Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer

As many of you already know, Hoshi no Samidare's anime adaption has been very poorly received, disappointing manga fans around the world. While I understand and empathize with this perspective, I am going to provide a perspective and critique from the point of view of someone who's only watched the anime and knows nothing about the manga. (No spoilers in this review) To start with, I'll address the most obvious negative issue: Hoshi no Samidare has some of the worst animation I've seen in years, making some of the most serious action scenes border on comically bad, often breaking your suspension of disbelief, interfering with not onlythe action but the storytelling as well. That said, beyond the terrible animation there's the core of an interesting world with an engaging story, likable characters and some interesting concepts. While the core style of "People with super powers fight bad guy to save the world," is certainly not unique, the delivery of the story as a whole uses enough unique characteristics that it doesn't ever feel like "Oh it's just this other show with a couple of details changed." A few of the things I really liked: - The chemistry between the main characters, particularly in the earlier parts of the story. - There's a broad range of ages in the hero group and it makes for a more interesting dynamic than you get from the typical "all teens/early 20s" casts that are all too common. - In an era of overpowered isekai characters, the cast of Hoshi no Samidare's powers feel, somehow refreshingly, underwhelming. This creates a lot more suspense around battles, where you find yourself genuinely wondering if everyone's going to make it through alive. - Lastly, while not entirely unique to this series, I felt that there was a lot of thought and care put into the characters and their relationships with each other. While not the depth you'd find in a character-driven drama, it gives more than you'd expect from your average saving-the-world anime. If I were to offer a critique about the storytelling, it's that, while the main story is relatively easy to follow and flows well enough, it feels like some of its sub-threads are neglected, left incomplete, or hastily concluded. Overall it feels like there are quite a few cases where there's an interesting series of interactions between characters and they aren't followed through with in a way that makes the best use of their potential. Even some of the chemistry between the main characters, which is a pretty central part of the story in the beginning, feels a bit stifled if not overwhelmed by the weight of all of the other threads the show is trying to keep up with. In conclusion, would I recommend Hoshi no Samidare? Only if you can say yes to both of these: - Like me, you're not really a manga reader. (If you are, the near-universal consensus is that its manga is much better, so go read it). - This is the sort of show you like and your interest has been piqued enough by this review that you're willing to give it a chance despite its shortcomings. Overall, while this was, by far not the best anime I've watched, I genuinely enjoyed Hoshi no Samidare despite its shortcomings.

I have a deep respect for Satoshi Mizukami. You might know the famed mangaka from some of his well-known unorthodox works like Spirit Circle, Planet With, and now Hoshi no Samidare a.k.a Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, arguably his first work that ever got any traction back in the mid-2000s, seralizing between 2005 to 2010 and spanning 65 chapters throughout 10 volumes. However, for every good thing that happens in life, there is one bad apple, and that's finding people to actually create anime adaptations of his works, which for the most part, he got the short end of the stick. Similar to Planet With, Hoshino Samidare I would argue is the origin story of Satoshi Mizukami's unconventional writing and exposition, and it takes a fairly big brain to understand that the plot armour genericness may be there, but it's layered with a sense of intention and purpose. Like, will you find yourself waking up and seeing that an animal is talking to you with a plea to save the world from ruin? Absolutely no sane human would ever want to be involed in this multi-layered planetary fiasco, but this is what happened to the unassuming Yuuhi Amamiya: chosen as a Beast Knight, a magical warrior destined to help a princess defeat a mage seeking to destroy the world with a giant mallet floating in space, called the Biscuit Hammer. For that to happen, the identification of the major players has to be in quick succession, and Amamiya finds himself in a clutch when he learns that Samidare Asahina, his next-door neighbour, is chosen as the princess in this world-saving plan, but with a twist: to save the world and destroy it herself. You can instantly infer this to the series' title alone: the Biscuit Hammer is the first calamity of the world, but Lucifer a.k.a the Devil doesn't get revealed until the source material's final stages, though it's subtly built up between the chosen princess and her servant that would be Amamiya himself. You have to bear in mind that this was written back in the mid-2000s, and back then, it was unlike anything else on the market at the time when AniManga was at the "Wild Wild East" of exploring stages of what works and what doesn't, certainly not at the levels of the AniManga scene that we have today where anything and everything is predictable at best. Regardless, with such writing comes characters that will feel like the typical Seinen showcases at the time, and this is mainly used for the plot alone, which evolves at the rate of Satoshi Mizukami's signature twists and turns: - The chosen princess Samidare, chosen by the guardian protector Anima to defend against the Mage that is Animus - The Lizard Knight Amamiya with Noi Crescent (God I love TsudaKen's voice, though he sounds very different than he usually is) - The Dog Knight Hangetsu Shinonome with Saw - The Crow Knight Mikazuki Shinonome with Muu - The Snake Knight Yayoi Hakudou with Sia - The Horse Knight Souichirou Nagumo with Dance Dark - The Cat Knight Hyou Shimaki with Kuh - The Owl Knight Taiyou Akane with Loki Helios - The Turtle Knight Yukimachi Tsukishiro with Long Yue - The Rooster Knight Subaru Hoshikawa with Ly Soleil - The Mouse Knight Tarou Kusakabe with Lance Lumiere - The Mantis Knight Hanako Sorano with Kir Sonne - The Swordfish Knight Akitani Inatika with Zan Qamar When you watch a Satoshi Mizukami work, be prepared for the unexpected, even if its cliche as heck. And on the contrary that Amamiya feels like the typical MC acting on everyone's whims, that he's fighting for his own battles as well. He's a multi-faceted character in the regard that he works best for whatever drives him, such as the case of helping Samidare reach her status of destroying Earth but the Biscuit Hammer first to be dealh with by being her loyal servant. His story and background may reek of the overly clicheness of today's standards, but it was really something of times past. Even towards Samidare, her idealism of a world where she is not without her own issues as well, as a kid, you would have a sense of feeling that you want the whole world in your hands. And her idea of humanity's detonation may sound weird and out of place, but it's her driving force of growing up as an adult and learning to deal with its problems while fending off against the Mage is that is Animus with his many golems and powers determined by how many eyes it has. The other Beast Knights do have their quirky and affirmation moments as well, which at times, felt more pronounced and layered in the anime, building up what has already been proposed in the manga. And with the right direction, the anime can feel elevated building up upon the manga's foundation to make for some good scenes. However, I'm sure that you already know the elephant in the room: the absymal production values from studios NAZ and Jumondo, being a production cooperation job that's handled by Jumondo's director Nobuaki Nakanishi, whom has previously helmed Spring's Kono Healer, Mendokusai a.k.a Don't Hurt Me, My Healer!. And yeah, it looked ugly as molasses with the aforementioned janky CGI that felt very out of place and is easily the aspect which dishonours the much-praised manga to oblivion. An interesting thing to note is that Satoshi Mizukami originally wanted the anime adaptation to come out much earlier, at the time when the manga first got serialized, but wasn't greenlit due to a lack of sponsors. And so, after waiting 15 odd years or so to finally get an anime that looked like this, feels like a major disservice even to the mangaka himself, which he is supervising the scriptwriting for the anime. It's a legit pain when your own series gets the treatment that it should not have been deserved, and that was my fear back then in Summer 2018 when J.C.Staff's Planet With looked mediocre at best. The music...is pretty much forgettable IMO. All of the theme songs used for the show is largely mediocre, except when it comes to the OPs, which saw Raon's debut into J-Pop with the 2nd half's OP, being the typical J-Rock at best. The only theme song that I really liked and came to love was Half time Old's 1st OP, and even if the visuals were just scrawny scenes and illustrations taken from both the manga and anime, the whole song as a vibe to it that really resonates with me. It's laughable 5 months back when the song's official MV came out on YouTube, and people commented that the MV had more animation than the show itself, which is ironically true. Hoshi no Samidare makes Planet With look like a win, only in the visual department. Everything else was just downgrades over the manga, and I can already hear you say that "Please don't tell us to read the manga and avoid the anime!". But this is the sobering truth, the manga is so well-detailed and flourished in its nuances that the anime just couldn't overcome its major faults, from the terribad animation to omitting the signatures of the source material (i.e., the panty shots). I truly want to believe that Satoshi Mizukami's legacy would have a certain degree of level of respect given, but if this is what we are gonna get when one day Spirit Circle gets an anime in the future, I would advise you to run away and never look back. This show deserves better, without a doubt, because Satoshi Mizukami's story and characters are what held the anime together. As a manga reader, it's disappointing to a degree, but it isn't all bad to be honest, but rather a hit-and/or-miss approach.

I probably rate this a little too highly, but I'm highly nostalgic. A lot of people said a lot of mean things in reviews...several didn't give it a proper chance cus of the title, others because they lamented over "quality". As far as the art goes...it was really faithful I think to the manga. Yes, some scenes were low quality, but all in all...for me it was the journey. The journey was beautiful. It had happy moments. Sad moments. Moments that foreshadowed a tragedy and the cast that makes you want to root for them in spite of it. Sometimes goofy and sometimes tragic. I amvery glad I got to see this animated, the people who pass on it without trying it for themselves or bind themselves to just "art" or whatever are missing on an amazing story. It's not particularly special in terms of how the story plays out, many will be like "I saw that coming". The point is the feels and the experience that comes with it. I love the fact this anime is also "done" just like the stories. No cliff hanger or waiting for a next season that may or may not ever come, everything was wrapped up in the end and it was extremely satisfying. That's really all I have to say on that. Thank you for the people that worked on this and allowing me to get to see one of my favorite manga animated and telling the whole story. I am sad by the harsh reviews, but for me, this will always have a special place in my heart.

People criticize this anime a lot for its animation, I think it's extremely forgettable and barely acceptable, others its intro and ending. Although I admit that the action scenes and fights are highly objectionable, they are not well done. But for me personally, the story is what disappoints me. I haven't read the manga, but I saw several people cheering and commenting how great it was to see the story adapted. Naturally, I wanted to see it as soon as it came out, and the first chapters are entertaining, the rest is boring, as if the story just wanted to expand without contributing somethingto what was already told. Although I understand that this adaptation may disappoint manga fans, what disappointed me was the story, whether it skipped parts of the manga or not, I find the story boring, long and somewhat silly.