Onimaru: Senjou ni Kakeru Itsutsu no Seishun

“Onimaru: Senjou ni Kakeru Itsutsu no Seishun” is a 1-episode OVA about a group of war-orphaned teens in medieval Japan acting as soldiers-for-hire, taking on jobs for large sums of money to kill people ruthlessly. During one of their routine jobs, they accidentally steal an innocent little girl who happens to be a princess, and she shakes things up by deciding to join them. This OVA has a few unique and decent technical aspects, but there’s not much else positive to say about it. The story suffers incessantly from tonal whiplash — in one second, it’s a comedy; in the next second, people are getting brutallymurdered; then, one of the protagonists forces an unwilling partner to have sex with them. Rinse and repeat. The ending is anticlimactic and left me thinking, “wait, that’s it?” Sure, it’s an original one-shot, but I thought it would be a little more conclusive than it was. The characters also have a highly unrealistic reaction to the events that occur in the climax. The characters are basically stereotypes. The one that stands out the most is Kiri, the female member of the team, who is obsessed with sleeping with various men. She doesn’t really care who she does it with long as she gets what she wants, and seems to require a partner every night. This is depicted as humorous, but as she’s forcing herself on some of her partners, it can be a bit disturbing. The animation is serviceable for the most part, but there are a few instances in which scenes are recycled. The direction is passable. The character designs are unique, to say the least. With their highlighted hair and face paint and eyeliner, the protagonists look more like a punk rock band than medieval mercenaries. It’s not explained why they look like this, but my guess is that it’s supposed to signify their youth and rebelliousness. The rest of the art is just average; it’s not very detailed or memorable. The voice acting is also average. The background music is forgettable, but the ending theme, an upbeat pop-rock song which also plays briefly about halfway through, is pretty good. There is a significant amount of explicit content in this OVA, mostly revolving around the character Kiri and her exploits. She’s shown naked three times, and there are three brief implied sex scenes with her (two of which are forced). There’s also a lot of sexually explicit dialogue. This OVA has plenty of violence as well; people getting stabbed, decapitated, etc. As an aside, there’s an odd scene in which the protagonists essentially play keep away with a head they decapitated. When Kiri has the head, it’s shown looking at her breasts and smiling. Overall, although there are some unique aspects to this OVA as well as some notable characters and scenes, “Onimaru” is nothing special. The meandering plot, abrupt ending and off-putting characters make this difficult to watch — not to mention it’s currently only available in Japanese. Not recommended.