In the technologically and magically advanced Wahrheit Empire, rumors of a returning catastrophe known only as the "light" causes a disturbance amongst the people. Meanwhile, in the capital of the Empire, transporter Innumael Grauer prepares his daily deliveries, struggling to make ends meet for himself and his sister. Leocadio Wöhler, a newly recruited soldier, assists Innumael whilst commuting to work—unknowingly loading a mysterious package containing contraband artillery belonging to a criminal organization.
Innumael is accused of smuggling the package, facing possible execution due to the Empire's strict oversight of weapons in response to the rising disorder. However, unbeknownst to him, the very syndicate that placed him in this unfortunate predicament may save him from this fate, at least temporarily. Elsewhere, Leocadio is assigned his first mission—to apprehend the criminal group known as "Headkeeper," suspected of transporting illegal weaponry.
Magatsu Wahrheit: Zuerst follows these two young men on a journey encompassing the Wahrheit Empire, triggering a chain of events that will not only change their lives but also alter the course of the Empire as they know it.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
KANLen09
If there is one way to sum this show as a whole, it is the love-hate relationship of director Naoto Hosoda. Take one look at his hit-or-miss work repertoire of anime production over the years, and I'd guarantee that you either love or hate the shows he's worked on (the more notable ones): Hataraku Maou-sama!, Juuni Taisen, Mirai Nikki, Shuffle!, even Ushinawareta Mirai wo Motomete. And now, this show being another addition onto the reputable director's works, and I can finally understand why. Magatsu Wahrheit: Zuerst, translated: Ominous Truth: the First, based on the mobile game of the same name (but without the Zuerst). If you haveno idea what to understand of this mobage adaptation, I'd like to refer you to the official anime website and check out the "Specials" tab, because that's where the magic of the show is based upon. The TL;DR is this: KLab Games offered director Naoto Hosoda a free pass to make up his envisioned story of Magatsu Wahrheit, so that both the anime and the game have a similar, overarching story, albeit a timeskip that still honours and establishes the core settings. Not to mention that Hosoda himself is a fan of western live-action and episodic, espionage drama, so it really nails in the niche look of the show that is a rarity in anime form. Not to worry if you've been itching to play the game, because this show can be taken as a one-shot format of a prequel story.
The Golden Rule technique of "Show, Don't Tell" is an art in and of itself, to which the story and characters are related through sensory details and actions. Rather than just ham-fisting readers/viewers with exposition, it fosters with the immersion build-up, allowing them to “be in the room” with the characters. And that's how Magatsu Wahrheit: Zuerst sets the scene for this show, which takes place 20 years before the game's beginning. Two young characters, seemingly unrelated to one another: Innumael, just an ordinary blue-collar worker, and Leocadio, a soldier in the Wahrheit Imperial Army. Through "A Series of Unfortunate Events" that involves a highly-prized smuggled weapon, and tying both character's fate and destiny individually and together to fighting for what they believe is right with their lives, to the seemingly "random" characters of affiliations, the cat-and-mouse "Two sides of the coin" battle between organizations, cults and empires are truly a force to be reckoned with. Another Akudama Drive-type show, but in a historical military-esque setting that does the suspense well, and keeping up with the illusive foreshadowing of balanced pacing and exposition that defines both the anime and game as a single package. Props to Yuichiro Momose for co-supervising both the scriptwriting and screenplay with Hosoda.
The characters are really interesting as well: Every single one of them is kept being purposeful to the plot that accumulates overtime, tantamount to the endings of stories with solid foundations that actually use their resources to the full. At first, you're left wondering why both Innumael and Leocadio, as young chaps as they can be, seem like fools in a river full of piranhas that have people creep up to them for their actions. But as the story progresses, as we play the "Guessing Game" of theorized craftsmanship, it keeps the extremely tight pacing consistent, while fleshing out the execution of amounting pressures and tensions enough to keep you focused and invested. Every single decision and motivation made between all characters (as many and difficult as you can count and follow, besides Innumael and Leo) actually make sense that moves the story along, and doesn't make you feel like you've wasted an inch of time on this show. That to me can be hit-or-miss, but it really keeps you on your toes of the next plot pointer(s).
Some notable characters of a lightning round:
- Both veteran VAs Asutshi Abe and Yuuki Ono were really good fits for both Innumael and Leocadio.
- The one, the only veteran VA Kenjiro Tsuda, voicing Innumael's superior Captain Helman. The instaneously recognizable gangster voice dubbing a "grim reaper"-like character, that is the charismatic "scummy" voice we all know and love.
- Character designs don't go as nice and well-drawn as Schaake Gutheil. A red-haired, green-eyes girl, and a member of the mysterious organization Headkeeper, she excels at being both serious and a bad-ass.
The reason why I say notable is because this is newcomer Akiko Sugizono's debut anime doing character design all by herself. Having drawn only female characters, and it was a monumental task for her to draw and design male characters, and it was an insane challenge for her. Luckily, Naoto Hosoda also had dips in the formulation of the character designs, so it's a win-win on both sides of the story.
The music is also another fascinating viewpoint. Director Naoto Hosoda explains that the show's voice-acting was done during the COVID season, so most of the Seiyuu have to do their recording remotely, as opposed to the regular sound-mixing studio where the entire cast will gather and do their recording all at once. As a consequence of the pandemic, it took 3 times as long for the entire cast to record their lines, but thanks to the veteran cast's skills and professionalism, along with sound director Kisuke Koizumi, the VA job is handled graciously. Add in another veteran of sound composer Masaru Yokohara (Kanata no Astra, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso), and wow, what a star-studded production team that is a blessing to add to the show's grimacing atmosphere.
Maon Kurosaki attempting an opera-like OP, and H-el-ical// with another dark-edged ED, the OST does a pretty good job setting the mood and the theme of the series, matching its American counterparts of a classic visual opening and silhouetted black-screen ending with "historically classical" music.
The elephant in the room is undoubtedly the mediocre visuals and animation, but it's a no-brainer of a surprise coming from the now 5-year-old studio, Yokohama Animation Laboratory. They did some ONA co-productions in the past, but it's not until Miru Tights that they branched out doing original work. Even with the KLab Games' deal with Summer 2020's Lapis Re:Lights mixed-media franchise, these 2 shows showed potential for the studio to do low-budget animation that's a considerable pass. And everything about both shows can be applied here, just with a dark, cinematic tone (while sticking with KLab's dealership). In spite of the worsening animation (that's lucrative of a low-budget studio), the visuals do get the job done explicitly with art director Hirotsugu Kakoi at the helm, expressing the entire show in its own unique class.
Despite a small production team of a mix between old and new staff, an S-Grade of a character voice-dubbing cast, and masterfully-crafted soulful music of veteran directors, honestly, this show stands on a marvel of its own merit. It's more than just your typical "cash-cow" mobage anime adaptation, and I feel that this is one of the few pedigrees of game adaptations that truly gets the formula right: beckoning anime-onlys to play the game to discover what the advertised game is all about.
I'm just going to say this: even if you have no intentions to check out the mobile game, this is a hidden gem of a must-watch. As I mentioned in the beginning: this is classic Naoto Hosoda storytelling at its finest, and it's expected that not a lot of people will like it (as evident by MAL scores), but please, give this a try.
Ryan_Melvin15
This show is one of the best this season and my personal favourite. I love the world building, the setting, the character design and the suspenseful moments it delivers. No generic romance or fanservice to interrupt the flow of the story which is really well paced. I never had to check how many minutes are left, it's just so good. It's urban fantasy with no isekai elements or anything but great dark and engaging themes where you explore BOTH sides of these factions that seems to have understandable motivations as we explore their story further and further. There's good use of political intrigue, similar to ACCA13, the setting of FMAB and it keeps you wondering at times.
It's a show that does visual world building and story-telling, you can understand the character motivations without them monologuing half the time to you and it's what I really want from shows like this.
The characters of this series are really good and they all have their backstories and really distinctive personalities, even the smaller but very memorable characters like Schaake, Benjamin, Arnolt and Irma.
Ultimately, the series kind of does a dual main character viewpoint with more weight on Inumanuel than Leo but both have their roles to play. Inu is my favourite MC of the year, he has this cowardly streak about him but it's really satisfying to see him grow and even though he can be a bit of a coward, his heart is always in the right place and this is what makes him so compelling to watch. The emotions are always on point with him, he alone can carry this show.
Leocadio is also a very interesting character as he balances the morality of his actions against the logic of following an order, haunted by the tragedy on its past. And so many more other characters that we see their viewpoint from which makes the world so much more interesting, yet never feeling bloated at the same time.
Music is awesome by composer of Gundam IBO and YLIA, background art is freaking awesome and this show was just made for me. The animation does suffer near the 2nd half of the series but honestly, the story carries the series very well and I much prefer a really good story than stellar animation.
At the end, it's a pretty unique series, tackling serious dark urban fantasy themes with some supernatural elements, with an amazing and underrated cast of characters. This show deserves more love but at the end, give it a chance, it's a hidden gem for a reason.
phiraeth
When was the last time we’ve gotten a truly serious heart-pumping, blood-rushing survival anime where the characters are facing a combination of the environment surrounding them as well as opposing humans? And when was the last time that the tension was so high that you sat stock still with bated breath, unable to move because you were that enthralled by what was unfolding before you? One more….. and when was the last time that an anime, having all of this, also included a massive conspiracy that was well thought-out, related entirely to the environment and setting, and had villains operating it that were actually fearsomeand not just plot devices?
Honestly, I don’t think there’s ever been an anime like this. But there is one now, and it’s roared into the final season of 2020 like a pack of lions chasing after their kill. And honestly, that’s how it feels watching this show, as if you’re trying to escape from multiple things coming at you at one time and you gotta think of a way out fast, within milliseconds, and you need to constantly keep doing this, or else you’re fucking dead.
That anime is ZUERST, obviously, an experience so totally unique to anime that the most comparable narrative and atmosphere to it, without giving too much away about the plot, is in fact the 2013 action-adventure, award-winning game “The Last of Us”. While there may or may not be structural similarities between the two in overarching narrative (again, I don’t want to spoil any of the plot for ZUERST because it’s just soooo thrilling), they both perfectly manifest the feelings of dread and fear of not being able to necessarily help others because it’s hard enough to help yourself in the first place when you’re on a constant loop of running for your life.
Narratively, ZUERST is a perfect representation of “show, don’t tell”. There’s no exposition in this: it throws the audience into a familiar, yet unfamiliar world without explaining anything, instead leaving it up to them to discover what’s going on through context clues and interpreting what characters may indirectly imply about their situation. Further, everything develops organically, as if it’s actually unfolding in real time in front of the audience without any real “plot armor” or forced writing. There are multiple mysteries tied together among the expansive cast of characters which are not directly revealed to the audience, but rather can be both inferred and also predicted based on information the audience receives over time. Basically, foreshadowing plays a key role in keeping the audience engaged because there is enough to make accurate predictions about what is going to happen if paying attention, yet subtle enough that it doesn’t spoil any major plot points and will be often missed by the average viewer with not enough patience to keep a watchful eye out for the subtleties. One last thing – if you aren’t focused while watching, you will very easily miss key details that will leave you somewhat confused later in the story. I say this only because it speaks volumes to the importance of each and every scene of this story: there is NOTHING here that is filler or could be excluded without negatively impacting the plot and the flow.
If this all sounds interesting enough already, a short analysis of the cast of characters will pique your intrigue even further. For starters, the main cast of characters are all clearly defined. The protagonist of the show is an interesting case and receives massive amounts of development throughout the show. How he progresses through scene after scene is very identifiable. Of course, the only way this would be super noticeable is if he changes massively as a character over time – which he does, and all for the better. But even though it’s like finding a horse in a haystack – very easy – his progression is way more defined than “very insecure at the beginning, strong and confident at the end”. The nuances of his progression, once again, can be seen over time. Some anime has one or two major scenes that change a character, causing it to feel somewhat forced. In ZUERST, this is not the case. Everything changes him, and this is apparent.
The protagonist himself, while being the meat of the story, isn’t always the focus of every scene; rather, there are plenty of scenes that don’t include him. The group the protagonist finds himself joining forces with is also full of very defined characters with clear goals and objectives. They all come from relatively different backgrounds, but their shared common interests are what keeps them together and united for their purpose. Each character gets ample amount of screen time and are not just plot devices but actually relevant enough to the story to justify giving them the time of day.
The antagonistic group also receives heavy focus. This is vastly different from 99% of other anime where every episode the main villain receives one scene where he’s maniacally laughing or sniveling and twisting his hands like a dumbass. Nay, the antagonistic force in ZUERST has just as much characterization and definition as the protagonist and his group. The head honcho, voiced by rising star Kenjirou Tsuda, is clearly a force to be reckoned with and not overpoweringly so. He’s got a clear motive for his actions, makes his own decisions even if they don’t align with his side, and his background is explored enough that one might be able to justify him turning into the “monster” that he has become. Meanwhile, his comrades have their own reasons for doing what they do, and all the actions that all of the characters take in ZUERST just make sense. There’s no dumb bullshittery or stupid decisions made; just characters doing what is in their own self interests.
I could speak of the environment as a character, because it kinda is, and you’ll see why if you watch the show. But to go into that now would be spoilers, and it would be much more fun to find out what I mean if you just go watch yourself!
The other major thing I want to focus on here is the art and animation. While the animation isn’t always top notch, what struck me immediately from the first episode was how fluid and consistent it is. There are no shortcuts taken involving quick cuts to avoid animating a sword being swung; instead, there’s lots of sword swinging, gun shooting, and running that for 85% of the time, looks smooth and very accurate. If I had to compare the animation of ZUERST to the typical seasonal show, I’d say it looks better than 90% of all seasonal anime. It’s definitely consistent.
The art, however, is more than just consistent. It is INCREDIBLE. With this type of anime where the tension of trying to survive and uncover hidden truths is the key to making it feel right, the atmosphere is crucial towards relaying that tension. The shots in this anime do the wonderful story absolute justice. They are just so detailed, are extremely visually appealing, and really are the driving force behind the cohesive, immersive experience. They pull you into the world and keep you there, alongside the characters, as if you are right next to them!
The most praiseworthy aspect of the art in ZUERST is by FAR AND AWAY the facial expressions of the characters. Never in my life have I ever seen a such diverse arsenal of facial expressions. Expressions are the key to making characters come alive, and never before have I felt such intense emotions from characters in an anime. When facial expressions cause your blood to run cold and chills to run up and down your entire body, you KNOW a show has succeeded at making you feel immersed and care about the characters.
There’s so much more I could go into about this show, even without diving into spoiler territory, but I’ve already gone on for long enough, so I’ll leave off with one last thing:
The soundtrack to this anime is glorious. That is all. If you love amazing soundtracks, watch this if only for that reason.
There are plenty of reasons to love ZUERST. I legitimately couldn’t find a single reason to dislike it, and I was immersed enough to not even notice any mishaps or issues with the plot whatsoever. The animation and art by a low-budget studio for some reason blow 90% of other seasonal shows out of the water, even if the animation did decline over the span of the show.
Director Naoto Hosoda has finally succeeded in creating a near masterpiece anime, and it is evident that his impact on the anime as a whole – the direction altogether being fantastic – was a huge reason. The scene composition, the framing, the shots, the seamless transitions: everything was just incredibly well-crafted.
It is without any regrets whatsoever that I can say clearly: ZUERST is the best anime of 2020.
pluvia33
To put this out front, I just finished this series after mostly watching it week-to-week and it largely left me with a feeling of emptiness. The few reviews that I tend to write are pretty well planned out if nothing else, but this time around I'm going to just write this as I go to use it as a way to work through my feelings on what I just watched. So, yeah.... To that end, I'll still keep my usual category breakout format and get right into it: -----Story - 3 out of 10----- Magatsu Wahrheit is an anime based on a mobile game which takes placein magitech setting, fusing industrial age modern esthetics with classic sword and sorcery fantasy elements mixed in. The main plot centers on how a normal truck driver gets mixed up in a resistance organization while a bunch of political intrigue concerning a magical disease and experimentation goes on in the background. To its credit, I felt that the story structure of the series went really well at first! They drop you into an interesting situation without spoon feeding you a bunch of backstory. Things for the most part naturally come to light and seem pretty interesting. But then, the series just kind of loses focus. They're setting up a bunch of "stuff" and I'm watching wondering if any of it is going to actually go anywhere. There are a few sparse bright spots, like a subplot that takes place with a small village in the forest that I thought was genuinely interesting and touching. But it mostly just meanders along until I absolutely lose all interest in the story. And then finally, they committed the dreadful sin of a grand exposition dump with took up the entire first half of episode 10, betraying the previous more natural storytelling structure. It was so frustratingly bad that I would have been pulling at my hair if it wasn't for the fact that I shave my head. Then the ending came.... Now, I don't really mind a non-conclusive ending, but the final "and the story continues...." crap that they pulled at the end of this left me wondering what the point was in all of this?? I mean, I assume the point was to advertise the mobile game, but still. Could they not have done better? It felt like this was originally supposed to be a 24 episode series, but it wasn't doing all that well so they decided to make it half as long. I don't know. Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe this story will appeal to an audience that is more into political intrigue than I am, but man, I just thought the story was an utter mess.
-----Art - 4 out of 10-----
If I had to describe the art and animation of this series in one word, it'd be "inconsistent". Yes, having some inconsistencies in the production for a weekly TV anime is to be expected, especially when also dealing with COVID-19 leading up to and during its production. But this is some pretty bad stuff. First thing is the hilariously bad opening credits "animation". The first few episodes had a temp-opening which was little more than a Windows 95 screensaver with some text over it. Then, they eventually got a "finished" OP together which was barely better, mostly consisting of the series' central artifact floating around with silhouette action animation mostly consisting of scenes from the show itself. Oh, and then the ending credits didn't even bother with trying to do anything as it was just text scroll on a black screen. Anyway, so what about the look of the series proper? Well, there were some actual good points to this as the animation of the big action sequence in the first episode looked pretty cool! And the look of the series was unique and interesting enough overall; not your typical fantasy look for the most part so it can act as a bit of a breath of fresh air. But then, some of the character designs just look weird and there is a plethora of off-model faces that began to make me laugh constantly at one point. Again, I don't know how fair this criticism is when this kind of thing isn't particularly rare in anime, plus dealing with COVID could have been a factor, but man this largely sucked.
-----Sound - 6 out of 10-----
The highest score I'm giving goes to Sound! And it's just an "it's alright" 6-score in the end. I felt that a good amount of the music was really nice. I was especially a fan of this one particular recurring little ditty that was in damn near every episode. And the voice acting overall wasn't bad, but wasn't particularly memorable either. Honestly, this might have gotten a better score if there was more music, but they did re-use a LOT of stuff. But hey, overall, not bad.
-----Characters - 5 out of 10-----
One of my biggest personal things in fiction is that I can still enjoy a series with a weak story as long as I have some nice characters to latch onto. Unfortunately, this is largely a plot-focused story so there is only so much that good characters can do. And sadly, when it comes to the characters in Magatsu Wahrheit, as a whole they were mediocre at best. I did find our lead Innumael to be enjoyable/interesting for the most part, although he did legitimately get annoying at times. Spunky little Irma was probably my second favorite character in the series, but she wasn't in it enough to make much of an impact. Aside from that, the characters didn't do much for me. I thought the series especially had a major villain problem. One of the best antagonists was a psychotics military commander, but he was pretty much just generic pure evil dude with little real motivation and once he was out of the picture there wasn't much to fill the void since all of the other bad stuff was being worked "from the shadows" or whatnot.
-----Enjoyment - 4 out of 10-----
So how was my personal enjoyment of this series? Well, that's kind of what I'm trying to figure out. I ended up giving this series a personal score of a "4", something that I don't do very often with my broad tastes and largely forgiving critiques of entertainment. But with how empty and pointless the whole experience of watching this felt, it definitely fit the "Bad" label that a "4" holds in the "Your Score" dropdown on MAL. While I was enjoying myself and interested in the series for the first few episodes, I then began to enjoy it less and less until it became a legitimate chore to sit through around the 8th episode. But at that point, I was in it for the long haul and just watching it once a week wasn't PURE torture or anything. But man, in the end I just couldn't grasp what the point of this all was. Innumael kind of seemed to have grown throughout the series, but also mostly felt the same. The main promo image used on Funimation's page for this series shows a 2-halves look at Innumael and Leocadio, one half of them as they look at the beginning of the series and the other showing more badass versions of them sometime in the future. But in the scope of the anime, these fully badass versions are never seen, with the only part that's truly realized being the cut across Leo's face. Again, it feels like this was originally meant to be a 24 episode series that got cut short, or you're just expected to move from this to the mobile game. Who knows. But whatever the reasoning is, I felt fully unsatisfied with this series in every way and it hurts all the more because of its earlier potential.
-----Overall - 5 out of 10 (Conclusion)-----
In the end, I'm going to go ahead and bump my overall review score for this series up one point from my personal enjoyment score. I admit that a major reason for that is me being influenced by the fact that prior to me writing this review, the lowest review score given was a "6" and the literal majority of reviews posted are 9s or better. I MUST be missing something, right? Did I just "not get" this series? Again, I'm generally rather kind with my critique of anime as I have pretty broad tastes. Usually, if I don't like something that others do, I can recognize it largely as a matter of personal taste. And granted, the average score for this series is not great (6.60 at the time of writing), so maybe it's mostly just people who enjoyed the series that are inspired enough to review it, while those who didn't like it simply didn't care enough to write a review? I don't know. I guess there might be something here to enjoy if magitech and political intrigue are things you're REALLY into. But for me, that just wasn't enough to counteract the inconsistent production, incomplete and uninteresting story, and overall meh characters. And with that, I guess this came out just about as extensive as most of my other reviews. Well, hope this was somehow helpful for someone to read! It was at least a nice way for me to gather my thoughts on this series.
PixelB
Now, I know what you're thinking: a game adaption! When the hell are those ever good? They're soulless cash grabs shamelessly promoting a crappy mobile game that you never heard of. However! There are exceptions to this rule. I have discovered this show, along with Bahamut Genesis Season 1 (Let's not talk about season 2), both of which are great game adaptions, surprising us all. It sure surprised me. I'll be honest, I've never heard of this game before, nor do I ever plan on playing it, but the anime is actually pretty good. Magatsu Wahrheit: Zuerst has a comically amazing setup and story for agame adaption. In fact, it's probably one of the best story lines I've seen in a while. Truly, the pacing and story arcs that chain into one another is extremely well done for a 12 episode series. It manages to weave in a complex mysterious political plot at hand in an empire.
Innamuel, one of our main characters gets very naturally caught up in the development of this political plot, and he and the people he meet all are trying to figure out the big picture.
What this show does is focus a lot on the story, and less on the characters. This is fine, if the story is well made, which it definitely is. The introductory arc that lets you understand Immanuel's situation and personality is pretty good, and the way they introduce the mysterious of the story and how it eventually makes everyone reach the conclusion is definitely one of the best I've seen. Honestly, the plot is quite simple: it's just the way that the characters have to get this information and get out of bad situations that is hard.
This story doesn't deal with episodic arcs. Every single episode is leading to the culmination conclusion, and you get to see visible progress in the investigation and plot at hand. It's delicately made, and brilliantly paced. No screen time is wasted, and every scene is important for either the plot, or necessary character development. It's bold, and it works. There's a lot of stuff that gets crammed into a 12 episode series, and the fact that this ambitious act actually works deserves my praise. The story just flows super naturally, it doesn't seem like there's any forced plot at hand, and there's not much plot armor. Of course, our main characters get out of sticky situations a few times, but it's in the realm of possibility, and it's not frequently done.
Of course, the story is good, but what about characters? Honestly, for how little focus there is on character development for all but Immanuel and Leo, it's good. I don't think there's any tropes, and character design is quite good. There's a decent pool of characters that contribute to the story, but nothing too much, and as such, you don't see random people progressing the plot very frequently. Of course, there are arbitrary characters that are introduced to accelerate the plot, but for the most part, the characters that are involved in the story are there to stay, and the chemistry among those characters are good for how little time there is to invest in them. Immanuel is clearly the greatest character of the story: there's a lot of focus on characterizing and developing his personality and motivations. I think his adapting to the situation at hand and maturing is well done, but his motivations are kind of iffy. He does put his life on the line for people he barely knows. Leo's character is rarely explored, but he does have a maturing arc of his own, and it's not that bad. Basically, a bread and butter JP protagonist: loves fighting the weak and has a naïve sense of justice. The others are fine, just not too explored, but the story gives them enough personality for me to like them.
Now, the worst part: the worldbuilding. It just doesn't exist. Theres actually NOTHING explained about the world. It seems like technology from the industrial revolution is constantly being used in the series, but architecture is straight from medieval Europe. Magic is used, but infrequently and the magic system is never explained. It seems like most poeple can't use magic, and it's not that strong compared to heavy artillery weapons. But then, there's magic that's used at the conclusion of the series that's absolutely OP. Again, no idea. Lots of things that I would liked to have been explained to me get glanced over, like the coldfire phenomenon or some other things, but honestly, it had to be done, since if there was any world building, the already crammed plot would overflow and the story would be rushed. I'm glad that the story was given the attention that it needed for succcess.
Art is decent, some backgrounds are nice, but fighting scenes are all but mediocre. At least CGI isn't really used, but overall, lackluster animation.
senhirose
Simply kept; This anime was one with great potential. The animation was well done, and it rarely got iffy. Storyline and plot was great, or had very few flaws to speak of. The characters were lovable, except for that one Captain (You know who I'm talking about Haha). The world building was really good, you're thrown into a fantasy/military/magic mix, but you see no overpowered characters. It's just about one more person in this ever expanding world, making it great for immersion. The key takeaway though, will be the fact that the story ends just as it gets to the climax. You're left wanting to see more, butyou never will find out the mysteries and action that was about to unfold.
Plus, the game that this animation was made after was shut down during 2022.
So there is really no reason to expect a continuation or season 2.
I'll give it a 10/10 for what it could've been.
TheHuntForViki
This anime is one of my most favorite this season. I gave 10 out of 10 on all 6 criteria cause this anime is something that would make your heart pump and be curious about the stories and not just about one particular character. The development of each character is outstanding and the story is something that I highly enjoy. As for the Art, this kind of animation is something that is new to my eyes, that is the first reason why I decided to watch it and when I started I just can't stop. The music is also something that is new for me, most animethese past years have been on the same genre, and hearing this different music is something that I truly enjoyed, it made me feel that "AOT" feeling I had when I heard the first OST. It's refreshing. And as a music enthusiast, music has a big factor for me when I am deciding when an anime is a Masterpiece or Great.
I am hoping for a season 2, I haven't researched about the future plans for MWZ but I hope there is a season 2 cause this anime is gonna hunt me for the rest of my life if I didn't get a chance to know how their different journeys will collide and end.
Reviewholic
I am baffled MWZ sits on 6.5. That means horrible for MAL standards. MWZ is far from horrible! MWZ started off bad. The first episode gets into action and showcased combat involving swords, guns and magic. Audience expected more explosion and special effects, they always do, but the mages just use their staves/rods as plasma guns and the actual gunners are just storm-trooping each other. Swordfights are okay. The first action sequence was not bad and involved a lot of combatants. Unfortunately, there were two weird cuts that gave off the impression that MWZ is one of those cheap promo anime for video games. First weirdcut is when a melee soldier attacked the viewers and slashed a few times, then he just stops for a second to stare into your soul, then nothing ensues.
Second weird cut is when Conrad holds a handgun almost as long as a rifle then shoots a few times, screen cuts to Schaake just chilling beside the car, then she takes a few steps to the left quietly, only to stand and shoot back. I think they forgot to add gun impacts to show that Schaake is dodging Conrad's bullets.
These two mishaps only happened in the first episode, which is a crucial episode to impress viewers, and perhaps because of those mishaps, a lot of them were turned away.
It is a shame. There are three or more fight scenes after that, and they did not have the same blunder as the first. MWZ's action sequence feels grounded as it involves all of the combatants. None of these characters are overpowered and exceptionally good at fighting. They always struggle in fights, giving a sense of dread. The BGM also builds up tension perfectly without too much volume.
Next is character. Good balanced characters. We start off with two main characters, Leocadio the handsome boy with the cool hairstyle, and Innumael the wimpy boy with that yee-yee ass haircut. Guess who gets more screen time? Our real main character is Innumael because his side of the story has more freedom and action. Due to Innumael's wimpy character, he doesn't lead the show. He is just caught in the motions and going along with it. Still, Innumael is quite the talkative person and interacts with the side characters, bringing out more of their voices and personalities. Eventually, Innumael grew on me and the other characters.
Leocadio's early role is the cliche military rookie learning the darkness of military, so he was restricted and didn't get much spotlight until later episodes.
MWZ manages to introduce a huge amount of characters yet able to make them all memorable and significant. That is a remarkable feat.
Last on the list is art and sound.
Art is so-so, not much to say. Various settings is traveled in this anime so the background art doesn't getting boring, but it is still oversimplified. Animation is okay. The action sequences are not that flashy. Art melts sometimes.
Sound is hard to judge. I'm pretty sure the anime has a huge variety of soundtracks for almost every kind of atmosphere, but they're all too low volume and too ambient to be memorable. The BGM during fight scenes are good. Sound effects are okay and reasonably loud in fights. Voice acting is well done, a lot of veteran voice actors.
Ah, what a commercial failure. MWZ might garner more fans if they just sexualize the soul out of Schaake to bait sad virgins like me. There was a scene where Schaake was nailed down by Seitz and the camera angled perfectly to show more boobs, yet her boobs wasn't really drawn that erotically and it ended quickly. To make it worse, because Innumael has that yee-yee ass haircut, he can't get bitches on his dick. So romance route with Schaake is closed. Fanservice is dead.
It would also be cool if the combatants can do some sort of breathing style and have glowing special effects around them, then make mages shoot epileptic seizures.
Also, what's with the OP? Fucking birdy opera like it's the Food Chain episode of Adventure Times. C'mon man we wanna listen to LiSA singing the same song over and over again! ED is lit though.
MWZ's attempt on being a serious show without all those shameless anime tropes is applaudable and entertaining, but it lead to its failure. It is a shame. A true shame.
I forgot to talk about the story. The story is excellent, no spoiler? Just Episode 10 spouts a bit too much information to take in. There's no comedy btw. MWZ is a dull ride. The characters are all sad and serious most of the time(except Irma) and although Innumael jokes around occasionally, he isn't that funny. Comedy has been misused in dark anime as a tool to lighten up the mood and keep the audience going. Even Berserk has comedy and nude ladies to keep readers excited.
MWZ for whatever reason... refused to sell hot anime girls, refused to do flashy action, refused to hire LiSA to sing another Gurenge and refused to do comedy.
Now I am not so baffled anymore. MWZ sits rightfully on 6.5 because anime is a mistake.
Anime2947
I think this anime has flown under the radar for two long, and it's pretty undeserved. A well animated and put together actions story with pretty good fights, a plot that has an actual resolution in this season,(Minus a small sequel hook), and a likable MC. For any fan of fantasy actions shows with a fast pace, this is a great watch. If that's not your cup of tea, maybe you won't love it, but for anyone the production quality is visible and pretty impressive. I would say this anime does everything it tries pretty well, with no real flaws. However, it's not really outstanding atanything.
Kage_Okami
Having read all the 8's, 9's and such I was spurred into action by my sense of justice...and to let readers see a different opinion other than the fanatics of the series. Firstly if you looking for a good action filled anime, this ain't it. Sorry sunshine but this one is tons of dialogue and politics. But hey, believe it or not, that's not the worst part of this horrible adaptation. See, they need to leave these no name game adaptations where they belong, nowhere. But I digress, that's just a little rant of mine. Putting it bluntly so's that I don't bore you to death,the worst part of this anime is the characters, and not all the characters, just a the lead. And not BOTH leads, just the little pansy who suddenly becomes a hero. Because yeah, we haven't seen that character type before.
Other than that, I can overlook the character designs, the generic facial animations and the text book personality traits as seen in this title.
Overall, it's a huge skip unless you like cookie, then enjoy this baked treat courtesy of the a-typical cookie cutter that seems to be Japanese game animation adaptations.
Balsamina
This show is like a deviantArt entry that is well colored in, all the darks and lights are in, but anyone trained to draw or to evaluate art can see that the anatomy and line art is sloppy and the colors compliment each other poorly. On one hand at least this isn't an isekai... On this other, this show suffers from many problems... Art: 7 The occasional low budget character drawing but not that bad its solid. Mostly its the backgrounds that are good though. Sound: 7They tried. It's nothing catchy but nothing earsplitting.
Character: 6
This is where they have kind of bit off more than they can chew. There is a relatively large cast for a 12 episode series. Most of the characters I can't remember their names after seeing them. There are supposed to be two main characters mainly, but one of them is effectively a cardboard and the other one is just a coward. Of the 2 (3) main characters, between 1D to 4D, they are about 3D-3.5D. Side characters are like, 2D-2.5D. They are there as just a drawing that moves, does things, but it barely has a personality. Overall, this area is barely passable. I do understand it is 12 episodes.
Story: 6
While the characterization is largely inept, this bit had potential. Especially after all the setting and conspiracies are revealed, this really could have been done better.
First off, we have a generic Deutsch-because-it-sounds-cool empire. Okay... but could we elaborate more on this? What's the culture like? aside from copying pre-WW2 Prussia and adding magic.
Next, we have the ethics spoilers that got revealed mid series. This was a great chance to explore a philosophical/ethical theme... but... no. Just... bland game plot of good guy, bad guy, and big government plot. Best part is, this was left hanging.
Enjoyment: 6
I wanted to enjoy this...but... every time I thought something good was going to happen, something else happens to make me cringe instead...
Overall: 6 (I'm being somewhat generous here)
