Drifters

At the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Toyohisa Shimazu is the rearguard for his retreating troops, and is critically wounded when he suddenly finds himself in a modern, gleaming white hallway. Faced with only a stoic man named Murasaki and hundreds of doors on both sides, Toyohisa is pulled into the nearest door and into a world completely unlike his own.

The strange land is populated by all manner of fantastical creatures, as well as warriors from different eras of Toyohisa's world who were thought to be dead. Quickly befriending the infamous warlord Nobunaga Oda and the ancient archer Yoichi Suketaka Nasu, Toyohisa learns of the political unrest tearing through the continent. Furthermore, they have been summoned as "Drifters" to fight against the "Ends," people who are responsible for the creation of the Orte Empire and are trying to annihilate the Drifters. As the Ends grow more powerful, so does the Empire's persecution of elves and other demihumans. It is up to Toyohisa and his group of unconventional heroes to battle in a brand-new world war to help the Empire's subjects, while challenging the Ends protecting the land to claim it for themselves.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shimazu, Toyohisa Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Oda, Nobunaga Main

Uchida, Naoya Japanese

Nasu, Yoichi Suketaka Main

Saiga, Mitsuki Japanese

Barca, Hannibal Supporting

Aoyama, Yutaka Japanese

Kanno, Naoshi Supporting

Suzuki, Tatsuhisa Japanese

Olminu Supporting

Kokido, Shiho Japanese

d'Arc, Jeanne Supporting

Minagawa, Junko Japanese

Easy Supporting

Itou, Kanae Japanese

de Rais, Gilles Supporting

Nomura, Kenji Japanese

Count Saint-Germi Supporting

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Ueda, Yasuyuki Producer

Ueda, Shinya Producer

Fudetani, Yoshiyuki Producer

Reviews

Feb 25, 2024

Drakestalker

Recommended

Yes! Yes! Yes! This is what the fuck I’m talking about! Yes! This is entertainment!

Kouta Hirano has made many unsuccessful attempts at grabbing the attention of the mainstream audience. His first big hit was the Hellsing manga. Drifters is his new project. Warriors from all eras are summoned into this parallel world to fight. You get to see characters such as Oda Nobunaga (of course, wouldn’t be an anime with historical characters without good ol’ Nobu), Hannibal Barca, Butch Cassidy, Scipio Africanus, Joan of Arc (again, of course), Grigori Rasputin, and many others.

I cannot describe how much fun this series is. It’s an action-packed thriller ... from start to finish. The action slows down every now and again, but it never stops for a breather. The show must go on. For the most part, it’s a full throttle drunken joy ride. Ain’t nothing like some high-octane hardcore violence and gore to start the day.

If you’re just here for a recommendation, then that’s it. You’re done. Drop whatever you’re doing and go watch the show! *Schwarzenegger voice* DO IT! DO IT NAOW! Stick with me, however, if you are willing to indulge me a lengthy tangent. I would like to impress upon you exactly why this show is so fucking magnificent.

In order to illustrate the truly fantastic nature Drifters, allow me to tell you a little story. During the Rulers of the Realm 2020 Comic-Con panel, authors George R. R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss were asked about the role and importance of maps in fantasy stories. Being as jealous and resentful of Tolkien as he is, Martin targeted the late great one with one of his usual backhanded compliments. Rothfuss, on the other hand, offered a brilliant insight. In case you’re unfamiliar with him, he’s the author of The Kingkiller Chronicle book series. In short, he’s the new fashionable fantasy writer dudebro.

While I have precious little respect for him as a thinker owing to the fact that he has studiously propagandized himself with postmodern thought, it is often the case that no matter how much we try to obfuscate and corrode our conscious minds with poison and lies, our intuition will still naturally gravitate towards the truth. There’s no better example of this principle than J. K. Rowling herself. But I digress.

On the cartography point, while Martin had a dazzlingly sophisticated take that basically boiled down to “They help people know where things are.”, Rothfuss’ outlook was that the maps themselves ought to be a part of the story, of the narrative, and serve a purpose to make the plot more interesting. He contemplates why modern fantasy authors create maps for their own stories, and his contention is that, well, they do it because everyone does it. Well, why does everyone do it? Well, because Tolkien did it. Well, why did Tolkien do it? And therein lies the crux of the matter. See, while maps are helpful and to a degree required with secondary world fantasy, the reason Tolkien had a map in his story is because there literally was a map in his story. The map was a veritable part of the narrative and made the entire world feel more real, alive, and vibrant. Tolkien was not following tradition. Tolkien was merely following his own passion, and that was one of them, creating this giant visual puzzle where everything fits together in a very particular way.

The same goes for conlangs (constructed languages). A lot of people put conlangs in their fantasy stories because they’re simply following in the tradition set by Tolkien, but the late great one did not create these fantasy languages because of any kind of tradition. He created them because he was a language geek and that’s what he loved, whereas in Rothfuss’ case, while he certainly admits to needing conlangs in order to make his world realistic, he doesn’t develop them with anywhere near the same degree of sophistication, seeing as he is not a linguist, it’s not where his interest lies, and as such, he knows his conlangs could never touch his readers in the same way Quenya or Sindarin could.

By that same token, nobody ever spends any money in the Tolkien legendarium. At no point, anywhere in his books, is there ever an exchange made for currency. There is no money in The Lord of the Rings. And it wasn’t because the legendary author wanted to make some kind of Star Trek-esque point about a post-currency world, but rather because he obviously did not care. This was another one of Martin’s infamously spiteful criticisms that has transcended into top tier meme status: “What about Aragorn’s tax policy?” Who gives a shit about Aragorn’s tax policy, dude? Certainly not Tolkien. Currency and economics were transparently nothing he was interested in, ergo, rather than forcing them in because of some misguided notion of obligation, he decided to leave them out completely. Currency was just not a thing for him. Rothfuss, on the other hand, is a huge currency nerd, and so the grand scale economy in his books is intricately worked out. In other words, the genuine nature of his own interests filters into his books.

To make a long story short, his basic point is that we’re all geeks for something, be it herbology, the nature of the night sky, or even plate tectonics, and if we base our creations around things we are genuinely passionate about, they are highly likely to succeed. Whereas creations centered around things you feel compelled to include because of traditional or political reasons, or even reasons of originality, will invariably feel artificial. Why? Because they are. Much as we like making fun of people and call them stupid, people’s intuitive sense is not so easily fooled.

That’s no doubt another trap many authors fall for. They try to come up with a new thing, a new gimmick, an “original” idea, or they attempt to take old clichés, things that people are sure to love, but then subvert them in some way to make them feel new and quirky, hoping they’ll get enough traction that way to make their creations saleable. Both the Clive Owen and Charlie Hunnam King Arthur movies come to mind as examples of this. That’s the wrong approach, though. It’s not about that at all. It doesn’t matter if the idea is original or a cliché. What matters is whether or not what you’re creating is something you’re personally genuinely passionate about, and if you are, rest assured, said passion will translate to your audience. Some great examples of this are the My Hero Academia and The Misfit at Demon King Academy franchises, neither of which bring anything new to the table. They do not innovate their respective genres in any way whatsoever. They’re both about as self-indulgent as they can get. And? And they’re both immensely fun to experience because you can tell the authors had fun writing them. You can tell that neither of them came from a place of indoctrination, but rather genuine interest.

This is also the reason for the paradoxically antithetical receptions of media like the female Ghostbusters, the female James Bond, or even the female Ocean’s movies, as opposed to something like the Fate franchise. In Fate, half of the featured historical and mythological figures are women. Emperor Nero is a woman. Sir Francis Drake is a woman. King Arthur is a woman. God damn Attila the Hun is a woman. And yet, nobody complains about any kind of feminist propaganda insofar as Fate is concerned. Why? Because it’s quite transparent to the audience that it’s not a case of artificially injected propaganda. Kinoko Nasu, the creator of the Fateverse, and Takashi Takeuchi, the designer of most of the Fate cast, are transparently into drawing and telling stories about cute waifus, so they populated their universe with cute waifus. That’s all it comes down to, nothing more, nothing less. It comes from a place of passion, genuine interest, something they are actually into, rather than a place of political possession, and that’s why it has traction, why people find it compelling.

And that finally brings me back to Drifters. The isekai genre is so oversaturated at this point, with each isekai fantasy world having some variant of orcs, and goblins, and reptilians, and ogres, and what not, that they’ve all gotten depressingly derivative, plastic, and same-y. It’s hard to make them stand out anymore. I defy you to tell me the difference between the goblins of Grimgar, Granblue Fantasy, or Log Horizon. Pro tip, you can’t. As soon as you decontextualize them from the human(oid) characters of their respective worlds, they’re wholly indistinguishable. It’s exquisitely difficult to create a fantasy world in this day and age that looks recognizable, one that stands out from the slew of other Tolkien carbon copies. As I said, if I took out the main cast, you wouldn’t be able to tell any of these worlds apart. The world of Sword Art Online, Re:Zero, and Danmachi are effectively clones.

That being said, I guaran-fucking-tee you that if you were to look at the world of Drifters in a vacuum, you would definitely be able to tell that it’s the world of Drifters. If you’ve seen Hellsing Ultimate, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. Hirano-sensei has a very particular aesthetic, very similar to the old Frank Miller comic books, with deep pools of shadow to accentuate the features and maturity of his characters. Hirano-sensei’s aesthetic is so recognizable, in fact, that any time another seires features a character that is designed in his style, it immediately announces itself as self-evident. Seryu Ubiquitous from Akame ga Kill! is a thoroughbred Hellsing character if I’ve ever seen one. And that is the very essence of a work that comes from a place of passion, of genuine interest.

See, Kouta Hirano-sensei is really, really, really into ultraviolence, and everything he writes is dark, ultraviolent, and brutal as all hell. He knows exactly what he likes and what he wants from his creation, and so he just goes for it with such sincerity and passion that it clearly translates. He’s not injecting these elements into his story because he calculates that’s what his audience would be into. No, he’s putting them in there because that’s what he is personally into and it’s very transparent.

That’s what makes Drifters such enormous fun and what makes it feel so unique. While Drifters is technically an isekai, it doesn’t feel like an isekai. The term isekai has been relegated to mean less and less a genre, bur rather a specific kind of show that the industry churns out over and over and over and fucking over again – more or less 12 times per season – not the case here, absolutely not.

Even the very idea of summoning heroes from different ages of the past to do battle with each other, ever since Fate, has been repeated and iterated upon a couple of times. You could even argue it has become a bit played out to some degree, but not here. Why? Because none of the depictions of historical characters are memey in any way. As I mentioned above, Oda Nobunaga is in this, because of course he is. He’s the one historical Japanese figure that has to be in every fucking anime ever. That might lead you to believe that adding him is a bad idea, because the very idea of Nobu has become stale. You would think you would have to come up with a new gimmick, right? Wrong. We talked about this before. It’s not about coming up with a new gimmick. It’s about presenting your idea, be it old or new, with enough confidence and panache as to make it magnetic. Indeed, Nobunaga and all of the other figures, as well, are depicted in such a raw and over-the-top badass manner that they feel cooler than Fonzie. They’re all designed in such a way as to be historically believable. I can really see the historical figures looking like this. Granted, maybe not acting like this, because everything in this series is so over-the-top brutal, violent, and bloodthirsty, but you take my point.

It all just feels real, and I don’t mean real as in realistic, but rather real as in it’s coming from a genuine place, from the heart, if you will, dumb and cliché as though that may sound.

The only problem this series has is the gag humor. As I said, it has a very dark and mature Frank Miller-esque art style, which is not an art style that lends itself to being distorted into One Piece-like gag faces, so the distortions have to be greatly exaggerated, and the resulting disconnect is so jarring that it will break your immersion at times. Besides, most of the gags aren’t even that funny, though my subjective opinion of the humor may be skewed. Had the presentation not been so janky, it’s perfectly conceivably I would have enjoyed them more. Still, that’s is not to say that there aren’t some absolute killer knee-slappers in here, because there are.

All in all, this is fucking gold. Watch it! Also, this show has a really cool opening song, like, really fucking cool.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Mar 30, 2024

a_last_flower

Mixed Feelings

You notice the familiarity with Kouta Hirano's "Hellsing", the style, the gags, the themes.

STORY:
• The plot is relatively straightforward with it being a large-scale war fought by two opposing sides. The Drifters along with the support of the Octobrist organisation are pitted against the Ends led by the notorious Black King. The Black King whose identity is shrouded in mystery, vows to destroy the world completely by erasing all types of civilizations to form his new empire. What makes this experience incredible, is that the characters in it, are real historical figures, otherwise, it would have been one of the usual military, isekai, historical anime.
• ... The conflict between Easy and Murasaki isn't explained, what caused them to start sending people to this unidentified new world?
• the greatest leaders of various eras gathered together in a parallel world. I would say, a little patriotic given that the 3 protagonists are Japanese, even if it's plausible, after all, who wouldn't praise the stories of their compatriots?
• the gags about St. Germain and his gay subordinates surprised me at first and made me laugh every time I heard "finocchio".

ART:
• "pinwheel eyes" 👍 typical Kouta Hirano style.
• ZERO censorship, which makes the experience even more enjoyable.

CHARACTERS:
• You are inclined to google them and get to know their stories because they are so incredible to watch.
• Toyo is a crazed warrior who loves decapitating enemy warriors, as long as they are male. He follows samurai policy, does not like the thought of women engaged in combat, dishonor must be paid with harakiri, and the enemy without his sword should not be killed.
• Nobunaga is a strategist (prefers to leave the leadership to Toyo and manage everything behind the scenes) and brutal (would kill anyone in his path).
• The black king despite being the antagonist follows a righteous ideal by some stretch: giving nonhumans a civilization.

BATTLES:
• the cliffhanger was appalling.

SOUND:
• I found myself singing the OP when I was unaware of it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jul 5, 2024

RainyClimber

Not Recommended

If you want to have a really, really long evening, watch this. It actually slows time down.
It wants to be something that it isn't.
If you have enemies, recommend this banger.
If you genuinely have nothing else to watch right now, a blank TV is better than this.
If you think your life has meaning, watch this show and it'll change your mind.
If your stomach is needing to be ached, this is your next show.
If you wanted to stop like anime, this is a good start.
If you want to be bored out of your mind thinking this story will get better, it does not.

Overall solid show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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