While Arslan proclaims itself to be a fantasy-adventure title, there are actually little elements of fantasy to be found within the series beyond a few minor enemy threats. Instead, the series is mostly focused on exploring the hostilities between Pars and Lusitania with the repercussions of slavery, religious fanaticism and ruling under an absolute monarchy being explored throughout the series as Arslan tries making sense of the problems occurring within both kingdoms while traveling with his allies. These repercussions are what drive the conflict of the series as Pars' absolute rule and enslavement of those they conquered later lead to Lusitania usurping their rule, while turning out no differently from the corruption brought about through Pars' rule thanks to their religious fanaticism and those in power exploiting it for their personal gain. These elements are nicely explored as they help to shape Arslan's beliefs on how he would like to change things with the hostilities between Pars and Lusitania, and create genuine conflict out of Arslan and his allies trying to reclaim rule over Pars.
In regards to the developments of Arslan and his comrades, our titular hero gets prominent focus and development for the majority of the series as he becomes exposed to the hardships and corruption found with influential political and military leaders he encounters throughout his quest, as these experiences help to shape his beliefs on what sort of rule he would want to enforce while under the guidance of his allies. A few of the major enemy threats in the series also get fleshed out in regards to their background and motives, like the mysterious Silver Mask, the Lusitanian soldier Etoile and members of the Shindra kingdom encountered later in the series. However character development is mostly nonexistent with the members of Arslan's group as they only get enough fleshing out to provide basic details on their backgrounds and the personality types they will regularly exhibit throughout the series, existing solely as advisers or protectors to Arslan without having any defined characteristics that make them stick out as characters.
The lack of characterization with Arslan's allies were not the only issue I took up with this series. The middle of its run does drag a bit during the episodes where Arslan and his group are within Shindra where they face resistance from Pars or Shindra forces, with the group able to conveniently overcome each threat. The way in which the conflicts get overcome at this point reek of laziness as it seemed like the show's writers were trying to pass off each conflict as something that the group's tactician, Narsus, anticipated and planned out yet many instances of this are not explored or hinted to throughout the middle of Arslan's run. In addition, the series lacks a proper conclusion as Silver Mask and those among Lusitania's ranks are still at large to oppose Arslan and his allies at a later time beyond the TV anime's run.
Overall, I suppose my thoughts of Arslan are a bit mixed. While I did enjoy seeing the gradual developments of Arslan's character and the exploration of hostilities between Pars and Lusitania, the lack of fleshing out on Arslan's allies, the dragged out middle part of the show and the lack of a proper finale do hurt the show's quality to a good degree. Still, it is a decent fantasy-adventure title that you don't find much of out of anime nowadays and is still worth a look if you crave titles of the genre.
