Sit back, relax and….um….s**t. I got nothing to segway into this. Um….I present to you the anime review for Assassins Pride. Lets begin I guess…
Story: 2/10
In this world, humanity is nearly brought to the brink of extinction as the world is surrounded by darkness and beings known Lacanthropes roam the world. Because of this, humanity now resides in the capital city of Flandore where the gap between nobles and the common folk is large due to nobles having access to magic known as mana to fight back against the Lacanthropes. One noble girl, Meldia Angel, can’t access her mana and is shunned by the people around her. But one day, she is assigned to a tutor by the name of Kufa Vampir (yeah, you are being real subtle with the names there aren’t you?) who has been sent to help unlock her mana. If she can’t, then he must assassinate her.
It’s a rather cool premise to start your show off, even if it does take a page out of Attack on Titan’s book. But the show falls flat in its first couple of episodes and had some severe pacing issues. It kept rushing out key information, plot lines and character resolutions. It never gave them time to develop which does lead to my biggest gripe with the show but I will get to that. Even the part about Kufa assassinating Melida gets resolved by the end of episode one so it never had time to develop. Then comes another problem with the story arcs feeling completely disjointed from one another and have no solid connections. It’s normally one story arc to the next in quick succession. There is little foundation for one arc to build from the previous one and anything it builds like a solid threat is thrown away for the next arc. This further adds to the pacing issues this show has.
But if there is one thing I want to criticize and it is the biggest problem with this show and that is its world building. It does a very poor job of establishing this world, the society humanity lives and the dangers that it brings. What is mana? Why is it only nobles can use it? What are the Lacanthropes? How did they overrun the world? What is the deal with the city of Flandore? These are legitimate questions that are not explained or even hinted at. Ironically, like the world itself, we are kept in the dark as to what these things mean. With an intriguing premise, it’s a shame that it never gets developed and we are left in the cold as to what these things mean.
Characters: 3/10
Lets start with my favourite character of the show, Melida. Melida is the kind of character you want to root for. She has all of the traits to make a good fighter against the Lacanthropes. She has the will, courage and heart to protect those around her while not being stupid enough to know her limits. She just lacks the mana to do so from the beginning so that the show wants to tell you she clearly deserves it unlike other characters like token bully character, Nerva Martillo. She can take matters into her own hands quite well while also knowing that she can rely on others to help her out, preaching the message that working together can lead to great results.
So I like Meldia as a character, but I can’t say the same for the rest of the cast, especially for our other main protagonist Kufa. Mainly because he has no personality. The show wants to make him a mysterious character hiding secrets from people and have a dark past but he comes across as dry and boring. I can’t get emotionally invested in him because he is that much of a bland character so I have no incentive to and any chemistry between Melida and Kufa is non-existent and feels forced. Not to mention how grossly overpowered he is and kills all tension that this show tries to produce.
Melida’s cousin, Elise, comes across as a shallow character and is mainly used a motivator for Melida since Elise is the complete opposite of her and despite being cousins, she wants Melida to treat her like her little sister (Yes we are going there). Same goes with Rosetti in being the opposite to Kufa, personality wise. But she is actually not boring and has life in her personality. It’s not much but she brings a bright spot to change the mood, but I wouldn’t say I cared for her much and her backstory is as clichéd as it gets. There is also no standout in the supporting cast either that can steal the spotlight or help support the main cast. They either come across as one note personalities, overdramatic or painfully obvious what their motivations are. The villains as well come across as uninteresting, villain of the week, kind of characters that feel disjointed from the overall story. Their significance is minimal to the story and are more of a nuisance than actual threats.
Animation: 7/10
The animation for this series is actually rather good. While it doesn’t exactly wow you, it does make the show’s action scenes more enjoyable to watch with how fast they can be. Same can be said about the show’s art style as well as it definitely does a good job of showcasing the world that our characters live in and getting immersed in the beauty of it. That being said, the character designs are on the more of the basic side. The show doesn’t do that good of a job of helping the characters stand out from one another. The exception to this is definitely Rosetti has she definitely has a design that stands out. But then you have someone like Kufa who looks like generic protagonist no. #1652 (or something like that). Even the Lacanthropes are more goofy looking than intimidating when we see them (Well, the non-articfical ones at least).
Sound: 8/10
Yeah, this show’s sound department is great around the board. It sounds great and this soundtrack is enjoyable to listen to. It definitely has a good track for any kind of scene, whether it would be emotional or intense. It does try to help get you immersed into what you are watching and adds to a scene whenever the story or characters doesn’t take you out of it.
The opening, “Share the light” by Run Girls, Run is a strange case in my eyes. Initially, I did not like this opening. I thought the rythem was out of sync with the visuals and it sounded too Kawaii for its own good. But the more I listened, the more I realised how unique the opening was trying to be. This could be a case of me getting used to the opening but I found myself enjoying the opening the more I listened to it. Definitely an interesting opening.
The ending though is more clear on how I feel about it. "Ijin-tachi no Jikan” by Meldia’s voice actress, Tomori Kusunoki, is calm and sweet which is the standard for anime ending sequences and doesn’t exactly impress with its visuals honestly. But it is serviceable.
Conclusion:
Assassins Pride is one of those shows where it didn’t impress me but I had no intention of dropping it. It can have its moments and there are some aspects of the show that it does good. It has good animation, good sound and a good female lead. But at the same time, its story is disjointed and poorly executed and its cast of characters besides Melida and maybe Rosetti are unimpressive. Yet I don’t hate it as much as I should. The show has its own charm that kept me watching but fails to engross me into its world and its characters. It’s the epitome of average, mediocre, unimpressive, whatever term you want to use. A show that would do you no harm in watching, but you probably wouldn’t recommend to people that this is a show that you should watch. And honestly, in a world where we consume new anime every three months, being mediocre is the worst fate for your show. As now, you will be forgotten in the annuals of history.
My personal enjoyment: 5/10
Overall score: 5.0/10 Recommendation: Consider it
