To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts

Medieval fantasy anime are rare these days as compared to genres like rom-com and sci-fi. The good ones, even more so. As a fan of the genre, I’m always interested when I see a show set in the medieval age, hence To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts instantly caught my attention after I saw the PV. From the studio that had produced Zankyou no Terror, Zombieland Saga and Yuri!!! On Ice in recent years, there was cause for excitement, even though the PV had made it clear that this was a low-budget anime as compared to the other hits the studio has had. From the beginning, Tothe Abandoned Sacred beasts throws us into a war between the North and the South, with the South dominating the war for the most part until the North delved their hands into something they should never have: transforming humans into all-powerful beasts of destruction and war. The humans who’d been the victims of this were made to believe that they were special, revered by their army but on the inside, the entire populace was terrified of them. However, such beasts were only going to be useful until the end of the war. As soon as that ended, the army always wanted to get rid of these creatures who, in their view, threatened their existence. That’s pretty much the premise of the story. Not bad. Unoriginal, but the execution was fairly well handled at the start. Now, that’s where the problems begin. There comes a time when you get bored of the same script every episode over and over again. Find an Incarnate, hear about how they’ve been ravaging stuff around the area, talk to them, and then at the end of the episode, eliminate them. That’s the formula that was followed throughout the season. The repetitive nature of the plot had me rolling my eyes from boredom at times. We’ve got two main protagonists: Hank Henriette and Schaal Bancroft. Hank Henriette, the charismatic leader of these Sacred beasts or incarnates, as they’ve been called, is a pretty straight-forward character to understand. Being betrayed by your best friend, who also kills your lover is an easy way to make yourself hate someone, isn’t it? He’s about the only incarnate who’s neither lost his humanity completely nor wants to eradicate humanity for what they’ve put all of the Incarnates through. The threat posed by these mindless beasts who were once his comrades in arms is understood by Hank, hence he takes the mantle of eliminating them before they cause any further damage to society upon himself. And we follow his encounters with his fellow incarnates. Hank rarely showed emotions, keeping himself focused on his goal for the most part. The second protagonist is the daughter of one of the Incarnates. Loved by her adopted siblings, her father as well as the village, Schaal is an exuberant spirit full of positivity until he sees what’s happened to her father, who’s body had changed into a dragon permanently. Even so, she never hesitates to treat him as the same father she once knew. When one day Hank arrives and kills his father, she goes into rage and vows to track down his killer. As she meets and gets to know Hank though, she decides to accompany him and see for herself the reason for which her father had to be killed. As time passes, she begins to sympathize with Hank. Watching their interactions and relationship develop is one of the better points in the show. Talking about the animation, I was extremely disappointed. I was expecting a lot better from MAPPA, who’d done such amazing work in the past. Far too many of the battle scenes, which are supposed to be the best animated panels, are crappily done for the most part. The character designs are better but nothing to write home about. The soundtrack is meh, the voice acting okay. I guess they really had a low budget because there was one soundtrack they kept repeating over and over again in tense situations. The animation or the sound aren’t the factors that brought down the show for me though. The culmination of what Hank and Schaal did throughout the season didn’t have much of a payoff. The first few episodes were interesting, then the loop begins, ending on the same note. This may work for comedy, but doesn’t for action fantasy. The story had potential to develop into an intriguing story that shows the grey side of human nature. But alas, it never took off after the first episode.

So in the spring season this year, Fairy Gone was a thing and it kind of sucked. So much so that I decided to drop it halfway through. Its story was not gripping enough and its characters were so bland and stuck in mud in terms of their growth. It was not really a good show. So I bring Fairy Gone up because this show this season is rather similar in terms of its setting and certain plot elements (kind of) on paper. But MAAPA has been on a good roll in terms of quality anime they are animating lately so how does this entryin their catalogue hold up? Sit back, relax and make sure that the inner beast inside you screams out as I present to you the anime review for To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts. Lets begin. Story: 6.5/10 “WAR...is hell” - Ace Ventura, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective I will just leave that quote there. So the story begins with a civil war between the North and the South (they never say the country’s name so lets leave it at that). But the war swiftly favours the Northerners as they unleash a special unit of super soldiers called incarnates to fight on the battlefield. But there problems being developed as the incarnates start to lose their minds and become the savage beasts they are transforming in to. With the war over. Hank, the leader of the incarnates, must now hunt the other members of the incarnate squad and put them down before they cause any more harm. But when the daughter of one of the incarnates, Schaal Nancy Bancroft tags along with Hank, it may not be as clear cut as it seems. I will say that the first episode of the show feels rather rushed. I think if the first episode was expanded to two episodes, or the episode was twice the length, then the narratives developed here would make me more emotionally invested into the story and our characters. But the way they did it, it made me struggle to get really invested into this show. Thankfully, the show’s story structure and pacing does get better as the show goes on as it follows a monster of the week type setup that helps establish that not everything is clearly black and white and there is some grey area in the middle of it all as some incarnates still have some humanity left in them. But the problem is that the majority of the members of the incarnates don’t get much development (except for a couple scattered here and there). We get one or two flashbacks as to what they were like but that is about it. Which is a shame because the ones that do get more development, especially the incarnate in episode eight, are well done and made me invested. So it is inconsistent in that regard. Another thing this show likes to portray is that...well…war is hell. Not only for the citizens, but also for the incarnates themselves as they were tools for war and now have no purpose since the war is now over. It is shown here and there and expanded upon by the main antagonist of the series, Cain and gives context as to why he is doing the things he is doing. It is a subject that we have seen plenty of times and here, it is no different. It does though strike a balance between showing us and telling us which I think it did well so that it doesn’t bore the viewer. It is where the story is at its best as it explains to us why these incarnates should be put down to make sure that remnants from the war are removed and we can start moving forward. Because if these incarnates are still running around and are killing people, innocent or not, then is the war truly over? Characters: 6/10 The main protagonist role is split between Hank and Schaal. We will start with Hank first. Being the former squad leader of the incarnates, it would make sense that he is not happy of putting down his former squad members. We see this in his expressions and tone of voice that he is not comfortable doing this and helps remind the viewer that, while he is an incarnate, he still has plenty of humanity left in him. His motivations though are not well developed. He fights because he swore an oath and as squad leader, he feels that this is his responsibility. That’s fine, but is other reason is that he wants to get revenge on Cain for betraying him and shooting someone Hank cared about. The main problem is here is that we don’t really see much of their relationship bloom enough to act as a good motivator. A told, not shown kind of situation that is rather lacklustre when you think about it. Schaal acts as the reminder that killing the incarnates is not all black and white. Being the daughter of one of the incarnates. We see her full of rage and spite towards Hank for killing her father but eventually starts to understand why they need to be put down. Her growth and understanding of Hank’s circumstances is one of the best things about this show. She acts as the voice of reason at times but is not always stupid enough to get in the way; only doing it when needed. She is plenty capable with her rifle but also knows her limits as to what she can do. She is easily my favourite character in this show and adds complexity to the situation since it can easily be just him Hank going around the country, killing the incarnates and moving on to the next. Cain though, the main antagonist in this series, could have been a lot better in my opinion. I understand his reasoning as he something more than human and doesn’t want to be cast aside now that the war is over. But the way he sees it is rather comical. He sees himself as a god and wants to rule the country because of his power. I think him rebelling because he doesn’t want to be a tool for war along with the rest of the incarnates. He does see that, don’t get me wrong, but the way he goes about doing it is rather stereotypically evil. I feel like he could have been a moral check and that would make him a more interesting antagonist. But he is just simply evil and that’s just it really. The rest of the cast are pretty much just there to act as supporting characters and not much else. Whether it is just to fight alongside Hank and Schaal or provide them with information. Claude Withers, the brother to Cain, felt like he had his own arc but he is rather uninteresting and his arc as well is rather uninteresting. So when the second half of the show comes and more spotlight is on him, he just comes of as a rather boring character. Animation: 5.5/10 The animation is fine but could have been better in my opinion. The fights are serviceable and the art style and character designs are alright, but I feel like they could have been better. Which is a shame. MAPPA have been on a great roll lately with producing quality animation. Starting from Banana Fish from the summer season of 2018, they have produced Zombieland Saga, Dororo, Kakegurui xx and Sarazanmai. So following on after those shows, Sacred Beasts’ animation quality is rather lacklustre. It’s not bad and the fact the show doesn’t resort to CGI is impressive. But I feel like it could have been better at displaying these monster on monster fight scenes and if more effort was put into it, it would have been rather cool. Sound: 8/10 The soundtrack does its job of help setting an atmosphere or matching the tone of the scene. Whether it would be a more somber scene or a fight scene, there always seems to be a ost that matches it. My favourite is played when Hank transforms into his incarnate form for the first time. The use of the orchestral and the increased paced of the music did feel like s**t was going to go down. It was definitely my favourite from this show. The opening “Sacrifice” by Mafumafu is paced good due to how it portrays both Hank and Schaal’s emotions through rather aggressive vocals and instruments, especially for Hank and his hatred towards Cain. It is also very well choreographed as well and the visuals manage to keep up with the pace of the song well. So I would say that this is a good opening when all things considered. The ending sequence “HHOOWWLL” by Gere x ARAKI shows off the incarnates displayed tapestry kind of way to let us see these powerful soldiers. They are also displayed in order of appearance in the show so we get to see what incarnates Hank is going have to hunt down. It’s a nice sequence to get you to relaxed after you finished an episode. Conclusion Well its certainly better than Fairy Gone which isn’t saying much. But there are problems in this show that does prevent this anime down from being a really great show. What’s annoying about that is that they are simple problems that I think, if addressed, could have turned this show into a great show. If it added more context, expanded on the first episode and improved its animation quality that MAAPA has shown from their previous shows, then this would be a great show. There are still some parts of this show that I like and kept me watching like the main leads and how it portrays that “WAR...is hell.” But it is also a show that could have easily been better and that’s what stings me the most about it. My Personal enjoyment: 6/10 Overall score: 6.4/10 Recommendation: Consider it

[This contains no spoilers] I started this anime, expecting the usual hot mess you get from combining an industrial age war setting with a fantasy concept. Usually, anime like this get convoluted, lose focus and resort to blindly padding the plot with action sequences and tropes. They also end up allowing their sub-genres (like comedy and romance) to dominate the plot, and in turn, stagnate progression. The first episode forecasted that prediction, and I was certain that I didn't need to give it my usually 3 episode trail to determine if I liked it, so I forgot about it for a while. However, this week Ithought that I might stick to my original principal of giving shows a fair 3 episode trail and just use my train ride home from work to give it a fair try (since I had almost let Youjo Senki slip out of my redar for the same reason - only to realise that I had missed out on a great show). Surprisingly the second episode of this was quiet enjoyable and I realised I had misjudged it a little. Nevertheless, it didn't turn out to be a masterpiece or an anime that changed the formula that is commonly applied to the genre it belongs to, but it didn't it turn out to be a complete waste of my time either. Upon finishing this anime, I was curious to see the general consensus of it, and was surprised to see it had a bellow 7/10 average on MAL weeks after it fished airing, which is a score you'd usually see on something that was so generic to it's core that it didn't even managed not to capture it's own target audience well enough to score a few free 10/10s. Perhaps it's because I score base on comparison to other series I've seen (with consideration of my personal enjoyment included). It baffles me that this anime was in that score range when anime of it's same calibre would still on the top end of the 7/10 rating with worse art and music. To summaries my thoughts on the plot, the premise was not original in the slightest and reminded me of Berserk, minus the build up that made the betrayal in Berserk all the more dramatic. Nonetheless, the show did not divert the focus like I previously predicted and kept a good pace for it's progression, while changing up the formula each episode to not make it feel less like an episodic series where the reset switch was constantly pressed to extend the plot further. By this I mean, despite having the opportunity to include some comedy and romance (to potentially mask the fact that the story may not have substance), it went straight to the point and gave you the explanations you needed then jumped into to action sequences - which didn't last for more than a third of the episode and had dialogue that added to the plot instead of reiterations of it. Surprisingly, it didn't keep you with the same set of main characters and didn't always follow the format of "discovery, investigation, interactions and fight sequence" which it had for a few episodes - instead you had some episodes dedicated to looking into the backgrounds of characters who had been established as the villains of this anime (who were anomalies in a few cases and no villains) and you had some episode revisiting previous aspects of the plot to further reflect on them. On the other hand, the plot didn't avoid the many tropes you'd find within these kind of story. It had randomly included a female solider character with oversized boobs to constantly act as the ice breaker and to be the token strong woman character (which I see inserted into plots like this sometimes) - despite some of the other main characters being able to easily assume that role more tastefully. Her presence was mostly unnecessary, and her lines could have been given to a less flamboyant character that didn't need time invested in them to have some boob physics for an unrealistically massive pair of breasts - which are boldly displayed (while mostly uncovered) during serious dialogue.... It honestly ruined the vibe of the anime. In addition, sometimes it felt like the plot didn't dig deep enough into the backgrounds of certain characters and missed opportunities to more comprehensively look into the mindset of villains. At times, there wasn't enough time spent in showing characters transition between different emotional states, so you would get stubborn and angry characters become submissive and calm in the next scene, which would break immersion. Also a lot of the lore of the setting wasn't explained at all or in depth, you were left to assume the setting was some 19th century industrial American cowboy setting, since that's all you could gather from the visuals. Though I do appreciate that unlike my experience with many anime of this genre, I wasn't subjected to a complicated explanation of the politics and factions and then expected to remember it, it spread out some of the explanations of politics and kept it simple - albeit too simple sometimes. In terms of the voice acting and music, it was decent and was good enough to set the mood. The voices fit each characters and the music usually fit the scene. I can't say it did anything amazing, but it didn't have any flaws either in my opinion, so "good enough" is the best way to describe it. However the art was indeed above average, with MAPPA not resorting to using CGI for some of the action every scenes with a lot of movements, body transformations and lib distortion. The designs for uniforms, hair styles and the look of guns were well thought out and considered the setting well. The backgrounds were the usual mediocre stuff, so I can't give it much praise, but overall there was a decent amount of effort displayed through the character design, animation and presentation style - and it was definitely was not an anime filled with lazy and loose animation and character designs like some of it's counterparts. So in conclusions, I think this anime isn't something to write home about, but it seems to also not be deserving of it's poor reception, when at best it was lacking certain element, rather than being completely void of them (like character development). I feel like the above average art and animation, as well as it's consistent focus on a premise (that is decent enough to enjoy) and the fact that the execution was not too shallow, boring or filled with repetition - makes this a 7/10 at the very least to me. I say that as someone who was probably not the target audience for this anime - since I'm not being a huge fan of action fantasies and value dialogue heavy plot with character development over fight sequences. I managed to enjoy this series despite my preferences, and I think that's great.

Okay, I am not used to writing reviews, but I will try to do that right now. So this anime is a 7/10, it's not bad, the show itself has a good pace and makes you kind of wanting to watch the whole thing, there is a decent character development and some really good fight scenes. The thing that I didn't like about the show itself was that everything was too fast, I do understand that the show probably didn't receive much attention, but I wanted to see more of the fights, i wanted to actually feel for the characters that were dying, There was onlyone character that they kind of developed, but in the end that is only 1. The main character was cool, he was a real MVP for what he was aiming to accomplish, so I really can't think of anything back to say about the main character itself. I will say this, there is nothing that is ABSURDLY BAD about this anime, so... that being said. Go watch it.