Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin

Animes like these never really have people jumping to recommend them to others, but in these little shows you can sometimes find something really quite decent and that’s what this is. I always enjoyed the vibes of the farming villages and countryside when watching Inuyasha, but could you really make a whole 13 series anime about rice? Well here’s the little secret guys, it’s not really all about farming. But okay to answer the question, can you make an anime about rice? Let’s start with the visuals. There isn’t much to complain about, the landscapes are generally beautiful, the characters less so, bur that’sbecause of the style of art, not really an issue with artist skill. I must say though, character design is very hit or miss. On the one hand you can get, say, a Yui or a Kamuhitsuki, while on the other hand you can get a Kinta, or some of the regular inhabitants of the capital city. Yeah, overall the characters are not the best to look at. The animation can be described as simply normal. They do water and crops pretty well, but it is a bit lacking when it comes to battle scenes, especially during the beginning. Now while characters might be badly designed sometimes, that hails in comparison to how badly written some are. Well, I’m moreso talking about one specific character, that being of course Kinta. During the beginning of the show I questioned why they even included all these other characters. Everything focused on Sakuna, the rest didn’t contribute anything at all, they barely spoke and barely did well anything at all. But as it went on I wished for it to go back because Kinta was so unbearable. Now I understand that him acting this way is part of the story and just like everyone else he matures and grows as the show goes on, but for those episodes before we saw him lighten up, every time he was on screen I would despair. He was mean, bratty, contributed nothing but expected everything and so much more. It certainly didn’t help he is heinous looking, and has a voice to match his looks. Well his voice isn’t that bad, but it isn’t good either. Ultimately what I’m trying to say here is Kinta is so uniquely annoying as a character it took me out of the show for a while. As for the other characters, they get their time and I think they’re all fairly decent, with the notable one being Kokorowa, I thought she was a very nice and complicated figure who showed lots of complexity and growth. Now Sakuna had 2 ways it could play out story-wise. It could be about the rice farm totally, the relationships between the characters, the hardships of agricultural life and watching Sakuna mature and step up to her role as goddess of the harvest. Then there is the way that it went. I suppose it would be pretty boring if it just focused on the farming life. I’m trying to avoid spoilers, so I’ll just say that by the last episodes of the show, rice has really nothing to do with the story at all. And I’m not saying this is bad, in fact I actually quite enjoyed the story. It wasn’t exactly hard-hitting or emotionally complex, but it was entertaining, and that’s what matters right? The “oh, all our side characters are slowly developing into gods” part took me ont of it though. The reason I can say that and still mark my review as having no spoilers is because that part of the story has quite literally 0 bearing on anything else. It’s just kind of thrown in there for no good reason at all. A big theme of the show is suicidal empathy. Well, the creators probably wouldn’t say it that way. It’s displayed as essentially a good in the show. Sakuna and her crew really don’t seem to learn their lesson about it. “Oh but if we did x we would be no different than y!” They learn the hard way the results, and are forced to confront reality. It was annoying watching it play out, but it’s tolerable. And I must also say, the final episode was really great. It can get slow in the episodes building up to it, but it really stood out and proved its worth. Now I don’t know if this is just me showing my cultural ignorance here, but based on the visuals and even storyline, one might expect the characters to be speaking Chinese instead of Japanese, just based on my experience with Chinese media. But they’re not and it is a distinctly Japanese show. Especially with the focus on demons. So, would Sakuna: of rice and ruin be something I recommend first to someone? No, probably not, but thats because it really isn’t that kind of show. It’s humble and hidden away, something quick you watch in between bigger names, and are impressed at its performance. It’s an “if you have the time” anime, and it does its job pretty well. So go and enjoy the nice and decent scenes of growing rice, and everything else that comes with doing it on the isle of demons.

A pretty chill anime with a really chill vibe. As someone who thought I'd drop this on the first episode, I ended up keeping up with it--if only because I enjoyed the art style and vibe to it. There's nothing particularly special about Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin. It's one that requires patience and being able to get past the first episode where it gives a terrible first impression between the character introductions and the fact that the main focus of the games, the plot itself, /the rice/... is super CGI. Something that can be a big turn off for a lot of people, meincluded. But it was only the rice? Sure why not. Regardless of this first impression, I found myself feeling comfortable with the overall art style and the cozyness with it. I enjoy the ending theme song most of all. Most of your beginning cast of characters aren't very likeable at the start and they don't really grow on you until much later. And even when they do "grow", it's very minimal. A lot of what I really wanted to see and learn, you don't really get to until the final few episodes. Of Sakuna's actual fighting plot, the enemies, finding things out about her parents... the real meat of it you'll find in those last episodes. Before that however? This anime reminded me of my childhood days where I'd turn on the tv and a pokemon cartoon would be showing. Because it's very much like watching a children's show and the way the character's personalities are is very akin to those olden days of watching cliche anime like that. The anime isn't bad, but it's not great. It's average at best, and truly is enjoyable... sometimes. I'd go into this with tempered expectations.

It's a story about a girl learning the weight of responsibility and joy of reaping fruits of one's work. Watching it is quite soothing, with an endearing protagonist and likeable cast. If I had to point out its shortcomings, there isn't much to chew on regarding plot, and while climaxes are done well, they are a bit bland. I just watched them with a smile, but if they were utilised to their true potential I'd cry no doubt. It's like a masterpiece painting, except it's done in crayons. Sure, it's nice, but feels a bit flat. Nonetheless, I can, with clear conscience, recommend it as a worthwhile show.Considering the source material comes from some game that just had enough money to make a 12 episode commercial for itself, it is really impressive what they managed to create.

First things first, I LOVE the game this Anime is based on, so I review from a point of comparison and focus less on character and story progression. Tensui no Sakuna-hime is a game adaption of "Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin" which is a mix of 2D Hack 'n Slay and 3D Rice farming while containing some RPG elements like the crafting of clothes and weapons. However, as you may know Anime adaptions of video games are kinda a gamble - there are great ones like Persona 4, pretty solid ones like Valkyria Chronicles, and such disappointments you regret you ever watched it (I'm looking atyou, Corpse Party). So which type is Sakuna-hime? Well, let me explain. If you played the game, you will notice the producers of this Anime didn't just played it as well, they LOVED it! You have the same outfits and voice actors of the characters, the mountain pass, the fields, the cabins are perfectly adapted as well - hell, they even sit in the same order while eating diner. You have some of the comments Sakuna uses in the game like when she steps on the watered field. On plus, every episode contains some information about rice and its planting. So yeah, they didn't produced this Anime just for the sake of it, you can feel they put their heart in it! But as I pointed out in another review, an adaption can - but doesn't has to - be close to its source material, so how about the changes? Well, in the game you have a lot of fighting to explore the island and collect materials, but here, they kept out a lot. On the one hand it's understandable that you can't focus too much on the fights if you only have 13 episodes to tell such a wide story (24 to 26 episodes would have been better), but therefore it's kinda hard to feel all the pressure Sakuna is going through at the beginning of the story. I mean, yes, there are some short fight scenes, but it's only mentioned and not really shown that she has to do so like every day while also planting the rice. Furthermore, some chronological orders were changed, but not really for the better - the story about Kinta, Yui and the Crane for example takes place in the later game but here it's in the first half of the Anime which let to lose some impact. The same problem occurs within the last episodes with the drama around Tama which they cramed in only one episode instead of building it up in the middle of the story and fulfil it near the end. Therefore it also lacks of impact. Oh... and a similar issue is there when it comes to the volcano and Kokorowa-hime. Also, there is no mentioning what will happan to all the characters after the end of the story like you had in the game. However, that all is complaining at a high level since you have a lot of effort put in this Anime and I just can repeat myself that 13 episodes are way too short for such a wide story. That's why when I saw there will be an Anime adaption, I thought they would do 2 seasons to capture everything. So my biggest criticism is just that the Anime is too short, which leads in my opinion to the problem, that the first half feels more like a kind of slice of life and the second part like it forced the rest of the story to happen (even if I wouldn't know the game). The art is solid and nothing special, but THANK GOD there is no shitty CGI in it! The music is just on top! Most of the time you have the music of the game, which let you feel home if you played it, and the OP and ED just fit perfect and send you good vibes - especially the OP. In Conclusion, this adaption is solid to great. This Anime has a lot of heart and effort in it and let you feel everything from joy to concern to hope. The only weakness is that it's too short and would has need more episodes to capture everything and to keep a better pacing. But either way, you will have a good time watching it. If I wouldn't know and love the game, I would say it's just a solid 7 and recommand, from a perspective of a game adaption an 8 or maybe 9 with little mixed feelings. So, since we unfortunately don't have a 7.5 rating, I round up to 8 and recommand ;)