Journey: Taiko Arabia Hantou de no Kiseki to Tatakai no Monogatari

From the south of the Arabian Peninsula, the great General Abraha and his mighty army trample their way north to the holy city of Mecca. Their demands are ruthless: Mecca's surrender, its people's enslavement, and the Kaaba's destruction. Despite advice to withdraw and save themselves, a few brave Meccan men remain to fight. Among them is Aws Ibn Jubair, a humble potter who abandoned a life of sin to dedicate himself to honor and faith.

As the enemy troops approach in the dead of night, the vastly outnumbered Meccans work to raise morale. The night takes an unexpected shift with the reappearance of an atheist mercenary named Zurara—Aws' old accomplice who never went straight. Although Zurara joins only for food and pay, the intriguing tale of Aws' path to religion convinces him that Mecca is worth protecting. Bracing for the inevitable bloodbath, the two former friends reunite to defend the only land and faith that allow them to truly forgive themselves.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ibn Jubair, Aws Main

Furuya, Toru Japanese

Zurara Main

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Nizar Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Muttalib Supporting

Hisham Supporting

Hawkab Supporting

Musab Supporting

Nakai, Kazuya Japanese

Hind Supporting

Mitsuishi, Kotono Japanese

Abraha Supporting

Kuroda, Takaya Japanese

Hirasawa, Nao Producer

Oogami, Yuuma Producer

Shizuno, Koubun Director

Aketagawa, Jin Sound Director

Reviews

Oct 1, 2021

Ozenem

Recommended

The Journey.. this Anime i been waiting for a long time and finally I had Chance to watch it.

The way they telling the story in this anime I didn't like that. I know story it's from Quran but I felt little boring and they telling us the stories like it's a kids animation not adults that what I felt so I give (7/10) for the story.

Thank you Toei Animation for drawing a masterpiece Art Even the art is nothing like New Anime films and series but I really love it.

This Anime got a great Characters and Voice Actors. Every Main Character looks brave and Manly ... also their voice suit their Characters.

The Most Thing let me enjoyed this Anime film is Fighting Scenes. I really loved fighting Scenes with swords and that made me excited while watching this Anime I give it (9/10) for Enjoyment of this Film.

It's good anime as a beginning I really loved to see Anime where not in Japan and I so happy that Manga Production Team up with Toei Animation to create this Film.

I Rate this film (7/10) I hope to see a better Manga Production Anime Series and Films.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jul 8, 2021

Yarub

Mixed Feelings

Well-written

As of the writing of the review, only two projects are attributed to Manga Productions (including this project) so keep that in mind for the rest of the review. Toei Animations does not need any introduction. I watched the original Arabic version.

The Journey is an ambitious but flawed experience. It is ambitious because it gambles its reception over the audience's acceptance or interest in Arabic culture. There is very little to take from the film if you're already well acquainted with Arabic culture and the Quranic legends. As a person who lived through and heard all those stories multiple times in his life, I'd say ... I felt conflicted while watching the movie; there is the joy in having a legendary story animated in Japanese style, and the boredom of knowing exactly how the story will pan out.

Starting with the premise of the film, it's an ode to Surah Al-Fil taken directly from the Quran as source material. The film also utilizes several other short stories to give the film the illusion of depth, but we'll take more about that soon enough. The story itself is adequate, it stays true to the source material and provides sufficient information at all stages without taking too much off the experience. What disrupts the enjoyment, however, are the short stories that are included to give the viewer this false sense of depth; the stories themselves do not add anything to the story, in fact, the film would probably be better received removing them altogether. They really cheaped out on them, and the stories (3 of them, if I recall correctly) are essentially glorified slideshows with decent art. They are mainly used as ideas that characters use to extract wisdom, motivation, and stoical qualities for application. The detail in them is great and appreciated, but the length it took them to divulge that information results in extreme boredom, where the viewer wishes the segment to end as quickly as possible.

The art, to me, resembles the western adaptations of anime (Netflix adaptations and originals) more than the traditional Japanese productions. It focuses more on aesthetics rather than quality of the animation. Much of the fight scenes were anti-climactic because they were extremely brief and have no momentum to deliver.

Voice acting for the Arabic dubs was unexpectedly good. The script of the dialogues was fun to hear and dissect because the characters converse using Classical Arabic (unspoken Arabic that is present and known only in texts, it was replaced by the more modernized version: Standard Arabic), and expresses itself more like stanzas in an elegant poem rather than just plain statements. This is usually the product of well-written Arabic prose.

There is not much to say about the characters themselves, they are bare-bones and much of the cast simply exists because, well, the directors shoved them in there. Quantity over quality. The designs were average, while some characters looked pretty good; nothing much to be said about them. However, it is important to note that several historically accurate characters weren't given the time they deserved, such as the main antagonist, Abraha, for example.

I viewed this movie with a friend of mine in the pandemic—we were the only persons in the theatre hall. I believe this greatly enhanced the experience. The enjoyment that can be taken from this anime would be the strict historical and cultural qualities, other than that, it is your average run-of-the-mill moderate budget anime movie.

To conclude, this anime is an okay watch. If you're interested in the legends it depicts, go for it. If you're wishing to watch the stories you read in text your whole life come to life in animation (and presentation, but I digress), then go for it. If you're looking for a unique experience that will leave you satisfied in virtue of the sheer quality of the product, then this is not for you.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jun 25, 2021

Salim3ateeji

Not Recommended

The Journey is an animation set around the story of the Elephant from the Quran, knowing that I entered to watch the movie with conflicted thoughts as going the religious route for a first anime by Manga Productions was a bold move.

Story-

It's a story from the Quran so there wasn't much of a surprise of what I expected. Unfortunately with that in mind the animation was bound to very severe constraints on what they could do.

Art-

The art was amazing in my opinion, nothing too wacky that deserves a 10 but it was decent. The major downfall in this anime was the pathetic powerpoint slides for ... memory sequences... the whole point of an anime is to well... animate, so watching powerpoint slides to explain something unrelated to the main plot was unnecessary. If the entire movie excluded those PP slides I think the movie would've been much better.

Sound-

Interesting sound choices, very Arabic. Nothing much to say.

Character-

This movie completely failed in anything character related, I disliked every character as they fail to make you care about anyone and 99% of the characters just shouldn't have existed as they literally added nothing. The anti-hero or whatever you call the "bad guy that turns good" was so out of place, I get that it's an anime but he didn't fit the scene at all with the white hair and blue clothes and his backstory was super lame [SPOILER] He saved the protagonist and made him escape from imprisonment, then he gets made that he actually escaped... what? The only cool character was the war general wearing a red scarf and guess what, he's the only character which they said nothing about, and that's what made him the most fun.

Enjoyment-

Like I said the story was limited because it's a story from the Quran. This shouldn't have been their first choice for an anime because you lose all the freedom with the possibilities. Watching the movie didn't get me excited.

Summary-

I wouldn't recommend watching this specific movie but I would keep an eye on their future works. I hope they would expand past religious stories because I do believe they can do much better if they let their creativity flow wild. ALSO NO MORE PP SLIDES please...

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Journey: Taiko Arabia Hantou de no Kiseki to Tatakai no Monogatari Episode 1 Discussion FMmatron - Oct 1, 2021	21 replies	by YahiyaX777L »» Jun 30, 1:57 AM
	Just my opinion about this anime Drakath_V - Oct 6, 2021	9 replies	by aniart_nation »» Apr 10, 5:38 PM
	Does anyone know where to watch this? dowoma - Aug 2, 2021	5 replies	by Omaevamoshinderu »» Jan 7, 2023 1:20 PM
	What are your thoughts about it as a Muslim? ser_ene - Jul 14, 2021	17 replies	by FluffyCakeChan »» Dec 27, 2021 3:37 PM
	important and recommendation Hhguf - Oct 12, 2021	0 replies	by Hhguf »» Oct 12, 2021 8:59 AM