Review: IZUMO -Takeki Tsugi no Senki-

A shonen adventure anime associated with Japan mythology, IZUMO -Takeki Tsurugi no Senki- is released in 2005 as a 13th episode TV series.

The story speaks of Yagi Takeru and Yamato Takeshi, who are best of buddies cum rivals at kendo. Together with childhood friends Shiratori Kotono, Shiratori Asuka and Oosu Seri, they went through high school. One day, Takeru was appointed to be the representative for a kendo competition, and Takeshi is not happy with that, as Takeshi is supposedly stronger. As Takeru defeats Takeshi in a serious competition unlike others, he is filled with hatred for Takeru, and fights it out with him, before the eyes of their childhood friends. Suddenly, both of them saw a certain priestess in their conciousness, and a light sourcing from Takeshi devoured them all, and send them into an alternate world…

A bit of history background on IZUMO. IZUMO is made by the company Studio e.go! , and was originally an adult RPG game released on PC in 2001. Due to overwhelming response, it was re-released on Dreamcast in 2004, and it also leads to an anime OVA. In 2005 another company GN Software released IZUMO COMPLETE on PS2, this time also an adult game. This anime can be said to be its unofficial direct sequel, and a game by GN Software will be the official sequel, and it will be similar to the anime. It's said to be released this autumn on PS2, while whether it's an adult game is unknown (most likely it's a YES). Its title is "IZUMO 2 Takeki Tsurugi no Senki".

hmm…they should use this title for the anime. The original title is confusing.

When i watch this anime, i was expecting this anime to be adapted from some popular ero-game. Well, it's half the truth, and it's the other way round. The main reason is that the main male leads are surrounded by girls. While there's the possibility that it may just be another harem anime, there's actually some story to it, and a good story is a crucial factor to the success of any ero-game (or rather "adventure simulation game for those above 18"). And it's heartening that you won't see much fan-service in this anime, which IF they do add in more of it, it will be understandable. Even though i've never played the IZUMO series before, intuition will tell you that the game owes its success not to its girls, but rather to its story and RPG gameplay. (RPG gameplay in ero-games is a recent and RARE trend, and IZUMO may be the first to do it) You will realise this when you watch the anime.

For the story part, even though the idea is not fresh anymore (this anime STRONGLY reminds me of the EL-HAZARD series), it may be intriguing in the game. However, this idea may works in the past, but considering this is a recent anime, it doesn't work anymore. It's refreshing though, to see the different Japanese gods as humane.

Character-wise, there are too many characters, not to mention the MANY girls. Thus the focus have to be put on the two male leads, since there's only 13 episodes and it's impossible to explain every one of them. Thus many of them are actually skin-line deep, including the 5 girls who are supposed to be the female leads. And due to this, chemistry between them is absolutely minimal. Somehow, they actually turn the Four Sacred Beasts (Suzaku [Red Phoenix], Seiryuu [Blue Dragon], Byakkou [White Tiger] & Genbu [Black Tortoise]) into cute girls and beautiful women…Thus you can see just how many girls are affiliated with the male lead, which is also typical of any ero-game. Many characters are just forgettable.

Graphics and animation are so-so in this anime, but there's two major flaws here.

1) Combat scenes are uninteresting, uninspiring and lacks the impact and soul. Small fries are easily killed while big fries will find a way to escape before death.

2) Character designs are unbearable. The girls affiliated with the male lead are generally alike, and can only be distinguished by their hair and personality. Even their uniforms look alike…

The seiyuus used for this anime are generally unexperienced, and you can only find a few seasoned seiyuus inside. Takeshi & Susanoh put up a good performance, but that can't even save this anime. This is also part of the reason why there seems to be minimal chemistry between the male lead and the other girls. Their voice-acting is not all that bad, but without a balance of inexperienced and seasoned seiyuus, it actually turns out badly.

The opening theme is generally good, while the ending theme, being done by the seiyuus for the Four Sacred Beasts, can only be said as an idol song capitalising on this anime.

Generally, unless 1) you are an IZUMO fan, 2) loves this type of anime or 3) loves C-grade anime, you won't even want to watch this. The story is actually interesting and has potential if they put it well, but too bad they screw it up with the many flaws they created. The game may be great, but being an anime it's really that bad. If you want to watch an anime adapted from ero-games, go watch AIR, Kanon, Wind ~A breath of Heart or To Heart. They are better.

~ by rei_andrew29 on 1 July, 2005.