Snapshots: Sengoku BASARA - 01, 02 April 14
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Summary:
During the Sengoku period, there are many factions constantly at war. One of these is led by a one-eyed man named Date Masamune and another by the imposing Takeda Shingen. The latter has a fiercely loyal subordinate named Sanada Yukimura who goes head to head against Date Masamune multiple times, but the battles between them tend to get interrupted. One such battle occurs when both men try to go after another leader named Imagawa, and they’re forced to break off their heated duel when Imagawa attempts to flee the scene with his body doubles. Yukimura and Masamune go after separate Imagawas, but all of the doubles are killed by a third party, and when their paths cross again, they are in front of the menacing Oda Nobunaga and his army. It was Nobunaga’s subordinates that killed those body doubles, and Nobunaga himself proceeds to kill the real Imagawa with a shotgun blast to the head.
Thoughts:
My initial interest in Sengoku BASARA wasn’t that big based on the promotional material, but after getting several emails and recommendations about it, I’ve now watched the first two episodes and realized what I’ve been missing out on. And holy crap, this show is crazy good. The level of hardcore action here is ridiculous, easily eclipsing anything else airing right now. Production I.G does an incredible job with the production quality, especially when you consider that much of the episodes so far are pure action, and they even switched to a different-but-equally-awesome animation style for the episode two battle between Yukimura and Masamune.
If there’s one thing though that’s even better than all the action, it’s how over-the-top everything in this series is, most of the time with hilarious results. I can’t stop laughing every time Yukimura and Takeda start yelling out each other’s names in manly passion while punching each other in the face. The lengths they go to show the epicness of Takeda are amusing as hell as well, like when he stands on top of his horses while they gallop up the vertical wall of a castle, or when he goes from coming within a micrometer of getting stabbed in the eye to punching his would-be assassin all the way to the top of the castle. There’s also things like Kasuga having an orgasm when she gets close to Kenshin and how dramatically evil they make Nobunaga with the music, the lightning, and the random swirling clouds right above him. Normally I might criticize a show for being too over the top, but it’s done in such a great way here that I can’t help but enjoy it.
In short, if you like action at all, then you’ll probably love this series. I’ve been very impressed by these first two episodes and am definitely going to be watching more.
By request, here’s the OP by abingdon boys school: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼
Espada at 4:07 am on April 14th, 2009
basara is in my watchlist xD
A.C.E. at 4:11 am on April 14th, 2009
Basara makes me think of a feudal version of Gurren Lagann with how over-the-top it is. I know this is a snapshot, but can you please upload the OP for download? Its so darn awesome and very well done.
Zange at 4:13 am on April 14th, 2009
Looks very interesting..
Reacshion at 4:27 am on April 14th, 2009
Btw this show is based off of samurai warriors I think, the main bad guy has the same name as the one in samurai warriors, and pretty much the fight style in the show is the same also.
naixil17 at 4:42 am on April 14th, 2009
are you serious? i was interested in basara BECAUSE of the promo video. it’s really a great show for those that doesn’t like too much confusion in their anime. loved the fighting styles and how video-game-styled it is. =)
Void at 4:44 am on April 14th, 2009
@Reacshion
Not quite- this anime is based on a game ‘Sengoku Basara’. Samurai Warriors doesn’t really reach the levels of ridiculousness that would excuse fighting with 2 spears or 6 swords at the same time( though it’s getting there). Also Sanada Yukimura is sort of a Japanese national icon so he appears in a number of games.
vortex at 4:47 am on April 14th, 2009
watched this and i nearly fell asleep. i’d say avoid.
Omni at 4:51 am on April 14th, 2009
A.C.E.: Added.
kandur at 4:53 am on April 14th, 2009
Gurren-Lagann made a new genre. It will be called “GARimation”. xD
zero1328 at 4:55 am on April 14th, 2009
I just found something interesting: apparently the version airing on CBC and the one on TBS have obvious differences in animation style. CBC has a more anime style but TBS is more realistic. Some spots have somewhat different drawings.
Ahnlay at 5:12 am on April 14th, 2009
@ kandur
Nothing against Gurren-Lagann, but if you want the progenitor of “GARimation” you should check out “Gao-Gai-Gar.” It’s even in the title.
Tang at 5:51 am on April 14th, 2009
So when you said that the odds you’d blog it were decent, that meant that you weren’t going to even bother to watch a single minute of it?
Kaioshin Sama at 6:00 am on April 14th, 2009
Meh. Give me Lucky Star, this ‘manly’ crap just sucks.
Passerby at 6:21 am on April 14th, 2009
FINALLY.
BROOKLYN otaku at 6:23 am on April 14th, 2009
yukimura..oya kata sama..yukimura!..oyakata sama!..YUKIMURA!!..OYAKATASAMA!!!
great animation, smoooooth.
ROFLWAFFLELAWL at 6:23 am on April 14th, 2009
@Ahnlay and Akandur
The term ‘GAR’ was originally meant to be ‘Im gay for Archer’ from the fate/stay night series. When misspelled and typed ‘Im gar for archer’ everyone began using GAR as Gay for ARcher. But rather then being used for those male characters who were rather girlish it ended up being a subjective term for example (and famous) ‘You are gar for badasses but gay for traps’. After a while it started to be used as objective making ‘Archer is GAR’. Later that meme (originally created in the /a/nime boards in 4chan) went on to being used to describe badass mech pilots on the /m/echa board. More so because there was the anime Gao Gai Gar which conveniently had Gar in its title.
Just a little informational tid-bit
Now for the topic. Great show. I was skeptical because of the fact its based on the game but the voice actors and great action, love the scene with Nobunaga, kept me on board. Def watch
ROFLWAFFLELAWL at 6:24 am on April 14th, 2009
I meant @kandur :/
Unknown Voice at 6:54 am on April 14th, 2009
Epic epic epic.
With such voice cast too.
What I LOVED About this version of Sengoku Basara anime is that this time they ARE following game quite closely, going as far as to use the music from game and etc.
Unknown Voice at 6:55 am on April 14th, 2009
oh and btw, Prod.I.G released a statement that the “horse” Masamune is riding on is actually a motorcycle with horse head.
death_killz at 7:29 am on April 14th, 2009
enjoy ur lucky star eye rape girls while the boys enjoy this