Anime Review: Sengoku Basara

Sengoku Basara first started out its life as a video game produced by CAPCOM. The first game was called Sengoku Basara or "Devil Kings" in the US and was and was released on July the 21st 2005 on the Playstation 2. Then Sengoku Basara 2 was made and released in japan on July the 27th 2006. And finnally Sengoku Basara 3 is being made for July 2010. Now after much planning Sengoku Basara was finnally adapted into13 episode long TV Anime Series. The anime studio Production I.G famous for its works on Ghost in the Shell animated Sengoku basara and it first started in April the 1st 2009 and ended June the 17th 2009. A second season has been planned for 2010.

Of course much like any plotline of any game that is set with japaneses samurai's it is in the Sengoku Period, or Warring States Period, during which Japan was split into many minor states battling over power and land. Now the anime follows the story of Masamune Data of the Data clan and Yukimura Sanada of the Takeda Clan. The story ussually consists of the Takeda clan fighting their rivals the Uesugi clan while the Data clan just jumps in to fight anyone. Then of course Nobunaga Oda head of the Oda clan begins his domination of japan under his evil rule. So the anime plotline is pretty much Nobunaga Oda vs everybody else in japan.

Now by all means the plotline in sengoku basara is pretty weak, and that is because the anime is not suppose to be taken seriously. If you watch it the scenes you see like how the characters can charge head long into enemy armies like bombs and causing massive explosions sending fodder soilders hurtling into the skies. You are not suppose to take the plotline of the anime seriously, and thus you should not really poke hole through it. However even though I just said that, the plotline is still pretty basic because it needed to be wrapped up in 13 episodes, however I can assure you that the journey up towards the finale is entertainment on a tengen toppa gurren lagann scale, well almost.

Date Masamune: He really should be noted as the most badass samurai that ever existed in the Sengoku Period, heck all of japan! He casuallys speaks out english, even if nobody can understand him, or what about how he rides his horse like a moterbike? Or maybe that he wields a total of six katana's? he is also the voice actor for Zoro from One Piece who uses 3 swords. Whatver the reason he is really, really manly who does not like to back away from a real fight, even if it means he could die. With all these qualities he really is shown as a badass samurai who leads his armies to fight nobunaga Oda, even if his army is a fraction of the size of his, he does not care, its gonna be fun!

Sanada Yukimura: If Date Masamune was the most badass character, then Yukimura is the coolest young character. He wears alot of red, and Masamune wears alot of blue, and so they are natural rivals who fight alot. Yukimura however wields two spears, which makes sense since he needs to fight against masamune with his 6 swords. But anyway Yukimura has alot of pride and honor, I am very sure he finds pursuing justice and honor more important than meeting a nice lady and raising a large family. No! thats not the life for yukimura, his life is to serve Takeda Shingen the only other man as badass as Masamune in the anime However he does have a wierd homoeretic master and servant relationship.

Oh my gosh the animation was simply off the charts! sure the animation starts off slowly in the early episodes, that is to be expected there was not much fights going on. However as soon as large scale battles started to appear and masamune data and yukimura sanada stepped foot on the same battle field and locked weapons in an epic struggle for manliness and honor, the animation is able to keep up with this. The bright flashing lights and constant changing presentation of the characters from detailed facial expressions to completely overdrawn black bold lines for details to show the intense aura they are emmitting. Yes all these qualities show up in the fight scenes, and since Sengoku Basara is an anime made of fight scenes, the animation is great throughout!

There is somthing terribly epic and manly about Sengoku Basara, you simply cannot take the anime seriously. I have already talked about how Masamune Data randomly speaks bad english while wielding 6 katana's and riding a motercycle horse as pictures. However the other characters share the same traits like how Takeda Shingen and Yukimura Sanada keep yelling eachothers name excitedly and enthusiastically going back and forth. How about japans greatest warrior at the time Tadakatsu Honda? well he was pretty much Gurren Lagann in the Sengoku Period using his giga drill to lay waste to armies. Or how about our antagonist Nobunaga Oda? he sits on a throne made of skulls in a dark crevice while drinking sake from the skulls of his desceased enemies. All of this is over the top and its really entertaining!.

Now I really wanted to give Sengoku Basara a 9/10 because after I watched it I was really psyched up watching characters shout endlessly while attacking. But I calmed down and analysed the anime. My conclusion was the anime was too short, and even then some episodes seemed much more boring then others. So how did the Production I.G get past this problem? well I have already explained this countless times, they went over the top to show just how epic the Sengoku Basara video games were! And this does indeed seem alot like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, however it is only a fraction of how epic it is when compared to it. None the less it is highly entertaining and with only 13 episodes you might as well give it a watch.