened character that grows out of his innate inability to do anything. He's a realistic character that has an odd charisma of always having a "I'm so done with this shit" expression everywhere he goes. All in all, Haku's growth as a character makes him a much better character overall as you can see his ascent of willpower and growing into the ideals and wishes that he wants to fulfill as the events of the series impacts him. We also get a backstory to him that ties into the events of the continuity, adding in his hand into the ordeal that created the world of Uta.

Then we have Kuon, the 'new' Eruruu character of the series. Aside from having the ability to heal, Kuon doesn't really have any traits that the previous female protagonist had with her. She's a much more mischievous, hot tempered girl who loves to eat, play, and acts as a sort of 'mom' character in a sense. The main issue that arises from Kuon is the fact that her motives or backstory are more or less shrouded in mystery. The series does give clues and facts as to how she came to be, but towards the near end of the series, there're hints to show that there is more to her, and that she has an underlying motive for finding and caring for Haku, which really doesn't get explained. Maybe we'll get information in third adaptation, but at the time of this review, there really isn't any information currently to explain that.

For the rest of the cast, we have a variety of players in the game. We have the two noble princesses from different provinces in Yamato, Rurutie and Atui, the general of the right, Ukon and his sister Nekone, the novice archer, Kiuru, and the entire government and military structure of Yamato, including the emperor, his daughter, and the Eight Pillar Generals, powerful leaders who command their own army that obey the will of the emperor to ensure that the country of Yamato will continue and prosper, and the best girl of them all, Kokopo the giant bird. (Seriously though, this bird is an AMAZING character.) While mostly side characters, these members of the cast, most of these side characters don't really feel it. They add to the atmosphere of this new country, as their values, culture, and ideals largely differ to those from the cast in Tuskuru. The majority of them are defined and mesh very well with the story, creating a genuine feeling world. Several in particular, Oshtoru and the emperor, play bigger parts and act as both plot devices and characters that add more to the story. Overall, this side cast is much better crafted and really only added to the story (Except Ponpo of course. Hate that bastard). Plus...there might be a couple...return appearances here and there.

Overview:
+ Characters that have both plot importance and development
+ Defined cast
+ Characters mesh very well with the story
- Some missing and/or incomplete motives for some characters

Art: Produced by White Fox, an offshoot of the company Oriental Light and Magic who made the original Uta, Itsu returns back with a fresh coat of paint from the olden style of the original Uta series. With a much more refined look to it, the true beauty of the asian inspired world of Utawarerumono comes back full force with wonderfully produced backgrounds and fluid animation.

The overall look of Itsu took what was good about the original Uta's art, and just sort of elevated it. While some moments were taken into liberty with CGI in order to animate certain scenes, there wasn't particularly anything messy or bad about it. In fact, it still looked rather fluent even with CGI employed. (The curses looked a bit off. I'll say that much.) What does bother me about the art is how everything has this slight tint of beige to it. The colors of Uta have never particularly been bright, but everything just looks a bit too dull in terms of color.

Another thing that Itsu has is fanservice. It doesn't have it in spades, but in certain scenes, most prominently in the first half of the series, there are scenes that detail more risque moments in the bath. (Because Kuon is apparently a cat that likes to take a bath.) It's not that much, but I just thought that a little warning was a good idea.

Overview:
+ Consistent, good quality art (Oh White Fox, you do spoil me)
+ CGI that was used was more or less fluent
- Colors look slightly dull

Sound: I think one of the more defining parts of the Utawarerumono series. As the entire OST is more or less based around an oriental style of music, the tracks sound more unique than your traditional anime OP, ED, or OST in general because of that. Taking her reign back as the singer for the Uta series, Suara makes a comeback to sing every OP and ED song that the OST has, just like what she did back in 2006 with the original Uta.

This time, the OPs have a more serious tone to them while the EDs have a very relaxing and mystical tone to them. All four of these tracks are very memorable and evoke the feeling of the oriental and mystical war anime that Utawarerumono is. Personally, I think that Suara's style of music perfectly represents Utawarerumono, so much that it's just difficult to think about Utawarerumono WITHOUT these tracks.

Overview:
+ Perfect OST (There are NO complaints or bad parts about this.)

Personal Enjoyment: Utawarerumono was a series that intrigued me for a good long while. After I took it out of the backburner, I found myself enjoying a series that was actually more deep in its lore than I originally thought. I love stories that have lore to them, and when I found that Utawarerumono was having a sequel, I was excited.

Did I like this anime?

Oh, far more than I should've. I love stories that just add to the continuity, and really there wasn't anything about this show that I didn't like. The characters were enjoyable, the story over time transitioned to what the original Uta was structured like, and we got a look into the aftermath (sort of) into what happened after the events of the original Uta. Plus, the soundtrack, my god, it's heavenly. (And the cameos!!!!)

What didn't I like about this anime?

To get into specifics, Ponpo. The character Dekonponpo is the saddest excuse for a living being and I hope that waste of life and space dies very soon. Such an irritating and terrifyingly designed character.

Would I recommend this anime?

If you saw the original Uta, you should watch this. It continues the story and adds another layer of depth to the world of Utawarerumono. It is the second part to a trilogy, so more or less, this is the 'lead-in' part of the series that moves the series to its final conclusion, so it doesn't exactly end cleanly, but nonetheless, it is a fitting end. If you're new to Utawarerumono or you're interested in a fantasy series with war and some relatively deep lore, I would strongly suggest you watch the original first. Despite what people think, this is a story that happens AFTER what happens in the original series, and there will be continuity mistakes if Itsu is watched without any prerequisite. Until then, it's time to slumber and wait another decade until they release the third and final installment. And boy, a day that will be.

I'll start off by saying that I'm a big fanboy of the Utawarerumono series. I've watched the original anime series and it was so good that it made me play the Visual Novel version. (Which brought me into the Visual Novel world - this was a few years ago) So it's natural that I was overjoyed when I heard Itsuwari no kamen was getting animated. I also came in with some expectations.


With that said, here's my slightly biased review of Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen.

Story:6

The first few episodes were beautiful, it allowed first time viewers to get used to the world and the people in it. ... Then the plots slowly starts to go south. The biggest thing that bugged me was combat. We see characters that laze around doing nothing, suddenly become proficient at using their weapon. We are told, but not shown how they've gotten stronger. It is most likely due to the fact that this anime was based off a SRPG, where the player trains the characters. At the end, a lot of things were left unexplained and plot points left hanging, but I will talk about this more at the end of this review.

Art: 8

I'm no expert at spotting errors in animation so I can only give you my impressions as viewer who focuses mostly on the plot. The scenery in the first few episodes blew me away, it really gave you a sense of being in the world. The large scale battles featured cookie cutter soldiers, but I'm fine with this as it is pretty expensive and a waste of money to try and anime each solder individually in a large battle. All in all, character movement felt smooth and the colors used in the anime felt natural.

Sound: 9

Nothing to say but great. If you enjoyed the type of music in the first series, you'll love the ones here.

Character: 6

Except for a few, most of the characters in this anime felt flat and their actions felt mechanical. I will explain more about this at the end of my review.

Enjoyment: 8

Utsuwari no Kamen will feel nostalgic to those who've watched this first series and just seeing the world and characters is enjoyable. Somethings will bug you like inconsistent plot and characters, but that is due to it's SRPG nature and a fact that I will discuss right below.

Rant

For those of you that don't know. Next we'll mostly likely get the next season during the Fall 2016 lineup. Why you ask? It's because the last visual novel of this series will be released that day. Why am I talking about next season on a review for this season? This is because you'll find that everything in this season is a buildup for next season.

What essentially happened was that they made the visual novel too large, so they split the story into two games. (Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen and Utawarerumono: Futari no Hakuoro) Which forced the anime to follow the same pattern and the viewer is left with lots of unexplained and hanging plot at the end. For those of you that have watched the first season, all of Itsuwari no Kamen is basically like the world building in the first few episodes of the first season. Now this wouldn't be a bad thing if the director could create some anime original scenes to smooth the transition from a SRPG visual novel to an anime, but due to the fact that there's already a sequel in plan, the director is not given much leeway. The anime is sticking so close to the source material that some plot points feel extremely awkward/doesn't make sense due to the SRPG elements.

Overall: 7

Tl;Dr Don't expect too much from this season as it is just world building for the next season.

Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen is the successor of the original 2006 anime Utawarerumono. Both are 25-episodes anime and both are set in the same setting.

First and foremost, I would advise you watch the first season before attempting to watch this one. Otherwise, you will not understand half of what happens in the second half of the anime. You might think this is obvious since this is a second season but you'd be surprised how many people dived straight in that anime without watching the original first...

To start off with a side note, I am baffled by the amount of people who claim this anime is ... basically a Slice of Life anime and has no direction whatsoever and decided to drop it halfway.

It's not that nothing is happening, the anime is simply taking its time to properly do a good job at adapting a story that deserves that much time put into its world creation. I personally wanted to wait at least 20 episodes and surprise ! Things are actually happened !
But back to the review.

Story-wise, it is true that the anime starts off slow. That's a good thing. It takes its time to properly remind us of the world we were left in with season 1 while making A LOT of obvious references to it (and this is important, due to how many years it has been since it was released). In fact there are so many references that some people mistakenly thought at first that this wasn't a season 2 but rather a rework of the first season. But what we have is indeed the continuation of an epic tale of fantasy, sci-fi and war but with a whole new cast of characters... at the beginning at least. Not much to add, the story at first is mainly character-focused and later on links back to what we have left from season 1 to create tension and drama.

In my opinion, while the original Utawarerumono was focused more on its plot than characters, this season takes a different approach by giving each character its own arc in a way that makes us attached to them as the events go on. This however does not mean the story is neglected.

In fact, one could even divide Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen into two parts: the first half that is meant to introduce each new character to us and the second part which introduces climax, tension, drama, plot twists and allows the previously showcased characters to each shine in their own way through meaningful character development.

The artwork is one that is close to one commonly found in "moe" Slice of Life anime. While it works in the first half of the anime, it feels a bit out of place as the second half reunites us with characters from the first season who look younger due to the upgraded art-style even though story-wise they should be older. While the visual update is generally appreciated, I still can't help but feel like it contradicts with the image I kept from back when I watched the first season which has an art-style befitting of the 2006 anime era.
Animation-wise, it feels smooth and fluid, so I have to give props to the animators for that.

In terms of music, well just like the original, the soundtrack merges perfectly with the tone of the scenes, using traditional instruments to give that kind of historical/fantasy feeling. I also really liked the first OP, not so much the second one but both of these are personal tastes.

All in all, I consider this series to be just as great as its predecessor and a must watch if you were a fan of the first season.

Just putting this here, I marathoned the entire first season in 3 days (including watching till 4 in the morning) just before watching this last episode. After seeing the last episode, and thinking through a bit, "GO BACK TO THE FIRST SEASON: UTAWARERUMONO". Its really important (unless you're a genius at putting puzzles togethers, in which case, this one is still incomplete with the third game coming next year.)

But I'll just make my review on this anime series and this series alone.

Story: Unless you've seen the first season's 26 episodes of amnesia, war, friendship, haunting past and man................(Not gonna spoil it), you wouldn't ... give this show atleast a 7. This show is literally tied, though not quite nicely, back to the first season, answering a few questions (and giving me a bigger map of the continent to look at. Seriously, their world functions just like agar.io) For me, I enjoyed this, more after seeing the first season. The first cour was all fanservice and introducing new characters (and the returning characters that are still alive and kicking ass) while the second season gets straight to the point of why its called "Itsuwari no Kamen" and how this season is the build up of the third season (Yes, we have a third coming.). Without spoiling here, there's a war going on for reasons that date back into the past, and things get hectic, with people dying, and a country breaking apart due to internal problems.

I just say this here, the second cour sucks like shit. Period. The battles were lame, and its all about "HAKU, SOLVE THIS FOR US. YOU"RE A HUMAN". The fanservice died out, and character development on the guy you never wanted to "grow up" beings here. Haku becomes (and I'm spoiling it). If you're deciding whether to watch this or not, give it a shot. The first 3 episodes are misleading of what this shows about (but it does hint what might happen in the end, and what's to come in the NEXT SEASON).

TL;DR, Shit. (But if you watched the first season, bearable.)

The visuals were nice, as with all modern anime of 2010+. Comparing to the 2006 anime adaption of the first season, at least I won't have nightmares of all the CG they used (seriously, the battles were done with ugly polygons like Counter Strike or Lara Croft before 21st century came around).

The OST was nicely woven into this series, just like the first season. A soothing, well-paced soundtrack with unique, interesting instruments playing to give to the feel of a "fantasy" or "aboriginal/native" atmosphere. Sadly, no very face-paced soundtrack for a few scenes that were...out of placed (The old man's secret rooms. yeah, talking about that). The OP and ED (and their 2nd cour ones) were also nice, especially the OP2.

Other than great songs, I loved seeing past characters returning, grown up, stronger, and laughing (WHERE IS ERURUU!)

As for enjoyment. I guess it's rewatchable (as I had just finished the first season, want to see this go through properly) but really, the joy of this show isn't much. Its to build up and have everything in place for the next game/anime (I mean, the first season's anime could have actually been made with 10 more episodes making it 36.) Its a good series, but because I've kept my rule of S2 < S1, I'll say a 6 for this show. 7 if I have mercy and 5 if you're a real cruel critic or one who doesn't want to watch the 2006 anime.

So there you have it. Utawarerumono fans are like FSN fans, just milder or less left wing/Weab/obsessive otaku, but this show is still worth watching, if you're willing to go through the troubles of watching its first season, and waiting *cough* 10 *cough* years *cough*. Otherwise, I guess there are other great anime to watch instead. If you're looking for more battles in asian style manners, go watch those sengoku anime, else play the game. All in all, this anime is not as bad, but pretty bad.

Verdict: 7/10

P.S. Fanservice aimed at both Harem lovers, BL lovers and Fujoshi(s)