If you destroy everything therell be nothing left. Didnt know how else to start this. This is my first review pls go easy on me. Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings otherwise known as just Sengoku Basara is an anime based off of the videogame series by the same name. It has its own canon so theres no need to have prior knowledge of the games. The anime expects you to have atleast a baseline knowledge though. Even as a fan I can see that the start is a bit rushed. Anyway gonna get into some criterias Visuals: 8/10 https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1201278575760904353/1282986825362964491/42picture1.png?ex=66e15a17is=66e00897hm=75a3899e85e54ac1707c83e58868d64fd83d2a307b30d923f5d0b4cfd5a60a97 Sengoku Basara was animated by Production I.G in 2009. Being a game adaptation I went into it with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised by just how good it looks. Seriously this anime holds up and even blows some other animes out of the water for the year it came out in. Its a very fluid show and the fight scenes especially which are admittedly short are animated amazingly. The only nitpick I had was choreography but I dont find that a fault of the animation itself. Bare in mind this anime is an adaptation of a Musou videogame. Musous for those not in the know are hackandslash games where you go around defeating waves upon waves of enemies with flashy combat. Theyre also known more broadly as Warriors games thanks to the popularity of KoeiTecmo produced games. That being said the combat scenes in particular felt like too little at times. Fights that would be hyped up would go for only a couple minutes before a super attack was unleashed. However the animation on those super attacks are beautiful. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1201278575760904353/1282988461221089330/ezgif69596b47e5e.gif?ex=66e15b9dis=66e00a1dhm=cc0012e6cbe7f3803694d51dd75a9c85466d7d5d43e46f9f739121744bd3f067 Sanada Yukimura Date Masamune performing a combination attack Story: 5/10 Although its a personal favorite series of mine I am not going to blindly act like Sengoku Basara has a perfect story. It loosely follows events of the Sengoku period of Japan albeit heavily abridged altered to fit their narratives. This is an anime afterall one where Samurai are superhuman and can produce elements like fire lightning I assume we arent here for realism. The plot spans over three seasons but treating Samurai Kings in isolation it is lacking a bit. The story revolves around Japan in the period where the Oda clan Oda Nobunaga specifically was trying to unite the nation. Oda Nobunaga is our main antagonist of the series though there are minor antagonists sprinkled throughout. Sanada Yukimura is the main protagonist but he is a very generic character. I personally love him but you could get the same person out of any shonen anime. Sanada Yukimura isnt very unique. The anime follows Sanada Yukimura his exploits primarily. Date Masamune is a supporting protagonist who I found more compelling. The way in which they painted Oda Nobunaga truly made him stand out from other adaptations for me. They really leaned into his status as Demon King of The Sixth Heaven. He was merciless and I believed him an absolute highlight of the anime. Overall I say storywise this is one you should head into with lower expectations. Its great fun regardless though. Music: 8/10 The music is done by Hiroyuki Sawano who most should know from his work on Attack on Titan. From a skim of the wikipedia Sengoku Basara is the first anime series he worked on. However dont let that take away at all. The soundtrack he provided is an absolute banger and keeps you well immersed in the world. Sengoku Basara as a gae series already had some banging soundtracks so its only fitting that its anime adaptations get the same respect. https://www..com/watch?v=wowaTW0UL0Ilist=PLgBAXaMeVtypmf7FEgnRy0Hso15zDqHindex=5 A personal favorite of mine. DARK CLOUD at the end of the road Hiroyuki Sawano The opening theme slaps too. I never skipped it though that is of course subjective. https://www..com/watch?v=QSEWnlx1KNs Characters: 9/10 Ill be honest. What really kept me hooked onto the Sengoku Basara franchise itself were the characters. In a similar manner to Fate or Record of Ragnarok these are reallife legends that the series adapts. Characters like Oda Nobunaga Yukimura Sanada Takeda Shingen Uesugi Kenshin Date Masamune Sasuke Sarutobi and more I could prattle on for hours on why I like them so much. I watched the series in Japanese Im not sure of the quality of the dub but let me tell you that they went all out on the Seiyuu lineup here. Hope I used that word right... Yukimura Sanada Sichir Hoshi Takeda Shingen Tessh Genda Date Masamune Kazuya Nakai Uesugi Kenshin Romi Park Sasuke Sarutobi Takehito Koyasu Oda Nobunaga Norio Wakamoto Now to me voices mean a lot. Afterall thats 90 of what youre going to be hearing throughout a production and for an anime to have such a stacked lineup really does speak volumes. Character writing itself I say across the board every major character is an enjoyable one. My personal favorites were Oda Nobunaga Sasuke Sarutobi and Date Masamune. Sanada Yukimura is a good enough shonen mc but he doesnt particularly excel at anything. Id say hes like a hybrid of Tanjiro Kamado and Natsu Dragneel. Overall Sengoku Basara is a solid production. I cant speak to the quality of season 2 or season 3 but season 1 wraps everything up pretty nicely if you wanted to just call it quits there. The series is quality enough that Id recommend it to anybody whos been in the anime sphere for a bit. Not something that Id like recommend if I were trying to get somebody into anime or anything. Final Rating: 7/10 Final notes Hi. Im Soryn. Ive never written a review before but my friend told me itd be a good way to try to branch out in this community so I wanted to give it a try. Sengoku Basara is a series Im very passionate about. If this review gave you reason to watch it thatd make my day. Its a underappreciated game series made by capcom and has laid dormant for the last couple years as of the time of me writing this 9/10/24 4:27 AM CST If my review was good enough or eyeopening enough to drag potential new fans into the franchise I hope you all enjoy your stint with the series. 3 Gonna go now its late. Thank you for reading. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1201278575760904353/1282914079333154826/ezgif1103d317244.gif?ex=66e11657is=66dfc4d7hm=9b59de3e7f91ac0fb47c52ffd7ed47fc2502adf42b4b709b350d8fce0eaa5294