To begin with, I have to state that the anime is INDEED disappointing. The enjoyment and the overall score highly depend on my view to the original comic instead of the animation. A few points of this anime were about to make me to drop the series. What came out first was the absence of so many frames that turned continuous scenes into some PowerPoint or ‘moving manga’ stuff. Apart from that, the sound effect was not adjusted just right and sometimes was not even simultaneous with the scene. What was more unforgivable, neither the storyboard nor the composition satisfied a sophisticated creation of animation. Despite all of these, I still feel thankful to all reviewers on MyAnimeList because you guys scored The Outcast much higher than Japan and China locally on average (6.64). When I checked the scores on Accessify.com (Japan) and Bangumi.tv (China), I was surprised that those who could watch the completed version and the most fabulous part of the animation scored it an average of mere 6. How low it is! What a pity!
I was not trying to make you feel bad about this animation in the last paragraph, but I rather aimed to put the problems of this animation forward and then to suggest you not focusing so much on those defects. This animation is actually one of those ‘big steps’ of current Chinese anime production, and it marked a lot of brave attempts of Chinese artists even though the attempts might not have been so successful. Chinese creators were really trying their best to make an art piece as well as a commercial product that belongs to their culture, and they have showed us how fascinating an anime could possibly be if it was adapted to a different society (what I’m referring to is the completed Chinese cover). Plenty problems of the animation were results of low investment, arrogance of Japan-side anime makers and discords between Chinese and Japanese directors.
The animation would only have pleased and enchanted a watcher if one had been able to settle down and be enthusiastic to learn about the background, because it had involved so many Chinese cultural as well as historical elements that had been alien to Japanese, let alone us Westerners. In the original unedited Chinese cover, the animators even used a Chinese folk song as an opening and for every single character they let them speak unique dialects like Mandarin (Zhang Chulan), Sichuan Mandarin (Feng Baobao), Chaozhou Mandarin, Cantonese etc. The 12-episode series also revealed us some history of China, for instance, the World War II, the period when the communist government was suppressing bandits, the golden age of Chinese pop songs and the return of Hong Kong. Chinese religions (Daoism and Chinese side Buddism), traditional weapons, philosophy, pop culture, literature and humours are also all merged organically in The Outcast, especially in the story after the end of episode 12 in manga. The Outcast banged us with decisiveness of Chinese and a story line that is so disjoint from what we normally call Anime: something that has gradually filled up with Moe, fan service, cliché, ‘harem’ of male characters and unrealistically kind people who doesn't kill to leave the enemies coming back with stronger powers.
Hence I highly recommend The Outcast, it should not be the edited animation but the complete version and manga though. It will open for you a new world and tell you a story of heroes and heroines that have new charms. COME AND WATCH OR READ! It is undoubtedly an unmissable great work for those who truly love ACGN and those who are interested in an exotic story!
