This review will contain spoilers throughout Shigurui is one of the most interesting pieces of media I have ever consumed. I struggle to remember anything Ive seen thats quite like it simply from the visuals and general direction alone its art in its most literal definition. Pure yet bloody. Holy yet gruesome. Lets save that for later though for now Ill begin with the plot: In Shizuoka Japan the dojo of Kogan Iwamoto well known for his incredible swordsmanship has a visitor Seigen Irako whom wishes to marry the daughter of Kogan Mie in order to succeed Kogan as the head of the Kogan Family inheritance. From there the ruthless training the members of the dojo go through and their unrelenting loyalty to their master is exposed throughout the series ultimately culminating in Seigens banishment and eventually Kogans death. This series exploration of loyalty is critical but not unbalanced. The brutal punishments and simply put hell that the students of the dojo must endure is borderline horrifying they regularly injure themselves through their training and some turn mad as a result. Gonzaemon Ushimata for example clearly has a few screws loose at one point a female character in the series whom is Kogans mistress has her nipple cut off as Kogan discovers Seigen have been having an affair and as she is sitting just across from him he decides to eat it. Its never explained why he eats the nipple but its not too farfetched to say that his madness was a large contributor. My interpretation is that he did it to remind the female character of what happens once she has betrayed Kogan she will suffer as to him there is not greater crime than betraying his master. The brutality of Shigurui is easily its most controversial aspect I can fully understand why its not to someones taste however Id argue that it serves to portray just how far gone the characters are all in the name of loyalty as well as contributing to this series thick atmosphere strongly supported by its dreamlike storytelling and surreal visuals. This series even manages to use CGI well so it has to be worth some merit simply based upon that. The soundtrack is possibly one of my favourite parts of this show as it perfectly supports every single scene it is a masterclass in ambient music and the fact that it sounds like the music from the time period in which this series takes place only serves to make the scenes feel all the more believable. However going back to the theme of loyalty its not portrayed in all black and white as there is much nuance to be found. On the opposite side of the coin to Ushimata there is Seigen Irako. He is selfish and only wishes to use the dojo in order to elevate his status and yet he is oddly the most likeable person in this entire series. By him being much more selfish than any of the other members of the dojo he gets to think for himself more and even stand up to Kogan when he is doing something he disagrees on such as the moment where when Kogan decides that Seigen will be the husband of Mie he orders them to have intercourse in order to produce a strong offspring then and there. Seigen seeing how Mie is in emotional distress over being forcibly held down in order to be bred refuses to procreate citing Mie killing herself as the main reason and after some pushback Kogan relents. This doesnt mean that Seigen is a good guy far from it he is shown doing bad acts out of his own volition regularly such as murdering out of revenge and cutting off the head of a cat which was simply walking by. He is not much better than the members of the dojo and because of his imperfections it gets him into trouble previously I mentioned how he had slept with Kogans mistress Lady Iku and once it is found out Kogan blinds him and banishes him from the dojo. Whilst Iku is actually happy about being with Seigen their relationship is still somewhat toxic as Seigen regularly puts her in harms way. This is where the nuance is found in the exploration of loyalty Seigen may be a better person than those who mindlessly follow their master but he is still not totally a good person and his lack of loyalty eventually comes back to bite him and while I do like Seigen and think he is far more honourable than most of the other characters I cant say he didnt get what was coming to him. However because of the Kogan dojos hard training driving many of its students mad it eventually leads to the fall of the dojo as one of the students murders all but 3 members and Seigen eventually murders Kogan out of revenge for removing his eyesight. Their complete loyalty to their master blinded them to the reality of their situation and they crumbled as a result. The story does continue on from there in the manga but this is such a perfect conclusion that I have no idea what to expect from it I will give it a chance but it will be curious to see how the story unfolds from there. I only have 2 real complaints with this show one of them is that I wished as though more of the characters were fleshed out particularly Kogan and his daughter as they are mostly used as narrative tools. There are good characters to find in here namely Seigen and Lady Iku but I feel as though having more characters be explored would have strengthened the series. My other complaint is that sometimes the series goes over the edge a little bit in regards to the skills of the Kogan dojo students at one point one of them manages to block a bullet with the side of their katana which I felt was a bit too far for this series that kept its action more on the realistic side though it does emphasise just how disciplined the samurai are so its not too bad. Its hard to find another series like Shigurui its dreamlike direction and great mature writing sets itself apart from most anime while it is not one of my favourites it will definitely be sticking with me for a long time.