Warning this review may contain spoilers.
First impression so my first impressions where along the lines of ok so this is about some guy with amnesia who gets involved in the civil war to overthrow the current emperor so this going to be some sort of war epic sounds promising enough.
Story 6/10.
So the premise of Utawarerumomo.
starts off pretty simple With the protagonist haku who is found badly injured by a local village girl and is taken in by the local villagers while he recovers from his injuries and also amnesia. While under the care of the local villagers a local noble causes some big trouble for the villages which in turn though a series of events helps kick start a massive rebellion against the local emperor with the main character leading this rebellion and eventually he becomes the new emperor with him now Running this country and dealing with the problems of those who bear the role of leader have to deal with.
So the story of utawareumomo is basically a slice of life how to run a kingdom/ war drama / harem because this is based of an hentai game.
And your now probably asking please explain so very well I will explain.
Now the reason I say slice of life is because about half the time it is basically that.
There are literally parts of this show where people are basically doing jack shit nothing except doing paper work Having meetings getting drunk and Other madame things.
And to me these parts did get a bit tedious at times. But in retrospect it dose help with the setup of the the war drama aspects because when I think about it these nothing really is happening moments are used to make you and the characters drop their guard and then out of nowhere there is an attack and your like oh crap.
The war dama parts are for the most part taken very seriously.
Which I can always appreciate when a story take the concept of war with the kind of seriousness it needs.
There is tactics involved there is also lots of death that they actually show you there are parts where villagers are getting pillaged and burned to the ground.
These parts are kind of used to help learn about the world this takes place in and more about the main character past.
Where we find out that this isnt a fantasy world. but is in actually a post apocalyptic earth in the future where humanity fuck up to point where thay couldnt live on earth any more and that the main character is a God like being.
Which begs the question of how did humans end up in that state like this and how come we have magic in a world that seems it was made by science but at the same time is a fantasy world with I shit you not angel like being that can do magic and the main character who has god like abilities. That make little to no sense of how this all connected.
So what I am trying to say in that thay never really expands on it and its just comes out disjointed.
Now last and not least is the reason why a say there is a harem element in the show.
Now some of you are probably going to say or think the that the harem aspect of the story kind of brings down the serious nature of this story.
But to my shock it didnt do that really.
Because for one it really doesnt much of a prescience. its kind of just there for you to enjoy and easy going.
Aesthetically it kind of fits because this world that the live in is lightly based of medieval Japan and if you read any history books you would probably know that emperors in history getting harems happen quite a lot So it more of a favoring than any thing else.
Also if you where looking for fan service there really isnt that much of it.
Now the ending kind of came out of nowhere but it was fore shadowed enough that could have it not bother me that much. Even though it did kind of end open.
Characters 5/10
The main character haku was some what interesting.
he is a naturally good leader who also likes women which kind makes interesting a bit.
But the problem is that he has amnesia and it kind of makes him a little bland at times. But at the same time it dose lead him to deal with a lot of issues like who he was or what has he done in life and what not.
The side characters are pretty one note.
Because I can pretty much sum up most of the characters in sentence.
Becuse most of the characters are mostly defined though only a few personally trats.
For example there one character who I can sum up as the lawful good warrior type of character. So yah they can be pretty much be summarized pretty quickly.
So the characters are kind of written poorly.
But I do believe that the character interaction helps make up with it.
Because I did find the character interaction enjoyable to watch.
Art 6/10
The animation is kind of average even when I compare it to other shows that came out that same year. But at the Same time it dose add some grit to it which kind of works because this is a show about war so I give it a pass for that.
Its art style is kind of generic
Nothing really special here.
Now the character designs where Kind of different but still generic.
Like it kind of fun to see all these animal people designs.
But it still has the problem of being dated.
Sound 5/10
Now the op and ending themes were catchy but I am afraid that is all they are is catchy.
And the ost is kind of forgettable. Like for the life of me I cant really remember much of it.
So if your looking for a ost you should definitely pass on this you wont get my much out of it.
Enjoyment 6/10
Now when it came to the enjoyment of this show I guess I can mention a few things.
One thing I quite like about this show is how serious it was and how ambitious it was for a hentai game story.which did find make it a pretty interesting ride over all.
Overall 6/10
If your looking a for above average war drama then utawarumono will be a pretty good ride.
But if the lack of characters and art and sound bothers your the you should probably go watch something else.
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