The Heroic Legend of Arslan is a good mid-range anime that does some things very well and definitively fails to deliver on others. It successfully packages enthralling court politics and entertaining military strategy in a full wreathing of lackluster characters, plot holes, and bad 3D. To begin with one of the more enjoyable aspects, the story is the main driver of this show without question. It was indeed the story that kept me watching at all. The Heroic Legend of Arslan attempts to weave a grandiose legend of betrayal, heroism, zealotry, and pretenders to the throne. In a lot of ways it felt like they were going for a kind of Iliad vibe, given the emphasis on heroic aristocracy. But of course there were some big problems in the story, namely that it became hard to suspend one's disbelief that the actions of certain factions were so cartoonishly evil, or in many other instances so naive and misguided. However, these mostly stem from the imperfections of characters, so we'll get to that when we get to it. To put a cap on story, however, a distinctly personal note is needed here that reflects more on me than the show. I found myself sympathizing with the 'bad guys' in The Heroic Legend of Arslan, and was often underwhelmed by the two-dimensional main characters. For example, Silver Mask has better motivations and is a superior claimant to the throne, but I also identify with the unfairly written Lusitanians, because they are pretty plainly coded as European Christians, so in the world the story takes place I would most likely be a Temple Knight. But like I said, that last point is all me. The art was amazing in its vision, and good enough in its execution. That is to say, the architecture, armor, landscapes, character design, and even the various flags and banners were all expertly designed and strinkingly beautiful. However, the major drawback comes in the animation itself, a great many characters failing to express enough emotion in their day to day lives, and of course the gratuitous use of jarringly bad 3D, which often detracted from the otherwise well choreographed battle scenes. Next, I really enjoyed the sound. The musical score was epic and rousing, bringing a lot of color to any given moment. The sounds of life, like crunching footsteps or clanging weapons, were omnipresent and made the world itself feel full and definitively lived in. The characters were a definite weak point of the show, because as cool and generally entertaining as they were, they were still flat and very poor vessels to handle the epic tale they are meant to shoulder. Even worse, this problem is most evident the closer one gets to Arslan's inner circle, and indeed Arslan himself. Save for Daryun, who is redeemed only by fulfilling a character trope that is easy to fill, the people we see the most are the most devoid of color. The further out one gets, the more engaging the characters become, even extremely minor ones like Barcacion or that cultist mask guy that remains unnamed! The characters are also liable to begin acting in erratic, uncharacteristic ways that are meant first and foremost to serve the writers and the story they're weaving, oftentimes throwing preestablished character attitudes and predispositions to the wind in order to see them through. I see these things as major failings in The Heroic Legend of Arslan, and the main reasons that it gets the rating it does from me. At the end of the day I enjoyed this anime well enough to finish it, but not enough to rewatch it. If they were to come out with a third season, I would watch it, but barring a total stylistic departure nothing could really alter this score. At the end of the day, if you're a particularly big fan of low fantasy adventuring army anime, or even if you're just looking to get a middle of the road anime under your belt, give The Heroic Legend of Arslan a shot. I believe that there is enough variance of taste in the anime community that there are people who would enjoy this more than me, and see it as something truly special.
