Mutsu Enmei Ryuu Gaiden: Shura no Toki

In a battle between an armed opponent and an unarmed one, does the armed opponent have an advantage? Not if the unarmed person practices Mutsu Enmei-Ryu.

Shura No Toki (Age of Chaos) follows 3 generations of practitioners of the Mutsu Enmei-Ryu UNARMED fighting style. The animation is probably the weakest part of this series but the fighting more than makes up for it, this is the most "technical" martial arts I've seen in an anime, without any of the "style", "blood" and "special powers" elements interfering with the purity of the art. This alone elevates this series above any other martial arts type anime offerings.

The first ... arc is about famed swordsman Miyamoto who seeks nothing more than to find an opponent who can "challenge" him in a fight. He turns down a nobleman's bodyguard job offer and instead suggests the nobleman hire a ruffian eating at the nearby road side stall, a ruffian with a strong aura. The ruffian is Yakumo Mutsu, a member of the mutsu clan. When fights begin, Yakumo distinguishes himself by never using any weapons. One never knows what direction the first arc is heading in, but expects that Miyamoto and Yakumo will have a showdown ... sometime!

The second arc is about ONE martial arts tournament. The story centers around revenge but I enjoyed this arc just for exposure to the various martial arts styles and methods of defeating opponents. The martial arts was so good in this arc that I rewatched it 3 times. While I normally like plots, in this arc I felt it got in the way of the martial arts tournament, which was a pure joy to watch.

The third and final arc set during the Meiji Revolution is the most plot driven. At times I felt the plot twists detracted too much from the premise of Shura No Toki martial arts, and it did not seem to feature as much martial arts as the previous two arcs. In addition this was set in a later era where there were guns, sigh. No matter how good the plot I found myself comparing this to Rurouni Kenshin, and Shura No Toki's 26 episodes just can't deliver the same amount of storytelling that 100 episodes can. So the ending tried to be too "historical" and skimped on the martial arts action.

All in all, I've never seen another anime like Shura No Toki. My buddies who are serious martial arts freaks were all majorly impressed by the fight scenes from a real life technical aspect. We all agreed it was the best example of hand to hand vs. (insert weapon) we've seen. The animation was ok, the sound was good, the story was great, albeit uneven. But everyone enjoyed the characters and action a lot. If you're into martial arts, you should try watching this little known but great anime.

The Good:
A story that very much reminded me of Ruroni Kenshin except the main character does not have any qualms with killing a guy. Set in Japan before it opened its ports in the 1800s so having taken several Japanese history classes it was nice to know a little of what was going on especially in the last arc with the Shinsengumi. It spans the story over several generations of the main character's family, too bad it never focuses on anything but the current generation and does not show anything of what is happening with the older. The female leads have unique ... personalities and can actually hold their own in a fight...most of the time. Bromance is the basis of the last arc. The fights can be interesting to watch especially in the tournament arc with different styles and weapons. Martial arts without weapons as the main focus is very welcome considering the time period it is set in where the usual focus would be a samurai.

The Bad:
Art and animation is decent, nothing special. The female leads, despite their tough appearance, tend to fall short and supposedly just become marriage fodder. Music does not stand out but kept me in the mood of the scene. The main character is an aloof badass, does a lot of staring at the clouds and mooching food off whoever he comes by before he just straight out kicks a guy in the head and kills him. I really wish they did show how these characters trained and developed their skills. Killing intent ha kawaii sugiru desu~! Some people are drawn to look ridiculously huge....oddly another thing Kenshin had. Stating how a person in history died but changing that fact in the show in the same moment. No Engrish speaking Matthew Perry, sad times :(

The Ugly:
Can be downright boring at times. Does not show a descendent of the main character in modern times. Random ultimate attacks in a mostly realistic setting, it's ~*MAGIC*~.

A great anime if you're into historical settings that are not too farfetched and if you like martial arts. It is not one that I will ever watch again but I enjoyed it none the less.

*My reviews are read like lists so I just write down whatever comes to mind so sorry if it seems a bit scatterbrained. I tend to write just snippets but will still write more about something if I feel it should. To understand more about my review style be sure to read my profile.

This anime is fucking shit.

Musashi challenges an unarmed guy to duel and then gets beaten? When did this happen? Since when did Musashi become an idiot? He never challenged someone to fight unless he was certain he was going to win. And Musashi almost NEVER fought fairly. He always used some kind of underhanded trick to ensure that he would win. Anyone who read his book would know that he had no patience for honor or fairness in combat. Also, losing to an unarmed guy? Top lels. The whole point of Musashi being in the anime is to show that the MC is stronger ... than him. This is unfortunately the standard shonen method of "character development".

This entire anime is essentially just propaganda to glorify "Mutsu Enmei" or whatever the fuck that made-up fictional nonexistent martial is called. IF YOU TRAIN HARD YOU WILL BECOME TOTALLY INVINCIBLE TO SWORDS AND GUNS AND YOU CAN MARRY ANY GIRL YOU WANT! SERIOUSLY! JOIN THE MUTSU TODAY! LOOK AT HOW COOL WE ARE!

No seriously. What's the point of this anime? It's about guy who's a Gary Stu. He goes around beating up everyone who doesn't think he's awesome. Everyone who is not the main character is either an idiot and gets beaten by him, or thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread and worships him like he's God. Every single girl character is either tsundere or deredere for the Gary Stu. Every. Single. One. This got old by the second arc. You could just see the same thing happening over and over again.

And what is up with the guy's morality? [spoiler] He helps a girl ASSASSINATE THE SHOGUN just because HE LIKES HER NAME. [/spoiler] What the fuck. He's willing to plunge an entire country into civil war just because he likes the name of some random girl? How fuck up is that?

The action is boring as fuck because it's not realistic. Why does everyone use a predictable vertical slash that gets telegraphed like 10 minutes before they do it? The same thing happened like 500 times in the anime:

Swordsman uses a vertical slash that he telegraphed about 10 minutes in advance.

Mutsu guy dodges the slash by turning his body sideways.

Swordsman gets punched in the face.

Swordsman does another one of the telegraphed-as-fuck vertical slashes because he's an idiot.

Mutsu guy does the same dodge and punches swordsman in the face.

Repeat until swordsman falls down from exhaustion.

Wow! So fresh! If you thought Berserk was boring, check this out. I think I just found the cure for insomnia. I would only recommend this anime to people who want to watch some guy beat up random idiots with swords (they don't deserve to be called swordsmen) unarmed. That's what this entire anime consists of.