Anime Digest
Oni first appeared in the land of Hinomoto 150 years ago, and they quickly established their dominance over people to the point where they took over the place of Gods. Only groups of Bushi, descended from samurai, oppose them and their corrupt clergy. Musashi, a miner, and Kojiro, an outcast Bushi, are trapped by society in their respective roles as teenagers who yearn to leave their mining town and battle the Oni. But when the locals learn the truth about Oni, Musashi and Kojiro seize the opportunity to pursue their dream. They ventured out into the wider world together to hunt Oni and start their Bushi band.
The Feel-Good Part
They focused on details while developing the anime. The art of this anime is beautiful and visually pleasing. The character design is neat. They color-coded the features of characters to distinguish between groups. These colors show the power system, and their positions would affect a constellation that makes Orient interesting.
The Disappointing Factor
Instead of going for fun, nut-cracking action, they have stiff movements and repeated moves performed. At times, it becomes unbearably dull and hard to handle, but whenever something begins to get interesting, it abruptly ends with characters making one-shot moves and having unclear motives. Even though there are few female characters in the anime, they do not have much character depth, which would be an added support for the plot and viewing experience.
In-Depth Analysis
The manga series Orient by Shinobu Ohtaka served as the inspiration for the anime. The episodes of Orient are both comfortably within the bounds of shounen concepts and just distinctive enough to give it an edge. Most notions have either been used in an older shounen or are entirely copied and overused ideas. It does not bring any new concepts to the anime and has tedious and predictable clichés. The story has a clear arc and has enough emotional depth among the characters. The anime takes its time to build the plot from the manga without trying to rush into it. Sometimes the narrative can be confusing and contradicting with bizarre powers that do not explain what they do. The portrayal of comedy frequently comes off as cartoony and occasionally even childish. The anime mainly focused on putting the cast together, understanding abilities of Musashi, and developing the friendship between the two boys. The anime introduces some truly vile antagonists and opposing ideologies, showing us that the Bushi are not all the same in their beliefs. The building of the anime’s world feels quite natural as it advances the plot. The pace is reasonable, but it is important to note that things do not pick up until episode five. They show only necessary information for viewers, which helps to prevent things from feeling overwhelming. As a bonus, the delivery of dialogues is not always in a scream, which is occasionally a problem with shounen action series. It ends just as the plot seems to be picking up steam, which is risky but also means that there is a scope for the second season, which will be able to launch into the action since we are already familiar with the main details.
Star Power
Musashi and Kojiro complement each other well and have considerable emotional development. The anime shows them as a pretty strong team.
Overall Opinion
It is a good anime with a great story and decent action scenes. But it does take time to develop and capture your attention and interest in the anime, as the first few episodes are a little messy. It does get better as you watch.
