Altair: A Record of Battles

Shoukoku no Altair is a historical fiction centered around the young Mahmut Tuğrul as he struggles with his desires for peace while simultaneously having to get himself deeper in the war that is raging between the two major powers of the Türkiye Stratocracy and the Balt-Rhein Empire. My general opinion of the anime is that it is a fantastic take on this particular type of show where politics, war & war tactics are at the forefront of the show's focus. Also I think that the show is criminally underrated if I'm being honest. Most of the criticisms of the show I've heard of were mostlypertaining to the show's pacing so keep that in mind if you are looking to get into Shoukoku no Altair. I thought the story for Shoukoku no Altair was outstanding. The premise is similar to some shows that have come before it but the way everything was executed, was interesting. I especially liked how the politics of the show was handled and how it connected well with the war aspect, whether it be with the two major powers or the many smaller nations/empires involved. The art and animation were nice and clean. It was nothing spectacular but at the same time it was above average. The soundtrack for Shoukoku no Altair was great and I thought it fit really well with the tone as well as the general setting of the show. The characters of the show is probably it's weakest point. It's fun to see the dichotomy of Mahmut Tuğrul's character. A pacifist that often has to lead the frontlines of battle and has to take responsibility for the lives of many. The supporting cast around Mahmut as well as the antagonists are good in their own right, it's just that there isn't any deep characterization to be found from them in my opinion. Shoukoku no Altair was enjoyable from the first episode to the last through its various arcs. It took some things that I like from its genre and went a bit deeper with it and I think the show was well done overall. I highly recommend you give this an anime a watch.

What makes this anime must watch of this year , well first of all the genres are Adventure , historical and shounene and after completing this series today i would say its not a disappointing anime at all , it overcome my expectation and become one of my fav of this year. Well this is the most underrated anime of 2017.Yes the hidden gem.Mostly people forget about this anime/drop this anime after watching 1 or 2 episodes coz start was little weak but now after this , this series start to grow much much better. And as you can see at start the ratting of this animewas 6 point something but now this series is over you can see its ratting starts to grow.You can say those who continue to watch this must got something from this anime and this anime make me it fan. You have lots of action , strategies that will impress you so much.And MC (Mahmut) is not a losser type of.He is a badass like a boss type character who is trying to achieve his goals as to stop war at all costs.Cool economical stratigies difenatly will make you say its awesome. (First of all Before you decided to drop this series after watching 1 or 2 episodes i personally recommend you that you should watch atleast 5 or 6 episodes.Thats the advice you need. Dont give a look at score like i told at up that its a underrated anime.) And those who are only ecchi anime fans i would say this review is not for them. This series is like Arslan senki but not that much. And please ignore that dancer Shahra , she maybe makes you hate this anime but ignore , she will be in start only , hehe. Our MC is a pashs (Pasha = an army rank of that country).Little Spoiler below We have a cool MC who is pasha when he was a kid his village got burned into ashes because of war and he was the sole survival in his village.He got adopted by another pasha. The MC made his goal to stop something like that in future so he become a pasha of his nation , the youngest pasha.But sadly he got demoted when the empire attack a province of torkiye and he did not give value to his job and stop the enemy without considering his job.So another pasha add him into his spy network and thus his journey begin to find more knowledge and more about people and nations.Their he find other spies and journey keeps going on.I can tell much becoz further will coz spoilers.But i tell you his companion Abriga is so badass. Enjoyment: 9/10 I enjoyed while watching this anime.The anime is full with action and strategies.And MC is full with action and strategies that will impress you.First arc is 8/10 and the secound arc is masterpiece 10/10. Overall: i enjoyed this alot and its keep getting batter after each episode. I will say you should give a try and its worth.If you are too much religious then this review cant be helpful.But as an otaku its worth.Hope you liked it. Sorry for bad english.

I’m a sucker for historical-based fantasy, so Altair should’ve been the highlight of the year - but it ended up falling flat. While it did some interesting things, it ran into speed bumps that shows why anime rarely attempts epic scale fantasy stories. The political in Altair interplay is on a level most anime don’t come near touching. The countries all feel unique and like a good deal of thought went behind their creation. The leaders and military commanders have refreshingly realistic stances that usually make sense and don’t feel like they were contrived to create drama or follow an oversimplified black/white, good/evil paradigm. However,a lot of the details get lost in the mix. Altair moves at a breakneck pace. Sometimes, it feels like you’re meeting a full new cast of characters every episode. The nuanced political play ends up getting lost in a sea of strange names and terms that frustrates the viewer. Because the details are there. This show isn’t about flash and bombastic moments, filled with borderline illogical plots in order to satisfy the “rule of cool.” There’s real thought behind everything that happens, but it moves way too fast to pick up on everything. Often, you end up feeling lost and only seeing the surface-level of the story. The pace ends up hurting the characters too. Supporting characters start blending together because there’s just too many of them and not enough time to differentiate them. Even the characters that show up in the majority of the episodes don’t get the chance to develop because they’re too busy jumping from one country to the next. Altair could greatly benefit from a few scenes where characters just sit around drinking and having fun rather than always being in the middle of a political discussion or battlefield. Because I want to care about them, but it’s hard too when the anime never attempts to make an emotional connection with the viewer. The animation itself leaves something to be desired. While the cities and clothing are varied by country, the animation can’t keep up and often skimps on details. Likewise, fight scenes usually fall flat for the same reason. You still have to appreciate what Altair attempted. If doubled the number of episodes, or halved the content covered, Altair would’ve been a masterpiece. Every single country visited is rich in detail with the occasional Easter egg is thrown in to the delight of history fans like myself. Leadership and countries getting portrayed in mostly grey-and-grey morality is a refreshing and change from the notion of simple “good” and “bad.” And when the anime does slow down or spends more than two episodes on a conflict, the end result is highly engaging despite the lackluster emotional connection to the cast. I haven’t read the manga, so I can’t confirm this, but I highly suspect this is a case of a poor adaptation of great content and that Altair will go down like Kingdom - skip the anime and read the far superior manga instead. If you’re looking for anime that rely on detailed storytelling rather than flash and fanservice, then you might enjoy Altair. Sadly, the details fall through the cracks thanks to pacing issues that also end up hurting the characters.

I'm going to say this right off the bat. I am genuinely surprised that that ratings on MAL are this low. But perhaps that maybe because of the unique approach this particular anime has taken. Starting off, the very short review: Should you watch it? Yep. *pushes you out the door* Go. Right now. I regard this one to be among the best animes I've watched this year. What makes this one so unique compared to the others? Its the politics. Characters are bloody amazing, there's a lot of cloak and dagger play going on, strings being pulled.. Its not easy to pull off something likethis and the anime has done a fantastic job with it. So just go and get it. The long review: Don't worry I'll not include any major plot spoilers and be as vague as possible if I ever get close to spoiling something. Story: A gifted child who becomes a pasha at a very young age, despises war yet seems to have a talent to lead armies into battle. Now take this character and put him in a fantasy world where the continent/world is on the brink of war and things dont look very good for the protagonist's faction. I especially like how even if the factions seem black and white they have a surprising amount of depth and provide very valid reasoning of why they make the decisions that they do, for this reason alone the story is truly fantastic, the pacing in the beginning is fairly slow, be warned but it will pick up eventually. The manner in which the politics side of the story was handled is simply marvellous. While the pacing may seem off, thats about the only negative thing about the story but imo, it starts off slow then picks up in the later episodes and I'm okay with that. Your mileage may vary. Art: This one is going to be relatively short. The art is bloody gorgeous, from the cities to the manner in which armies were showcased battling it out to the unique culture based on character clothing and the characters themselves, the art is lovely, its vivid, colourful. The only negative thing I can think of here is making the battle scenes look more dark and gritty but chances are they didn't want to switch art styles and decided to stick to just one. So its not that big of a deal. Sound: Okay, the music, hands down is absolutely lovely. I have no idea who produced the music but it gave me goosebumps the same way attack on titan did with its music. The voice actors were great and fit the characters really well. Character: The only reason I rated it an 8? During the 12-24 episode mark, a lot of characters are introduced in each episode so if the pacing was slowed just a tad here the characters would have stood out a lot more, although they were just supporting characters and while they do have unique personalities and depth. The lack of screentime for them means you dont end up caring all that much about them. Apart from that, every single character, has valid reasoning on why they take the actions that they do, its not at all shallow and behave the way a person would if they were put in a situation like that. So hats off, characters are truly fantastic. There's nothing more that can be said, I'm extremely satisfied with this anime and I sincerely hope that they were successful enough to produce another season soon. This anime is a true hidden gem and I highly recommend it to anyone thats even remotely interested in strategies, politics and the epic fantasy genre.