Busou Renkin means Arms Alchemy. In this story, there are homunculi that are running about the land and its up to alchemic warriors, using these Arms Alchemy devices (which spring forth a weapon based on the users personality) to vanquish the homunculi. This does sound a little bit familiar but Busou Renkin does manage to throw in its own elements and enough plot twists to keep it original. Deep down, however, its still your run of the mill "regular kid rising up out of nowhere to save the world" theme.
The animation is up to par with todays standards, but in some episodes however, you'll see it lacking. Or rather, in some places and characters. Otherwise, there isn't too much to complain of about the art.
The music and such in Busou Renkin isn't all that bad, but its also nothing spectacular. The opening theme song is pretty catchy and the music scores during battles do raise your tension a bit, but what I found missing from this particular anime was that one, catchy song, piece of music that reels you in no matter what was happening in the anime. And thus, at some points, I found myself losing concentration a different points in the show.
Nobuhiro Watsuki must have some kind of fetish with scars, because as with Kenshin, the main female protagonist here has a defining scar too (though the scar is not as important to the plotline as Kenshin's was). Anyway, back to the characters. Kazuki, the main male lead, is your typical hero who I found to be a little too perfect. Without giving too much away, you can say it was hard to go against him in battles. However, Kazuki was your only typical character. Nobuhiro Watsuki has created a plethora of unique (and some rather a little *too* unique if you ask me) characters which is a nice change of pace from the norm.
All in all, a lot of Busou Renkin is pretty cliche and obvious as to what may happen. The ending, in my taste, was a little too premature, in other words, it seemed as if it was put together forcefully to have that particular ending. The pace of the story starts off rather quickly, immersing you immediately without giving all the details, but soon starts to slow back down to a reasonable pace.
If you're looking for a series that's 26 episodes long that's rather enjoyable to watch, but nothing "eye-popping," as well as something with romance, Busou Renkin is something you definitely should check out.
