Orient

The main thing that brought this show to my attention was the mangaka Shinobu Ohtaka, as I enjoyed his previous anime series Magi quite a lot. However, I was rather disappointed at first. The setting did not appeal to me, and I found the Oni themselves to be many things. However, they were not scary. In truth, the first Oni was pointless, so it was not interesting or suspenseful. I also did not think there was much magic or mystery, which would be something to maintain my interest in this show. Then the opening locations were empty and uninteresting. In addition, the action scenes and fight scenes were nothing to write home about. In other words, the whole thing started ingloriously, in my opinion. At one point, I even considered dropping it, although, in the end, I kept watching it because of the main protagonists, who I was slowly getting used to and who I now grew to like by the end of the first season. The chemistry between the central trio works, and this anime series managed to present their worries, problems, and initial trials respectably, so I slowly began to care for them. After the typical team building and the occasional clash with Oni, the narrative got better. Over time, it became about finding yourself and the anime’s creators kept hinting that there is some mysterious history behind it all and many - as yet unrevealed - secrets in the background, so the anticipated magical aspect came through with the last few episodes, and my interest in the next installment in the summer of 2022 is piqued. To summarize, this was an anime series I was not too keen on at first, but it has become something I am curious about and looking forward to, even though I can never forget the lackluster and not-so-good beginning. That is why the first part (episode 1-12) only gets 6/10. EDIT 26.9.2022 – Part 2 (episodes 13-24). I feel similarly about the second part as I did about the first one. The first half was not so good, but the finale was quite decent. Again, it was just a slightly above-average shōnen. On the one hand, I liked the action here, but on the other hand, I sometimes felt like the creators thought all they needed to do was use as much color as possible and that was enough... Same with the development of the main character. He starts off as a total moron, who only after a few episodes realizes that it would probably be nice to learn the names of the people on his team (the series makes an awfully big deal out of it, while it's really just common decency and basic logical thinking, but never mind). In the second half, he turns into a quite likable guy who can even handle some romance. The other two main characters are absent for most of the episodes, so I have to make do with Musashi, which doesn’t really do it for me. Even though he starts connecting with other new characters, which feels like starting over from the beginning, I’m just missing the interactions between the central trio that I liked so much in the first half. On top of that, the series appeals even more to the power of teamwork, friendship, and love, probably because if those themes weren't there, it would just be an empty action shōnen about nothing. Sometimes it works, but other times it feels more like a tired cliché that's not very well done. The fights don't look all that bad, and the story still has some interesting aspects and mystery that will probably make me watch the next season if it comes out, but there’s just not enough suspense for this to go beyond a slightly above average show for me. 6/10 (23.03.2022) (mniej) (więcej)