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Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto

Episodes: 26
Genres: Action, historical, shounen
Studio: Bandai, Sunrise
OP: “Kouya Ruten” by FictionJunction YUUKA
ED: “Ai no Tsurugi” by TAKAKO & THE CRAZY BOYS
Official Site: http://www.irohanihoheto.jp/

OP: (I will probably upload the song next episode because I am just so lazy…)

Impressions:

Well, now that the first episode has been subbed, I can blog about it! Yes, one more show to my blogging list and this will definitely be the last one this season. Hashihime says the quality is as good as Kanon’s though I wouldn’t go that far. It’s good, but it’s ‘historical era’ good, as in, washy backgrounds, large crowd scenes, the extremely generic old geezer characters, the flames and of course, the sword action. The main character is pretty unique though, in terms of character design. I keep thinking of Samurai Champloo when I watch this, and although Samurai Champloo definitely gave me a better first impression, this show definitely has the potential to be far greater, simply because of the main character’s awesomeness and the complex story. The music is good; the OP, ED and background music. Like some other bloggers have said, this show isn’t getting nearly enough hype as it should. So, anyone who is reading this, please try this show out if you haven’t already done so. Let’s see how many comments I can get on this on. Also, I’d like to see some more bloggers doing this show as I haven’t seen one doing summaries yet (I am definitely not doing any summaries).

Bakumatsu (the new abbreviated name) employs historical settings (which means swords and samurais of course) as well as some fantasy/supernatural elements. As of the first episode, I have no idea to what extent this goes to. I hope there isn’t too much of that, although some would be a nice touch. Fantasy elements always give the show the opportunity to show off really cool scenes. It’s still quite mysterious, with the ‘connection’ the main character seems to have with that ball of…paper? (I’m saying ‘main character’ because I can’t remember any of the names…) Immediately after that ultra-cool scene of that guy dashing into the auction room and cutting the thing up, we get to an exciting cliff-hanger ending where the main character gets attacked by someone who seems to be very strong and skilled. There’s also the group of actors/swordsmen (and woman) involved, so it should be interesting enough. The woman is also in the OP so she seems to be pretty important. Btw, about not writing summaries as I mentioned above, this is because of similar reasons to CanyouMoe?: long names, complicated story etc.

As a side note, I’ve seen another two fall series apart from this one after this post. They are: Mamoru-kun ni Megami no Shukufuku wo! and Galaxy Ange-lune. Both were pretty good (though I am definitely not blogging either of them as I already have far too much) but completely different in terms of…everything! Mamoru-kun, a romantic comedy, is about an extremely skilled mage (I dunno the correct term) who falls in love with a green-haired shota. Fairly funny but it’s just one of those light-hearted animes that I enjoy. Then there’s Galazy Ange-lune, the craziest anime I’ve ever seen in my life. I haven’t seen any other Galazy Angel series so I was completely unprepared for the surprise it gave me. Everything was so random yet so goddamn hilarious! The funny thing is it’s combined with some irrelevant mecha with really good CG. That’s totally unnecessary but of course, since it’s there, it’s all the better. Out of the two, I have to say I like Galaxy Ange-lune better. The show is priceless, but then again, I wouldn’t be able to come up with anything to say if I tried to blog it. Out of those two and this show here though, Bakumatsu definitely wins because I always prefer more serious anime to the less serious ones.

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