The kingdom of Metallicana is under attack from the Four Lords of Havoc. This party of villains—ninja master Gara, deadly thunder empress Nei Arshes, cold and calculating Kall-Su, and enigmatic dark priest Abigail—will stop at nothing to get what they want, even if it leaves utter destruction in their wake.
High Priest Geo is desperate to help save the kingdom and its people. He unleashes the mighty wizard Dark Schneider, a man who used to be an ally of the villains. Unfortunately, Dark Schneider has his own plans in mind. Will he stop the Four Lords of Havoc or join them in their conquest of the world?
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
moozooh
Bastard!! is, for the most part, so hilariously, inexcusably bad that it's actually good; essentially a parody on itself. Or rather, it depends entirely on your sense of humor! Let's compile a brief checklist of the bad. We have: * a cliche-ridden story; * a nonsensical amount of injuries (and blood loss) casually sustained by characters; * pathetic sound effects; * character design that is both bad AND forgettable (wow!); * ridiculous screenplay and over-the-top voice acting; * vomit-inducing fan service and ecchi humor; * overpowered fighters and magicians beating the crap out of each other with named trump-card techniques; * the essence of MANLINESS furiously emanating from most of the male cast withnot a single female around who wouldn't be in heat over this;
* ripping off the naming of characters/locations/abilities after rock/metal music bands after JoJo had already done it.
If you're easily entertained by any of the above, chances are you'll like it and perhaps even regard it as one of the most entertaining OVAs ever. It plays all of these tropes completely straight, not ashamed of itself in any measure, and this self-indulgent sincerity is what makes it so fun. Those with less-developed sense of humor will rather think otherwise. Really, if you fail to be amused by Bastard!!, you most likely won't enjoy it in any other way. It's still an outstanding piece of crap from any serious standpoint, and don't blame me for not warning you.
And in conclusion, just to prove how delightfully bad it is to those who still aren't convinced, here's my favorite quote from episode 2:
Yoko: What are you going to do?
(green slime starts pouring from walls)
Gara: That's right, it's slime. It will dissolve your clothes.
I dare you to come up with a better response. I double-dog-dare you, highbrow MAL readers.
lazy-san
I love this anime because it was so bad that it was funny. It played on a lot of the usual cliches in a story and made fun of itself. I honestly thought that at some parts their lines were so obviously bad it was really funny. I also love how this anime points out that the hansom guy always wins. It kept me laughing. I'd recommend this for a laugh and something to watch on your off time since it's short.
Notorious_Jay
Our story begins in a far future where the world has been through an apocalypse that spawned all sorts of strange and evil creatures, leaving human beings in a precarious position. Things have gone back to a feudal era where sorcery, sword fighting, and armor plating rule the day. Four warlords of chaos get together to break the seals that hold back a creature of ultimate darkness, and as the viewer knows, this can't be good. At the same time...Yoko is best friends with Rushe, a little boy who follows her everywhere. Little does she know that buried deep within Rushe is a secret weapon,the wizard known as Dark Schneider. When the warlords' plans come to the attention of the free world, there's a realization that Dark Schneider is the only hope of defeating the threat.
There's only one problem. Dark Schneider is a freak.
Nevertheless, when your kingdom is under fire from the most powerful magic known to man, you resurrect whomever you can. With Yoko's kiss, Rushe becomes the legendary Dark Schneider. Now he's not really happy about the arrangement, since he was essentially imprisoned for a very long time. Eventually, he figures, why not? He'd love to prove that he's still the most powerful being on Earth, and if that takes defeating some of his old comrades in arms, so be it. As long as he can get his groove on, he's happy...but is a rusty white-haired jerk of a warlock going to be able to handle the job?
Bastard! really is a fun show, at least through its first half. Things move quickly and the artwork is great in the first two episodes. The humor is fresh and invigorating, too. If nothing else, when things get a little tired past this point, that start keeps you going. Now the third episode shows a little bit of problems, primarily because the artistic style takes a big left turn. A couple of characters are hard to identify at first because of the changes! But that's something that can be dealt with.
However, the second half gets a little snoozeworthy. Here's where Dark Schneider takes on his foes in humongous battles. Now I'm all for great melees, myself, but these just get old quickly. There's just not enough excitement to them and no sense of real danger--if a hero cannot lose, then a half hour of violence is pretty worthless. Now there is a surprise at the end of the fifth episode that some might find shocking, but it is negated in the sixth episode. So, for the last 90 minutes, we get a little antsy, particularly because the humor and life starts to slowly drain out like the water in a tub where the drain cap doesn't quite fit. It's not terrible, but unfortunate.
There's also a very real problem in that much of the show's humor is based around something that didn't get completely translated. In the original version, the various kingdoms, spells, etc. were all named after different 80s metal and hair bands. Because of copyright issues, a lot of these jokes didn't make it into the official US release. My best recommendation is to watch with the Japanese language track where at least the names are pronounced correctly and you can get in on the jokes. I mean, the funniest parts of the show are things like the "Stryper defense"!
So what's my position on this show? If you like violent, humorous fantasy shows with long battle sequences, this is something to run out and get as soon as possible. If your tastes are a bit more refined, then this is a questionable pick. I wish that the show had stayed on the funny, likable, yet action-packed track it set for itself in the beginning. It's not bad, but it starts off better than it finishes.
Raja
if you enjoy a good amount of action with some nudity this show is difinetely worth watching the plot is pretty cliche so if you are looking for an anime with a deep storyline, you might wanna look elsewhere this was made in 1993 so if you are looking for shiny glossy characters, ill suggest you guys look elsewhere but all in all i found this anime to be enjoyable and i would recommend it if you are looking for a good action anime to watch too bad it ends in 6 episodes i would have prefered if it continued
SgtSalamander
Oh, what shall I say about Bastard!! It's the kind of anime you'd furtively get from your local video rental place's anime section back when it was the weirdest thing you could be into. Bastard!! is the kind of anime you'd find painted on the side of a van, next to Conan the Barbarian. In short, Bastard!! is violent, horny, and 90s as hell, and not once does it pull back or apologize for it. It leans so heavily into the trope that it almost borders on parody, with just enough sincerity to not quite cross the line. There's blood,there's titties, and there's Dark Schneider, the badmouthing overpowered badass that can never seem to just stay dead. It's also enveloped in an array of bizarre production decisions that lend the whole thing a sense of hallucinatory absurdity. For example, the intro sequence is given by an English-speaking narrator in both the sub and the dub, but the narrator for the sub positively sucks, while the narrator for the dub is legitimately professional, providing the perfect tone for the show. Furthermore, the English dub has Daran Norris as the voice of Dark Schneider, who is best known for his part as Cosmo in the Fairly Odd Parents, making the dub a surreal experience to say the least. But, my favorite part about all of this is, ironically, how damn funny the whole thing ended up being. I have no clue if this was intentional or unintentional, but Bastard!! ranks among the greats for comedy. With all this in mind I have to start somewhere, so I'll start with the story. Taking place in a dark fantasy post-apocalyptic future filled with magic and monsters, Dark Schneider is awakened by a desperate mankind to prevent evil sorcerers from awakening the god of destruction. Overall, the setup is pretty simple and fairly episodic, with Dark Schneider running into some powerful foe, making snarky quips and irreverent insults at them as the carnage ensues, peppered with nudity throughout. It's a fun, if simple formula. I wouldn't say it's groundbreaking, or even particularly notable, but the worldbuilding provides enough of a setting for the story to take place, however thin and unexplained, which is straightforward and avoids any confusion.
The art is very strong, with intricately detailed backgrounds characteristic of the time, making the world feel tangible and alive when paired with a strong visual style that embodies all the best things that 90s dark fantasy anime had to offer. This still stands even as it is wildly inconsistent in terms of its internal theming, filled to the brim with knights, ninjas, castles and slime all crowded in shoulder to shoulder within the world of Bastard!! The character designs especially bolster this anime, being each in their own right distinct and strikingly memorable, with a firm grasp on the human figure, as well as inhuman figures. The one failing of the art is the occasional choppiness of the animation itself, which doesn't flow as smoothly as it should every now and then. Given this, it must be said that the majority of the time, it does indeed flow, sometimes impressively, especially when it comes to many of the earlier fight scenes.
Next, the sound is the strongest aspect of the anime, not for the soaring, adventurous score, not for the sounds of life which meet all standards of quality for the time, but for this anime's English dub, which I consider legendary. The dub for Bastard!! makes this not only one of the few anime for which I prefer the dub, but one of the even fewer for which I consider the dub essential. The comedic timing is flawless, the banter is witty, and the dialogue as delivered by Norris as the voice of Dark Schneider is snarky, original, and utterly hilarious. Put simply, I must reiterate in the strongest possible terms that the English dub of Bastard!! takes the whole show to the next level, and is the entire reason I have rated it a 7 instead of a 6. Without the dub, I'd say this was a unique but ultimately forgettable 90s OVA, but it has the dub, and it is impossible to forget.
The characters are by and large just as developed as they need to be, no more no less, with the strongest of them being Dark Schneider and Gara. Dark Schneider is in the lead by a mile because he is the anchor of the show, and it is his dub that elevates the entire anime. Even besides that, he is simply a funny, irreverent main character who lives up to his namesake- Bastard. Gara is a pretty distant second, but still takes his spot as a notable character for his over-the-top warrior spirit and a glimmer of that same chaotic irreverence we see in our unshakable protagonist, especially in the final two episodes. Overall, Bastard!! is an over-the-top OVA with a strong sense of identity apart from other similar anime of the same era, harboring an unexpected payload of comedy gold that cements its place in anime history.
Starfleeting
I read reviews for this show before watching it, finding the premise intriguing but still unsure about it. However, since it was only six episodes wrong, I thought why not give it a watch. And yeah there are definitely times this anime is bad. The ecchi type humor also doesn't do it many favors. However, I still enjoyed it. Some of the humor made me chuckle because it was that ridiculous and the voicework wasn't that bad in those moments (I especially liked recognizing some familiar voices in the cast). It was a genuinely interesting premise that I honestly think would benefit from anew, longer anime for it. But until then, I'm considering giving the manga a read since the anime as it is is incomplete.
JuneNephthys
Bastard!!, or Basutādo!! Ankoku no Hakaishin, has been localized as either ‘Bastard: Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy’ or ‘Bastard: ‘The Destructive God of Darkness.’ Despite Dark Schneider being the definitive example of a hyper-masculinized, power fantasy—the series is a satirical deconstruction of this archetypal, over-powered, fantasy character. *Parodical in its nature (similar, in the display of overt masculinity, to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure), Bastard!! is a balls-out, seinen epic that is unabashed about gratuitous violence and the blatant sexualization of its characters. *In the redrawn volumes of the Bastard!! manga, Kazushi Hagiwara adds Haruhi Suzumiya and Mikura Asahina from Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu, as well as Rin Tōsakaand Rider from Fate/stay night, to Dark Schneider’s harem.
—Story/Characters
The story begins when the Kingdom of Metallicana is attacked by the Four Lords of Havoc; the high priest of the kingdom then asks his daughter, Tia Nōto Yōko, to give her *first kiss to a younger boy, Luche Renren, because he is the vessel for an indomitable being, known as Dark Schneider.
*The summoning of Dark Schneider requires a kiss from a virgin.
The rest of story in the OVA is comprised of (1) enemies of the Kingdom of Metallicana or (2) enemies that have a bone to pick with Dark Schneider. The relationship between *Darche and Yōko is slapstick, starting out with him creeping on her and her acting like a defiant prude to him—the power dynamic between the two of them is similar to Inuyasha and Kagome Higurashi from Sengoku Otogizōshi Inuyasha, Darche and Inuyasha could easily over-power their female counterparts but, instead, are constantly belittled by them. The other heroines starkly contrast Yōko’s defiance because characters, such as Princess Sheila and Arshes Nei, are completely infatuated with the Dionysian being named Dark Schneider. Many of the character development in the show is built around Darche being an unstoppable force of nature.
*Darche is Dark Schneider’s nickname.
Characters, like Ninja Master Gara, are typically seen as anti-heroes, but not as insufferable as the supposed hero, Dark Schneider—given his promiscuity and tendency to cause collateral damage. Unlike Kei and Yuri’s massive amounts of debt in Dirty Pair, the most Dark Schneider has to pay back is a *¥500 coin that he promises to return to Yōko in OVA 5–6.
*Bastard!! has a medieval, fantasy setting but takes place in a futuristic, post-apocalypse world, like Fist of the North Star, so there are remnants of modern-day society that exist within their universe.
To add to the absurdity of the series, Bastard!! has a couple of scenes in the OVA, where the characters COMPLETELY break the fourth wall to clarify to the viewers that they know they are characters; it’s like watching a stage play. A note-worthy example of this is in OVA 5, when Gara is fighting a cyclops and states that he can’t just kill an enemy off-screen, then looking at the camera, says, ‘Watch this!’ Dark Schneider has a meta monologue in OVA 4, when he rants, ‘*Diamon[d], you bloodless fool, you forgot the most important rule of combat! You’re the ugly, macho bad guy! Everyone knows that the macho bad guy can’t win, especially when he’s fighting the exceptionally handsome and popular main character!’
*The English script changed the names to avoid a lawsuit from the musicians, but the villain mentioned above is named King Diamond—named after the Danish metal singer.
The last episode of the OVA stops the story abruptly, the anime was originally intended to have eight episodes but was reduced to six. Originally, it was supposed to finish up the arc with a battle between Dark Schneider and Kall-Su, but instead concludes with Dark Schneider defeating Abigail.
—Technical
The animation and the character designs look really clean, for an OVA from the ‘90s. The director, Katsuhito Akiyama, is famous for directing Bubblegum Crisis, Gall Force, El-Hazard, and Macross: Do You Remember Love? With that résumé, it’s no surprise that the Bastard!! OVA is beautiful.
With the visuals, I was particularly stricken by the realism in the facial expressions. There would be an intense action scenes and then the camera would zoom in on the face, and woah, the scene was instantly more immersive than before! The visceral scenes, such as Gara impaling himself through the stomach or Dark Schneider ripping his own heart out, were framed impeccably as well.
I was impressed with the -Pioneer- English dub for Bastard!! Steve Blum as Gara, Daran Norris as Dark Schneider, Wendee Lee as Tia Nōto Yōko, and Mary Elizabeth Glynn as Arches Nei were particularly pleasing performances. It sounded as though they enjoyed playing their respective roles; I’m sure, for a voice actor, the character of Dark Schneider would be a blast! Arches Nei’s Japanese voice was good, too; her seiyū, Rei Sakuma, was Peorth from Aa! Megami-sama!
NOTE: Gara’s seiyū, Tesshō Genda, is famous for voicing characters, such as: Optimus Prime in Transformers, Rei from Urusei Yatsura, Duke Tōgō from Golgo 13, Raou from Fist of the North Star, and many more!
—Theory
When I first began to look into Bastard!!—there were glaring similarities between it and Berserk. Initially, I thought that *Kentarō Miura must have grifted a lot from Bastard!!, but upon deeper inspection, I have a theory that Kentarō Miura might be one of Kazushi Hagiwara’s pseudonyms. Here are a few comparisons with their bodies of work, as well as facts about their personal lives:
*There have already been a lot of parallels between Berserk and Guin Saga, its predecessor, so it wouldn’t have shocked me.
-Similarities Between the Artists-
•Both titular series began in 1988: Berserk: Prototype and Bastard!!
•Both series have have seven word titles that begin with a ‘B,’ as well as alarmingly similar stories, designs, and characters.
•Both have similar beginnings: Both began as high school students and didn’t progress into a collegiate program, although Hagiwara is noted to have graduated from *Tokyo Designer Gakuen College.
*Essentially, a technical program.
•Both Berserk and Bastard have had periods of an extended hiatus throughout their publication.
•The only major differentiation are their names and birth dates: Kentarō Miura was born on July, 11th (1966) and Kazushi Hagiwara was born on April 4th (1963). Three years apart. If you add up the numbers in their birth dates, you get Kentarō Miura (93) and Kazushi Hagiwara (90), which is suspiciously three digits apart despite their birthdays being on different months and days. I think that Kentarō Miura is a cleverly created noms de guerre, used to differentiate Hagiwara from his past with schlock comedy and hentai.
-Similarities with Stories and Characters-
Warning: There will be spoilers for Berserk in the segment! You have been warned!
•Berserk’s Guts and Casca/Bastard!!’s Gara and Arches Nei: Gara and Guts look exactly alike, and Arches Nei looks like a long-haired, elf version of Casca. Much like how Griffith and Casca had a close relationship, prior to meeting Guts—Dark Schneider and Arches Nei had a close relationship before meeting Gara. Dark Schneider even adopts Arches, like Griffith did, after he rescued Casca, who was sold into slavery. Arches Nei sees Darche as her savior because she was ostracized from the elf tribe that she was staying with, just like Casca used to see Griffith as her savior. In OVA 6, Gara disembowels himself to save Arches Nei… doesn’t that sound similar to Guts cutting off his arm to save Casca, at the end of the Golden Age arc?
•Guts’ Demon Armor/Dark Schneider’s Seven Jewels of Judas Priest: (1) In Bastard, Dark Schneider activates the Seven Jewels of Judas Priest to become stronger than the world’s Demon Kings but risks destroying his soul by using them, not to mention that it’s incredibly painful for him. (2) After realizing that he isn’t a match against Femto, Guts acquires the demon armor which grants him the strength of a demon but, in return, devours his body and destroys his conscience because of the demon spirit inside of the armor. Suspiciously similar.
•Foil Relationship Between Guts and Griffith in Berserk/Foil Relationship Between Gara and Dark Schneider in Bastard: In Bastard’s continuity, OVA 3 reveals that Gara has always worked incredibly hard to be strong but the over-powered Dark Schneider beats him easily, not just him, Darche leisurely takes out all of the kingdom’s enemies. Griffith and Dark Schneider both have long, silver hair and are very sexually promiscuous. At the end of OVA 3, Gara looks pained at how easily Darche defeated him and Yōko even pesters Darche into admitting that he could have ended the battle sooner. It was reminiscent the the many scenes in Berserk, where Guts feels inferior to Griffith. Another similarity, is that in the Bastard manga, Satan reveals to Dark Schneider that he is the anti-Christ and that he will lead demons and mankind in a war against God and his angels; compare to Griffith‘s plan for world domination, comprised of demons and humans.
Disclaimer: This is just a theory, there is no actual proof that Kazushi Hagiwara and Kentarō Miura are the same person but there’s enough of a similarity to justify speculation.
Overall, Bastard!! is well worth the watch: it’s gritty, has a heavy metal aesthetic, and throws a wrench into the tiresome, over-powered-male-protagonist stereotype, that is still valid today, in the isekai era of anime. Bastard!! shares many of the same plot devices as Berserk and Guin Saga but does not take itself seriously, at all. I give Bastard!! a 7/10 and a hard recommendation for anyone who’s looking for something out of the ordinary.
Ernacram
Bastard!! is dark fantasy OVA focusing on a powerful magician known as Dark Schneider. He tried to conquer the world with the help of four other magicians known as the lords of Havoc, but was eventually trapped in the body of a child named Rushe by a group of clerics. Fifteen years later, the lords of havoc are trying to awaken Ansla-sax, the god of destruction that destroyed the world and brought humanity back to the medieval ages. Trying to defend their town from the lords of Havoc, the clerics bring back Dark Schneider so that he can defeat his former comrades. Joined by afew other people, such as a girl named Yoko and the princess of the town, Dark Schneider goes on a quest to track down his former friends, beat them up and reconciliate with them, because as you know if you’ve watched Dragon Ball Z, when you beat the crap out of somebody they become your friend. With a plot as simple as this you would think there would be no way to fuck this up, yet…
--- Dumb and random
This OVA is plagued with dumb, random and unexplained things.
Firstly, it is never properly explained what were Dark Schneider’s motivations. He wanted to conquer the world, but not to rule it, and as such he brought chaos to every country. Perhaps the motivation was sex, as it stated that he had sex with hundreds of women. Same thing for his former comrades. Why are they now against him, and why are they trying to revive a god that would probably annihilate what’s left of humanity, nobody knows. Perhaps the manga readers know, but a proper anime adaptation shouldn’t have to make you read the source material to actually understand what the hell is happening. If the lords of havoc were evil for the purpose of being evil, it would make sense, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, as after they are beat up by Dark Schneider they loose any evil goals, without any explanation. Not knowing what the characters’ motivations are makes it hard to like them, and hinders the show significantly.
Secondly, you often don’t understand what is happening on the screen. Why this spell does this, why doing this does that, how the hell did Dark Schneider “shrink himself into his arm” to dodge an attack, you are never given a proper explanation.
Thirdly, the universe is completely random. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, and you often see ruins of skyscrapers and modern buildings, but at the same time you have tons of things that feel completely out of place in a post-apocalyptic world, such as magic, orcs, ninjas, medieval castles and towns, monsters, dark-elves, werewolves, minautors, cyclops, vampires, and so on. The randomness also applies to the names, as they are just random syllables put one after another: Di Amon, Tia Note Yoko, Arshes Nei, Witos-neiki… For the umpteenth time plot writers, randomness is not an efficient way to create good names. Some of the names are apparently references to Heavy Metal (Meta-Rikana = Metallica), but I know jack shit about Heavy Metal, and even so it doesn’t make the names sound less ridiculous. Of course, the attack names and incantations also sound ridiculous, with the characters saying random stuff like “zazard zazard scrono-rono-sook”, or “tesla”, sometimes English words that are unrelated to the effect of the attack, like “damned”, “exodus”, “accused”, “raven”, “riot”… Why not “garlic bread”, “prostate cancer”, or “dialectical materialism” while we’re at it?
Lastly, there’s the fact that Dark Schneider is overpowered, and basically immortal. It doesn’t matter if he died after tearing his heart out of his body, he will come back to life anyway, with an explanation that can basically be summed up in “shut the fuck up it’s magic!”. Regarding how he defeats his enemies, it is either very stupid, like using very hot fire to beat a fire elemental, or the usual anime thing where anger makes you stronger.
--- No, the characters aren’t that good
One of the things people praise this anime for is the characters, and in particular the protagonist Dark Schneider. While I do agree that Dark Schneider is a better protagonist than the average modern protagonist with zero charisma and no balls, as this one is arrogant, manly, and has had sexual intercourse with hundreds of women, it doesn’t make him a good character either. When he is first introduced, he is portrayed as a bad guy with incredible power. But it turns out that he is just a very arrogant good guy, as he fights bad guys, saves his friends, spares his enemies and even sacrifices himself to save his former comrade who had become his enemy. As you can see, Dark Schneider shares many similarities with the archetype of the “demon lord” in modern anime, that is to say an overpowered man who was, is, or pretends to be a demon lord, but is actually kind and good, like Diablo in Isekai Maou to Shoukan Shoujo no Dorei Majutsu, Sai Akuto in Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, or Maou Sadao in Hataraku Maou-sama!, to name a few bad series that I made a review for (obligatory self-advertising).
The other characters are worse. Male characters are very manly, while female characters are frail and stupid, and that’s all. Alright, the vampire count Di Amon is pretty comical and somewhat enjoyable, but he doesn’t have much screen-time.
To sum up, the characters, which are supposed to be this OVA’s strong point, are actually very average and forgettable.
--- “Randomness equals funny”
Some people defend this OVA by saying that it is bad on purpose, as if that was an excuse! To these people, having an incoherent universe, cheesy dialogues, and throwing Heavy Metal references everywhere is enough to make a show funny and entertaining! To these people, randomness equals comedy! It’s a parody, so all of its flaws are made on purpose, some of them say! And what is it parodying, exactly? It’s true that this OVA is – or tries to be – a parody. There are a few things that indicate it, for example when Dark Schneider uses a 5 yen coin, or when one of the characters breaks the fourth wall. But that is not sufficient. A parody should make it obvious to the viewer that it is a parody, otherwise it will just come out as as bad as the thing it is trying to parody! Parody or not, this OVA isn’t funny, and at best you will only smile a bit.
--- The production value is decent at best
The animation is pretty average overall. Obviously, it must be taken into account that this is an OVA from the early 90’s, and that it can’t be compared with modern animation standards, but it doesn’t excuse everything. It doesn’t excuse, for examples, the characters designs. Most of them are boring, forgettable, and sometimes even ugly. One of the characters is literally just ninja Guts. The girls are neither cute nor sexy, which makes the fan-service even more tasteless. The art-style appears to me as the standard art-style of that era, and doesn’t strike me as particularly good. One of the features of that art-style is that pretty much all of the males are huge, tall mountains of muscles with normal-sized eyes, while females are short, frail, and have the usual large anime eyes. The fights scenes look okay to me. However, the backgrounds look meh.
The sound is also average. The quality of the background music varies, it is sometimes shit, sometimes good, but never like something you would re-listen to on YouTube. The sound effects can also be bad. Regarding the voice-acting, some of it is bad, mostly secondary characters (the clerics, for example), but Dark Schneider’s voice-acting is actually pretty good.
--- Verdict
To conclude this review, Bastard!! is yet another anime that tries to be “so bad it’s good” and ends up being so bad it’s shit. The plot is a failure. The characters are pretty bad and boring. I don’t know if the arrogant protagonist was something original at that time, but nowadays it just feel like a re-skin of the “demon lord but actually he’s a good person” type of protagonist that you can find in a lot of recent series. The animation and the sound are nothing incredible and don’t manage to make the show entertaining. I guess that people who understand what the hell is this OVA parodying, and are Heavy Metal fans that can get all of the references could enjoy it, but most people should avoid it.
