King's Raid: Successors of the Will

Recommendation: You can probably skip this one unless you're desperate for a new fantasy series to watch. It's not that it's bad exactly, more that it's inessential, and everything that's good about it is done better by other shows. King's Raid is a series that is basically fine, but is absolutely crying out for something to make it unique. If you can imagine a completely generic and predictable fantasy anime in your head, this is basically that series. The main plot has basically two tracks, and the main one is as straightforward as it gets. Kasel is searching for the Holy Swordto defeat the Dark Lord. He has to journey to meet 3 different people and prove his worth to each one to unseal the sword before the Dark Lord is revived. If you weren't aware already that this was a video game adaptation, it's unmistakable once you start watching. The B plot, following the Black Edge mercenary company and their revenge conspiracy against the Kingdom of Orvelia, is considerably more interesting, but ultimately ends in disappointment when it merges with the main story a little past the halfway point of the series. There are a couple of teases that the series will become more interesting or complex at times, but it never actually comes to fruition. It can be quite frustrating to watch because it feels like it could have been a much better series if there were more of a follow through on certain parts, character relationships and so on. There's a lot of wasted potential. The art and animation were also a bit disappointing. The character designs actually look fine for the most part, but some characters can be a bit dead-eyed. The really unfortunate part is the mediocre animation of the action scenes, which feel sluggish and lack smoothness. While the series overall is fairly mediocre, it's not entirely without strong points. I would hesitate to call any of the characters "great", and the main character Kasel is almost totally without personality, but there are a lot of fun secondary characters in this series. Cleo is best girl and gets the most to do of any of the side characters except Frey, but there are plenty of others, including Maria, Scarlet and Reina, that make the show fun when they show up too. Most importantly, the 2nd OP absolutely slaps. Eclipse by Dreamcatcher is the name, and it's worth looking up even if you don't watch the show. I am not generally a fan of anime music or K pop groups, and really don't even like rock/power ballads as a genre that much, but this one is great.

Ah...King's Raid, one of the most popular indie mobage games in South Korea, such a good game that's amassed with the huge popularity in its home country. The anime version which features a different story from the game's plot, frankly, I can sum in one word: TRASH. As with every other game adaptation, it's nothing more than the marketing ploy of tactics to get people to play the original game, and that by every aspect, has succeeded one way or another without going into the specifics of numbers. But the way that King's Raid was planned with the anime adaptation, I have no idea what theproduction committee was thinking to make it more than twice as long (as any typical 12-episode run), which in return makes it compoundingly twice as boring. And with twice the story plot (the hero and the villain), sadly, when the villain's story is more interesting than the hero...that's just one of many make-or-break moments that this show could've capitalized on, but went in the motive of DRAGGING the journey for "God knows how long the hero must play King Arthur to find the sword in the (magic realm) stone that slays evil". The story...nah, heck it, I'll impose a question instead: Do you prefer to watch the typical cliche Hero and his mercenaries on a long-ass journey to find the Holy Sword, or focus more on the villain side with the Dark Elves and the reasons behind the usual kingdom tyranny that causes them to go berserk to the point of rebellion? I'm pretty sure you know the answer deep in your heart as to which is more compelling if you want to watch this needlessly 6-month long run that only increases boredom with the passing of time. The characters...extremely cookie-cutter as per RPG standards. They're supposed to carve an identity of themselves, but to me, I can just sum them up as just being cardboard cut-outs in the skewed sense of genericness. You got the usual Hero who's dense and only strikes like a ferocious dog, the mercenaries of a beautiful magicians (one attuned to the Hero for "romance" eye-candy, another for childlike childishness) and the occasional warrior for extra strength (and seeking revenge from his past). The only consolation I'll give is the sympathy to the Dark Elves' side for much they've suffered and seeking their own justice for being the oppressed, and that's about it. The animation...just undercuts the entire production run as a whole, because it's the same amount of mediocre as you'd expect from a decades-old studio that other than most modern-day mediocre-average kids' shows, doesn't know how to tackle a series that is vastly different from the pedigree of works before and after it. Even worse, with the surmise and acquisition of Xebec under Sunrise, and resurrection under a new name (Sunrise Beyond), I know that Xebec has done some great dark-esque shows, but the result of this is nowhere to be seen. So yeah, heck this one as well, because the animation and visuals are subpar. Even the music is boring as well. This is one of those times that fripSide's song just somehow doesn't click well with the entire theme of the show, yes the song is somewhat listenable but nope, the mesh is just crude, and I don't care much for KOTOKO's ED...so a strike out for the ED, which makes the 1st half's OST sound palpitable. The 2nd half's OST sounded a lot better-suited to the show, and yeah, you can hear the difference in both OP and ED songs, so that's a tick. Nope, anime adaptations from games are supposed to make you feel welcomed to the game itself, as if you're the MC who's playing the game and making decisions yourself, but to see an adaptation like this that serves no purpose other than clickbait for the actual game, why bothering making this show for the intention of the audience to suffer more than twice the length of a bad show? It all comes down to the saying of "Money as the root of all evil", and this is no different. Skip this one and save your precious time, you would not want to watch more than a cour's worth of this gosh-darn slow-as-molasses bull-crap.

Hello there. I'm late to the party, I know. The thing is, I've watched the first 3 episodes when it aired and then I've put it on hold, dunno why. While waiting for this summer season to end so that I can binge, I came across this series, again. Well, its not that bad as I thought. I dunno the sauce. Visuals. The artstyle is really good. Nice designs (some are even lovely). The landscape shots are very good. The animation is very good, every frame having nice details. Except, the fight choreography was lacking. The colour palette is mostly fine, I would've liked more. Thecinematography is extremely good. I've enjoyed lots of shots. Again, I would've liked even more, mostly regarding those teasing shots about Cleo :D. Too bad they never crossed the line. Audio. Good. The soundtrack is mixed at decent levels, it never felt off. They used tracks almost ok for the scene, nothing wow, you might forget it, but at least it was not a bother. There are 26 episodes so we have 2 OP and 2 ED. For the first half, OP1 is kinda meh, nothing to brag about. ED1 is a bit better, also very good visuals. If the song would've kept the same core as the beginning and its end, it might've been a solid ED. For the second half, we have a new OP and it is extremely good, both the song and the visuals, with stuff like images synchronized with the beat (it feels like a small stuff, but I liked that). It should've been better to just use it for all the episodes. Its one of those ones that you don't wanna skip. The episode 23 has a few extra frames, so not skipping was worth it. The ED2 is good. It has a somewhat different artstyle(?), with feels like individual layers for sky, background, characters. But it is good, with a good song. The VAs did really good. The world-building was decent, nothing spectacular, but at least you get the gist, even if it feels like everything happens in a bubble, with very simplistic stuff going around. The pacing, ok. I mean, the story is very simple, so there was no need for complications. Oh, the episodes 13 and 24 are somewhat of a recap. Its not the usual formula, here mostly they write letters talking about what happened. You get about 5 minutes per episode of "new" content, so you might wanna press forward a couple of times when you see visuals of previous episodes and just watch the bits happening in "real-time". I'd say, high production value. And now, the rest. Like I said, I don't know the source and I can't say if it was better or not, but here the story is meh. A chosen one, must prove to himself that he's the chosen one and defeat the evil. The end. Pretty simple, right? The meh quality is not because of its simple format but rather the how in which it is told. The good stuff is formed by having good plot, character, world building, theme. Well, they did ok regarding character development, the rest not so much. And even the character development was fked up in the last episode. Oh, right. I should say it now: the last episode is sht about everything. Characters robbed of payoffs, sh***y future story, the "fight" choreography (if you can even call it that). Everything. From the beginning, the story follows 2 groups: A. the group on the road and B. the stuff about the castle. Well, the A part is very meh. Every episode is using the 2000s TV Series format. Small background and character development for every individual, one episode for each. Or something like that. Oki, maybe 2, but don't push your luck. And thats it. Stuff happens, stuff gets resolved, next episode, next person. Not bad, but it feels lacking. Whereas the B. part is much better. lots and lots of character development and payoffs. Sure, some moments feels a bit forced, you'll go "cmon, really? You could've done better" but still a lot better than the other group. Even secondary cast regarding the A group got better payoffs. B group should've been the main story's protagonists. And the most let down thing is that we got some interesting and very "uuuuh, what are you gonna do, writer-san?" setups, only to get fked up in the last episode, like I said. I went multiple times "you couldn't let him/her got the payoff, huh? wow, not even here, huh? What? Thats it? Thats all there was about? Thats the big secret? Omg..." So, yeah. A meh story, with a couple of decent stuff, mainly regarding the group that wasn't about the "potential hero". At no point will you get worried about him. It is obvious they will win because he has no kid on the way, so he must be the one to do it :))) Joking aside, nothing about him is ok. Some forced character development and lots of plot contrivances. His whole story is "I wanna protect people". Even when his friend tells him that he'll soon get a lvl up and be a knight, he still goes " I don't care about being a knight, I wanna protect people". Implying that the knights don't have that attribute. Like I said, great stuff about him... Anyway, thats about it. You can watch it if you don't have anything else to watch (like I did), or if you want a very simple story, where no involvement is needed. Nice visuals, decent or nice OP/ED, nice character development for other cast, a really good time when the demon woman, Cleo and the princess are on the screen ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Ok, fine, also the stuff about Riheet & co. A rating of .... 5. Yeah, 5. Good visuals, songs, lots of character development, but instead of bringing it all together, the last episode fked up some characters and it felt very anti-climactic. Barely recommended, same reasons. But no re-watch value, very boring. But at least its not an isekai, eh? :)))) Have a lovely day.

King's Raid is a show that starts off very much like your typical Game story adaptation that's as RPG as it can get. You have a hero with brown hair who is special in some way that makes him chosen for the role of saving the world. If I were playing a game, this might be a fine role. However, this is an anime. The show actually has a decent story to tell and a good amount of worldbuilding of the history and events leading up to the start of the plot. However, it's biggest problem is that its writers chose probably the most boring point ofview (the RPG hero) to tell the story from. From the very start, we have shiny graphics, at least an okay budget, fairly pleasant character designs and decently detailed backgrounds. Visually, this show is shiny enough. At least a solid 8/10 here. Sound is more mediocre, about 5/10. There's not much to speak of in this category either good or bad. It's just meh. So what was wrong with this show? Why is its choice of protagonist so... off? Those of us who have been playing video games for a while, who are at least genre saavy with (J)RPGs, would probably be aware of that trope: That swordwielding dude who is some kind of chosen one who goes saving the world for the reason of protecting the world and everyone in it. This character is everywhere in fiction, each iteration showing up with a different face, a different hairdo, a different set of clothes, and a different name. Yet, at their core, this character is the same each and every time. They are that swordwielding dude who is chosen to save the world from the big bad and protect everyone. By making this the main character again, we are effectively seeing the same story again. Yet, the biggest disappointment with this show is that it didn't have to do this. From the start, we see an interesting character - someone who has effectively lost his entire family and kin, save his sister. This character is not your typical swordwielder, he has a vendetta. He has a vision, a motive. Were this show to be his story, we would have a driven story from an interesting perspective with a decently built world to play in. It could have been a Lelouch type-revenge story where the vendetta transforms into a benevolent desire for salvation and a genuine growth in the form of new appreciation. Unfortunately, though we were given the glimpses of what could be, we are ultimately left with a show that spends the majority of its time following the generic MC-kun and his entourage on their happy, save-the-world, "nakama" adventure. Despite almost solid world-building and so much potential in that one character, this entry of anime ultimately falls flat. Story: 6/10 Characters: 5/10 (Carried primarily by Riheet's characterization, but let's be real: he's not the MC, he just teases a good story that was haphazardly told between the happy "nakama" adventure.)