Ao no Miburo

Though he grew up as an orphan, Nio Chirinu finds a place to belong: being a waiter at his adoptive grandmother's restaurant. But this peace does not last long; Nio and his sister Iroha are used as bait to arrest child abductors by Toshizou Hijikata and Souji Okita—two members of an infamous ronin group called Miburo. After the ordeal, Toshizou proposes that Nio join the ranks of Miburo and protect the people of Kyoto.

Frustrated by his own weakness, Nio trains to match the swordsmanship of his new comrades. Even so, he struggles to be accepted by Tarou Tanaka and Hajime Saitou, the other Miburo members of his age. Determined to befriend them, Nio must discover his own sense of justice and become strong enough to prevail against all his enemies.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Chirinu, Nio Main

Umeda, Shuuichirou Japanese

Hijikata, Toshizou Supporting

Azakami, Youhei Japanese

Okita, Souji Supporting

Ono, Kensho Japanese

Saitou, Hajime Supporting

Kobayashi, Chiaki Japanese

Kyouhachi, Naozumi Supporting

Inada, Tetsu Japanese

Kyouhachi, Youtarou Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Ayame Supporting

Uemura, Yuuto Japanese

Kimura, Jutarou Supporting

Miyamoto, Mitsuru Japanese

Kyoushirou Supporting

Sakurai, Tooru Japanese

Kyouhachi, Nagi Supporting

Anzai, Chika Japanese

Nakata, Hiroya Producer

Kawasumi, Mayuka Producer, Planning Producer

Suzuki, Satoshi Producer

Habara, Kumiko Director

Reviews

Apr 14, 2025

Civee

Recommended

Ok, I feel like I need to speak up in defense of this show, because it seems like people coming into this show got the wrong idea about it. Many people seem to have come into this show expecting samurai action. yes, we get some of that, but the action is not really what this show is about.

I will spare you the synopsis, since I'm sure you can read it in the description, but I wanted to talk about what this show is really about. This show is set 5 years before the Meiji restoration, a transformative moment in Japanese history, and primarily focuses on ... the people of the time and the conflict they faced with the modernization of japan and the end of the samurai era. This show is a historical drama, and that is the lens through which you should be viewing this show. It is clear that how the writers wanted this show to be viewed with the way they set up the narration, with the old miburo at the beginning of the show. While there is some action, again, that is not the focus of this story. What I like about this show is that the ending wasn't entirely predictable. Not everything goes the way that our idealistic young protagonist hopes it would, but I feel that lends itself better to the message behind the story.

As for the show itself, the animation isn't groundbreaking, but it isn't an eyesore either. it's passable, so no complaints there. The characters were varied, they provided some depth for some of the more prominently featured side characters. The show focuses a lot on dialogue and really giving viewers an understanding of the conflict that drives the motives of the heroes and villains of the story, and I feel that is the best part of this show. Some would complain about the protagonist being a bit naive, but I feel it is portrayed in a more realistic way in the context of the story as not everything goes his way. he has to make compromises to his values at some point throughout the show, and his idealism ends up hurting him. The way they handle the characters idealism in the context of the story is why, for me, the character himself is more redeemable. I feel like they handle the character growth throughout the story pretty well.

overall, I give it a 7/10. This show is more of a drama than an action, so if you are looking for lot action, you might want to look elsewhere. If you are interested in a bit of fictionalized history on a big moment in Japanese history, you might be interested in this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Mar 30, 2025

syl__via

Mixed Feelings

honestly, i have high hopes for this anime because the PV seems interesting however the execution fell short. the plot wasn't transmitted very clearly, and it seems kind of all over the place.

like what exactly are they suppose to do? what are their roles? there wasn't much background on the characters as well hence it was kind of superficial in general. i mean the characters are strong sword users but that's about it on them.

tagging it as historical/samurai is overrated as there wasn't much on what is the history linking to samurai. and the samurai part are just fighting all over unfortunately. i think ... if you prefer more depth in an anime, this is probably not for you.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 29, 2025

KANLen09

Not Recommended

Well-written

Blue Miburo — A Rurouni Kenshin-inspired era...that just doesn't quite inspire the same way as history intrigues it to be (at least from someone's POV).

Don't get me wrong, I love history when it's at least interpreted right to a degree of relatability, mixed in with some element of action that keeps the rich tradition alive. Some, like the infamous Rurouni Kenshin author Nobuhiro Watsuki, know Japan's rich history when it comes to the era of the Samurai to merge a story so grand against someone whose ideals of peace create the inevitable conflict that impacts the future of Japan's modernization into the tumultuous period (right ... before World War II). However, there are also people who want to depict a rather different take of the samurai that, though still rooted in history, hopes to be interesting to see from a POV that's unique and a sort-of prequel to whatever we're seeing of Rurouni Kenshin (through the remake) right now. This is famed Over Drive and Days mangaka Tsuyoshi Yasuda coming in with the 3rd anime adaptation of his works, featuring his latest work of Ao no Miburo a.k.a The Blue Wolves of Mibu.

The story setting is adjacent to the history of the Shinsengumi during the terrorizing Bakumatsu era, featuring the Mibu Roshigumi during the Tokugawa Shogunate from October 1862 to April 1863 (before being disbanded to form the Shinsengumi), alongside its prominent members (Kondo Isami and others) that heralded the form from creation to disbandment. And in Tsuyoshi Yasuda's view of creating this from the perspective of MC Chirinu Nio, a white-haired kid living together with his granny helming a family restaurant. His days of living are meaningful and fruitful, but deep down, his sense of justice is just burning for desire. And the turbulent "blue spring a.k.a one's adolescence" meets his match when the ronin of Hijikata Toshizo and Okita Souji comes to the area around his place, which is the infamously hated Miburo, to exact their form of justice to preserve the peace of the land, which aligns with Nio's calling to want to change the world and become the group of ronin that people would come to respect instead of being offended for the longest time. Thus, he joins the Miburo as the 3rd Wolves of Mibu, hoping to instill change and hope for the future with the infamous group of samurai.

In hindsight, you would think that a traditionally rooted story would help the show get on its knees following a rather enthusiastic and charismatic kid journey with the group that would evolve to become the respected historical group who would go on to protect the Kyoto Shogunate. But while that is fine and all, seeing Chirinu Nio progress from being a boy to a man...is quite the stretch, because as a young boy who has been mostly sheltered for all of his life, Nio may have witnessed a fair few of reckless murders, but for the murders to show that his idealist world of peace requires sacrifices to be done, him trying to bawl for most of his act, and being friends with both friend and foe to seek reconciliation, it's just not the way you want to paint your MC when it comes to character development. And yes, despite the Miburo guys trying to help him out to witness that everything requires the "yin and yang" balance of interest, even reminding him at times where sacrifice is needed for the greater good, Nio, at most times, fizzles out and refuses to accept the reality of people being able to live with peace, not after bouts of swordsmanship that will always end up with someone else's death. Sure, if in an alternate reality, this would be appropriate, but given such an infamous era in Japan's history, friendliness is never an option, not at all.

The Miburo accompanying Nio are good guys at that, influential people who have gone through the history of the formation of the Shinsengumi from the time they were the ronin. To see them depicted in the show does give some sense of how they were like, distinguished and goofy as they are. At least they're the authority working for the greater good (that eventually paves their role to be even greater), and I have no issues seeing them being both serious and not to improve their reputation. Stereotypical guys who get the job done; I'll give credit where credit is due.

Being studio Maho Film's first consecutive 2-cour series, I am very skeptical of rookie studios trying to attempt the near impossible when their average 12/13-episode shows just look so trash and unrefined. And to my (unsurprising) fears, the assumption remains true for the most part that the studio just doesn't really have the capability to remain consistent, let alone be assigned to task a project that's running for 6 months straight. Everything just looks so average and drab, and even the action feels minimalistic at best.

Even the music feels somewhat less stellar, which is a surprise given that it's composed by the famous Yuki Hayashi, who's composing for several shows for the Winter season (though to different degrees of varying success). His music is iconic given his reputation on bigger franchises like Haikyuu! and Boku no Hero Academia a.k.a My Hero Academia, but the low-ball efforts here just sadly don't amount to much. Not even the 2 OP/ED song sets are even worth mentioning, between the 1st Cour set of Spyair's OP and The Jet Boy Bangerz's ED, and the 2nd Cour set of Umeda Cypher's OP and Osage's ED (though I'll give the credit to the 1st Cour for making the show stand out more).

Ultimately, I get what Tsuyoshi Yasuda is trying to do with Ao no Miburo a.k.a The Blue Wolves of Mibu and its "full" adaptation (right until Part 2 of the Shinsengumi arc), but for the glaring faults that this show has that unfortunately outweigh the bad more than the good, I'm forced to concede that while the show is good on a historical level, that's just as much entertainment as you're going to get because everything else feels subpar at best.

Maybe give this a try to see if it works for you. Otherwise, there's the one series remake that is doing things a lot better and is definitely worth more of your time than this show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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	Poll: Ao no Miburo Episode 11 Discussion el_morris - Dec 28, 2024	21 replies	by Markuskune »» Sep 24, 2:22 PM
	Was this the most disappointing anime of its season. Avamarie316 - Mar 22	22 replies	by Baya128 »» May 21, 12:29 AM
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