Rail Wars! takes place in an alternate universe where the Japanese government remains in control of the nation's railway systems. Because of the stability afforded by the leadership of the government, the railway system is allowed to flourish.
Naoto Takayama aspires to become an employee for Japan National Railways because of the comfortable life that it will enable him to live. In order to accomplish this he enters its training program, where students must demonstrate their knowledge of trains as well as their ability to be ready for any challenge that might arise.
During this time period he will encounter other students such as the athletically gifted Aoi Sakura, the constantly hungry Sho Iwaizumi, and the human encyclopedia Haruka Komi. Together they will work towards surviving their trainee period, all the while taking on purse snatchers, bomb threats, and the looming specter of the extremist “RJ” group who wants to privatize the railway system.
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Comentários
Blood_Diver_A
(At Studio Passione, a meeting between the director and the animators) Director: Okay. Thank you for coming on such short notice. I just wanted to discuss some minor changes that I thought would be appropriate. [Animator A and B both nodded their heads and said, “Okay.”] Director [smiling]: Great! Okay. Animator A, you are charge of animating most scenes involving Haruka Koumi, right? Animator A [nodding]: That is correct.Director: Okay. That’s good. [Glancing at his clipboard.] I noticed that her breast sizes were a size ‘D’. I don’t like it, could you increase it to a size ‘F’?
Animator A [looking shocked]: What? Why? isn’t that a bit too big?
Director: Hm. What do you mean? There’s no such thing as ‘too big’. Only ‘too small’. And, also, add more jiggle physics.
Animator A [still stocked]: What? Are you kidding me? But, this character already has a lot of jiggle scenes.
Director: I understand. I’m not asking you to add more jiggle scenes, I’m asking you to add more bounce, more jiggle physics, because she’s clumsy and tends to be naked most of the time. I want the animation design to be fluid, polished and smooth. If the viewer will not remember her sweet, kind and gentle personality, then they will remember her nice flowing and bouncing breasts. I want the viewers to be awe by her large bosoms, especially when she's running!
Animator A [sighing]: Fine. But, this is going to take a lot of work.
Director: That’s fine by me. As, for Animator B, you know what to do?
Animator B [nodding]: Of course. Increase the breast size for Aoi Sakurai from size ‘C’ to ‘E’. And add more jiggle physics, because every viewer is watching for beautiful flowing breasts.
Director: Exactly! Now, get to work.
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(A meeting with the director and the script writers)
Director: Okay, folks. We don’t have much time. We are losing viewers at the moment and I’ve got an idea to get more viewers, and to make the story more interesting.
Writer A: So, what is it?
Director: This story has no need for a deep, complex plot. That will turn off the viewer. [He sighs.] It needs to be predicable, it needs to have lots of typical cliches and fanservice, and it needs to have fillers. That's what this anime needs and there are four things that we must do: 1) add a idol episode, 2) make the girls wear lots of swimsuits and bath towels, 3) have the clothes of the girls torn, ripped or wet, and 4) have one nipple scene. With this set-up, everyone will tune in and watch this series.
Writer A [hesitating]: But, isn’t this series about trains, kick-ass action, and conspiracies?
Director [shrugging]: Well, yeah. To some extent. But, recently idols have been all the rage, and remember you can never go wrong with 'the plot'.
Writer A: I guess, however, won’t the viewer be expecting lots of trains and action?
Director [sighing]: If I had to put the story in percentages, then 50% is about 'that plot’ and ass, 30% is kick-ass action, 15% is about romantic subplots, and 5% is talking and looking at trains. Look, you must remember, this anime isn't serious or 'deep' and complex, it's just a bunch railway security force members stopping bad guys from doing bad things, with lots of 'plot' action and ass shots.
Writer A: Won’t the viewers be disappointed about this?
Director: Not really. Because, they’ll be 'watching it for the plot’. It's always the 'plot'!
Writer A [sighing]: Okay. If you say so.
Director: Oh, I know so.
The End
Link_of_Hyrule
**SPOILER FREE REVIEW** What a disgraceful, irredeemable, repulsive piece of trash this anime truly is. This show has thus-far been the most uninspired, lazy, and forgettable pulp I’ve ever had the misfortune of sitting through. Not a single OUNCE of effort was put into this butchering of a somewhat promising and unique concept, and while the show thinks it can distract the audience from its laughable “plot” (if you can even call it that) and its worthless, pathetic, cardboard-cutout characters with absurdly excessive fanservice, they aren’t fooling me. It's unbelievably stupid, it's misogynistic, it's cliche, it's rushed, it's... Y'know what? Let’s just go ahead and delveinto what is likely hands-down the worst anime of the season, Rail Wars.
Synopsis: Four teenagers begin working for a railway station. Hijinks ensue.
…
That is literally it.
The synopsis of Rail Wars on MAL is extremely misleading mostly because it implies that this show has a plot: It doesn’t. There is NO exposition. I’m not exaggerating; there is none what so ever at any point. This show is literally a montage of random, unrelated incidents that the protagonists have to fix and/or get themselves out of. There is no coherency or consistency to be found (unless you count constant fanservice as “consistency"). This is a show that tries to pass itself off as “mindless entertainment”. There’s one problem though: It’s not entertaining! The writers have no idea how to give the random scenarios they come up with any suspense at all! There are no action scenes what so ever (excluding 10 seconds in episode 1), there is no reason to care about the generic characters, and there is simply no energy or excitement to be found. You can literally feel how rushed and passionless the development of the anime really was. In fact, they make an effort to AVOID fast paced and exciting scenes! In episode 3, this show has the audacity to make us sit through some of the most boring and pointless dialogue I’ve ever seen as it builds up to what was shaping up to be a good fight scene (albeit the buildup is painfully slow). Just as the fight was about to start, the shot becomes a still frame and we cut to after the fight is already over. If that doesn’t prove that the animators don’t give a shit, then I don’t know what will; what an absolute slap in the face.
Perhaps the biggest joke of all is that some of these episodic scenarios aren’t even related to trains! I mean… really?! This show was advertised as some sort of action-shounen based around railways, which could have been cool, but all we got was random fanservice and nothing to hold it together. In fact, there is literally no reason for this story to be related to trains at all; whether it’s diffusing a bomb or stopping a dangerous intruder at a music concert, literally any other setting would have worked just as bloody well. The “writers” (if this garbage can legally be considered writing) just jotted down as many generic scenarios as they could think of and made each episode consist of a one of those scenarios. I could have written this show at the age of 8. It really is that stupid, random, and simplistic. Not ONE thing about the show’s “plot” was done even remotely right. It is a complete, unbridled disaster.
The characters are just the icing on the cake to this amazingly repugnant arrangement. The only thing I can say about them is that they fucking exist (unlike the plot). The MC doesn’t have a spec, and I mean not a SPEC of originality to him. The driving force of the "plot" is that he wants to be a train conductor. Too bad I don't know a goddamn thing about him and therefore I don't care what the hell happens to him. The MC’s harem is just as generic as he is; there’s one red headed chick who sort of has a personality, but it’s completely stereotypical. I guess having a generic personality is better than not having one at all, which is the case with the rest of the cast. Rail Wars left me scrambling so hard to find positive aspects that a 2-dimesional character is considered a highlight of the show. I think that says it all right there.
In conclusion, Rail Wars is a disgrace. They took a unique concept with potential and loaded it with clichés through the addition of highschoolers and a big-breasted harem. Throw in the absurd writing and piss-poor choice of direction and you have yourself, dare I say, a trainwreck!
*Pause for laughter at obvious joke that I didn’t have the willpower to resist making…
This is just a humiliation to the anime industry and to fiction in general. Everyone responsible for this monstrosity should be ashamed of themselves, because I’m certainly ashamed. I cannot fathom a single, solitary reason for ANYONE to EVER watch this show. It’s not good for action, it’s not good for comedy, it’s not good for mindless entertainment, it’s not good for ANYTHING. Other than fanservice, this show has nothing to offer (and you could pick thousands of other superior anime if you really want fanservice). The music is decent I suppose, and that is the only thing that separates Rail Wars from a 1/10. Needless to say, I not only wouldn’t recommend this garbage to anyone, but I also wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. It is honestly the most worthless and contemptible anime I’ve ever seen.
earnshaw30
Right first review so be gentle please though feedback is welcome. Rail wars...so lets get one thing straight right of the bat this is a HAREM ECCHI anime if you don't like those genres stay the hell away from this show. so moving on the lead characters are all pretty generic we have Naoto Takayama your typical dense harem lead and his co-workers Aoi Sakurai the typical tsundere heroine who has a particular fondness for guns Koumi Haruka the big breasted gentle character and lastly Shou Iwaizumi who serves as the stupid best friend as well as some other minor harem members. story....well there wasn't muchof a story with each episode mostly consisting of light hearted comedic moments some fan service and then an action scene before wrapping everything up in 20minutes and maybe throwing in some facts about trains every now and then.
The sound was mostly forgettable but not awful the OP and ED being the only two stand out tracks in my opinion Art seemed mostly average no problems .
Ok so overall is this anime ground breaking? no of course not its generic as hell with generic characters and average art and sound. Did I enjoy this anime? hell yes it was 20minutes a week where I could turn my brain off and relax a typical harem anime no major drama or plot. Fans of other harem anime will most likely enjoy this show as well if you don't like harem don't watch it.
anaract
Rail Wars! is a confusing show. It is an ecchi harem with the primary gimmick being that it supplies the viewer with plenty of train facts. There is no progression to this story. Although it is a harem, there are only two moments in the series that could be considered "plot development between characters" in which two different girls' announce to the screen that they have feelings for Naoto, our main character. However, while both of these girls may have revealed their feelings (to no one in the story), the only effect this has on the story is the addition of blushing throughout theotherwise ordinary moments this show is chock full of.
The only notable plot progression throughout the series is the very arbitrary promotion of Naoto from "kid who works for train station" to "kid who leads other kids who work for train station" which has no actual importance on the series as he is bossed around enough by his incredibly tsundere teammate that his title is meaningless. Aside from this tidbit of progress, nothing resembling a plot will occur for the rest of the series. You may be thinking, "well, that's okay. I'm just in it for the fan service anyway" and this is where I will have to stop you. Unless you, along with the writers of this show, are deeply infatuated with girls removing their pantyhose in a two-shot still frame every few episodes, you will be very hard pressed to find yourself satisfied in any way.
Much to my surprise, Rail Wars falls extremely short in the fan service department. Given that this is an ecchi harem show with no plot whatsoever, no character development, no relationships, and terrible animation you would think that we would at least get some Grade A boobies in our faces every few minutes, and although literally every female character with any significance has an obnoxiously large chest, we are left with pantyhose removal every few episodes and the occasional heavily-veiled changing room scene. If sexual tension is all you need, don't continue watching after episode two, where we get our one and only moment of actual tension which last about a minute and produces microscopic amounts of embarassment between the two characters involved. (Of course this is assuming that girls taking off their pantyhose doesn't completely captivate you, because the writers REALLY just eat that stuff up. When that still-frame passed and Sakurai's legs turned from darkish tan to light peach I knew my world had changed forever)
If you're still thinking "I'm just in it for the trains!" you are still not safe from the disappointment. Two or three times per episode, as a different 3D model of a train scrolls across your screen, Naoto will read to you the first ten sentences that wikipedia has to offer about that specific model of train. This interaction will then abruptly end and the show will continue normally, although occasionally a female character will comment on Naoto's obsession with trains which will result in the cheerful laughter of his teammates while the camera pans away to a fade, and we can escape from the tedium of Rail Wars! for just a moment.
Probably the only interesting aspect of Rail Wars! is the immense responsibility that these junior train cadets in training have, as they are equipped with pistols put in charge of defending the lives of thousands from a multitude of train-hating terrorists. While this may sound entertaining, I assure you that any conflict or action will take place in the final minute of the episode and be portrayed through a still-frame of a bad guy getting kicked by Sakurai. The ability of the junior train cadets to absorb minutes worth of tasering to the neck - completely unscathed - is notably comical yet also ruins any hope for the plot to actually start moving.
There is very little left to say about Rail Wars! If you are looking for 4 hours of large-breasted characters doing mundane things, poorly animated CG trains, 2 minutes of unfulfilling ecchi, half a dozen still-frames of action, and a small pamphlet's worth of information on trains, then Rail Wars! is the show for you. Otherwise, you should consider looking elsewhere.
Stark700
In reality, trains are actually fascinating inventions with great enterprise and a means of transportation. But put that into anime form under the title ‘Rail Wars’ and you’ll get a pseudo-harem anime where you wonder what this show is really about. Is it really about trains? Sort of. Are the characters completely devoid of interest? Somewhat. Is this show memorable for what ultimately tried to achieve? Hell no. Based on the light novel of the same name, Rail Wars apparently takes place in some alternate version of Japan. The only difference is that the setting involves a railway system that has yet to be privatized.Then, enter main protagonist Naoto Takayama, a big fan of trains who originally wanted to be a driver. Now the kid is part of the Fourth Guard Squad. What he doesn’t know is that he is also gaining a harem. I think at one point, one of the characters mentions “You're a lucky guy for being surrounded by cute girls, Takayama.”
The series’ story is almost laughable and for all the wrongs reasons. In fact, there is barely any plot to speak of and with what little it has often seems to make fun of itself. However, the series takes itself somewhat seriously rather than acting as a parody. The most evident problem involves the one dimensional plot with little agenda by pandering on the harem-esque trope. The main protagonist Naoto is the main butt monkey as he is labeled a pervert by the female protagonists. Panty shots are prevalent throughout the show and almost present in every episode. It seems that the goal of the series is try to get Naoto to succumb to his inner desires. However, being the persistent young healthy boy that he is, Naoto resists his lusts most of the time. Then again, the show tries to highlight the female characters to a point where it becomes preposterous.
Regarding most of the other characters, none of them really stand out. Forget characterization, the main focus on them seems to be their sex appeal and non-sensational personalities. The list includes the tsundere (Aoi), the beauty (Haruka), the mischief (Nana), the idol (Noa), the childhood friend (Mari) and the muscle head (Sho). Get the picture now? It’s sad to say but Naoto is perhaps the most normal protagonist. At the very core, he is a kind young man with a decent knowledge train models and types. He is neither a Gary Stu nor sidekick but plays the role of a leader on the team. One should realize that his motivations are often for the safety of the public as he puts others before himself. And from this, girls seems to fall head over heel for him where almost every main girl with a name isn’t safe. Other characters also play their roles with knowledge about the trains and machinations. Yet, the show does a sloppy job at exposition. The writing is lifeless despite the mechanics explained. No clever background stories. Instead, you get awfully timed scenarios including cliffhangers and predictable outcomes. Some episodes also makes little sense with saturated misunderstandings that will make you face palm.
Some people might also see this as an action flick. Perhaps the first episode highlights this bit with Aoi’s debut and her impressions. There’s some properly timed action scenes with firearms and fighting techniques. But really, that’s about it. If Michael Bay was to direct this series, maybe the show could be a bit appealing with jaw-breaking action scenes. However, the show only occasionally adapts this fashion as most of it is covered by its cliché-riddled ideas. The comedy also makes diehard attempt to make the audience laugh but fails with the usual shenanigans. As the show likes to take risks with trivia and facts, there are occasionally moments that can evoke interest. Some episodes have a thrillerish feeling such as stopping a terrorist bomb. However, the series tries far too hard when this ploy becomes the focus. Dialogues are also cheesy with less emphasis on the premise but more potential relationship developments. Unfortunately, Naoto is dense as a rock despite the obvious hints that the various girls drops throughout the show. Whether it’s genuine or not, Naoto’s love life is like a train-wreck as he isn’t committed about getting a girlfriend. Perhaps he is in love with trains…
Visuals wise, the show only has a few moments when you’ll have eyes glued to the screen. Unfortunately, those glorious moments are short lived by its poor timing. I’m not talking about the action scenarios but the overall execution tied in with the story. Similarly, characters sends a poor message with their professional attires. The girls wear short skirts while the guys lack appeal. Naoto’s face is what I would describe as the Average Joe; the plain guy. Also, expect tons of fan service whether it’s the inevitable beach episode or the lascivious camera angles. Perhaps the only other thing I can give praise to the artwork would be the technology as the backgrounds are solid. The trains doesn’t look very impressive but is faithful to the designs.
Soundtrack isn’t impressive but at the same time doesn’t kill the show completely. Character voice mannerism are dense with Naoto’s dull personality making little impact for interest. However, the girls does have a diversity of voice mannerisms. The most evident is Aoi and Haruka as they compete for their love. As result of this, expect nothing more than annoying chit chat. On the more technical side, background music and OST is sufficient enough to be acceptable. The biggest reward for perhaps every episode is the ED song for its delivery. It’s sad to say but the ED song alone dwarfs the story of this show with its recreational imagery. The OP song also has some catchy beats to accompany the premise.
By the time you finish reading this review, you’re probably thinking about refraining yourself to watch this show. And to be honest, that should be the right decision to take. This little harem-esque adventure is saturated with fan service, characterless framework, and a plot that jumps all over the place. There are times when one might wonder if the show is about trains at all. Sure, there are some info dumps and mechanics but this may all be quickly forgotten by the message the show is really trying to send. Instead of learning about trains, you’ll be distracted in the same way Naoto is with his lady friends. In retrospect, Rail Wars destroys itself by derailing the premise and leads it to become….a train wreck.
Jayko
Rail Wars has much to offer anyone who is interested in the Japanese way of life surrounding Public Transportation Systems and as an added result can provide some history about the industrialization of the country. It is an average anime that is surprisingly entertaining with some flaws of course. Nevertheless here's my review, continue to read and see if this show is for you. Story: 6/10 From what is clear by the synopsis, one can probably tell they're not going to get an epic or an incredibly heart throbbing romance out of this show. You do however get a satisfying slice-of-life feel from it aseach episode takes you along a specific story arc, with an occasional arc spanning a couple of episodes. This being said a couple of cliffhangers may stand in your way, but not in the dramatic sort of sense. That being said there is no grand conclusion, it's a casual story for people who are looking for an anime to get them past a depressing Key based anime that left a gap in their soul. If this has happened, you know what I'm talking about.
Art: 7/10
As the title would suggest, there is a lot of trains in this show, and with a show that has so much emphasis on trains the animators and artist did a good job on providing extraordinary detail on all mechanical entities within this show. Along with this is near flawless integration of 2D and 3D animation. The show was also fond of creating some weird angles for character interaction, this is mainly due to the ecchi elements that are present within the show, which can be more distracting than pleasing.
Sound: 8/10
There is not too much that an anime can mess up with sound. As for this one I'm sure there are plenty of trains locally available to get good sound in for this show, and the malfunctions and action that comes with it plays well too. Some dialogue is not synced with animation. As for the soundtrack we see very good OP and ED, as well as fitting music to accompany the shows current mood.
Characters: 8/10
The protagonist of the show is a slightly fanatical foamer that clearly has a lot of knowledge about trains. Other from this fact his dreams and motives are normal, which are good for a viewer to relate to. For the more fanatical side of our protagonist, we have a group of fairly normal friends to accompany him, that react a way most 'normal' people would with a foamer. The slice-of-life elements of the show also provide good character development for most characters and springs some interesting romance as well. Likewise their are some very predictable characters that one may wish were more developed.
Personal Enjoyment: 9/10
I like this show! Although I imagine there are many people that would have a hard time trying to keep interested if they're not at all interested in Public Systems or Criminal Justice. Even if a viewer did hold such interests, it is still possible they would not be satisfied with what was offered.
Necris
Warning! following Review is wrote in sarcastic tone, although it quite accurately describes my feelings about that anime. Rail Wars is yuri anime about, like name suggests, titties. Main heroin, named Takayama Naoto, is a girl, that always wanted to drive trains, so she didn't cared about anything else in her life and her education level stayed in kindergarten. Fortunately she passed high school and got admitted to Japan Rail School, where she met new friends: Ojou-sama Titties, Police Titties, Boss Titties, Osananajimi Titties and Captain Titties. There was also Iwaizumi Shou, the only male character from main cast. Unfortunately Naoto was born with powerful titties magnetinstead of brain, which makes a lot of trouble for main cast as at least once per episode some titties flies toward main heroine.
Story: 3/10
I rated story so low because it's too logical, and i only watch anime to make my brain empty. Seriously if you only want some stupid recreation, better go watch Code Geass or other Death Note, the story is definitely too complicated, and behind every corner there are enemies, and they are bad, and you never know when titties starts to fall on Naoto.
Art: 6/10
Titties are nicely animated, they move up and down and they sometimes fall on heroine, or get grabbed. if only there would be more titties, i would give 10/10
Sound: 7/10
Sound is good, music isn't memoriable, but it goes good with the show. Every pair of titties has it's own sound effect that's goes from "pom" to "boing"
Characters 3/10
Unfortunately titties wasn't very distinctive of each other, they looked almost the same, that's why rate i so low
Enjoyment 5/10
As i said story was too complicated and it was hard to understand everything.
Overall 5/10
I would like to recommend that anime to people that likes complicated PLOT. Ah, i would forgot, but there are also some trains.
RazorRamona200
Ok, so another summer anime has just ended, so no more fucking around and just present my ratings for each of this anime's category: Pathetic 1. Story- there isn't any, in spite of what its genre states, each of this anime genre applies each one of the characters, also the plot where it's an alternate world where Japan's railway system isn't privatize and was treated by people who would like to privatize it, didn't really fan out, rather this anime's story plot was pretty random to say the least. Also, the title "Rail Wars" was simply too misleading since one would expect that there where two entitieswho would be battling to control Japan's public railway system, now if I were Takumi Toyoda (the one who wrote this anime/novel/manga) such scenario where two entities who were battling to control or buy Japan's National Railways, then such plot would have been great.
Mediocre 5.
Art- since it was pretty much your usual art which has some resemblance with "Chu-2."
Good 7.
Sound- the rating is for the closing theme that I like.
Dreadful 2.
Character- ok so there isn't any ecchi for them pierros to howl for, but since I'd said that this anime genre doesn't apply to the anime as a whole, rather it applies to each character, so let's start with some of the main characters:
Naoto Takayama- if we're talking about harem in this anime/manga, it would be him and it was pretty obvious as to why, though, he is a heroic guy who is very dedicated doesn't do much justice for him, co'z he still plays this very annoying character who doesn't know what to do with his harem. Also it was quite disappointing co'z everything was placed on him even-though some of the weight could have been shared with Sho. One reason why this category deserve a 2.
Aoi Sakurai - if we're talking about adventure and ecchi in this anime/manga, it would be her, since she serves as this bitch who can't seem to sit still and always wanting some action, also her figure is somewhat of every guys fantasy.
Haruka Kōmi - if we're talking about romance in this anime/manga it would be her since she does play this girl with brains but now brawn who is in love with Naoto and someone who is willing to be the martyr.
Shō Iwaizumi - if we're talking about action, you only need him, however I'm a bit disappointed that his more like a support than being one of the main characters, also, it's kind ironic that he wasn't given a share of the harem where his character has potential of having one, frankly his character was a waste which is another reason why I gave this category a 2.
Nana Iida, Mari Sasshō, Hitomi Gonō and Noa Kashima- well....they are the slice of life.
You know, I would never understand this anime/manga/ novel writer Takumi Toyoda as to why he still stick to the notion that teen boppers would do the job of grown ups, in fact I hate the idea that them character are still in high school working a kind of job that an adult would do, perhaps it won't matter if this anime has an additional seinen genre, co'z the character here should be young adults ( probably somewhere between 19 - 22) instead of high-schooler, which is the main reason why I give this category a 2.
Fair 6.
Enjoyment- Ok, so I admit, this anime did entertained me up to episode 11 and episode 12 is a disappointment.
Poor 3.
Overall- the poor usuage of the characters where they should be young adults instead of high-schooler, the plotless story that seemingly pretty random would prove to be a poor combination, so I really can't blame those majority who have made a review before me that gave this anime a low score. Besides, it really does deserve a low score, also, the anime itself was more like a documentary of Japan's Train history than anything else, beside who gives a shit about those trains? In my opinion such informative documentary should've been saved for the "Discovery Channel" or the "History Channel," and not in this anime/ manga.
Btw, here is a train joke, How does a train conductor drink beer and fart?
Ans: They Chung-aa, Chung-aa afterwards they Proot! Proooooot!!!!!!
404Fox
Not bad. Definitely is unique. I couldn't think of many related titles. Story Does not have a plotline that flows through the whole series. Individual arcs. Overall they're average. Arcs are straightforward with no complex side plots or whatever. Kind of a harem, but not in the way a harem works. If you get over the fact that the protagonist meets a lot of pretty girls, then its not a harem at all. However, I think it would be great as a romance with an good ending. Art Fluid characters, lots of still backgrounds. This is modern animation. It looks good by making the viewer's focus the best part. Itlooks good and that's what counts. But other than that it's nothing spectacular. OP and ED look nice but also have lots of still shots. They go well with the music though.
Sound
I don't remember a lot about the background music, which probably means it was either not very noticeable or memorable. The OP and ED songs are really good though.
Character
Average characters with some differences. Little to none backstory. Characters are not too complex for watching while multitasking. But still entertaining.
Enjoyment
Entertaining and kind of interesting at some parts, yet kind of dull at some parts. Very interesting at one part though... It could just be that I wanted to see some things that were still airing over this though.
Overall
Fine (6/10)
I wasn't expecting much, but it was a little better than I thought it would be. I might recommend this as something to watch if there's nothing that is more entertaining than this to watch. I said its not very interesting but that may be an understatement, as few things could possibly seem interesting to me. This show makes nice light-viewing material.
mercury1980
The title should be called "Oppai Wars". STORY (2): The story takes place in a nationalized railway system in Japan that was not privatized. Naoto Takayama and the gang are trained to become securities by doing physical training and learning how to operate trains. In going to see this anime, I have no expectations because from the first 3 episodes, they show us fanservice like skirt blown by the wind to reveal panties, man accidentally landing on a woman with his hands grabbing her boobs. If I see another of such thing happening, I would snap. Basically my expectations will be determined by the trailer and the first fewepisodes. The anime studio Passione hasn't been making any good anime, so far from what I have researched, Passione made the anime "Haitai Nanafa" which was not well received so I thought that Passione might stand out from the crowd but sadly this wasn't the case with this anime.
This anime was directed by Yoshifumi Sueda who hasn't worked on any anime so I assume it is his first directorial job on an anime with a big name.
Let me explain how this show goes about.
10% trains and
90% fanservice
This anime is supposed to be about trains. However, this anime focuses more on the fanservice and it bothers me the most. The comedy was weak, there wasn't any memorable moments in this anime. Even the action was predictable. An action is supposed to build tension however with bland characters and a bland story, it just comes off as boring and predictable.
The scene where the gang have to protect the prince was the most boring and predictable scene I have seen in this anime. Reusing the peeping tom cliché.
ART (3):
The animation as I thought was dull and cheap. But at least the characters are decently drawn. The problem with the animation is that there is inconsistency like in one scene, they wear gloves while in other scene, they don't wear gloves.
SOUND (3):
The opening and ending songs were forgettable. The in-music when they use action was like detective songs used in the 1970s.
CHARACTER (2):
How are the characters? Let's find out. The characters range from bland to annoying.
Naoto Takayama: HAHA! Oh boy I can't stop laughing. Anyway his character is so generic and bland. He couldn't defend himself. The only thing I remembered is that his character resembles like Mark Wahlberg from the Happening by saying "What? No! I didn't". And for a minute I laughed.
Sakurai Aoi: She may be badass but she is mean to Naoto just because of one mishap. She is just annoying and obnoxious. I never felt a connection between Sakurai and Takayama because they never established that in the first few episodes.
Haruka Koumi: What can I say? She may have better grades but she is defenseless and have no personality other than to arouse Naoto Takayama.
Shou Iwaizumi: At least he is badass and decent. It is sad that he has not enough screen time compared to the others.
The rest of the characters are bland and forgettable.
CONCLUSION (2):
I will just sum up like this.
Hollow characters + Forced fanservice = Rail Wars
That's all I have to say. I already expected this anime to be terrible from the beginning. It's a 2/10.
The show should have these characters' license revoked before this anime started.
RookieLove
When I first saw the name "Rail Wars", I was thinking some futuristic style anime with fighting, action, lasers, cyber space settings, and all that! Luckily I ended up half right. There is fighting, action, and a cyber space animation paired up with the ending theme. But overall, it's an anime about trains and the troubles that come with the job of working with them. No laser shooting, space ship having, mecha fights for my rather active imagination this time around. Let's jump right in. STORY: The story's about following our main character, Takayama Naoto, who wants to be a train driver. He went through a boot campsetting of which was breezed through a bit but showed key points to the training, made three friends along the way, and with a stroke of luck after graduation is reunited with said three friends as trainees in the Public Security Force.
After that, we get episodes involving some back story on everyone, interesting knowledge about trains, and renegade policemen-national security situations!! That's right! There's catching purse snatchers, bomb disposal, saving your friend's friend from drug dealers, gunplay, self-defense and hand to hand combat, VIP transport and protection-
All of this, wrapped up in a competitive-harem bow.
As you can see, it's a pretty simple story. But the story's strong points is how they go about the elements I listed, all the way to an ending that will make all who liked the anime, expect another season.
Some anime tend to teach us, the viewers, about its underlying or main theme. Chemistry here, games there, but over here it's trains. And it's presented the knowledge in a nice, natural, and comfortable pace. I never really knew about trains and their history or the measures that are taken to make sure both the trains and the passengers safety paired with the training necessary to support both the trains and the order on and off the trains, until watching the anime. It gave me something I'll remember if I ever hear about trains or take an actual train ride. Granted it doesn't get you ready to help the crew if something's wrong, so don't expect to be some train savior after watching the anime; it wasn't meant to make you that. It just gave those who didn't know about trains a refreshing and new view of them and the things the people who work on the trains have to deal with.
ART:
The first thing I thought about the art is how the characters designs, especially the faces, reminds me of SAO (Sword Art Online). But it takes SAO's detail to the naughty bits of women that appeared in subtle ways in SAO, and exaggerates them a whole heap on most of the female characters in Rail Wars. You'll get big round breasts, butts, and legs that can reflect light depending on if the scenes in the anime wants to express fanservice, and sometimes flesh seemingly at bursting point through clothing.
You may also like the attention to the environment. Whether in the city, through Japan's mountainous areas or when going across bridges. All that you'd usually enjoy when looking out a window of a train, is all here for your viewing pleasure.
They say trains are a mans romance, and I found that to be true by watching this anime and playing a video game that involved a train segment. The drawback however, is that I felt they could have shown me the inner workings of the relevant trains more often. And so my immersion into the world of trains that the anime displayed suffered a little because the characters would often talk about the workings and make of the train but sometimes not have enough segments showing me these features the train has.
There were two drawbacks in the opening animation.
The first is that at some point the opening tried to display trains and scenes or segments of the characters in the anime at the same time. And that worked as well as some of you may have expected: the trains and the ground they occupied annoyingly blocked out or covered the scenes and segments that I think hinted the characters personalities in the background. You know how an opening theme is supposed to show you what you'll expect? Well thanks to the opening I expected trains; you can be sure of that, but barely anything else when the trains were showcased! And it's not like the trains over throw or outshine the characters, or gave off vibes like "at the end of the day,it's all about the trains". It was a just poor design choice of that part of the anime opening. They could have either eliminated the ground the trains ran along, or made both the ground and trains outlined or transparent until the scenes of the characters were finished.
The second drawback of the opening, is that they showed clips or pictures of random places on and off the train station. Some of the places they showed, weren't really visited anytime during the anime. I feel they could have toned down these, and made use of showing off the characters more. However it did give me a good sense of the environment of a train station, so it's got an up and a downside.But aside from those parts of the opening, the rest of the opening was very engaging and did great in displaying what the characters and environment were like most of the time.
Another part that I might consider a drawback is how sometimes the action and stunts (be it acrobatics and combat) were exaggerated too much and space where everything was happening seemed to expand or detach away from the characters. But I figured this was meant to show that the anime is"over the top", funny, makes room for the characters to do their action scenes, has fanservice, and to inform the viewer what the character(s) will be capable of during the anime.
It has some 3DCGi, but it's rarely shown with the animated characters, and is only saved for when looking at the train from the outside as it travels and such. So it didn't stop me from enjoying the animations.
Overall the art and animation will give you a lot to enjoy. Just know that quality for both varies to set the mood, show relevance, or to give the fan service an edge.
SOUND:
Aside from the man works the speakers of just about every single train or station in most episodes who sounds weird, out-of-place, and sometimes not even like he's speaking through a speaker: everyone's voice actors fit the characters well enough. I don't know whether the person who worked the speakers was one of those automated voices, but he sounded bad and could have been replaced by someone with a better voice or made him fix his voice. They could have added more sound effects before, during, and after he spoke to make it sound like man was part of the intercom system and not like he was a narrator or sitting in the same room as you.
I don't feel there was any concerning drawbacks in the voice acting, nor any praises to be sang. I would have liked if it could have had more realism based on what was happening or had happened to the bodies of characters (like falling down because of being jumped off of or fell upon and getting into fights), but no real issues. In the end I think that's always been up to preference, as I know not all anime will stop to make the sounds real people would make in similar situations and not everyone will criticize or even look for the realism in an anime.
The OP and ED theme really sets the anime's tone to me. Both are filled with a sense of preparation for battle, struggle and longing, all in a sense of "this is how the world is" and "it's up to us to keep everyone safe", and I love that! Especially in a modern-day time! It makes me feel like this anime could have been the mecha, futuristic, war and battle ridden world that I assumed it was by the name! But I never said I was disappointed by what it was or wasn't, and it's still a nice choice for the anime.
CHARACTERS:
What we have is our standard harem setup, a surprisingly tough and reliable bro, and a mentor who starts to favor the main character almost as much as the harem members. A drawback I want to bring up first, is that you may find some of the harem candidates falling for the main character too quickly or taking interest in him for the littlest things. But since it's 12 episodes long, I guess the anime had to be fit all this love for the main character in sooner before later, as to make for cute and valid scenes throughout the anime.
Now to get into what I thought about the main character:
The main character had a child like fondness of trains and that appealed to me because I felt I could relate to him in terms of the things I like. No matter how much certain characters thought he went overboard or told him to shut up, he would always have something nice to say about the trains as well as the characters who got annoyed by his honesty sometimes.
His drawback is you may dislike how often he comes off as weak, and yet powered up in certain situations with no reason except to look cool, get opinions of him improved, or with explanations like, "I have a friend who toughened me up and they will never forgive me if that's all I could take". Characters like this are made to seem like they're improving as people as the anime goes on, so I can put up with him being weak for a while. Other than the drawback, I still found him to be a great person, way ahead of his time mentally, as he would often put the public's safety and comfort before himself.
Now for the main and extra harem members:
First up is Aoi Sakurai. She's the very aggressive type of tsundere who has a very bad and close-minded view of just about all men, and constantly hits and yells at the main character over accidents and the smallest of things. I cannot stand these kinds of tsundere characters! Even if her aggression, mean streak, and hitting of the main character tones down the more she hears his thoughts about certain matters or sees him in action during certain situations(casual and serious). Ultimately replacing this hate and poor opinion of the main character with teasing to get his attention or embarrassed love taps. She was so annoying at the beginning of the anime that her good looks and fanservice wouldn't have been enough to keep my opinion of her dropping for the rest of the anime.
But like I said, it gets toned down to acceptable levels. She gets a lot less annoying and a lot hotter and cuter, just in time to pay attention to her back story and withheld feelings for the main character. I began to like her and think better of her, so don't peg me as someone who hates tsundere characters in the reviews I make. It's just I can only take so much of a harem member whooping the main character's butt, until it gets played out and annoying.
Next is Haruka Kōmi, the big breasted intellectual who's very gentle and can be competitive in the harem sometimes. She can also be take-charge in regard to serious situations or when she's the most helpful. I'm not going to dig too deep into her as it'll spoil how she became a member of the harem. So I'll just say that it might annoy you(the viewer) at how frail she comes off sometimes and less likely to say what's on her mind. Especially when compared to the other members. She's the real "damsel in distress" type who's both resourceful and needs saving.
Next two characters bring the "standard harem" bit i said before, home.
First is the childhood friend who not only has a normal frame compared to EVERY member in the harem, but also has an edge over everyone else since she knows the most about the main character. She had a bit of a noble, "I'm not too worried about how I measure up to the other girls", demeanor to her. And I liked that about her.
Second is the pop idol who is revealed to be the most predatory and bold of all the harem members. She would have a tone that challenged the other members to make her stop clinging to the main character, and it would be a pleasant surprise to see her pop in after her introductory episode.
Now that I got the harem out of the way, the last character I'll talk to you about is the muscle headed character that had a great sense of honor, impressive strength and reliability (except for that one time...), and who ate a lot. He also appeared to be smart and have insight on certain things, for some reason was spared from Aoi Sakurai's hatred of men early in the anime, and was a fun guy to watch. You may find me a smudge forgettable, passing him off as the ox character who was there to round out and support the main cast, but I found him to be a great addition.
Everyone else, you should watch the anime to get to know about.
ENJOYMENT:
The parts I enjoyed about the anime, was the fanservice, action, over the top climaxes of action movies, learning about trains, and the harem.
While development and relationships of characters seem rushed, I felt it was because everyone needed to get closer to each other to make the rest of the episodes that followed more valid and possibly setup for a season two. That's just how I feel though. I don't know if there will be another season, but here's hoping.
It's highly rewatchable, and is a worth while experience.
If you don't like over-the-top and exaggerated action, acrobatics, and fanservice, you probably won't like the anime as much as I did. So keep this mind.
For the rest of us, we'll rewatch and probably even talk among ourselves as fans expecting more to come. Because we're suckers for action, butts and boobies, and the usual harem setup with fun interactions among both the characters and harem members.
OVERALL:
Now to close the review so you can see the anime for yourself.
I give Rail Wars!:
An 7 out of 10.
It is a good anime. A good buy and worthy of support for either more anime like it, or to show that you're a hopeful for a sequel.
It started out as a light novel that now has 9 books, a manga adaptation, and it almost had a game for the PSP Vita. I don't know about you but a game of this anime sounds like it would have been refreshing and fun to look into, had it not been delayed for some reason . So be sure to let the makers of the anime know that they made a good anime, and be on the look out for a possible video game.
Until then, let's meet up at a review of another anime!
xgunawan
Rail Wars! is a series which says would mainly discuss about train. As I thought it's quite interesting to see a series with unique main theme, I took this series. It turned out quite wrong if you want to come and see a train in this series. As I previously mentioned above, it's a train series. It came with a good premise but deviating plot. The series follows Takayama Naoto, a boy who wants to be a train driver. But, he couldn't do that and instead, he entered as a trainee in the Railways Security Force. There he met some of his harem. The story is quiteamusing, but it's boring. It's amusing because of the offer of the girls' action there in resolving problem on train security. It's boring because repetitive usage of same plot in every arc/episode. In almost every episodes, we got some problem. Then as the main character, Takayama used what his best to solved the problem, but it didn't help. Then the harem came to rescue. It always used the same recipe.
One of the reason why I took this series other than the deviating theme is the character design. I really love the character design, the budget really comes in a good way. It is probably the best character design in Summer 2014. But, it's a let down to see the animation didn't come as great as the design. Sometime, you might find a silence and staring character without doing anything for one or two seconds. It's quite disappointing. Otherwise, I love the 3D animation to be used on the train movement.
The OP and ED is quite nice, I like them especially ED. Probably they're the outstanding parts on this series. The soundtrack they are used isn't that good but it's not bad either. At least, it sounds quite matched with the story flow.
Character is another good part in this series, as it's harem series. The girls side are really good, you might find yourself in one of their fans. The boys, too bad they didn't come out as good as the girls. Sometimes, you might find the boys are annoying, as they (or maybe only Takayama) wouldn't do anything notable other than charmed the girls in unnatural way and the girls somehow fell for it. Another note is there is almost no character development, especially on the main characters.
I'm quite enjoyed with this series as this series come in a amazing design. But, sometimes I'm annoyed with the bad reaction to the situation ahead of characters and how the girls fall for Takayama's action. Well, it's a harem series after all.
Rail Wars! come as a quite fair series with outstanding art and good character, but too bad the story didn't come as good as the other parts. This series is for the one who come for the story, but stay for the girls. For the closing, a great quote to follow this series is maybe the one from Bill Gates, "If you can't make it good, at least make it look good."
Thanks for your time to read this review.
TDDoHLaL
Ah, Rail Wars.... The trainwreck of this summer! Okay, sorry, everybody already heard that pun but I just had to use it here. Now that this is out of the way, I think that I should start with my real review. First of all, I think that I should mention that I'm quite interested in trains, so I actually had high hopes after I heard the title and the premise of this series. Sadly, all my hopes were crushed after the third episode. Story: 2/10 If I'm really honest, this show is nothing for people who are interested in good stories. It's not even really good for people whoare solely interested in “plot”, given that even the “plot” was ridiculously bad. Obviously the story consists mostly (at least 90%) of “cabooses”, which is why my rating has become so low, since I've obviously been expecting something different. If you read the synopsis of this show here on MAL, you can read something about an extremist group called “RJ” plotting to privatize the railways. My sole question is: where are the extremists?? Throughout the show there were some people who tried to attack the railways, or an idol who promoted the Japanese Railways, but the extremists were never mentioned as such. This is the first out of a lot of disappointments.
Besides, even the little elements of story in this series (which had basically the length of one episode), were quite unrealistic as well. As a railway fan, I really must emphasize on the lack of realism in quite a few episodes. Given that all the characters were 17 years old and had neither a license for guns nor a train driver license... Why in the name of hell were they allowed to carry guns with them?
As well some of the characters acted in a quite imbecile way. By all means of respect... Who on earth would be paranoid enough in order to believe in assassinating cats?
Art: 2/10
Ah, the animation of Rail Wars!... That's where the true trainwreck starts.
First of all – I really do feel sorry for the animation studio (Passione), given that this was their first bigger project. Still, it is really mentionable that the amount of animation errors is so high that it's almost ridiculous. I won't point out all the errors one by one, you should check for yourself how inconstant the animation of the series is.
And even the size of the cabooses (which were probably important for the producers) changed during(!) all episodes.
There's nothing more to comment here, let's just say that the animation is one of the worse parts of this show.
Sound: 4/10
To be honest, the OP and the ED were fairly nice, in particular the rather funky ED somehow fit the show. Still, they're not outstanding in any particular way. As well the voice actors were in general acceptable, even though all the other sound effects were rather dull.
Character: 2/10
I'm pretty sure that I've never seen as many cliches used in an anime as here.
First of all, we've got Takayama, our stereotypical, dull and boring MC. Maybe it's because he is as dull and stupid as I used to be, but according to me he is one of the most boring and hateful harem leads ever. His sheer denseness is outstanding even in comparison to other harem leads.
Then we have Aoi. Your generic redhead-tsundere. My opinion about Aoi probably isn't really neutral (because of my rather negative stance against that character type), but I still consider her one of the worse tsunderes, given how bluntly she tries to ruin a lot of things, in particular during the earlier episodes of this series.
The next mentionable character is Haruka, who is at least a little more interesting because of the little yandere-side of her character. Still, she can be also seen as a quite dull character.
And the last (but definitely not the least) character of the “Fourth Vigilance Squad” is Iwaizumi, the only character I liked at least a bit, simply because he usually tries to do something productive. Still, his appearances are way too seldom throughout the whole series.
All the other characters of Takayama's harem aren't outstanding as well, so there's nothing special to brag about either.
Enjoyment: 1.5/10
As a railway fan, I really had my hopes high for this show. Perhaps that's why my rating is so harsh, but I just cannot ignore the sheer amount of logical errors throughout the whole series (as mentioned above): Simply because of this very fact I wasn't able to enjoy this show at all. Seriously though, 17 year-olds carrying guns (and trying to kill each other with them because of a misunderstanding), running away from cats and being officially allowed to drive a train without a license? That's surely not what I did expect from this show.
Overall: 3/10
Obviously my expectations for this show were far too high. But even when I try to look on this show from a different angle, I can only see a dull, boring ecchi harem show with nothing particular to remember.
tl;dr this show is good for you if you are interested into cabooses whose size changes minutely, otherwise you should turn away.
Hawk2
I'm not sure where to begin with this...show. I can't analyze it from the beginning so let's look at it from the end. SO IN OTHER WORDS, THIS SHOW IS NOW CALLED CABOOSE WARS! On a more serious note, those looking for a serious show with a great story, interesting characters, and an overall good time, just stop right now... This show...can be summarized by fan-service. Let's start with breaking down the specifics. Story: (3 of 10): Let's look at the synopsis above, now back to this. (wants to make an old spice reference, but holds it in). The synopsis is partially right. This is aboutthe story of Takayama, who wishes to go and become an employee of the JNR system (a train driver to be exact). After that, we get to witness several episodes of nothing but fan-service and animated sequences that serve no other purpose than to give you a butt to look at. There a few moments when the story seems to focus more on his life only to later be covered up by some sort of fan-service or harem activity.
Art: (6 of 10): I can at least say that the animation did have good looking fan-service xD when it would be there. However, the art is like most animes as it uses that same basic anime look. (What I consider unique is something like NGNL's insane color usage or Nichijou's character designs and slightly flat color usage). The animation that went into trains seem to be fine however I have noticed that some instances of the animation were done lazily. An example would be when one of the trains was a still image and only the background moved.
Sound: (5 of 10): I will say that the sound work was not terrible either. I haven't been on enough trains to recognize the sounds of them like one of their characters, but I have enough experience to say that they matched well enough. Voice work was fine had no issues with the voice cast.
Character: (3 of 10): I'm just going to mention Aoi here. From the beginning she was the "Anti-male" trope that made several of us cringe (why is that still a character type)...unfortunately, that personality fell apart quicker than a bullet train (Ask Takayama about that speed). What personalities several characters have begin to fall apart like another certain anime I remember reviewing (Don't ask about Infinite Stratos 2). This was all due to creating the harem that Takayama gains.
Enjoyment: (6 of 10): I will give this show some props for having a few interesting scenes throughout the series itself. There was some action that did keep me interested enough to help me watch this. However, this story was hard for me to finish due to its lack of enjoyment. Honestly, I spent more time making fun of the fact that it was more about cabooses and less about trains.
Overall: (5 of 10): I'm giving this a mediocre rating (5). I can't seem to justify giving this show anything higher. It was not utterly terrible, but it was no where near decent or "fair" as MAL calls it.
Recommend watching?: Not really...unless you want an idea of a low-end animation for comparison in future reviews.
sleepwalker
Rail Wars! A show about trains! Or not. I found Rail Wars through a gif of a model train running into a woman's breasts. No joke. And if I had to describe Rail Wars, that's the gist of what I would say. Rail Wars is, pun intended, a train wreck, with a ton of boobs (and butt and legs). Overall: 2 Rail Wars! is bad. The only things decent about the anime is art and sound, and neither are all that great. Characters are just 2D cardboard cutouts. There was no creativity in story. While the short arc formula worked for the anime, it didn't help it. RailWars! is not interesting, cool, or funny. There is no way I could recommend this anime to anyone.
Story: 3
Rail Wars!, on the surface, is an anime about a boy who loves trains, and wants to be an engineer. Simple enough. But then once you get into the story, there is hardly any train driving. What a shame. To make it worse, he's thrown into a job in security for Japanese National Railways, the public train system in Japan. To make it even worse, nearly every character introduced is a hot girl.
There's the problem. Rail Wars is an ecchi harem anime, intermingled with trains. The story is a jumbled mess. A wannabe engineer in a security job, who practically turns all of JNR into his harem, with side plots that are never dealt with. Again, just a train wreck.
Art: 7
Probably where RW! excels the most, but even then, it's not fantastic. Thankfully, there are a lot of trains in Rail Wars! (who'd've thunk it?). The scenes with the trains actually driving are really well animated. I mean, watching the way the wheels just... wheel... just cool. I don't know how accurate it all is, but it looks right to me!
Outside of the trains, however, art isn't that great. While the fight scenes are cool, there isn't anything special about the animation. I noticed, especially later in the anime, lots of mistakes in animation. Mouths not moving when a character talks, characters looking 'melty'.
Sound: 7
Train sounds are pretty good, I guess. They sound very trainy.
OP and ED are both really cool, a little too cool for Rail Wars! if you ask me. But nevertheless, they're very well done songs.
Character: 2
In Rail Wars!, either you're the MC, you're in love with him, or you just don't matter. Not to mention, all of the characters are blatant and bland archetypes. An oblivious male lead, a large-breasted gentle lady that he doesn't remember, a tsundere who likes to hit people, and the aniki cool strong guy. Others include: Childhood friend, superfamous idol, semi-airhead, and cold, distant team leader.
Not to mention there is no major character development, and they ignore Iwaizumi, the aforementioned aniki, unless his brute strength is needed. I mean, they even address that he's completely ignored in the anime...
Enjoyment: 2
I did not like Rail Wars. It was boring, unfunny, and lame. There was no hook, nothing to keep me watching, not sure how I even managed to finish it.
Harry_Ord
Rail Wars is quite the bizarre series indeed. Anyone who actually bothers to research something would have understood that this series was going to have harem influence and the lead designers of the characters, same as the one who handled Witchblade, should also have told most people that a focus on T&A would be fundamental. Where things really came out of the left field though was execution. From what I hear, the light novels are significantly more action packed and actually...relevant to the plot. Apparently there was a bit of an argument between the anime director and the novelist and as such the anime is nothinglike the novels, or so I've heard.
This makes a great deal of sense though because this anime has no point to it. It's not quite a harem comedy, because there really is not THAT much fanservice and quite a few episodes put humor on the backburner. It's setup to be about a different way of thinking of railway management, and about some kind of war against terrorism on trains or something along those lines. The title and first episode both imply such. This all but gets dropped completely though, so much so that sometimes I wondered if I was just watching a series of OVAs and actually missing out on the real series.
Seriously episodes are just random action movie cliches mixed in with some ecchi elements. This wouldn't be so bad if the series had a budget of any real kind, but instead frames look terribly half-assed, with often times wonky proportions and faces, and even worse: there's little attention to detail. Pay close attention to any episode and you will see what I mean. The designers straight up ignore or forget about basic levels of space and realism. A character could be sitting on one side of a table next to Aoi, and then in the next frame be on the other side of the table or standing up, all during a steady consistent conversation. Trains can sometimes be not much taller than a human in one scene, and then so huge it would take multiple people standing on one another to reach its top in another scene. This sense of QUALITY was actually probably the funniest thing about the show.
As far as the sound score goes, it's got a good set of voice actors and I actually quite enjoyed the soundtrack. The OP and ED are both catchy and there's a few songs in particular that play during episodes that I found upbeat and enjoyable. The character designs are also great. I never thought I would find outfits like the ones they wear as appealing as I do now, though them being unrealistically tight helps for sure. The faces and base designs are excellent, but as I said the actual low budget and lack of well drawn frames somewhat ruins the potential of these designs.
What's truly strange about Rail Wars is how enjoyable it actually is though. Despite basically being bad objectively in nearly every single way, I always found myself coming back for more and it was a consistently enjoyable series throughout. It's the kind of show you watch weekly without much expectation; you just kick back, relax, and enjoy the ride. When the show did try to take itself a bit more seriously and focus on trains, it was both informative, interesting, and sometimes quite exciting. As a whole the series seemed to start to better understand the direction it wanted to take toward the end, so it's a huge shame that most of it felt like filler OVAs. That and the low budget kind of spoils scenes that could be downright incredible in say an anime film.
The cast is also a bit baffling. Aoi, the main girl, is a tsundere that had she not had beautiful red hair and a huge ass, would be extremely unlikable. Simply put, she's a terrible person. She's violent, irrational, prone to illogical and sporadic actions, and belittles the protagonist for little reason. As a self proclaimed hater of men, she runs around asserting herself in ways that are laughably stupid. It's as though the writers tried so hard to make an alpha female that they ruined any sense of realism that could have been here. In her extremely tight skirt and stockings she manages to do superhuman motions and actions to take out thugs on a daily basis. It's an anime and not one that takes itself super seriously so I can forgive such things, but things like this also ruin any sense of suspense or realism that she show was trying to go for. I can't have someone explaining to me how cool reallife trains are and how dangerous terrorists are just to have an arrogant and rude red-headed girl run around soloing waves of people without taking a scratch. There are even scenes of her purposefully making things harder for her friends. She really is the weakest link to the show.
There is also Iwaizumi. If I got his name wrong, it should be obvious why. This is the token harem protagonist's friend. He's a happy-go-lucky active dude who seems to have little real sexual drive and as such can just run around laughing, smiling, and eating food. There are episodes where he is just straightup not in it, as though the writers actually forgot he existed. He gets no real time to shine especially because his one gimmick, his strength, is outmatched by Aoi who also shares this gimmick. He's not unlikable, but he's also not all that likable just because he has little real presence. It's a shame too because as the only other guy in the series he is pretty important to balance the cringe worthy harem elements the show throws around.
The protagonist is actually pretty likable. Usually we all hate these beta harem protagonists, but this one has his motivations and facts straight. He loves trains and dreams of being a conductor. He works hard at his job, is pretty easy going, and has a big heart. I can see actual reason why the girls around him take a liking to him and he's consistently nice to everyone around him, without really being all that naive, except of course when it comes to the feelings people have for him. He's stupidly naive to such things and it comes across as awful writing too. Multiple times in the series the cast of women will actually fight over him verbally...right in front of him. How dense can you be? It always leads to nothing too. He might blush or shrug, but that's it. It's such shitty writing that it makes you want to facepalm.
Literally every girl in the series seems to fawn over this man within minutes too. There could have been such better ways to go about this.
All in all the concept of this series was wonderful and deserved a hell of a lot better treatment than what we got. All Rail Wars made me want to do was brush up on my Japanese and give the novels a try, because the anime sure did fail to live up to its base premise.
VascoCarvalho90
***spoiler free*** So, I wrote this review with 6 episodes released, and after watching the other half of the anime, my opinion remained the same. What started a sort of different anime, at least for me (trains!), fell to the ordinary and pointless screen time of forced ecchi. The 3 first episodes had an interesting development and were really getting me into the wave of the anime. Interesting story, new topic, very nice art, characthers progressing fairly well, the right ammount and balance of a good story and seduction. Sadly, from episode 4 henceforth it was just pointless ecchi just to fill the episodes. Nothing new, theart was sloppy, linear and boring "story" and a waste of money to produce. If it were to have this end, might as well stopped releasing episodes like this.
Another anime bites the dust. What a shame.
nekojanya
Rail Wars! If you want something to watch while eating pizza or waiting for your gentoo kernel compile to finish, watch this. It's without a question an original idea, an anime about teenagers working for a railway company, in this case, the fictional Japanese National Railways. While the characters may really be pretty generic, I don't think they could've done much about that, given that this anime mainly wants to encourage the viewers interest in trains. All in all, it didn't fail to entertain me, watching a bunch of kids trying to balance an old train at high velocity to keep it from derailing was fun, them battling terrorists,even more so, and you also learn some neat facts about trains, so why not.
The only thing you shouldn't be doing is going into this with high expectations, they won't be fulfilled, the plot is okish and you won't remember the characters names for too long.
It's one of these things where your mind goes all "standby mode" and you just look at the neat animations and say to yourself, "Well, that look's pretty decent.".
That being said, I don't regret watching it, but I don't think I'll watch it again.
6 outta 10, it's OK.
kerowolf
I was very excited when this anime was first announced, however I was very much let down by what I was expecting to be a seriously informative and respectful anime. Because this is the first anime that I've given a lower score to, I wanted to write a review as to why. So with that being said, here's my very first short and simple review on MAL. First off, one of the major things that turned me away was the characters and the sheer amount of "fanservice". You never really get to know the characters, they're just supposed to be taken as is with their personalities.Fanservice, please don't get me wrong, is great when it's utilized in moderation and in animes that you want to watch for those things. Not so much in an anime about trains.
I'm not really a big train fangirl, but I thought it would be cool to learn about trains and especially in the fictional world this anime creates with its non-privatized railway system. That part really got me excited when I first heard about it. However, it hardly, if ever, went into much detail about the actual railway system and non-privatization. Which was to say fairly disappointing.
Story (2/10):
You mean there's a story? I'm kidding. The premise for the plot is promising, but the actual story is stagnant. There's no progress at all, and it's just similar situations after one another with a cliche love triangle (pentagon??).
Art (4/10):
Despite the many many many animation errors, I couldn't really complain about the art. They did their best, but it wasn't stunning in any way. The OP animation kinda looked weird for me, but that may be me.
Sound (7/10):
Saved by the sound. I thought the OP and ED were pretty nice actually. Plus the BGM in some scenes really were appropriate and good. Nothing superb, but I liked it to say the least.
Character (5/10):
Eh. Eh. Eh. Most of the characters seemed to just be there simply for the sake of creating situations and fanservice. There was hardly any depth to them and I felt like they weren't very memorable since the only things I can really remember is whenever Takayama accidentally touched their breasts (countless times). However for some characters, you can tell a lot went into them, such as Takayama and Iida. They made the anime a bit more tolerable and it seemed they drove the story forward.
Enjoyment (5/10):
Well, it was good enough for me to get through all 12 episodes, so I can't necessarily say I hated it. It was worth trying out despite everything. All in all, it has it's good moments, but in the end it was really missing something vital for me to actually enjoy it.
