In the far eastern corner of the country of Yanato, it has been believed since ancient times that there are two worlds in this land: the world at the top where the gods live and the world at the foot of the mountain where humans live. Princess Sakuna, a high-ranking deity who lives in the world of the summit, was born to a war god and a fertility god is a spoiled brat who would rather spend her days lazing around and drinking than doing any work herself, wasting the grains her parents had stored like a trust fund kid. One day, due to some strange circumstances involving a group of humans that wandered into the Lofty Realm, she is banished from the city of the gods and sent to Hinoe Island—an isolated island inhabited by demons—accompanied by the humans in question. In a barren land where there is barely enough food for the next day, she cultivates the soil, grows rice, and sets out to defeat the demons. The humans who have stumbled into the world of the gods and the novice fertility god begin their rice-husk-filled communal life together.
As far as its production values go, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin's anime is fine. The backgrounds are detailed, the character designs are faithful to their game counterparts, the fight scenes are well choreographed, and the actual animation is decent. It'd be pretty hard to adapt the game's thick linework and unique style into animation, but for the most part, it does its job well with what it has. Honestly, compared to another PA Works anime, Nanare Hananare, Sakuna's production values are far superior. At least Sakuna doesn't go the route of giving everything and everyone gaudy colored outlines that make everything look radioactive and a literal assault on the eyes. The execution of stuff like that really makes a world of difference in either making or breaking a show. Yeah, I couldn't resist taking the potshot at Narenare. I have even less to say about the soundtrack. It's fine, it does its job, I don't know if it reuses BGM from the games or not, but I did like what was there. I like the ending theme better than the opening theme.
Speaking as someone who hasn't played the game, I'm sad to say that the characters definitely suffer from the transition from game to anime. Honestly, the characters are pretty bland and are only memorable because of their character designs rather than their personalities, and even when they do get development, they stop being relevant after they change a little bit and don't get to do anything anymore. Now, to be fair, it's impossible to compress a several hour long game into a 12-episode anime, so of course a lot would have to be left on the cutting board. But the writing around the characters sometimes feels so haphazard that it feels like they change personalities whenever the plot feels its convenient. For example, at one point, Sakuna finds Kaimaru nursing a demon's injuries, and she gets angry and tries to kill the demon...and seconds later she's like "Nah, I won't kill you after all because I forgive you and don't want to continue the cycle of hatred." Even though beforehand there was nothing that indicated that hatred was even a running plot thread, so it feels less like Sakuna is actually developing as a character and more like the writers putting stuff in her mouth because they wrote themselves into a corner and hastily slapped a random Deus Ex Machina together. Even without knowledge of the game, the characters' development feels really rushed. I like that Sakuna is forced to grow from being a spoiled brat to someone more capable, that's actually one of the anime's strengths, but the other characters are made to be bum rushed through their development, making any growth they receive have less impact. Oh, and the villains are so generic and laughably cliche that I can't even remember their names.
That's not even going into how strange the plot gets, and I don't mean that in a good way. One episode goes into Yui's backstory...and suddenly introduces aliens that come right the hell out of nowhere, contribute absolutely nothing to the narrative, disappear, and nobody so much as comments on it, or they only mention it nonchalantly and move on to the next thing. I'm sure the game goes into it, probably, but the anime treats this whole thing like a Big-Lipped Aligator Moment and makes no effort to actually explain just what the hell these aliens are! Plus, their whole existence just raises a ton of questions that are never answered: Are all the demons on the island just weird aliens? Is the “Lofty Realm” not a divine realm for gods but just some advanced civilization posing as them? Are these places even on the same planet?! You can't dump aliens into my medieval fantasy farming show without some kind of elaboration! This whole bit was just so baffling and out of nowhere that it made me wonder just who the hell thought that was a good idea. Speaking of, the second half of the anime starts to go off the rails as it rushes through important plot points and doesn't really try to give them any real gravitas whatsoever, cutting out important bits from the game for the sake of getting through the story. For example, at one point Sakuna finds out that her friend Kokorowa has been conspiring against her and confronts her about it. The anime just has the two of them talk and it's played for some needless comedy, while in the game, it's a full-on boss fight. There's also all the later reveals about Kaimaru, which just absolutely scream Deus Ex Machina, and they're just as bad as they sound. Also, the anime has a pretty huge continuity error that I'm surprised nobody caught: One episode states that it takes three years for Sakuna and her friends to rebuild their destroyed home and fields...yet the characters are never shown physically aging. For Sakuna this makes sense since she's a goddess, but everyone else is human, and you'd think they'd physically grow up a bit, with their designs changing over the course of those three years, but nope, they look and stay the same, even Kaimaru, a toddler. Like...what? How did this get past quality control?
In the end, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, for all its effort, is yet another addition to the pile of middling to bad video game adaptations that don't manage to do its source material justice. That said, it did get me curious about the game, so it's got that going for it. But I recommend skipping this one, especially if you like the game in question. It's still better than the incoherent mess that is Nanare Hananare!
