Tenrou: Sirius the Jaegerhttps://anilist.co/anime/101361/TenrouSiriustheJaeger/ is a work that perfectly embodies the words It works but could do better.
Its production and conceptualization was helmed by Masahiro Andohttps://anilist.co/staff/101518/MasahiroAndo better known as the director of the widely known animated movie Sword of The Strangerhttps://anilist.co/anime/2418/StrangerMukohHadan/.
And his brand of cinematography and overall flow is apparent in every aspect of the show.
The premise of the show isnt anything that has never been seen before or exceptionally original its the unique execution that makes it stand out the atmosphere and the creative psuedovictorian take on Japan that looks extremely pleasing to the eye. Though thats as far as the setting goes it doesnt really play any major role in the overall plot and the show could easily take place at any other setting without losing anything.
The story revolves around Yuliy a member of a secret organization called the Jaegers and their goal to hunt the vampires which aligns perfectly with his interests since he has a personal agenda against the blood suckers due to a traumatic experience in his childhood.
The plot itself is extremely wavy in terms of quality at points it can become gripping and sometimes its paced poorly resulting in janky progression.
For a vampire story the vampires besides the deuteragonist of the show Mikhail the big brother of Yuliy are left largely unexplored and while there is a valid motive for their actions it never really comes across as most of them are just following the guide book on how to be a generic Muahahaha Ill kill you villain.
And that doesnt apply to only the vampires as the rest of the Jaegers bar Willard are just as neglected beyond their initial moments. A large chunk of the supporting cast is literally there so the show has more characters even though they contribute almost nothing to the plot.
The show mainly plays with the dynamic between Yuliy and his brother and to a degree with his father/son relationship with Willard which had great potential but the shows tight runtime left us scarce on actual character building or flashbacks to get us to know and care about their connection.
Putting aside the story its the visuals that take the cake in the case of Sirius the animation is phenomenal fluid with proper easing and flow and the show doesnt lose even the slightest bit of consistency in detail when they go for sakuga highbudget full frame animation scenes which is usually the case for many other anime.
The action scenes are choreographed akin to a martial arts movie and are just beautiful to look at theyre made all the more impactful due to the great use of particle effects and proper timing when it came to playing tracks from the OST.
The character designs are also great and pretty memorable designed by the one and only Kinu Nishimurahttps://anilist.co/staff/126425/KinuNishimura famous for being one of the most major illustrators for the majority of Capcoms fighting games back in the 90s.
Shes a primary artist for Street Fighter 2 3 and 4 and is involved with the Capcom VS SNK games as one of 2 primary artists as well as the Darkstalkers series.
So now you know the reason as to why the characters look so unique and cool.
The sound design is stellar with fantastic use of sound effects and a good soundtrack which consists of a lot of epic songs that will get you pumped in the given moment. Their memorability is questionable but theyre a good listen nonetheless.
Overall the world of Sirius delivers a compact story with tons of great action but it does fall short in more than a few aspects and it couldve been so much more. Heres hoping that theres a sequel one day given the possibilities its world has it would be a shame not to double down on it.
I do recommend watching the show if not for the interesting dynamic between Yuliy and Mikhail then for the amazing action and animation from Masahiro Andos creative mind.
65
/100