PLOT: Extremely straightforward Romeo & Juliet type storyline set in feudal Japan – with added ninjas. This concept may be a bit overdone, but Basilisk manages to get the balance just right, tempering the bouts of extreme and bloody violence with touching moments of humour and romance. I found the storytelling to be excellent and very well balanced – I got completely sucked into the word of the Iga & Kouga ninja’s and really cared about their fates. Basilisk does an excellent job of its character development with lots of well-placed flashbacks. Unfortunately for most characters these flashbacks are their death flags, but often they reappear in other characters flashbacks and so they continue to be developed even after they have been sliced into tiny pieces!
That’s another striking aspect of Basilisk – the action scenes. As the setting is a ninja war obviously the fight scenes form the main core of the series, and they are spectacular! A broad range of unique ninja techniques makes for interesting and varied action scenes, but present throughout all of them is a huge amount of blood – the death toll is massive. There is also quite a bit of historical fact woven into the plot – the setting is quite realistic. However Basilisk is definitely for older anime viewers due to the gritty violence and mature themes that run throughout the series. The only gripe I have with the show is that my favourite characters were short-lived and I didn’t like Oboro at all – for a main character she is utterly useless for the duration and ate up too much screen time with her constant crying.
ANIMATION: I loved the animation and the character designs. The animation is fluid with gorgeous and varied backgrounds – fight choreography is never dull or repetitive and makes for gripping viewing, but the slower reflective scenes are also presented well. The character designs are very striking and varied with lots of emphasis on the eyes and hair of the characters. Plenty of heavy shading is used and the characters facial expressions are extremely varied and add plenty of emotion to any given scene. Lots of attention to detail is on display with the historically accurate costumes and backgrounds too which all makes the viewing experience pleasurable.
MUSIC & VOICE ACTING: I wasn’t much fussed on the OP but felt that it probably fitted well with the tone of the series – liked the ED though, even if it is quite typical of anime EDs. The score was also quite fitting as it has lots of traditional Japanese instruments and blends into the tone of the show extremely well. Voice acting was also superb. All the characters show a huge range of emotion over the course of series and the seiyuu all pulled off these extremes well. Very much an ensemble piece so it’s hard to pick out standout characters.
Overall Basilisk falls into my ‘Good GONZO’ category, it has excellent visuals and storytelling and a very satisfying conclusion. The reason I marked it down is that I personally felt that the two main characters could have been better developed and weren’t as interesting as the short-lived side characters. I also felt that the show occasionally got a bit too wrapped up in its own melodrama and spent too much time on long lingering close ups of Oboro’s eyes! But these are minor gripes and more about my personal preferences than anything else.
