Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto | |
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Studio : Sunrise
Length : 26 Episodes
Year : 2006
Genre : Drama - Action - Fantasy - Historical - Magic
Synopsis :
When the Edo period ended, so did the feat of the samurais. The symbolized power behind a sword was no long needed, because the town was at peace. However, when Western invaders start to overrun the area, the people seek a different source of power. Those that seek the Hasha no Kubi (Head of Conqueror) can rule the world, but that's not all, there's another existence: Eternal Assassin which counters the produce of Hasha no Kubi.
Added : 2006-10-23
Synopsis by : Himitsu
Last update : 2008-03-04
Last update details : Link modified
Score : 7.3
Number of reviews : 10
Link(s) :
Official #1 : GyaO's Irohanihoheto Website (Japanese)
Official #2 : Official Irohanihoheto Website (Japanese)
A-Source #1 : Anime-Source.com In-Depth Review by Izeque
Song(s) :
Opening #1 : FictionJunction YUUKA - Kouya Ruten
Ending #1 : TAKAKO & THE CRAZY BOYS - Ai no Tsurugi
Release(s) :
2007-07-02 -- Episode(s) 4 by Conclave & Ayu. BT Link
2007-05-15 -- Episode(s) 26 by Shinsen-Subs. BT Link
2007-05-14 -- Episode(s) 25 by Shinsen-Subs. BT Link
Found 36 releases. Click here to [ Find them! ]
Hits : 67660
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Posted by : kevinchaosvs 
Posted on : 2008-05-11 
My first impression of this was: Wow! I think I’m going to love this! Great animation, which felt somewhat romantic, and some sort of a surreal mood. And that awesome music and animation in the Opening Theme!
Sadly, I ended liking only the first half of the series… …
Story/Dev: 55%
Interesting use of "theatrical play" as a theme, mix of the concept of stage play with the actual events, which is really innovative and captivating --- made the scenes more emotional and climatic at the same time--- for example, the scene where they killed the minor bad guy on stage and made the audience think that "it’s not real". Of course with such theme as stage play, there is the usage of the "melodramatic stage voice", which further enhances the mood.
But things start to go downhill after around ep10, whereby things start to get boring, and they are just recycling stuff (of the play concept) but with less climatic moments, since by then you already know the entire "cast" and how things are supposed to work. Things will get even more boring if you’ve read the history textbook and know who would get pwned, because the whole sequence in the later part was very very narrative, with not many attempts at dramatizing to build up the tension.
Animation/Graphics/Design: 74%
I love the animation style, which seems to create a certain surreal and poetic ambiance, especially the animation in the Opening Theme. The character designs for Akidzuki and that blond guy with the eye-patch are just so cool.
However, I’m rather disappointed with the animation for the fight scenes, which was just average despite the very promising graphics quality
Characters/Dev: 65%
Very lacking in the development—the only distinct one is looking into the personality of the female protagonist (the "lead actress"), not much into Akidzuki, who is portrayed with the signature "old/cool" face throughout. As such, the characters aren’t very engaging.
Music: 35—88%
The opening theme, Kouya Ruten is awesome! I’m a big fan of Fiction Junction, especially her collaboration with Yuuka.
The BGM is good too—a "traditional" feel. The ending was pretty average, didn’t leave much impression to me.
However, they seem to have only one background music and that same old BGM is played throughout the series. That’s why I gave the rating a range of 35-88%:
88% for the absolutely awesome opening theme, 35% for the continuous repetition of the same BGM which bores me the more I watch
Summary:
This was a very big letdown for me. It had so much potential: great opening theme, great graphics, innovative concept (of the stage play), the initial few episodes were fantastic (fast-paced and dramatic). But things began to deteriorate to point of utter boredom, which was a really big shame.
Personal overall rating: 57%
Posted by : du5k
Posted on : 2008-05-01 
Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto waste my time.
The moment I finished the first episode, I know that Sunrise can’t make a good samurai movie. Maybe the series isn’t all about samurais in the end, but it just isn’t a good production anyways. It became one of those series I’ve regretted watching… for it wasted like 10+ hours of my time.
The plot has plenty of build-up, but it all amounts to nothing; at least, I though it’s some kind of build-up. To be honest, half the time I wasn't sure of what's going on, because I wasn't given a reason to. A lot of characters are used, yet they never really played a single character's development before given a role in the climax; and at then, I don't even remember that character's name or role. To be precise, the show didn’t manage to interest me before moving on; and that killed the interest for me to enjoy this show. I hoped for something more interesting when Kakunojo traveled with Akidzuki, but they killed it with that plot twist. I could only blame horrible directing.
On the other hand, the genre of an historical series is played pretty well. Kakunojo’s stage voice is something you don’t hear very often unless you usually watch Japanese stage plays. They captured the feel of an historical series through its music and drawing style. There are times where a character’s emotions are played very strongly too.
Though I can’t say I enjoyed the animation very much. In fact, it’s one of the factors that killed for show for me. The colours are dull and stale; that’s probably to fit the genre of the series, but it could have been better. The backgrounds actually aren’t that detailed; sometimes it’s really a whole lot of blurred mess. And since they used action scenes for most of the climaxes, I thought they’ll do better at that part, but no; the animation is choppy even during the fight scenes, and the fights itself are incredibly boring. Rurouni Kenshin from 10 years back actually does much better. They probably want to keep it realistic, but would you expect realistic from someone with blue/red glowing eyes?
The music was pretty well done, together with the animation. “Kouya Ruten�, the OP, is actually much better than the ED, as it captures the feel of the genre well.
In the end, I didn’t enjoy the series at all. I would only recommend it if you enjoy true historical series.
Plot: 3
Story Style: 8
Animation: 5
Music: 8
Value: 3
Posted by : crazy3jackal08
Posted on : 2008-05-01
My first impression was that I had to watch this series because historical animes mixed with fantasy tend to be one of the best. The first couple episodes had me hooked because the story was mysterious and the music is simply beautiful.
The problem i started to encounter was that towards the middle it got a bit slow and just plain weird. They started to throw in some really random things without thorough explanations. I did like how they displayed western influence played a big part of political matters so Ill give points on that.
The action seem to get a bit more intense in the last few episodes, but something about it wasnt captivating. It literally took me half a year to finish the last ten episodes.
Series is great to see a bit of history and has a mystery that unravels pretty fast which made me loose interest. I fell asleep for the final episode almost breaking my neck on the way. When it all ended I just had that "wtf" expression.
The one thing that truly stood out for this series was the artwork and music.
Posted by : ultimasome
Posted on : 2008-01-17 
Another interesting historical anime. After watching Bakumatsu I thought, "Hey, historical animes aren't that bad as they sound". Bakumatsu is one of the best series from Sunrise.
The main character is Akidzuki, who is the eternal assassin destined to seal the head, the source of all evil. Although he's suffering from his fate and his past he doesn’t do the emo thing. Being quiet all the time, yet you can read him as an open book by watching his eyes (<3). The anime becomes more interesting when his eyes glow in some fighting situation and the way he fights using that sword which has this little dongle on the end to help him find the head. As he accepts his fate and moves on, I thought he might level up and becomes more stronger than before, but it turned to be the opposite. Akidzuki, unlike the other characters in some animes whom can't progress without the need to level up, understands who the enemy he's going to be against.
The other characters such as Kakunojo, the chief of a traveling group of actors who are on personal mission to find a man who ruined their lives, who looked like a minor one, but hides a big surprise for Akidzuki-sama. Those characters are built up as the story goes deeply without flashback.
The simple design of the characters and the animation is somehow awesome, especially with historical types of animes.
The opening theme only was great. Akidzuki-sama appearing in it doing some amazing sword stuff. The only problem here is that it ends….well, quickly -__-;
This is definitely a must watch anime. Once you watch it, you wont be able to forget its amazing plot and the wonderful characters~
Don't worry about it being a historical anime. As you continue watching you won't even notice that its historical. And I think you'll like the history subject.
Posted by : tabz
Posted on : 2007-06-07
I kept watching this show hoping that someday this series might get to a good juicy part. But ultimately all I got was lame ass dialogue that was merely there to fill up dull space..
Action, it was "ok", not really too flashy, well can't really call it "realistic" since the hero goes off with the glowing eyes slashing illusions and stuff.. but nonetheless, it was nothing superb nor impressive animation-wise when compared to other recent anime showing during its run.
The ending was surprisingly worse than the worst case scenario ending I had in mind, and that is that the scriptwriters/director had no idea on where the hell the story will be going from the get go.. and sure enough, a rushed ending, showing some stuff suddenly that wasn't even introduced as plot devices prior nor should have been at least seen on earlier episodes for the build up.. But they just suddenly "happened" to appear at the last two eps leaving the explanation to the same lame dialogue, trying to force the audience a spoonful of crap last minute ideas..
Well so far it was exactly how I saw it coming halfway through the story, but the last battle could've left a little less of a bitter aftertaste if only everything didn't transform into damn "blue butterflies"..
Posted by : Faebinder
Posted on : 2007-06-06
And so I finished the series. I dont know what happened to this anime but the story grew more and more boring to the point that I started watching it at speed x 1.5.
Animation: 8/10. Finally, another fluid animation that does the action right. There are not cut/flash fights (well not enough to notice). The drawings are spectacular. I enjoy the fact that no two characters are similar so far. Still there I think they could have done a better job with the colors. At least this part of it was good.
Music: 8/10. The opening is an 8 really.. The spectacular intra episode suspence music is a 9. WELL WELL done and used at the perfect time during the time of peek drama. Unfortunate, I feel the sound effects to be a 6, like drawing the sword.
Story: 7/10. Very quickly you will note the story is not focused on just one person and just one enemy. The story doesn't take long to move along and the pace is steady but slow. There are no fillers and by episode 4 already 2 hidden plots are hinted for. The fact that involves the right amount of fantasy making it not too crazy imaginary vs not too hardcore reality based gives the whole story a major edge. Unfortunately the story weakens after episode 4 as more bad guys with very little screen time are introduced and even killed. Then somewhere around episode 12 and after the story just becomes a series of lame occurances. Is there a doubt about the ending? The hero wins of course and all is happy *yawn*.
Character Design: 7/10. I love the good characters... well their setup. There is some cuteness factor (two children) added (in small amounts) that drops the seriousness of this anime. The two children in the anime should have played a more remote roles. The bad guys have gotten little screen time and mostly are shown as baffoons. There seems to be zero losses amongst the good guys which blows to the credibility/maturity factor of this struggle. The bad guys drop like flies. "Is there a point to these characters?" I start wondering to myself.
I recommend this is if you liked Peace Maker Kurgone, but it doesnt add up to the top notch historical fantasies like Basilisk and Samurai X Trust/Betrayal or Ninja Scrolls OVA. Not even close.
Posted by : Smellyfish
Posted on : 2007-06-06
This anime started out GREAT! But then the ending was like.. meh... laaaaaammmmmee
Animation: 9
Art started out really beautiful in the beginning, but near the end, it just sort of tapered off. However, the background scenes were phenomenal, and I loved the character designs and clothing styles.
Music: 10
I absolutely loved the opening music. One of the best anime songs ever.
Characters: 7
The characters were actually quite laughable. They barely developed. The girl only got more and more annoying with each episode. The protagonist remained stoic and invinsible. He easily defeated all the bad guys. Then there was the emo guy with the mother complex who had mental problems and was a completely superfluous character. The bad guys were also really cliched. One was completely evil; he even had the evil laugh down, but that was because he was posessed. Then there was the other guy who made people suffer for a "greater good." (Or so he thought)
Story: 8
Very cliched. Same old guy-must-kill-bad-guy-but-must-defeat-friend-first plot. Interesting in the beginning, but after the first couple episodes, i was able to guess the rest. There were also a lot of totally improbable factors added in for dramatic effect, but it only made the show seem ridiculous.
Overall: 8
Great presentation, but petered off to a really lame ending.
Posted by : lilaznmans
Posted on : 2007-03-03
I am writing this review after episode 15.
Animation: 10/10
The animation is great along with the fighting style. I can't complain about the artwork. The style of fighting is different from most anime.
Music: 9/10
The music is very good especially the intro. The music in the series is also very good.
Story: 8/10
The storyline is good, but there is not much background as other people wrote. It tells little of Youjirou and the Theatre Troupe's Past. Farther in the series Youjirou is still the mysterious samurai.
Characters: 9/10
The characters are very interesting. You got a mysterious samurai, a moving theatre group, and most of all bad guys, but this is what makes this anime unique.
Overall: 9/10
I find this a very good anime hopefully episodes come out faster.
Posted by : Setsuna86
Posted on : 2007-01-11
I'm writing this review after episode 10. Personally I think this one is the best anime of the Winter Session of 2006, let me explain why:
Animation: 9/10. Awesome animation graphics, reminds me of Samurai Champloo. Characters are well designed, fluid and colors are never too bright. Moreover there are many realisitic elements, speaking of postures and movements, it's not just the "Super Powers" or such.
Music: 10/10. Opening is really nice, I have the full single edition and in my opinion is a great song. Ending is very nice as well. Speaking of animee musics I can just say they're very interesting. Instruments choice is good as well.
Story: 9/10. The plot seems really interesting. The "Revenge" theme, something we're used to see in many anime, is built up with a "Theatre Group" element, which makes it all new and interesting. The developement is interesting as well, alternating fighting scenes with drama and even sad moments (For example, the Shinsegumi Captain's episode). Maybe it's kinda difficult to follow evey step of the plot since there are always many new-entries among the characters, that's why you should never miss a thing in this anime!
Characters: 10/10. Characters are somewhat interesting. First, Akizuki Youjirou, the "Ronin" figure, the man who failed once to protect someone and now spends his days as an outlaw, wandering and trying to find a remedy for his failure: he's smart, never says too much, and his katana is awesome :). The "Theatre Group", many people with different personalities: Shiranui, the "Casanova" one, Kakunojo, the "Avenger of her past" which acts tough but her feelings are deep and confused, the "mysterious" Sotetsu, the man who doesn't side with anyone, acts by his own and you can't understand if he's an allied or an enemy. It's an interesting cast.
That's why I rate it 10 out of 10. I'm expecting much from this Animee, and I think its development will be really good. I'd suggest it to anyone who likes Ronin tales, Bakumatsu period and intriguing plots :)
Posted by : blueswirls
Posted on : 2006-11-23
COOL.
That's my first impression of this anime after watching just 4 episodes.
Bakumatsu is indeed an anime with a little bit of historical background and quite a number of very cool fighting scenes.
There's always something about samurai anime, this one is no exception. Though there are still many unanswered questions (since it's only up to 4 episodes now), I am definitely hooked into this already and I can't wait to see the continuance.
Animation: 9/10
The graphics are done pretty well. Good fighting scenes and the characters are not that bad looking either.
Story: 8/10
Engaging. I think understanding the history background would help. Perhaps.
Nevertheless, the concept is interesting and so far no meaningless scenes are included. The flow is quite fast and that is good.
Characters: 9/10
The main character Youjiro Akidzuki is one very interesting 'samurai'. The cool quiet and emotionless guy who's actually kind-hearted. You can't really hate this kind of guy. LOL.
As for the rest, more episodes will reveal.
Music: 8/10
Supports pretty well. No complaints.
I give this anime 8 for the great potential that it shows. Shall keep a look out on this one!
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