That's not to say I learned nothing from Angolmois or it did a bad job at portraying the period; early gunpowder is on display to the bamboozlement of the Japanese defenders, the multi-racial nature of the Mongol invading force was front and center, and there's even a bit of alt-history at work in one episode that caught me by surprise. Sure, there was also scenes where the martial men of Tsushima marveled at a bamboo spear like it was space magic, but that lay more as a problem with the writers trying to emphasize the tactical brilliance of Kuchii.
On this point, the writing was rather trite. At best, it would work to make the exile group a kind of A-team where everyone boiled down to a specialization they added to a war party whose fight against the odds and small, interpersonal nature would give it a Spartacus or Braveheart vibe. When it wasn't at its best, which was most of the time, characters were either bland and unbelieveable, short sighted or prideful to the point of absurdity, or killed off when they begin to be useful or likeable. Just to name a few examples of this, the Sou clan spends most of the show ostracizing the exiles who are saving them, one of the exiles insists on producing penis humorisms to the point of obsession, enemy officers who look like Fire Emblem baddies make grand appearances and then disappear for most of the series, Kuchii is given constant screentime towards how virtuous and powerful until he's become a Mary Sue, the princess vacillates between Damsel and Anti-Damsel and is obnoxious as both, and romance interactions are more like what you'd see in a highschool sitcom than a samurai flick.
The art and sound design were pretty bog standard; sappy score, drawn sections having a few hiccups but otherwise being quite serviceable, 3d being used as a time-saver on things with lots of movement like blood sprays, flags, and ships. They even took the time to model the completely-doesn't-disfigure-our-chiseled-handsome-hero face scars to be persistent through the series, which was a nice touch. The main critique levelled for the show's art tends to be the papyrus-esque filter they overlaid. It can vary from being glaring to not being really noticeable, though I think it's more sad that it indicates the studio either lacked the heart or the resources to render the show in a more historical art style and thus tried to literally plaster 'old timeyness' over what is otherwise a run of the mill action title.
If you really go for works in the time period or action shows in general, you might get something more out of Angolmois than I did. For my part, however, I'll file this as a misadventure and seek my historical treasures elsewhere.
