Back Arrow

The world of Lingalind is surrounded by a mystical wall with seemingly nothing beyond its confines. Worshipped as the mother of the land, the wall delivers celestial gift capsules called "Rakuho'' to locations across the continent. Arriving once a month, the capsules contain metallic armbands that allow the wearer to transform into a mechanical being known as a "Briheight." As a result, Lingalind is thrown into constant turmoil by its warring nations, all hoping to strengthen their military prowess by procuring the offerings for themselves.

One day, a Rakuho crash-lands in the countryside with an unexpected inhabitant—a mysterious black-haired man. All eyes are set on this strange newcomer, who calls himself "Back Arrow," when he claims to have hailed from a place beyond the wall—a revelation that can potentially unravel Lingalind's entire dogmatic foundation.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Okiayu, Ryoutarou
Japanese

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Oowada, Tomoyuki

Producer

Cai, Ailian

Producer

Hasegawa, Yoshinori

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Taniguchi, Gorou

Director, Original Creator

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Opening Theme

	"dawn" by LiSA
	2: "Kodou (鼓動)" by Eir Aoi (eps 13-)

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Ending Theme

	"Sekai no Hate (セカイノハテ)" by Shuka Saitou
	2: "United Sparrows" by FLOW (eps (eps 13-??))

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Jun 18, 2021

SingleH

Recommended

A naked idiot who doesn’t even remember his own name falls out of the sky, gets called a dumb bastard (a “baka yarou”), mishears the insult, and decides, yup, that’s my name: Back Arrow. And if that didn’t at least make you smile, then you don’t know how to have fun.

Back Arrow feels like it stepped out of a time capsule from the early 2000s, certainly not made with today’s audiences in mind, and it so boldly, delightfully embodies all that makes writer Kazuki Nakashima and director Taniguchi Goro stand out, it’s hard to even tell where one of them ends and the other begins. ... But this isn’t even criticism. Back Arrow holds in its heart all the influences which its old and storied creators carry, but it’s not trying to outdo any of them. It’s not trying to be their newest, greatest masterpiece, and if anything it seems instead to want to refine its predecessors down to their most essential elements and walk away with a simpler, more laid-back, innocent experience. There’s Gurren Lagann in the dialogue, bits of s.CRY.ed in the action, tons of Gun x Sword weaved throughout the entire presentation, and even an energy similar to Goro’s episodes of G Gundam all wrapped up in one creative package, and the result will certainly be a rare treat to any other boomers like me longing for the good old days where anime was more about reckless creativity than it was about chasing trends and optimizing algorithms.

The comedy, the simplicity, the straightforwardness, and the lack of any particularly pretentious elements make this show feel so genuine. So many shows nowadays seem to allocate what little thought and effort was actually put into them toward crafting an attention-grabbing premise to hook the audience, but one which, nevertheless, simultaneously panders to them with all the same recycled tropes which the producers behind the show know the masses will love and pay for, but Back Arrow doesn’t care about having a mind-blowing premise it’ll never deliver on, because it can simply endear the audience naturally with genuinely likable characters and actually funny dialogue, or interest them in its original setting. It doesn’t need to open with that one crazy cut of animation to serve as a promise for the action to come or that one cute waifu who’s merch is available now, because unlike its contemporaries, it isn’t built to go on forever, print as many volumes as it can, or set-up for next season. It’s just a traditional story which gets to have actual character development because the entire story has been thought out from beginning to end.

And I know you didn’t ask for my appraisal of the current anime landscape and are here to read about the naked idiot, first name Back, last name Arrow, but I’d argue the creators feel the same way I do, and they’re way less apologetic about it than I am. The name “Studio VOLN” is an acronym for the phrase, “Visiting Old, Learn New.” Sure, the English is a bit broken, but the intention is clear. This studio is comprised of individuals who either lament the current direction of anime and who wish to return it to its classic roots which they find more favorable, or perhaps individuals who just love retro shit THAT much, and this becomes crystal clear looking through their catalog. After MAPPA devolved into a nightmarish corporate hellscape shortly after its founding, Masao Maruyama and others like him fled the studio they just worked so hard to create to try again, and these individuals went on to make Studio VOLN and Studio M2, where they’re adapting decades old manga like Onihei and Karakuri Circus whilst also helping other equally old men make their own original oddities like Back Arrow, and the last thing they care about is profit.

Much like VOLN’s other projects, this show isn’t exactly gorgeous, but it’s overflowing with artistic soul no matter which way you slice it. Back Arrow is set in a world surrounded by impassably high, impenetrably thick walls whom those living inside revere as godly structures, and to even think about climbing over them is a grievous sacrilege. So when our naked baka yarou falls from the sky claiming to be from the world beyond, tension and conflict begins to stir around him between the two major nation states occupying the world and waging war against one another with Briheights, mechas which manifest from the pilot’s conviction. As if you needed me to tell you, this style of conceptual storytelling is so Kazuki Nakashima it hurts, and considering the fact the different factions are delineated entirely via their costume design, with the Kingdom of Lutoh dressing in Nineteenth Century English, the Empire of Rekka dressing in Classical Chinese, and our main characters from Edger Village dressing in Western Cowboy, Taniguchi Goro’s influence is just as pervasive, but the whole point of this was to talk about the production.

Back Arrow looks fine. The Briheights are 3D, and there’s a ton of ‘em, but the creators really show their experience on this front, as they made all the right decisions regarding CG animation which so many other studios and staffers refuse to learn despite Production IG teaching the world back in 2002 and Studio Orange reminding everyone again in 2017. They didn’t cap the frame rate, the compositing is perfect, and the models aren’t over-detailed, so if you were to take a still image, its simplicity may even make it appear hand-drawn to the undiscerning eye. The 2D animation isn’t mind-blowing, but given the sheer amount of detail in the character designs, the modest fluidity they maintain is honestly impressive. Back Arrow has a beautiful art style, with memorable mechanical design and eye-catching colors, and while the backgrounds can fluctuate drastically in their detail, they always keep the aesthetic in mind and never look as egregiously digital as your average anime’s. Overall, the lack of money and manpower is always apparent, but its visuals nonetheless remain consistently engaging through raw personality & passion.

Nakashima’s beginnings as a playwright really shine through every moment of Back Arrow. Every character is someone you actually want to see and who’s time on screen, just like an actor’s time on stage, never feels wasted. Nakashima has always wielded Chekhov's Gun with grace, and if the conviction-powered Briheights didn’t remind you of Gurren Lagann’s will-powered Gunmans or Kill la Kill’s authenticity-powered Goku Uniforms, then let me assure you he still likes his themes to permeate every element of his stories. Despite Goro’s energetic, Saturday Morning Cartoon, all-ages accessibility, Back Arrow is still far better written than a great deal of anime out there, no matter how old or allegedly mature their target audience, because it actually feels like it was written by a writer, not an otaku who has never left their room and who can only create their hackneyed manga or light novel because real artists such as Goro and Nakashima inspired them to with the legendary works they made all those years ago, many of which aforementioned. While juvenile and increasingly ridiculous, Back Arrow is yet another inspiration I’m truly thankful for.

Nyron wrote an excellent preliminary review for this series which I highly recommend everyone go read. In fact, this review was so good and said everything I wanted to say so comprehensively, I debated even writing my own review. He concluded by describing Back Arrow as an “epitaph written on the grave of better times,” and I couldn’t possibly have said it better myself. The average modern anime fan doesn’t want to watch something smart or heady, but they also can’t just watch a shounen anime with their brain turned off without feeling insecure, and they have to be able to tell themselves it’s somehow above the common masses. They have to be able to say, no, My Hero Academia, Dr. Stone, Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen doesn’t just come off the WSJ assembly line, it has an admirable main character who totally worked for his power and wasn’t just handed his teenage male power fantasy, a real and educational understanding of science which totally isn’t the single most embarrassing and sophomoric display of pseudo-intellect in the anime medium, beautiful artwork which isn’t just Ufotable layering CG and digital effects with enough bloom and post-production filters to give a blind man epileptic seizures, heavy amounts of awesome fight sequences who’s blatant lack of sakuga in-betweens and consistent key animation check is totally just an artistic choice by the animation staff and not a side effect of MAPPA’s well-known crunch time scheduling. Back Arrow doesn’t have any of that vanity, and while I could hardly fault anyone who is simply looking for something more serious, the overwhelmingly negative reception of this show is nothing if not a sign of the times.

Thank you for reading.

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Jun 18, 2021

GolbeztheGreat

Recommended

If this show deserves any credit, it's probably for being the most underrated anime of 2021 thus far.

Back Arrow is a quirky series that may be a hard sell for audiences only interested in following the hottest modern anime trends, but its craziness can become quite charming and enjoyable for those with a more old-school sensibility and openeness for the mecha genre in particular.

Which, to be sure, is exactly what you should expect from the combination of Kazuki Nakashima and Goro Taniguchi, since they are creators whose styles and tastes are reflected in the kind of low-intensity madness that Back Arrow has embraced.

At its ...

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Jun 18, 2021

Pyro81300

Recommended

Spoiler

--NO MAJOR SPOILERS are in this review—

Alas, poor Back Arrow. This show is a hidden gem that between it’s somewhat slow and rather generic start along with being in an extremely stacked season made many drop the show and rate it rather low. Understandably so, as I would consider the first 7 or so eps the weakest part of BA. However, around ep 8 onwards BA slowly but surely becomes a very satisfying slow burn series that just gets more and more spectacular as time goes on.

Back Arrow is just pure, simple fun. It’s a good old story about humans initially fighting each other, only ...

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Poll: Back Arrow Episode 2 Discussion KANLen09 - Jan 15, 2021	49 replies	by lotas120 »» Dec 25, 2022 2:21 AM
Poll: Back Arrow Episode 24 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Jun 18, 2021	52 replies	by DangerMouseDM »» Nov 26, 2022 8:12 PM
Poll: Back Arrow Episode 19 Discussion Stark700 - May 14, 2021	29 replies	by tinker3bellz1 »» Nov 22, 2022 11:45 PM
Poll: Back Arrow Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) tsubasalover - Jan 8, 2021	105 replies	by Lawgun »» Feb 7, 2022 12:10 PM
Poll: Back Arrow Episode 20 Discussion Stark700 - May 21, 2021	26 replies	by Catalano »» Dec 23, 2021 3:54 PM

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