Anime: Utawarerumono 106340

Review
Utawarerumono is a surprise. I mean, when you have a medieval tale based on an erotic game with cat girls and a protagonist with amnesia you are certain it will be a disaster. You may argue and point a few success based on eroge, but they are far between like Kimi ga Nozomu Eien and mostly tackle modern settings with highschoolers or a tale perfectly crafted for the scenario such type of games demand. Utawarerumono is nothing like that. This is a story about warfare, about a fantastic world, evil rulers, swordfighting, and magic. It was doomed to dive head-on into a self-destructive sequence. Yet... this is extremely interesting.

This is the tale of Hakuoro, a masked man without his memory. His awakening in an calm and simple village, where everyone has cat ears and tails, triggers a series of events that lead him to rebel against opressive lords, command armies against invaders, and lead a kingdom for the sake of his good friends. Little he knows that his past hides much more than anyone can ever dream of, and it will, at some point, come to play in his rise to power.

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1. Look at that!
   Seriously. Cat girls? A guy without memory? Damn. Utawarerumono starts uninspiring, unexciting, and generic. It gathers most failed elements of medieval shows in the industry as its core, boosted by being based on a erotic game, and it takes a while to move beyond that. However, as each and every episode goes on, some meaningful change happens...
   
   A structured tale
   Utawarerumono starts small. It narrates the events of Hakuoro aiding the village, facing off a huge white tiger, dealing with brutish thugs, arrogant nobles, and meeting with runaway soldiers. It keep itself focused on the events around Hakuoro without ever teasing to make you think the scope of the tale will be colossal or deal with save-the-world or high-level magic. A grounded, solid vision of a medieval fare, where Hakuoro is but a man capable of leading the peaceful villagers into rebellion against the opressive warlord and how each move he makes has a consequence, one that brings about the next turn of events.
   
   From a small village, the show moves to a bigger castle, to fight a huge nation, to wage war against old enemies, and to face off former allies with ultimate might. It grows slowly, with each arc having its small share of new characters, all of them nicely presented and some even developed with events that unfold.
   
   And this structure saves the cast
   Having cat-girls all around brings the dangerous chance of turning a warfare medieval epic into an ecchi fest with harem elements. The structure I've mentioned, however, greatly aids the show to not end up in that miserable path. Every arc comes with a new female character, yes, but surprisingly they all fit their roles with clothing that is rarely obscene, with a lack of swarming around Hakuoro, and most importantly, always accompanied by the addition of a male character that makes sense and is truly important in the long run: Oboro, Benawi, Kurou, Genjimaru. Old guys, generals, greedy young rogues. Damn, how nice it is to see guys like that in a medieval tale. When they exist, even the righteous girl locked by a code of conduct, the strong woman who drinks a lot, and the cute angels with spellcasting ability feel charming, meaningful, and fun. This is even further improved when the cast is slowly introduced and not instantly mobbing the screen.
   
   And there's a welcome minimal deal of fanservice
   What you expect about an erotic game adaptation? Tons of ecchiness? Pantsu? Cute girls blushing? Well... forget that. You certainly have catgirls, you will definitely find Eruru cute, but that's about all you get (ah, and one scene of Karula, the strong woman, being naughty). The tons of girls have one or two elements of their dere-types, but they never show pantsu, they never look like horny adolescents wanting to bed the protagonist, they don't blush every second, and there is a welcome lack of focus on them. There is only one episode later in the show, when Hakuoro travels with every girl of the harem, that clearly remind you this was originally a fantasy eroge. Every other time this is more about fighting the next nation or understanding the motives behind the new enemies.
   
   Hakuoro aids this when he is also not your standard harem-lead, being instead a boringly serious guy and with his mind clearly more occupied with warfare and leadership than flirting with the girls around him. Aruru, the mandatory loli of the show is also safe, as she behaves like a innocent child and can provide some engaging comical and dramatic moments.
   
   However...
   This structured presentation, the division in arcs, and the rise of scope through the episodes bring about a few shortcomings. It starts slow, taking too much time to give you a sensation where this will lead to. There is no clear objective in the early part, just a sequence of events that at many points seems random, as if new enemies poppoed just for the sake of linking the next arc. There is no foreshadowing of future events, not an insight about things of the world only revealed far later. Add that a finale that feels weird, hasted, and not properly explained and the tale falls short of completing its RPG-inspired experience with true quality.
   
   And it's a beautiful piece of work
   Studio OLM, the guys behind animating nothing less than Pokemon, have done a superb job here, perhaps the best of their portfolio. Similar to the tale progression, Utawarerumono starts looking sharp but generic, and slowly grows with every episode. It steadily adds more and more blood to the scenes, combats grow from recycled scenes to some interesting decently animated combats by the middle part, and the generic character design is nicely mixed with oriental-style backgrounds and clothing to make them less of an issue. Add that to a sound direction that gets the job done and you have a production that makes it stands as one of the best of its season.
   

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Comments
Utawararumono is tricky. The first time I've watched it it truly got my attention and respect. It deals with war and a rise to power in a way it feels as one of the most RPG-like tales I've seen in the industry. It starts small, the characters added are strong but nothing overpowerful, and then new allies, stronger than the previous one make an entrance, the heroes move from village-saving to nation-saving quests, then later to region-saving war and finally tackling epic-scale events and monstrosities and bizarre entities.

Although this rigid story progression is satisfying, it also feels bland due to its limitations. There is rarely ongoing parallel events, there are a few times when coincidences are a bit too much, and some power gap between characters feel random and unexplained. It doesn't make Utawarerumono a poor show, but definitely hold it from going higher.

Anyway, for a show based on a eroge, having this many catgirls and so little fanservice is a true refresher. If you are up to an RPG adventure, dig in, there a few shows better at that than Utawarerumono. If you hope to see a true political struggle and gritty medieval experience though, you may think twice, this is much more like a light-hearted Dungeons & Dragon session made by someone who is in love with catgirls than a Lord of Rings with ugly orcs and bulky marauders. Also, if you are into this because it is an eroge adaptation... well, perhaps you will be disapointed with so few ecchi-inspired scenes and the surprising focus on Hakuoro and a few other male characters.

Well, let's do this, eh?
Utuwarerumono is... an anime based on medieval turn-based strategy eroge. However by watching it you might only slightly notice it's an adaptation of something, which is good. But this show does have its drawbacks as well.

Art & Animation: 7/10
Not too shabby animated when concentrating on important characters, their designs and shading are pleasant to look at, however it really takes a dive during the mass battle scenes.
Unfortunately, the show is filled with them, and for all of those moments where animators ran out of time you'll often see ramp shaded 3D meshes of tiny foot soldier clones going through simple, cyclical copy-paste moves which will be replayed before you several times before moving to the next scene.

Rushed CG models are NOT impressive. They never WERE and never WILL be. They will always stick out like aliens trying to invade your anime from inside your screen and burn your eyes.

+ Nice animation when focusing on characters
+ usually nicely animated duels between generals

- sometimes reuses previous animation frames
- 3D CG
- which is lazily animated

Sound: 7/10

Okay - however I would have expected a bit more from some VAs. The one guy voicing all peasants and messengers for emperors was especially lame.

Story: 4/10

1) The one thing good about Western fantasy fiction is that it knows how to stick to the setting. In a Japanese game or story, however, you'll pretty much always see a fantasy storyline ending with UFOs, mechas, alien creator gods from space and forced move to sci-fi no matter how good or realistic the introduction would have been.

Sadly, this is also one of those cases. :neutral: We go on for 85% of the show with everyone using just swords, spears and arrows, something like Iron Age, no magic even, and then in the couple last episodes - mechas! orbital ion lazors! magic spells, force fields, teleportation, and even people transforming into Evangelions out of thin air! :O I know, yeah, Akira was dai success, Eva was dai success, but somehow all Japanese think that unless they all end their shows that way, no matter how forced and against the plot it would be, they won't sell their animes well. But each time they do that, the result is terrible, and is followed by a drop in animation and storyline quality. This is no different.

Be warned, this ending will severely damage your impression of this anime once you're done with it.

2) One good thing about this show is that it's plot-driven, however it resembles a game chapter progression. Just as you defeat the big bad, the next one appears right away. And mostly without any connection to what happened before, just like that. "You've cleared the level." That's the kind of feel I got.

Long story short,
+ Nicely introduced fantasy world
+ Mostly logical development of events (except the wtf ending)
+ Enjoyable for the most part

- Does not stick to its established setting
- A very forced and unneeded Evangelion apocalypse climax for the story
- A game-like progression between the story chapters
- We're never shown any map of the fantasy world, even though one would think this is crucial for explaining the plot. The names of more and more countries just pop up as we advance the story.

Character: 7/10

The one thing this anime was best at was its characters. And by that I mean their visual designs and introduction, as they do not have much character development once they're accepted into the party, except for the main character. He was the only one facing constant changes and problems and dealt pretty good with them, however I felt that the conclusion with revealing protag's secret identity and gaining insane superpowers was unnecessary. In fact, the plot allowed really would have allowed him to win just by using common sense and wits without ever needing any superpowers.
The emperor on the burning roof could have been taken down after pulling out the sword by another slash, and mechas turned out to be vanquishable with human means as well. If only there had been a normal ending... but oh well.

+ Protagonist is pretty neutral as a character but still likeable
+ Other characters are nice as well

- no real character development
- antagonists are all delusioned or ignorant idiots with their downfall being only a matter of time, and asking for more sense behind their actions would not have been too much.

Value: 5/10
Mediocre. No real rewatching value due to the mostly bland and unmemorable battles.

Enjoyment: 6/10
More enjoyable than not, and is easy to follow, however I would have expected more.

As a big minus I'd have to mention the absolutely lacking battle choreography, and that is bad, knowing that most of the anime is spent fighting. The only exception is episode 14, which had an exceptional battle animation quality - probably due to the summer break between the airing seasons (1-13, 14-26.)

ANIME MINOR JEWELS SERIES
Full list of the review series can be found on this page, 3rd post from bottom:
http://anidb.telechargervous.com/perl-bin/animedb.pl?uid=251338&show=page&do=blog&blogid=29009&page=0

This anime could have been a lot better than it is if it didn’t feel like a videogame. Although the core idea is very interesting, it is eventually leveled under clichés, fan catering and bad plot twists.

The production values are nothing amazing in overall. There are lots of reused clips and bad CGI all over the place and character figures look generic. The battles scenes are also quite basic despite being numerous and grand scaled. To the most part you just see champions wasting mooks with a few super attacks and the duels lack exciting choreography. Voice acting is ok, albeit too obnoxious for some moe / sexy girls that simply NEED to sound like retards. The BGM is also nice with its blend of folklore and pop, when there are no memorable tunes in it.

The story is about a masked man with amnesia waking up in a place where he is the only one who doesn’t have animal ears. He is found by some pretty girls and after he recovers, he decides to help the local population to get rid of its cruel tyrant. The story does not stop there as for every evil ruler he stops, another one takes his place as more and more nations enter this seemingly small rebellion. Towards the end the entire world is at war and there is a sort of Apocalypse at large as well.

While the war escalates in an interesting way and the parties involve grow in numbers, the whole deal remains pretty basic to the most part. For example, the new nations entering the war always appear out of nowhere, without any proper foreshadowing that they were there before. As if they were locked areas and by defeating a boss they unlock for interaction or something. I had no idea how many of them were there and yet at every boss fight more would appear. Also, the nations in this anime are defined not by skin but by… ears. Some sort of fetish I guess as there are lots of different types of animal eared people here.

In reality, this anime is indeed based on a game. An erotic one. This is why the protagonist has no face and keeps being surrounded by pretty chicks of all stereotypes, all the time. But I guess it is ok since to the most part the war backdrop prevents their interaction from being a complete harem. There are many males as well, and they are there to provide other aspects to the story. Yet at no point is this anime good in war tactics or amazing character immersion; it just offers hints of something extra but never enough to deem it great. The main cast is given a decent immersion yet there are simply SO MANY people in this show that remain nothing but short lived adversaries and platonic (in anime only) lovers. I can’t say they are amazing but they are sure given more immersion than most casts out there.

Its worst aspect is the plot twists, which are aiming to WHOA us yet to the most part are laughable. It usually has to do with mass murder or destruction or sudden character appearances. Not to mention that the hero has amnesia TM and that the revelation of whom he is in the end is just facepalming. They tried to go for something amazing but it felt ridiculous. Also, despite the setting being medieval fantasy, it eventually turns to sci-fi just for the heck of it.

This anime ranks in the better medieval fantasy one out there (since most are horrible to begin with) yet it is not masterpiece level. Its plot is messy, many things are not explained properly and the ending just feels stupid. It can be enjoyable if your expectations are not too high and you are still new in the genre. Otherwise, The 12 Kingdoms blow this one out of the waters.

Utawarerumono the anime is a title about a fictional world with a feudal Japan settings. It contains lots of magic and develops some science fiction elements at the end.

It was based on a H-game with the same title and is practically screaming about its origins with all the bishojo characters, but none of the ero-scenes were carried to the anime so you will have a strong feeling of something missing.

What it does take from the game is a strong emphasis on battle tactics, country management, Heroic party and their development. This combined with interesting and lively characters is the reason I got quite attracted to this show. It gives you a kind of an RPG feeling where your party constantly grows and develops.

The story revolves around the main character named Hakuoro. He is a natural born leader whom people are attracted to, always leading his troops into battle himself. He is a great tactician and achieves many victories on the battle field, although he uses a FAN for a weapon which (as in the real world should be) isn't the best choice for a killing device. It isn't made clear, but it looks like he is in fact weaker in battle then any of his heroic comrades. Nevertheless people respect him greatly as he always seems to know what to do. In my opinion he is a very unique character in nowadays Anime.

Most of the other characters are also unique and interesting in their own ways, though not much development is taking place, you will get to see some hidden sides to the most of the female cast.

As for the story it is quite elaborate and has some good twists. It progresses at a very fast pace, which is how I like it. But its realization should have been so much better, and I heard it was better in the game. As usual the original is superior.

With averagely good animation and sound, lots of humor and tragedy, and of course cute girl with fluffy ears and tails this makes for a great value and enjoyment.

Also please take the time and watch the four DVD specials that this anime has! They contain some of the funniest scenes that should have been in the anime itself and are a must see by all means.

This is my first review, so forgive me if I don't do this properly
Animation:
The animation/art in the beginning were pretty good, there was a lot o detail, the animation was fluid, like the spent a good long time on it, and this may have been true, until the episodes started dragging on. The animation after the first few episodes starts to degrade quickly into what looks like an amateur work near the middle and then maintains status quo throughout the rest of the series, after the first few battles with the "important" characters in the beginning, they start using really bad CGI for the soldiers, it looks disgusting and completely out of place. While the art continuously degrades, characters start to look cross eyed or like someone couldn't color in the lines and the fixed it post productions, general character shapes start to deform, mouths start looking like circles with crudely placed teeth, it's truly pitiable. The only thing saving the animation from a lower score is the beginning of the series and animations they probably dug up fro the beginning of the series and reused.

Sound:
There's not much to say about the sound, it was kind of generic and didn't really hold the scenes together like good sound should, but the voice actors weren't horrible (except for the recurring children [Aruruu, Yuzuha and Kamyu], I wanted to strangle them). The OP and ED were decent for people who like that kind of stuff, but I don't, so.... yeah.

Story:
Jeez, I dunno where to start, so I guess I'l start from the beginning...
The story is about a man(later named Hakuoro) with an irremovable mask who a village girl named Aruruu finds badly beaten in a forest and nurses back to health with the help of her super famous physician grandmother, only to wake up with no memories (kinda cliche, but I can't really recall any anime with this as a major plot device), so like anyone without memories, he's quickly accepted into their community and becomes one of the most respected of it, while Aruruu by this point is already starting to fall in love with a strange for no reason. So, he saves the village from a forest guardian gone mad, blah blah blah. None of the other characters are really important, even though they may seem that way throughout the series. Did I mention that these village people all have tails and animal ears? Yeah....
So anyway, this stuff all happens and then Aruruu's grandmother dies and then Hakuoro leads everyone on a rebellion to get revenge for the murder of the old lady. Sound interesting so far? I thought it did until I watched the rest of the series and then thought about it, it's not interesting. So anyway, eventually Hakuoro becomes the de facto emperor of the whole country, blah blah. Bunch of useless plot in between, yadde yadde yadda... You never really feel invested in the story, but you keep watching because the next episode always looks more intereting, until you get so far into the series that you feel like you should just finish it. Anyway, in the end there's something about robots, I kinda stopped paying attention after the second generic war they got into for good reason.
That's the story in a nutshell, along with a boatload of plot holes, generic plot vehicles, useless dialog, pointless episodes, "characters" (and I use the term loosely) that all appear in stupidly improbable ways and unnecessary character development (yes, there is such a thing, watch the series and you'll see what I'm talking about), shoddy writing and unfulfilled potention. You can watch every 3rd episode and still have full knowledge of what's going on while simultaneously feeling like you've wasted even your shortened time.

Character:[/b[
You can hardly call these "characters," they hardly had any character at all. They were all cookie cutter over used generic anime characters arranged in a way that a boring man with no memories can become the almighty supreme king of kings in the land of Middle Earth, er... I mean.... I don't even know the name of he world/continent.... Just that he named his country Tusukuru, after Aruruu's murdered grandmother. Did I mention that they're all *mimi characters and that Hakuoro is really boring?

Value:
I don't quite get this review criterion, if you mean replay value, there is none, it's not worth seeing a second time. If you mean DVD value, I'd say it's a rent if you still feel the need to watch it, can't rent it? Borrow it, it, just don't buy it.

Enjoyment:
Even though I literally had nothing good to say, and this might seem hypocritical, but I enjoyed it because I didn't really have to think about the plot while feeling like there was an overall story line going on, which is probably the mistake people made when they confused this anime with a good one. You can't really put it down because it has this way of making you want to see the next episode because you're waiting for it to fulfill its potential and make the plot truly progress.

Only watch this if you have a shitload of free time on your hands and nothing to do, or call yourself an otaku and watch any and every anime your other otaku friends tell you to watch (I count people like you before I go to sleep)..

Overall, this is a pretty decent anime hampered by a couple flaws. With a really weird name that I hate to type out, so I'll just say "this series" instead of Utawareblah.

Animation
The animation quality is decent. The art style is mostly shounen realistic with a few "cutesy" concessions. Kids, teens, and girls have gigantic eyes, while the rest have normal-sized ones. No gigantic sweat drops or angry crosses. Considering this series heavy emphasis on warfare and that it has few comedic endeavors, I find that this style matches the overall mood of the anime well.

The fight scene animations would be awesome if they weren't reused all the time. Each character has their own unique style of fighting. I found Oboro's style the coolest looking, but I also liked Benawi's (though this may be bias from me watching Seirei no Moribito). The normal non-combat animation was average, but since nearly all anime is like that, it didn't bother me.

There's also plenty of CG animation that was used during battles that just didn't fit in very well. Unless you can get some Lord of the Rings quality character CG, I'd suggest not doing it at all. I suspect though that the CG was made for budget reasons, since they were only used during large scale fights where traditional animation would've taken too long to animate.

There's almost no ecchi scenes. The only scenes I can think of are the Kamyu's breast bouncing ones. As ecchiness doesn't really fit with the themes of the anime, I'm glad the artists held back, so to speak.

Sound
The voice acting is good for the most part. However Hakuoro just didn't sound right. His voice didn't match the charisma of his words. It just sounds "muted", so that even when Hakuoro is shouting it still sounds muted. The voice of Mukkuru, the big cat, sounded too much like a human (who the heck came up with the idea that cats make "nyaa" sounds?!) On the other hand, I found Eruruu's and Kuuya's voices very convincing.

The music of this series is not bad, but I also didn't find it very memorable. It did its purpose though in influencing the mood of the scene - happy music for happy times, grave music for grave times, and so forth. I don't like jpop or even pop that much, since I neither liked the opening nor ending songs.

The sound effects are a mixed bag. It's not that they're bad - they just tend to be overused to the point that they sound bland. And some of the sound effects seem as though they came from some old game. There are some good realistic sounding effects though.

Story
Like another reviewer said, the first part reminded me of the 12 Kingdoms series. Both have fairly interesting settings: this series having many original (read: non-elf) races, the 12 Kingdoms just having a fantastical world and government system. The setting is cohesive enough that I was immersed in it, and imaginative enough to keep my attention.

Story-wise, I found it captivating. It's a story of a man with amnesia and a mask stuck on his face finding an ever greater and greater destiny for himself. The pace of the story progression is good, and the story rarely triggered my "why the hell did that happen" sensor. I especially appreciated its strategic approach to battles, which is something almost never seen in shounen series.

The series is mostly continuous, with the occasional "stand-alone" episode between major plot arcs. I like such continuous stories more than episodic ones (except for comedies, in which episodic stories are fine as well). As expected of continuous-story series, some of the episodes ended in cliffhangers, but nowhere near the degree of Gundam Seed (e.g. the episodes don't end in the middle of a battle and leave you wondering whether so-and-so was killed).

The last arc of the anime reminds me a bit of Ergo Proxy, but I won't reveal much more than that or otherwise I'd spoil too much. I do think though that the last few episodes did not mesh very well with the rest of the story. The problem is that for such an important plot point there is not enough buildup for it - to the point that it feels somewhat abrupt and at times confusing to the point that I don't know whether there's a plot hole or not. It does lay some hints down, but they are not enough to prepare you for what comes ahead. While too many hints would make the series too predictable, it is possible to hint often yet subtly (think motifs). This type of abruptness was not totally unexpected though, since many fantasy/sci-fi anime end up doing this (annoyingly).

Character
There's a large cast of characters, but most aren't that interesting. In fact, I think there may have been too many characters, which resulted in a lack of screen time for many of them during the latter episodes. Of the main characters, I found Hakuoro, Eruruu, Karula, and Benawi the most interesting, mainly because of their complexities - e.g. Karula with a hidden past, or Benawi's emotions occasionally breaching his poker face. The rest are just too 2D, or perhaps the aforementioned lack of per-character screen time prevented the series from developing those characters enough.

The villians, with a couple exceptions, just sucked though. Most were just too insane or stupid to the point that I consider them unrealistically childish. It just paints a big red X on the villian that tells the viewer that this guy is an enemy and is destined to be defeated, which is too predictable for my tastes. Also predictably, potential enemies that are good-natured tend to the hero. I found Karula's introduction, in particular, to be a good example of this - a couple minutes after you first see her, you just know she's gonna by some sort of ally.

This is not really a shounen series, so there aren't any "powerups". Which is a good thing in my opinion, since it allows the series to focus more on the story and the relationships between the characters. But while those relationships do develop, especially that between Hakuoru and Eruruu, as I mentioned before, there are just too many characters to really do some serious development.

One thing I did like is that characters actually die. I don't mean the typical throwaway soldier that gets 0.5 sec screen-time, but actual characters. If there weren't any death in such a warfare-filled series, it would just be unrealistic unless there was a good reason for it (like the Wheel of Time series).

Value and enjoyment
I enjoyed it watching this series, but I'm not sure if I'd rewatch it. The ending left some unanswered questions, so I might rewatch that part just to see if I can find answers for them. I don't recall any really memorable scenes - none that really brought out my emotions or iration. To contrast with the 12 Kingdoms (which is the series I find this series closest to), there was a scene full of despair that made me tear up and another scene with an awesomely strong monologue. There was none of that with Utawarerumono, but I still enjoyed it nevertheless.