Reviews

Enzai (Anime) add (All reviews)
Aug 17, 2018
This is coming from a fan of the original game that goes by the same name, and of the corporation itself, Langmaor: "Enzai" does not live up to the primary work in the slightest. To me, it was nothing but a huge disappointment. I'll agree that it is indeed normal for anime based on visual novels to be poorly adapted. However, "Enzai" takes bad adaptation to a whole new level.

First off, the animation.
3/10
It sucks, that is the best way to put it. The original visual novel artwork was drawn by Yura, who were on their early years of activity and were not nearly as skilled as of today, consequently their drawings did not have much detail. Nevertheless, they were graphic enough for the game's grotesque theme and could capture the respective scenes' emotion and meaning with ease. The anime cannot. Even if animated scenes have more effort put into them than still drawings, it seems like the whole process of bringing Guys and his story to life was rushed and made below par. There are unusual anatomy sins and just an unpleasant look overall. I know the whole project and its concept is not supposed to be good looking, yet my face was crooked with disgust throughout the entirety of the two episodes, and not because of the rape scenes for I was used to them. It could be so much better.

Onto the characters.
4/10
It's good they have maintained the aura of most characters in this animation. Countering that, they have changed many attributes about other ones. Although this was a 2 episode OVA, there was much more to add to the good adaptations of characters and much more to improve and clear up. We got no backstory except for a quarter of Vallewida's and a hint of the past relationship between Evan and Lusca, maybe a few minutes of Guildias and Myuca as well. Guys' family is nowhere to be seen apart from a cameo appearance of his mother at his judgment. Guildias doesn't look as evil as he's supposed to. Io couldn't be more of an extra. Bollanet just went missing, apparently. Lusca just looks like an imposter trying to pass as a lawyer to take cash from poor, and is no longer that uninterested alcoholic that you struggle so much to put up with and captivate in the game. At most, he is just an airhead. Vallewida just seems like a lunatic, which is personally tragic to me since he is my favourite character from the game. There's no explanation about him whatsoever. And Durer, oh Durer. The one character that made the game so hard for me to swallow. They seem to have tried so hard to make him act as sadistic as possible, it just seems forced at some point in the anime. It is not candid anymore. Those are just to name a few. There is zero explanation as to why everyone is in that prison and just a small pinch of their personalities is shown, therefore no one really manages to be likeable. Unlike the visual novel, it's boring to watch them trying to contribute to the story. The "who is he? What is he going to do? Is he good or evil?" feeling is gone and I miss it.

The plot.
5/10
It is the same, thankfully, but good part of it was cut off and replaced with free sex. The ending seems so random due to the lack of answers it hurts to watch. One of the goals of "Enzai" as a game was to show the many horrors men in prison are constantly exposed to, and the visual novel managed to do it well enough. The anime spares half the effort, though. Would be a 0/10 if it didn't follow the original storyline.

The voice acting.
7/10
I can't say this has fully disappointed me. Most of the voice actors are the same ones from the game. They are very good at their job, especially Guildias and Vallewida's. Their voices are rich in emotion and very loyal to each moment they are voicing. Since the plot involves a lot of forced sex, they have to be very skilled at portraying specific traits such as humiliation and guilt. The atmosphere of the anime managed to ruin their competence for me, though. Sadly, I could not enjoy it as much.

The sexual content.
2/10
One of the biggest downsides of this anime. In the original work, there are much more sex scenes and some are, indeed, random and even unnecessary. However, they are full of emotion. During all the times Guildias abuses the imprisoned men, you can feel all of their shame, how much they dread being there, etc. Either if it is through their voices, the drawings or the text from the game. In the anime, though, it's just free rape. Many of the scenes in the "Enzai" game actually have a rather deep meaning and a more intense shock factor, yet the studio decides to adapt the most generic ones. You can grasp the concept of each scene and take it as you will, but the novel's ability of making you feel sorry for the characters being there has nearly vanished. On top of that, all of the sexual scenes are short, poorly animated and painful. Have an idea of what I'm talking about: some of those scenes from the game made me cry. Some of those same scenes, in the anime, were genuinely funny to watch because of how ridiculous they've become.

Overall: 3/10.
It is not a good anime, nor a good adaptation. It is distasteful. Should you look forward to see a story set in Napoleonic France about a boy and the horrors he lives in prison, I highly suggest the game instead of this... thing. The game is plain, detailed and nicely done, opposing the anime. It wholeheartedly surprises me that the Langmaor team themselves have supervised the entire project. Again, it has deeply disappointed me as a fan and I could point at many things I would like to see fixed. In the end, though, it's just another bad game adaptation. "Enzai" had a lot of potential to become an anime as successful as the game, but it all went down the drain.

I would not recommend this to anyone at all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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