Hoshi no Samidare

Bottom of the Biscuit Hammer Barrel.

Studio NAZ doesn't have the best track record when it comes to making anime. Although it does have the genuinely amazing Sabikui Bisco firmly in its win column, it also has that anime about the loser who accidentally gets himself a cinnamon roll gal girlfriend and spends the majority of his time trying not to cheat on her (the dub is admittedly hilarious), and that other anime about the sister who writes about wanting to fuck her brother, and who’s source material and production was so awful to work on that the animation staff added a literal plea for help ... in the ED.

Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer is nowhere near the My Sister, My Writer level of 1/10 which is closer to zero, but with its unlikable characters, incredibly pedestrian story, Poe-faced voice acting and an overall piss-coloured gradient which in conjunction with its awful art and animation might make you feel sick or at least give you a headache by just looking at the show for too long, it’s cutting it real close.

Now in fairness, I did sort of like the premise of the first episode even if it was a mess. The premise of an entity telling some random asshole he's the chosen one and bestowing power unto him without checking whether or not he would use his power for good or if he’s a good person who’d listen to your "save the world" plight or if he’s even mentally put together at all is a cool concept in theory. However, when the one giving the power and the endless exposition dump is the ugliest and most ear-grating-sounding lizard I’ve ever seen or heard in any anime ever, it is difficult to care about anything the show wants me to care about.
I’m totally on the main protagonist Amamyia's side when he spends the entire first episode dismissing the plot and being an unlikable asshole until he gets attacked by a... drawing of a thing and gets rescued by a 12-year-old girl who lives next door to him and does a character 180 by pledging his loyalty to her and starts calling her 'Princess' *vomits* without a hint of irony. He is also implied to have romantic feelings towards her even though he is… a college student… So now he's just an unlikable lolicon who has to train to save the world from a giant hammer in the sky, but secretly they’re going to destroy the world themselves because they hate the world and his uncle abused him… and… yeah…

Update: I've been informed that Asahina or "Princess" *vomits* is 16, not 12 which is my mistake for not being informed, but changes very little about my opinion of the anime... cus it's still garbage.

Look, I’ve sat through 4 episodes of this crap to give it a fair chance. It is another poorly made adaption of a manga that is surprisingly highly rated, but in reality, is another edgy seinen story that mistakes edgy content and humour for mature writing. The characters suck, it’s unappealing to look at and to watch in action, the same sort of story has been told by other, better anime and manga, and worst of all it’s so unfuckably boring. A better animation team might have been able to at least keep my interest until the end of the season, but for what it is now I’m bringing down the Biscuit Hammer on Lucifer.

Update: I have now read the manga and it's very good so I take back most of what I said in that final paragraph. However, it still doesn't change the fact that the anime is still 100%, absolute shit, plus it makes the manga less enjoyable to read if you watched the anime beforehand, so my score is reinforced and there's no amount of copium fans can take to change that.

1/10 The Worst.

Truly a missed opportunity. A beloved manga finally got an anime adaptation, and while the story was genuinely very solid, the show was hampered by one of the poorest productions this year, with soulless visuals and terrible CG. With even average production, I believe this could have been one of my favourites of the year, and while animation isn’t the thing I find most important when watching something, when it’s abhorrently bad, it ruins the whole experience.

STORY:

What frustrated me the most when I was watching this was that the plot was very decent, but because of the poor production, it was hard to find anything ... really meaningful, even if there were some genuinely good moments here, especially in the second half. The story was quite simple, with Amamiya Yuuhi, a very despondent boy, meeting Asahina Samidare, a girl with hopes to destroy the world. Each character in the story other than Samidare has a creature accompanying them, which made for interesting interactions. There was a lot of potential here, just wasted because of the animation.

ART:

Need I say more? The action animation was laughable and soulless, with the CG being terribly done. It was truly the bare minimum of efforts.

MUSIC:

Surprisingly, I did find the music direction to be rather solid, with some of the music being quite catchy during the fights. The second opening was also quite standout.

CHARACTERS:

The cast was big and not many of the characters were developed well other than the main characters. Yuuhi was very weak to start, but with his experiences throughout the series along with the people he met supporting him, he became one of the strongest characters in the end. There was also some interesting stories about his family, which could have been fleshed out more, but to be honest, most of the characters needed more development. Samidare could have been another good character, but this adaptation just rushed things, so some of her impactful moments didn’t hit like they could have.

Some of the supporting cast had quite a few good moments as well, especially the younger kids, who I really grew to like in the second half.

ENJOYMENT:

I was sleeping during the first half, and I did minimally enjoy the second half of the story.

THEMATIC EXECUTION:

With the soulless production, nothing really impacted me like it could have. The sad parts did absolutely nothing for me, and some of the other themes that were explored could have been so much better. Even the comedy just felt cringe. Such a shame.

OVERALL:

I feel like I’m repeating myself over and over, but this was such an opportunity wasted. There was something potentially good here, but it just got ruined by the ugliness of the production. Once in a while, a manga gets butchered like this, and it’s always sad when it happens.

Since MAL has cunningly started showing review ratings at the very bottom, here's mine - 8.
I've never read any of the long reviews on this site, thus not interested in writing one.

Story & Dialogue - Great. Awesome concept, dialogues, story, as well as the jokes.
Animation - Yuck. Though I understand it's been made by a starting out studio, the animation is barely bearable. Extremely jarring at times, to weird transition of characters.
Sound - Sometimes decent, other times, not so much. Didn't feel the tension during some of the fight sequences, though it could've been coz of a combo of sound and animation
Characters - Don't quite ... understand the naive princess thought process, but others are okay

So obviously, this one has some serious issues to solve which would allow its strong plot to shine. Does it deserve an 8 then? It would've probably been a 6-7 any other day, but I can't bear to watch it's 5.xx rating. The studio took a huge risk by trying to animate a highly rated manga. I understand the frustration of manga readers coming here with high expectations, but at the same time I'd any day prefer a good story with bad animation rather than the other way around (Yofukashi no Uta, with 8.xx).
This was my thought process for its high rating and I'd sincerely hope that you'd give it a chance.

As many of you already know, Hoshi no Samidare's anime adaption has been very poorly received, disappointing manga fans around the world. While I understand and empathize with this perspective, I am going to provide a perspective and critique from the point of view of someone who's only watched the anime and knows nothing about the manga. (No spoilers in this review)

To start with, I'll address the most obvious negative issue:

Hoshi no Samidare has some of the worst animation I've seen in years, making some of the most serious action scenes border on comically bad, often breaking your suspension of disbelief, interfering with not only ... the action but the storytelling as well.

That said, beyond the terrible animation there's the core of an interesting world with an engaging story, likable characters and some interesting concepts. While the core style of "People with super powers fight bad guy to save the world," is certainly not unique, the delivery of the story as a whole uses enough unique characteristics that it doesn't ever feel like "Oh it's just this other show with a couple of details changed." A few of the things I really liked:

- The chemistry between the main characters, particularly in the earlier parts of the story.

- There's a broad range of ages in the hero group and it makes for a more interesting dynamic than you get from the typical "all teens/early 20s" casts that are all too common.

- In an era of overpowered isekai characters, the cast of Hoshi no Samidare's powers feel, somehow refreshingly, underwhelming. This creates a lot more suspense around battles, where you find yourself genuinely wondering if everyone's going to make it through alive.

- Lastly, while not entirely unique to this series, I felt that there was a lot of thought and care put into the characters and their relationships with each other. While not the depth you'd find in a character-driven drama, it gives more than you'd expect from your average saving-the-world anime.

If I were to offer a critique about the storytelling, it's that, while the main story is relatively easy to follow and flows well enough, it feels like some of its sub-threads are neglected, left incomplete, or hastily concluded. Overall it feels like there are quite a few cases where there's an interesting series of interactions between characters and they aren't followed through with in a way that makes the best use of their potential. Even some of the chemistry between the main characters, which is a pretty central part of the story in the beginning, feels a bit stifled if not overwhelmed by the weight of all of the other threads the show is trying to keep up with.

In conclusion, would I recommend Hoshi no Samidare? Only if you can say yes to both of these:

- Like me, you're not really a manga reader. (If you are, the near-universal consensus is that its manga is much better, so go read it).
- This is the sort of show you like and your interest has been piqued enough by this review that you're willing to give it a chance despite its shortcomings.

Overall, while this was, by far not the best anime I've watched, I genuinely enjoyed Hoshi no Samidare despite its shortcomings.

I have a deep respect for Satoshi Mizukami. You might know the famed mangaka from some of his well-known unorthodox works like Spirit Circle, Planet With, and now Hoshi no Samidare a.k.a Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, arguably his first work that ever got any traction back in the mid-2000s, seralizing between 2005 to 2010 and spanning 65 chapters throughout 10 volumes. However, for every good thing that happens in life, there is one bad apple, and that's finding people to actually create anime adaptations of his works, which for the most part, he got the short end of the stick.

Similar to Planet With, Hoshi ... no Samidare I would argue is the origin story of Satoshi Mizukami's unconventional writing and exposition, and it takes a fairly big brain to understand that the plot armour genericness may be there, but it's layered with a sense of intention and purpose. Like, will you find yourself waking up and seeing that an animal is talking to you with a plea to save the world from ruin? Absolutely no sane human would ever want to be involed in this multi-layered planetary fiasco, but this is what happened to the unassuming Yuuhi Amamiya: chosen as a Beast Knight, a magical warrior destined to help a princess defeat a mage seeking to destroy the world with a giant mallet floating in space, called the Biscuit Hammer. For that to happen, the identification of the major players has to be in quick succession, and Amamiya finds himself in a clutch when he learns that Samidare Asahina, his next-door neighbour, is chosen as the princess in this world-saving plan, but with a twist: to save the world and destroy it herself. You can instantly infer this to the series' title alone: the Biscuit Hammer is the first calamity of the world, but Lucifer a.k.a the Devil doesn't get revealed until the source material's final stages, though it's subtly built up between the chosen princess and her servant that would be Amamiya himself. You have to bear in mind that this was written back in the mid-2000s, and back then, it was unlike anything else on the market at the time when AniManga was at the "Wild Wild East" of exploring stages of what works and what doesn't, certainly not at the levels of the AniManga scene that we have today where anything and everything is predictable at best.

Regardless, with such writing comes characters that will feel like the typical Seinen showcases at the time, and this is mainly used for the plot alone, which evolves at the rate of Satoshi Mizukami's signature twists and turns:
- The chosen princess Samidare, chosen by the guardian protector Anima to defend against the Mage that is Animus
- The Lizard Knight Amamiya with Noi Crescent (God I love TsudaKen's voice, though he sounds very different than he usually is)
- The Dog Knight Hangetsu Shinonome with Saw
- The Crow Knight Mikazuki Shinonome with Muu
- The Snake Knight Yayoi Hakudou with Sia
- The Horse Knight Souichirou Nagumo with Dance Dark
- The Cat Knight Hyou Shimaki with Kuh
- The Owl Knight Taiyou Akane with Loki Helios
- The Turtle Knight Yukimachi Tsukishiro with Long Yue
- The Rooster Knight Subaru Hoshikawa with Ly Soleil
- The Mouse Knight Tarou Kusakabe with Lance Lumiere
- The Mantis Knight Hanako Sorano with Kir Sonne
- The Swordfish Knight Akitani Inatika with Zan Qamar

When you watch a Satoshi Mizukami work, be prepared for the unexpected, even if its cliche as heck. And on the contrary that Amamiya feels like the typical MC acting on everyone's whims, that he's fighting for his own battles as well. He's a multi-faceted character in the regard that he works best for whatever drives him, such as the case of helping Samidare reach her status of destroying Earth but the Biscuit Hammer first to be dealh with by being her loyal servant. His story and background may reek of the overly clicheness of today's standards, but it was really something of times past. Even towards Samidare, her idealism of a world where she is not without her own issues as well, as a kid, you would have a sense of feeling that you want the whole world in your hands. And her idea of humanity's detonation may sound weird and out of place, but it's her driving force of growing up as an adult and learning to deal with its problems while fending off against the Mage is that is Animus with his many golems and powers determined by how many eyes it has. The other Beast Knights do have their quirky and affirmation moments as well, which at times, felt more pronounced and layered in the anime, building up what has already been proposed in the manga. And with the right direction, the anime can feel elevated building up upon the manga's foundation to make for some good scenes.

However, I'm sure that you already know the elephant in the room: the absymal production values from studios NAZ and Jumondo, being a production cooperation job that's handled by Jumondo's director Nobuaki Nakanishi, whom has previously helmed Spring's Kono Healer, Mendokusai a.k.a Don't Hurt Me, My Healer!. And yeah, it looked ugly as molasses with the aforementioned janky CGI that felt very out of place and is easily the aspect which dishonours the much-praised manga to oblivion. An interesting thing to note is that Satoshi Mizukami originally wanted the anime adaptation to come out much earlier, at the time when the manga first got serialized, but wasn't greenlit due to a lack of sponsors. And so, after waiting 15 odd years or so to finally get an anime that looked like this, feels like a major disservice even to the mangaka himself, which he is supervising the scriptwriting for the anime. It's a legit pain when your own series gets the treatment that it should not have been deserved, and that was my fear back then in Summer 2018 when J.C.Staff's Planet With looked mediocre at best.

The music...is pretty much forgettable IMO. All of the theme songs used for the show is largely mediocre, except when it comes to the OPs, which saw Raon's debut into J-Pop with the 2nd half's OP, being the typical J-Rock at best. The only theme song that I really liked and came to love was Half time Old's 1st OP, and even if the visuals were just scrawny scenes and illustrations taken from both the manga and anime, the whole song as a vibe to it that really resonates with me. It's laughable 5 months back when the song's official MV came out on YouTube, and people commented that the MV had more animation than the show itself, which is ironically true.

Hoshi no Samidare makes Planet With look like a win, only in the visual department. Everything else was just downgrades over the manga, and I can already hear you say that "Please don't tell us to read the manga and avoid the anime!". But this is the sobering truth, the manga is so well-detailed and flourished in its nuances that the anime just couldn't overcome its major faults, from the terribad animation to omitting the signatures of the source material (i.e., the panty shots). I truly want to believe that Satoshi Mizukami's legacy would have a certain degree of level of respect given, but if this is what we are gonna get when one day Spirit Circle gets an anime in the future, I would advise you to run away and never look back.

This show deserves better, without a doubt, because Satoshi Mizukami's story and characters are what held the anime together. As a manga reader, it's disappointing to a degree, but it isn't all bad to be honest, but rather a hit-and/or-miss approach.

--This is a spoiler free review--

At first glance, Hoshi no Samidare looks like your average show. However, in reality, the show is actually pretty good and creative. It's about a story of a boy named Yuuhi who is just your average boy. However, he soon gets chosen to destroy the biscuit hammer because a knight that turned into a lizard (Noi) has chosen him to be one of the people to destroy the biscuit hammer.

To be honest, the premise is a unique setup that isn't a low effort copy from your usual Shonen. When you look down at the story, it's actually pretty good. ... It just looks as if it's bad, because people are hating on it. The story doesn't pop up with annoying clichés. Plot armour is sometimes used at the start of the story. It's a pretty good story, despite some use of plot armour at the start.

Good animation is important for newly adapted shows. Studio NAZ took a huge risk on adapting a loved manga, and it went wrong. The lip sync is off, the fight choreography is confusing and hard to follow, and the animation is just mediocre in general. Lots of things are cut, and transitioning's are confusing.

The sound mostly fits every scene. There are some sound effects that don't even appear at all. One time, a character kicked another, and there wasn't any sound.
OSTs fit literally every scene. Whether it be a simple one or an intense one. It makes the show look really chilly while you watch it. *Edit: Sometimes OSTs are too strong for what's happening or don't fit.*
The intro song is a great way to get you into the show. The intro song has a lot of bright colours and an amazing soundtrack to bring you in.
The ed song is a good way to end the episode. The soundtrack is good, the colours are great, and it's simple.
VAs work perfectly for every character. However, the acting looks so rushed and their voices are sometimes too low.
I like the characters in Hoshi no Samidare.

Yuuhi is definitely a two-dimensional character. But I think he's a solid character. His motive makes really sense (to help the princess) because of what she did to him. His character's story also makes sense and is not bland by any means. He's the motivated and dedicated character now, which is the type that is fine to me.

Samidare isn't your average teammate. She's a really strong person that wants to conquer the world? Well, that was a weird objective, but I also like Samidare's character.

I definitely enjoyed Hoshi no Samidare among all of the anime around the season. Some anime were just a "meh" while Hoshi no Samidare was a fun show to watch despite bad fight choreography and animation. Sometimes the jokes hit, sometimes it doesn't.

Hoshi no Samidare is underrated and over hated to being trash. if the fight choreography bothers you, read the manga or just watch the anime. Maybe even do both. Hoshi no Samidare definitely deserves better. Even if the animation were to be bad, is it really that bad? It's not as bad, but it's a disappointment to me as a manga reader. Some scenes feel quite soulless, but I give Hoshi no Samidare 7 Yuuhis out of 10.

Thank you for reading.

This review is written by someone who read the source material.

The premise of the show Hoshino no Samidare is that the world is about to be destroyed by a giant hammer. To stop the hammer, 12 people called the knights are picked by Princess Anima who fights the Mage. Each knight has a talking animal accompanying them that only the people involved are can see. Basically this set up is similar to a game, but not like in an isekai with video game mechanics.

Basically it is a rule of cool show with cool one liners and badass moments. There is a lot we learn ... about the lore of the mage and the princess but also about the main leads and characters. It is not very deep on all ends but for the series it works.

If you read the manga, the artstyle would remind you of cool shows like Kill la Kill, Gurren Lagann and Needless. The manga is so full of energy, it kept me hooked chapter by chapter.
Sadly that didn't translate to the anime.
Bad artstyle can be looked past if the animation wasn't stiff. Many of the most iconic moments from the series feel lifeless and lack energy you would see in the source material. Watching characters attack looks worse than some 90th sprite fighting games where the characters punch from screen to screen with a drill like attack.
However the biggest problem is pacing. A lot of things happen in an episodes and you barely get a breathing room. For instance there is a beach episode where all of them get together to have fun. In the same episode they fight the badguy. And a lot of other things happen which suppose to be important and is forgotten immediately. Nothing feels important since nothing is treated as important.

As for the characters, there will be one you will like definitively.
Samidare is a strong character because she has a goal beyond saving the world and why she does it. There is also the mystery about her relationship with Yuuhi and that she knows more than she admits.
Yuuhi is the main lead who hates the world finding a new purpose by serving Samidare the one possessed by the Princess. And how his view changes as the series goes on.
Hangetsu Shinonome is a goofy adult who also shows the other theme of the story which is the importance of growing up and the role of an adult. One of the best male characters when it comes to writing since he serves as a mentor for Samidare and Yuuhi.
Mizasuki Shinonome is the younger brother and also a knight who's goal is to surpass his brother. He appears on the surface as an annoying character but there are situations where his character shines when taking the role of a guide for the young knights.

There are a lot more including the talking animals that have their own personality and mindset. The Mage and what his real goal is. Princess Anima who wants to protect the world but can appear as someone who is just tired from all the bullshit to the point she appears incapable of socializing with her knights leading to some really good comedic moments. Even the adults who aren't knights like Samidare's elder sister, Samidare's father and Yuuhi's grandfather are characters that help out fleshing the characters involved out and providing either wisdom or go through character development.

However, the pacing is so inconsistent and the lack of taking advantage of the strength of the show properly, it fails despite having the characters and story that normally are enough to make it even great.
With all this I can't recommend watching the anime Adaptation of Hoshi no Samidare. However, if you still are interested in the premise and are intruiged by the things mentioned in the show, the best I can suggest is reading the manga. The anime cut out a lot of things that could be considered filler which they probably did in order to compromise it into 24 episodes. Without these "irrelevant" moments, there wouldn't be breathing room which a story like that still needs.

People criticize this anime a lot for its animation, I think it's extremely forgettable and barely acceptable, others its intro and ending. Although I admit that the action scenes and fights are highly objectionable, they are not well done. But for me personally, the story is what disappoints me. I haven't read the manga, but I saw several people cheering and commenting how great it was to see the story adapted. Naturally, I wanted to see it as soon as it came out, and the first chapters are entertaining, the rest is boring, as if the story just wanted to expand without contributing something ... to what was already told. Although I understand that this adaptation may disappoint manga fans, what disappointed me was the story, whether it skipped parts of the manga or not, I find the story boring, long and somewhat silly.

A tale as old as time: a MAL lurker writing their first review because an anime that they liked has a low MAL rating. However, I am going to attempt to be as succinct as possible. This is a 2 minute read. Look for a more in-depth review elsewhere.

TLDR: 8/10, worth watching if you like slow-paced action/adventure anime.
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Story: fairly unique plot that develops slowly. Good if you're looking for something different, but not super complex. Good mix of happy and sad moments. No glaring plot holes or overt cringe.

Animation: the fight scenes are choppy and uncoordinated. Other than that, its totally average. It is still ... watchable.

Characters: Very solid character development, both from the MC and supporting cast. Episodes tend to focus on a few characters at a time and delve into their backstories. The ending is conclusive.

Sound: Japanese voice acting appropriate for emotional/climactic moments. Music doesn't add or detract.

Enjoyment: if you've watched the classic action-adventure anime already and want to watch something that is different from those shows, this is a very solid watch. It isn't perfect, but greatly outperforms its MAL rating.
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Comparison: my best guess is World Trigger or Rising of the Shield Hero, but there really isn't anything similar to this anime. If you'd rather watch something fast-paced instead, both Drifters or Inuyashiki are fast-paced and have unique plots.

BAD Studio or BAD Director
Simple Story, But it leans towards being a little more interesting.
Maybe manga is good but unlucky to get a bad studio to make an anime.

I saw that the anime had an interesting plot early on. This is probably the easiest part to present. But when entering the narrative whole fight scene including cutting scenes to tell the story of each scene I think they did very badly.

Surprisingly, the content is still interesting. But the presented anime image is doing poorly in many scenes, I understand what it means. I understand the content presented, but the graphics and presentation sequence are very ... bad. Sometimes it can be seen that it doesn't pay attention by using long-distance images to zoom in close to the camera until the lines are broken.

all that said The only problem with this is that Studio sucks.

Originally, I was going to not review, or do a "don't watch" review, but towards the end decided to upgrade my 5/10 to 6/10. I had the natural disaster of flooding in my house a couple episodes, others emotional too.
Plot summary/synopsis: 3/10 (kind of dumb funny, but still)
Real Main Plot: 7/10
Episodic sub-plots for characters: 8/10
Animation: 3/10
Sounds: 6/10
Openings/Endings: 7/10 (managed to give 9/10 feeling sometimes)
Sillyness: 6/10
Main Character (male): 3/10 turned 7/10 with character development (maybe 6/10)
Side Characters: 7/10
...
Watch this if:
-fine with childishness
-fine with awful animation
-fine with dumb reasons
-Get emotional to emotional things
-Think the official trailer is attractive (just watched, is good representation and I surprisingly fell for princess too there)

DON'T watch this if:
-see above
-need "fan service" (?)
-limited on time
-can't handle death, child abuse, trauma et cetera

I probably rate this a little too highly, but I'm highly nostalgic. A lot of people said a lot of mean things in reviews...several didn't give it a proper chance cus of the title, others because they lamented over "quality". As far as the art goes...it was really faithful I think to the manga. Yes, some scenes were low quality, but all in all...for me it was the journey.

The journey was beautiful. It had happy moments. Sad moments. Moments that foreshadowed a tragedy and the cast that makes you want to root for them in spite of it. Sometimes goofy and sometimes tragic. I am ... very glad I got to see this animated, the people who pass on it without trying it for themselves or bind themselves to just "art" or whatever are missing on an amazing story. It's not particularly special in terms of how the story plays out, many will be like "I saw that coming". The point is the feels and the experience that comes with it.

I love the fact this anime is also "done" just like the stories. No cliff hanger or waiting for a next season that may or may not ever come, everything was wrapped up in the end and it was extremely satisfying. That's really all I have to say on that. Thank you for the people that worked on this and allowing me to get to see one of my favorite manga animated and telling the whole story. I am sad by the harsh reviews, but for me, this will always have a special place in my heart.

The story(anime) is trash trash trash! MAL wants us to be harsher so here goes. Art is disingenuous. Just a basic non artistic load. Characters were half way decent, and the show is so simplistic it hurts. Characters reacted in an easy to guess manner that divulged from the story. I think the vast majority will find this to be between a filler and nothingness as a waist of time.

I gave it a shot because usually a dubbed anime means it is decent to good, but no! Think the creators paid dub teams to sell it. All around bad on so many categories. Just ... happy Reincarnated as a Sword came out good. This show is scratching on the bottom, this show missed what the manga wanted. If you are like me and watch an anime bc it was dubbed, then don't bother with this. Perplexed how they sold this off as good

Here is my review of this anime in 2023!

Story (8)
The story is about a college student man and woman who got involved in whether the earth will be destroyed or not because there is a huge hammer golem near earth. Then they will meet a lot of new friends that have different animals and superpowers. The woman becomes a princess but She has a dream to destroy the earth by Herself because of some reason. On the journey, they must fight a golem to protect the earth and become strong. There are some plot twists that make this anime different than the other.

Art (5)
The art ... of this anime is fine. I like the concept of the anime but I prefer if they are using shadow, glow, other effects. Because it looks like bad CGI in the game in my opinion. They also need to make the attack effect more powerful.

Sound (7)
All the sounds they used are good and adjusted to the animation.

Character (6)
The main and supporter character is quite memorable but they can be forgotten easily if not watched after a long time...

Enjoyment (6)
It's quite enjoyable to watch this movie in 2023. There is some plot twists that you will see in this anime!

Overall (6)
Recommended for those who love action, superpower, and adventure anime!

No spoilers.
Due to this low socre that makes no sense, I decided to write this. Ignore the score you see in MAL. As of ep 18 this is easily a 8+/10.
The animation is bad, it's terrible, yes. Ignore that too.

But the history and the character development is very well made. This anime has its silly moments (especially in the beginning) but overall is one of the very few animes classified as "Seinen" that actually honors the genre. When things start rolling you see what this is all about. The way it approaches how people grow is very well made and super rare to see in ... anime. It's not the typical childish view of growing up that most authors have in most seinen titles. You won't regret watching it.
And this one has what I call "proper ending ep". So I'm giving it a 10/10 despite the animation.

Yep, 6/10 so a D. Almost failing, but the soundtrack and general story line were actually very good. The animation, pacing, and overall implementation were not good. The animation was especially bad, the pacing ruined some otherwise impactful moments, and the generally bad direction further caused the anime to be one I wouldn't recommend, but not one I hate everything about. The bones were there, I haven't read the manga, but I had already heard the name Lucifer and the Biscut Hammer before. That and the especially scathing reviews leads me to believe that the manga is worth your time. This however is probably not, ... that is unless you're really bored. There are worse anime, but those don't usually have the bones of a near masterpiece.

A beloved manga that I never would have thought would be adapted got an anime adaptation, and I wish it didn't.

Studio NAZ did an embarrassingly poor job adapting Lucifer. For a manga that I would rank among the very best I've read, the anime is a stain on the legacy of Lucifer & The Biscuit Hammer.

READ THE MANGA!

-For a manga made up of fighting, not a single punch in the show actually lands its animation. None of the fight animation feel like it connects. Poor shading and depth perception can be blamed, but it also comes down how NAZ avoids animating any actual fighting ... scenes by just cutting straight to a hit. The animation is always lacking though. Even the characters walking is jarring.

-Backgrounds are stark and boring, the characters feel almost inanimate in comparison to the manga counterparts, and the pacing of the show feels haphazard at its best.

-Some early parts of the manga are cut, and some unnecessary filler in episode 1 is added to the plot.

-There are like 3 boring backtracks used, and they're all generic. The golem fight music is also painfully unlistenable.

-The golems, themselves, look horrible. Daunting and fearful enemies in the manga become CG atrocities in the anime.

-The comedy in the manga is not at all translated well to the anime.

-The most crucial scenes in the show fall flat because of the horrible animation.

-Voice acting is the only real praise I have to give. Besides Yuuhi Amamiya (Enoki, Junya) and Shimaki Hyou (Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu), all of the voices felt good for the characters and were performed well, particularly Noi Crezant (Tsuda, Kenjirou).

-Openings are both poor. Opening 1 has a good track, but is a clipshow of reused in-show footage and stock art assets. Opening 2 has a worse track, but contains about 12 seconds of the best animation of the entire show (that was done by @yooto40010 and not studio NAZ).

I'll say it again. READ THE MANGA! The manga will make you feel hope and joy, whereas the anime will make you feel the opposite. Studio NAZ should never be allowed to adapt source material again.

3/10 (would be 1/10, but good story and characters give it some enjoyment)

Its one of a kind anime.
Despite of is fast phasing the story is whatchable.
The bad thing about this one is the animation and lack of it.

Thinking of how it feels, its great but taking te above points couldn't reccomend to watch...

Juts hope someday a remake will come and could add to favourite and give 10


Review ended above just adding because didnt let me publish
...
Great characters personalities
Good seinen
hope some day a sequel of the manga
Not a manga reader but if ever start to read manga this anime is second after sora no otoshimono

After seeing so terrible score and so many negative coments I wondered; maybe this time truly something was wrong with the show, but after watching it i can say; NOPE. It is again the same case: popular manga of renowned author gets anime adaptation that is objectivly speaking "OK" but it couldn't live up to unrealistic expactations of manga fans, so they release their frustration by giving bad scores. Could this anime be better? ofcourse, most could've be. Was it a trash? ABSOLUTELY NOT









... Is the story unique? If it was predictable, did you enjoy it anyway because you like this genre/set-up?
Do you think the art style is fitting for the story?
Were the characters well-rounded? Did they have flaws and strengths, or were they unusually strong/smart/stupid?
Did the characters react to situations and events in a realistic way?
Do you think others will enjoy/dislike this series, even if you didn't? Why?