Anime based on card games don’t have the best of reputations, much of it warranted. Fortunately, Rage of Bahamut: Genesis bucks the odds, giving anime fans a thrilling, 12-episode-fantasy ride.
The story opens with bounty hunter Favaro, a rough-ish anti-hero, coming across the beautiful and mysterious Amira. Amira is searching the lands for her mother and pleads with Favaro to take her to Helheim, the place where her mother remains imprisoned. Favaro neither agrees nor disagrees; the two more or less fall in together, especially when Favaro’s childhood friend, Kaiser Lidfort appears, determined to kill Favaro for his part in a past atrocity.
From here, the show falls comfortably into a quest formula, but with a twist. Along the way, we learn that, despite his words to Amira, Favaro has no idea where Helheim is, that Favaro and Kaiser are actually good friends, and that the world sits on a knife’s edge. Angels and demons are renewing a centuries-old war, each side terrified that the powerful Bahamut, a creature more powerful than the gods themselves, will wake to destroy heaven and earth.
The episode count isn’t without its problems, however. Plot exposition suffers. At times, it’s hard to follow how the war came about, who started it, and what they’re trying to achieve. We learn very little about the gods and angels–many of them pulled unceremoniously from the Bible. We learn even less about the demons and primary villains. Typically, a show like this needs a good scene chewing bad guy to root against. All we have here is Bahamut’s overshadowing menace.
Favaro and Kaiser’s relationship plays against this lager backdrop with ease. The two banter and fight, though ultimately, they come together to help Amira and their world’s greater good. Add the show’s most interesting character, a zombie girl sidekick named Rita, and you have a set of complex players.
Favaro himself breaks the traditional anime hero mold. Instead of being initially clueless, he’s smart, clever, and self-reliant. Kaiser is equally well-defined–an honorable knight forced to defend the bounty and foe he’s set on brining to justice.
Only Amira suffers from typical anime clichés. She’s pretty and a touch too innocent, and her damsel in distress routine is a touch overdone. Fortunately, while a central character, she’s not as important to the overall story as Favaro and Kaiser.
At twelve episodes, the animation maintains a high quality throughout. One sequence in particular, a simple folk dance with Favaro and Amira, is stunning. You won’t find animation that good in big budget feature films. The battles are, if not equally good, will still take your breath away. A positive of its card-game origins, Rage of Bahamut has a good number of cool creatures to throw at you. Zombies, dragons, and giants are just a slice of what this anime has in store.
The art is equally impressive. Favaro and Kaiser have a nice retro quality about them. Favaro, in particular, could have come out of Aura Battler Dunbine, Crusher Joe, or any number of 80’s anime titles. The show’s best artistic touch come in how it presents its spiritual characters. Instead of the sharp, clear lines of the human characters, angels and demons have an ethereal look to them. Best of all, characters with feet in both the real and spiritual worlds–like Amira–are both sharp and soft.
Ultimately, the good far outweighs the bad, and the characters of Favaro and Kaiser keep the viewer glued and involved. The action sequences are simply amazing, and unlike too many shows, the conclusion is well done.
4 out of 5 stars
Rage of Bahamut: Genesis is available for streaming from Hulu and Funimation.
Cover image via
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Keith Yatsuhashi is the author of Kojiki, a YA fantasy that reflects his love of anime. His latest work, Torii, a short-story prequel to Kojiki is now available for free at http://www.musapublishing.com
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FUNimation Entertainment announced the English cast for its broadcast dub of the popular new anime Death Parade on February 17, 2015. The cast, directed by ADR director Zach Bolton and working from a script by Bonny Clinkenbeard, includes Alex Organ (Ghost in the Shell: Arise, One Piece) as Decim, Jamie Marchi (Assassination Classroom, Future Diary) as Woman, Eric Vale (Hetalia, Dragon Ball Z Kai) as Takashi and Trina Nishimura (Attack on Titan, Steins;Gate) as Machiko. The dub begins broadcast on FUNimation’s website on February 18th.
FUNimation described Death Parade, which began broadcast in Japan on January 9th, thusly: “There is a place after death that’s neither heaven nor hell. A bar that serves you one chance to win. You cannot leave until the game is over, and when it is, your life may be too. From Studio MADHOUSE (Death Note, Black Lagoon) comes a thrilling new series where the stakes are high and the rules are simple: your life is on the line.” The series is based on a 2013 short film, Death Billiards, written and directed by Yazaru Tachikawa, who serves the same roles on the series.
Death Parade (currently streaming on FUNimation and Hulu, along with other current series like Tokyo Ghoul √A, World Break: Aria of Curse for a Holy Swordsman, Kamisama Kiss 2, Yuri Kuma Arashi, Yona of the Dawn, and Maria the Virgin Witch, is part of Funimation’s ongoing Broadcast Dub initiative, which has the company quickly writing and dubbing English translations of current anime weeks after the initial Japanese broadcast. The company then produces a final English dub using the footage from the Japanese home video release, then releasing the final product on DVD and Blu-Ray. The initiative was launched last October and used for Laughing Under the Clouds and Psycho-Pass 2.
Source: Anime News Network
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