Reviews

Sep 30, 2016
"Great soldiers die from overworking" - Ikta Solork

This anime was actually quite the surprise where it was presented at first as a typical battle harem anime, but instead brought us an anime about tactical warfare and two rather unique main characters.

The plot of Nejimaki Seirei Senki: Tenkyou no Alderamin is more focused on it's war themes as well as their religious elements that enforces the war themes and puts them in conjunction with it's interesting characters.

Nejimaki Seirei Senki: Tenkyou no Alderamin's chaarcter like Ikta Solork voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto and Yatorishino Igsem voiced by Risa Taneda are some very interesting characters, Ikta is forced to be in the army after an incident where he wanted to have a more relaxing life and commonly disobeys the the higher ups (or be smarter than them in general), he is by all accounts a genius tactician but wants to use the easiest or the most peaceful way to resolve things...sure he's a womanizer typical of the battle harem anime, but this really isn't a battle harem anime. As for Yatorishino, she is more or less the main heroine of this anime and is the "OP class character", but she develops as to why she has her deadpanned and loyal behavior to both the Empire and Ikta. As for the other cast members like Chamille Kitora Katjvanmaninik voiced by Inori Minase, the third princess of the Katjvarna Empire, Haroma Becker voiced by Haruka Chisuga a medic, Torway Remion voiced by Ryousuke Kanemoto a sniper and Matthew Tetojirichi voiced by Junji Majima the second lieutenant in the main cast group although some do get their small character arcs like Torway and Chamille, the plot tends to focus more on Ikta and Yatorishino as well as it's more serious war storyline than anything else. But for LA's favourite character in the anime it easily goes to the badass Yatorishino...because she's a BADASS, not to mention her relationship with Ikta is a rather unique one from "typical battle harem fair". Which brings up a good point, as much as Yatorishino is LA's favourite character and an utter badass, it's Ikta that steals the show with his genius level intellect and tactical cunning on the battlefield.

Really the "typical harem fair" isn't a bad thing as it hardly IS a battle harem, instead it's more of a tactical warfare anime and brings up it's themes of war as a template, quite easily it tells us about how "tradition" although makes the foundation can't withhold without the passing of time as such Ikta is showing us that things need to change for the "tradition" to stay and "evolve", tradition being in place of the Empire's military regime and it's evolution in Ikta and his strategies and evolution in military power and really even the themes of this anime can hold the anime on it's own as it is profound in how they execute it. On a grander scale, it also shows the corruption of the "side" Ikta is in and how he with his different outlook and genius intellect on the battlefield can change the tide of the WHOLE Empire and raze the corruption with his beliefs of protecting those closest to him and NOT for "winning" the praise of the corrupt Empire he's serving under forceful pretenses.

As later down to line, the plot changes to two "genius commanders" going at it a la L and Light just under a warfare setting and really it really exposes how Ikta is on the OTHER side of the "great battles that whittle down or outright decimate the opposition", it also once again develops Ikta by going into detail what kind of mental gymnastics he's trying to think up trying to both protect his army and defeat the opposing warring army (by the way it's these kinds of tactical warfare LA really gets invested in). On the supporting side it also shows that Yatrisino will always have Ikta's back even in DEATH really cementing this dynamic of commander and soldier. Because of this kind of focus on Ikta and Yatorishino as well as the "other genius-equal to Ikta", the focus really kicks Torway, Matthew and Haroma into minor character status and are really turned into pawns for Ikta in the process. The least developed character all round actually goes to Chamille the Princess as she is essentially in the sidelines as Ikta and his army is trying to defend against this new warring army.

The plot twists really comes in once Ikta has an equal fighting against him from the later storyline and just seeing the "game of chess" these two play and how they outwit each other makes the "warfare plot twists" all the more intriguing. Outside from that storyline, it is expected Ikta to survive along with his group and yes for the most part he does, but when other minor characters get into the mix and Ikta WANTS to protect them, that is where the plot twist deaths comes in and some are really unpredictable at times which again hones in in Ikta's belief to protect everyone but even if he has the intellect to do so but doesn't have the power to also comes in. Because of this, Ikta really is a fleshed out character from his beliefs to his intellect to his focus on the plot itself.

In terms of animation, the animation done by Madhouse, well it's expected of Madhouse to put this much detail in everything and they succeeded once again, from the tactical battles, to the medieval-ish anachronistic weaponry to the polished character designs make the animation look very nice to watch and as for the battles, well some of the best battles and gorn goes to Yatorishino's battles, but the more widespread out tactical warfare has it's animation moments as well.

In terms of voice acting, well across the board, the voice acting was amazing, though LA's favourite voice actor HAS to go to Risa Taneda as Yatorishino, her "himedere" vocals were always great to hear. Not much to talk with voice acting section other than it was amazing and expected LA was gonna go for Risa Taneda.

Ohh boy the ending...guess Madhouse has ANOTHER sequel LA wants outta shows they made and Nejimaki is no exception. Yes the ending left at a really great point in the story and focuses in Princess Chamille and Ikta about the Empire itself and because of what Chamille wants Ikta to do and "complicated" notion of doing such a thing has gotten LA intriguing and wanting more which was why yes, it left in a "read the manga" ending. Before that the previous "arc" between Ikta and Jean (the other genius commander) was left though anti-climactically, once again the tactics Ikta used was GREAT in making the climax of the battle of attrition Ikta and Jean went through all the more worth it no matter how anti-climactic it was.

Nejimaki Seirei Senki: Tenkyou no Alderamin by all means has it's problems and strengths as typical for any kind of media but for LA, Nejimaki Seirei Senki: Tenkyou no Alderamin shined when talking about the tactical warfare element as well as Ikta and Yatorishino's relationship as well as in the animation, it's flaws came in that the supporting cast members were nothing but that and some people might see that Ikta as the source of the problem as he is your "win all OP protagonist under the "genius" character". But with this LA can say that Nejimaki Seirei Senki: Tenkyou no Alderamin has been more of a hidden gem of Summer 2016, seeing a fictional land give realistic terms of warfare and it's implications it has before and after the battle has been done and the dynamic between Ikta, Chamille and Yatorishino shows it in the form of the Empire's corruption, ideals and hierarchy.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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