Plunderer

Alcia is a world governed by "Count": numbers engraved on a person's body, representing any number related to their life. These Counts determine a person's social status and power in Alcia. If a Count reaches zero, the person is sent to the Abyss, a place rumored to be worse than death.

Hina, a traveler whose Count is based on the distance she traveled, witnessed her mother get dragged down into the Abyss. Determined to fulfill her mother's last wishes, she sets off on a journey in search of the legendary Aces—heroes of the war that happened three hundred years ago, bearing a white star next to their Count.

While wandering around, Hina encounters Licht Bach, a mysterious masked man with negative Count, and Nana, the owner of a tavern. In the midst of having a good time, Hina is tricked into a battle with a military soldier. However, despite his negative count, Licht rescues Hina and reveals that he has another count, one with a white star, one of a legendary Ace.

Plunderer follows the journey of Hina and other inhabitants of Alcia as they discover the truth about their world, the Abyss, and the legendary Aces.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Bach, Licht Main

Nakajima, Yoshiki Japanese

Murdoch, Jail Main

Umehara, Yuuichirou Japanese

Hina Main

Honizumi, Rina Japanese

Poporo, Pele Main

Ichikawa, Aoi Japanese

Mei, Lyne Main

Ozawa, Ari Japanese

Nana Supporting

Itou, Shizuka Japanese

Bach, Shumerman Supporting

Seki, Toshihiko Japanese

Sakai, Tokikaze Supporting

Ishikawa, Kaito Japanese

Sonohara, Mizuka Supporting

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Grigorovich, Alexandrov Supporting

Touchi, Hiroki Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Ogura, Rie Producer

Arimizu, Soujirou Producer

Matsumoto, Hideaki Producer

Reviews

Jun 24, 2020

Marinate1016

Recommended

Plunderer is a show that’s not for everyone. The first half of the show features a tremendous amount of fan service and If you don’t enjoy those types of things, this will be a very hard watch for you. However, if like me, you don’t mind such tropes you will be treated to one of the most under appreciated and interesting stories of the year.

Plunderer takes place in a world where everyone has a “count” which can go up or down depending on your actions in life. Once you hit 0, you will be sent to the abyss. A mysterious world from which nothing has ... ever returned.

The concept of the count was very interesting to me and the dynamic of the world managed to keep me engaged consistently. On a weekly basis, this was always the show I looked forward to the most simply because I found the mysteries of the show and the characters to be great. The story takes a while to get going, so if you’re someone who likes instant return on investment, you won’t find that here. But, I can promise you that if you stick around, the second half of the show has some fantastic storytelling and development.

For many people, having to wait for a show to “get good” would be a reason to rate it lowly or drop it. For me, I think those lighthearted/fluff moments you get at the beginning of a show take on more weight once a twist or major tonal shift occurs. They allow you to form a connection with characters and emphasise with them during emotional sequences. To that end, I believe the fan-service and light hearted moments during the first part of the show were actually very important to the overall story and added to my enjoyment.

The one are where I feel Plunderer was weak, was animation. The art is really bright and character models are solid. But, during fight scenes, I just didn’t ever notice a real “umph” factor and motion felt bland. For a series with a lot of fights, I would have liked to have seen a little more in that department, but it didn’t hamper my enjoyment too much.

In conclusion, Plunderer is a show that will reward you for sticking with it. It features likeable characters and a genuinely interesting story and world. It was a very enjoyable watch for me that got me reading the manga, and remains one of my favourite anime of the year. Plunderer gets 8 counts out of 10 from me.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Aug 5, 2022

ExemplarCayman

Mixed Feelings

Have you ever heard of the concept of Outsider Art? It’s art created by self-taught or naive art makers who are not familiar with the established art culture, including art by the straight-up mentally ill, which leads to their creations being strange or different in ways you wouldn’t normally see.
This is what Plunderer feels like. While technically it’s a battle shounen with some comedy and ecchi elements, its real substance is a rolling snowball of plot twists that happen every five minutes and are about as intelligent as wearing pants on your head. You can’t see those plot twists coming by virtue of them being ... idiotic, you can’t predict how the characters will develop because their development is insane and you’re not sure what the story is trying to tell you because it has like three speech impediments at once.
Make no mistake though, that does not mean at all that this show is “lol random” or “so bad, it’s good.” “So bad, it’s good” is a garbage concept in the first place. If something truly fails on artistic or technical level, then, no, you can’t enjoy it “ironically.” “Bad show” and “unenjoyable show” are literally the same exact thing, so either it is good or you are larping being ironic. Anyway, plenty of people will tell you that Plunderer is an objectively bad series. I can guarantee you that those same people would think that their favorite generic entry-level shounen or “mature and deep” drama rated 8.50+ on MAL aren’t unwatchable trash - and they’ll be wrong in both cases. Plunderer isn’t a good show, it’s not a smart show, I’d even call it an impaired show, but it’s not impaired mentally. It’s plot is bullshit, but it IS a plot, it checks all the proper storytelling checkboxes. The storyline is cohesive and was clearly planned ahead, with the writer knowing what he is writing and why. The earlier set pieces properly foreshadow later revelations. The later set pieces build upon the previously established concepts. The characters’ development is a legit development - growth they undergo as the result of experiences they lived through. Even the bizarre fanservice eventually has a narrative purpose (to make you feel bad, Emergence-style). The gun that hangs on the wall in the first act might be purple and shaped like a dildo - but it still fires in the third act like it’s supposed to.

To reiterate, this is a show that rescues itself from mediocrity by being unique (obnoxious) enough to notice it. It’s pros are a solid mystery element, decent character designs, and unique ecchi comedy of varying cringe-worthiness. It’s cons are below-average production values and a slow start with the first ~8 episodes that probably should have been 4 episodes instead.

8/10 for “At least it tries.”

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 24, 2020

810Teams

Not Recommended

“You are the ace I chose.” - Hina

A world ruled by numbers, you gain and lose points for specific things you do. The concept starts out interesting and promising, but the execution of the idea is badly done.

Story - 2/10
When you have a bunch of ideas and want to create something full flavor but what you did is you pour everything in together without proper filtering or organization, Plunderer is a result of that. Compared to food, it looks like a product of someone who doesn’t know how to properly cook.

Plunderer is messy and full of mysteries. Mysteries are getting revealed one by one throughout ... the story. While some revelations make sense, but some are way too absurd. They are way too convenient to be a coincidence, making me think the world is too small, probably not a way to connect everything together. In addition, some mysteries are not being explained properly, they are more like a rough explanation in order to be able to say that the show is not totally illogical.

The overall story is a serious theme but containing multiple weird and off-themed moments, such as cooking competition or drinking competition between characters who were just fighting each other to death.

Animation - 5/10
The animation quality is at the standard level but contains obvious flaws, which are stiff action scenes and intentional chibi-style art. In some scenes of Plunderer, the art turned characters into chibi-style, which I find not necessary, they resemble a lazy work.

Sound - 7/10
Standard theme songs and soundtracks. I am not a sound expert, so I would say that I find nothing outstanding and nothing bugged me.

Characters - 3/10
Plunder gave me a bad first impression. Licht Bach, a portrayal of a true pervert, who wanted to see Hina’s underwear at the first met, which she was a total stranger to Licht at that time. Normal ecchi is fine, but sexual harassment is not something to impress audiences with.

As mentioned in the story section, mysteries are getting revealed one by one throughout the story but having too much coincidence. Those mysteries involve characters and their relationships, which are mostly not convincing in a level that reading spoilers from Fandom does not ruin your enjoyment, but instead become more interesting.

After all, the characters of Plunderer are only tools to make the story proceed. The writing does not make characters important at all. Characters may have a background and unique personality, but their personality has no effect or has nothing to do with the story, which makes them easily replaceable.

Enjoyment - 3/10
The only thing that was able to keep me watching this show is the concept, which nevertheless did not get a proper explanation. I only wanted to see which direction would this mess go.

Recommendations
I do not recommend this to any people who are familiar with anime. If you are still new to anime, Plunder is something you may be able to enjoy.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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