Mirage of Blaze

It wasn't a bad anime. It just wasn't a good anime. But I suppose it is good enough that I manage to watch all 13 episodes within about 3 days. The animation was weird to me that so many of the characters basically look alike and I kept getting confused as to who was who. I'll cut it some slack. This anime is over a decade old but still the fight scenes were a bit weak and disappointing. Characters....i'd say the characters were mildly interesting. Surprisingly no one really annoyed me or I flat out hated them. They were tolerable enough but this is one of thefew anime where literally no one seems to stand out. From the main character to the minor character, they all seem equally boring and unappealing. I suppose if I had to choose a character, i'd say Naoe is my favorite only due to his twisted character and persona and the evolution of the character throughout the 13 episodes. Storywise...I really can't tell you what the plot was because so many things were happening at one time. The first episode alluded to one thing and I thought it was going to heavily focus on that particular plot but by episode 2 or even 3 it was abandoned and then we get some fillerish moments before another crazy plot happens and this plot confuses the crap out of me and doesn't make much sense. It's conclusion, though rushed, was satisfying enough but I still was like "What was the point of...." or "why did this..." quite often. Last but not least the romance...This is quite a twisted anime, especially with Episode 11. The problem with this is....the romance feels forced and tacked on. For most of the 13 episodes there doesn't seem to be too much of a build-up and i'd say around maybe episode 8 or so is when it finally was like "Yeah let's get around to the romance." I love the idea behind it. It was twisted and not something you see or expect. That being said, the execution sort of made an awesome idea fizzle out royally. In the end, I say watch it but be ready to binge it. I'd love to see what this anime could be like present day with a much better budget and perhaps even more episodes to fully flesh out characters, plot and romance. Within 13 episodes, it just was barely average and likely a forgettable anime.

Mirage wasn't a bad time necessarily. The idea was good and there was a lot of content that I could have enjoyed but the presentation was just so sub-par. I watched all 13 episodes in under 4 days and I was very interested in how everything was going to pan out. There are many different factions headed by warlord's spirits and they are all after power, going about it in different ways and making alliances etc. I like that sort of political intrigue. The thing about Mirage though it that we have all these characters that get one or two episodes that I thinkplay important roles but I have no idea who they are or what they want. Instead, we follow our main group as they face their current issues and problems with each other and then ... some guy decides the solution to his problems is to set a forest on fire. Why? Who knows. Then the story is over, leaving our group in pretty much the same position they started with. Aside from poorly designed episodes I really hated the art. Now I watched a less than perfect quality copy of this on gogoanime but I don't think that was my main issue. Half of the characters looked the same. You were either a guy in charge, a flunky, a child boss, or a woman; and if you were x you looked like all the other x's . It was confusing and super boring.