Bakumatsu

Yet another gender-targeting anime series I guess... (How many has it been?)

And out of the gender-focus based shows of 2018, Spring's Nil Admirari is my clear favourite, while Senjuushi and others like this are watchable, just that there's nothing pretty much to say about it. Heck, this really isn't bad, but the amount of hits and misses balance each other out just nicely.

I was constantly trying to think about the similarities between this and other relevant series to it for a long 3 months, and yeap, this has similar backbones to the Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru series - Evil forces pull the Steins;Gate troupe of turning ... back time to change the past into the oh-so-desired world, and there's ONLY 2 main characters who can stop their nefarious plans. In another context, there are many male characters, where as Touken Ranbu went with the handsome men-sword existence, Bakumatsu changes that into the different light bandings of the male characters (and for what reason, I really don't know, go play the game to find out). Other similar findings are that they're always being friends and rivals for some discernable reason I really cannot figure out. The entire mobile app game was only released in Japan, so that eliminates our chances of seeing the orignal source material, so yeap.

The story was meh but not bad I guess. With VN-game adaptations, the source material was the 1 girl to many guys, but for this they decided to ramp it up and change it into the Steins;Gate (or much rather the Touken Ranbu formula), which I definitely will welcome this change against the former. It follows 2 MCs (and the other barrage of males) Kogorou Katsura and Shinsaku Takasugi, out to steal the artifact that would become the timepiece that can manipulate time for the government. Alas, it fell into another person's hands (their master's apparently) and the seeds of time were quickly replaced...so, with the time change but the same mission, it's redeeming time for both Shinsaku and Katsura to end this by hook or by crook. Nothing original nor captivating, but decently gripping the viewer in spite of trying to make out everything that is going on.

The characters are one lot way too many, even for an otome styled series, and for once I can pair this series up with Senjuushi for the same troupe that has caused the main culprit problem: characterization. But hold on, where Senjuushi fails is where Bakumatsu got that formula somehow right with the decent amount of execution. Susanoo, the Shinsengumi serving the evil forces, right down to Seimei with the same ability of time travel that serves as a gateway for both MCs to fight all the way to their cause.

I have never been impressed on Studio Deen's low budget art and animation, and though that is always a pre-warning to every Studio Deen series that I have come to expect, its effect on this series is really OK at best. For what the series was from initial to end, it served only to show and tell, and that is where things got through, so good job on that. Animation is as similar to Pierrot's where just the right amount of stuff is needed to captivate the story enough. Same goes to the music, MIKOTO's OP is just as good, if not OK, and Eri Sasaki comes back for a duo ED, which with her melodic and soothing voice is great as always. OST a bit lacking, but who cares really?

In the end, as much as I can appreciate the source material change, for one it is unfortunately lacking, but if you have the energy to stick to the plot and the character drama, you'll get something out of it. But for me, it just doesn't work to a T.

Bakumatsu is really intriguing.

I love the genre and especially the era so I quickly jumped into it. It's beautiful and the characters are endearing.

I would describe this first season as okay, average. The fights are surprisingly nice and everything seems logical, it's fluid, and even if the story can sometimes seem to get a little lost, the atmosphere and the relationship between our two protagonists makes up for its flaws. However, not enough to go beyond 5.

A little bonus point for the antagonist that I really liked. To better describe the anime and better reflect my rating of 5, I would say that it is ... a flower that finished watering after a week. Starts off well, but passable.