Aspiring samurai Shinsuke Hyoudou's world is turned upside down when he witnesses hermit Jinka Yamato and fox girl Tama Youko slay a brigands' lair in the blink of an eye. Tama happens to be katawara, a magically gifted species, who can share her powers with Jinka through a special ritual. Together, they travel the world as vigilantes to stop evil beings, be they katawara or human.
As Shinsuke learns more about this new world, he discovers that monks perform inhumane research on spiritually gifted civilians, in the hope of creating human-katawara hybrids that can fight against monsters. Soon joined by Shakuyaku—a girl they manage to save from the monks’ experiments—and other allies, the group embarks on a quest to achieve their respective dreams.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
moozooh
I bid you good day, tired adventurer. Have you grown weary of the endless deluge of isekai and reincarnation in your fantasy? Have you yearned for characters that have empathy and compelling motivations? Perhaps you would be partial to stories that don't rely on familiar tropes and instead seek to subvert your expectations? Give Sengoku Youko a chance. I know, its current rating of low 7 isn't exactly a great sell in the age of inflated scores, but hear me out. It's the kind of story that starts off in a very modest fashion but continuously picks up momentum as it goes. With nearly every single episode,you're watching its best episode yet. What starts off as a road trip turns into an epic tale of love, friendship, and camaraderie.
The author, Satoshi Mizukami, has earned his cult following for a reason. His works showcase a very particular style of storytelling focused on creating a diverse cast of unique characters with compelling motivations and letting them figure out the story based on what these motivations are. In his worlds, there are no truly good or truly bad people; rather, there are people who care for different things and finding themselves in misfortune or conflict with each other. You could say it's kind of like Game of Thrones, except not edgy or cynical; quite the opposite: the character interactions in Sengoku Youko and Mizukami's other works are remarkably warm and soulful—to the point where you end up loving the entire cast, and even antagonists can be empathized with.
This adaptation by studio White Fox isn't breaking any records in terms of production values and cuts corners relentlessly where it can afford to, but it's clearly crafted with passion and is honestly much better than I would've expected for a very niche manga from the late 2000s, showing respect to the original work and enhancing it where possible. The early episodes are the weakest episodes as I've alluded to earlier, mostly due to the source material's somewhat haphazard pacing and the need to fit six volumes of manga material into a single cours of TV runtime, but once it finds its stride mid-season, it's all smooth sailing from there. The soundtrack by the famed Evan Call is fantastic as usual and helps set the tone for the action, and the opening by MindaRyn was one of my favorites from the winter 2024 season.
Overall, the first season tells a compelling story by itself, but in the grand scheme of things it merely serves as a setup for the main bulk of the narrative. And trust me: the second half, coming summer 2024, will reach much greater heights. I, for one, cannot wait.
KANLen09
Sengoku Youko - The 1st arc of 2 for a renowned author, and it still has a lot of cooking to do. If you have been in the AniManga scene for quite a while now, you would recognize a famed mangaka by the name of Satoshi Mizukami. This prolific author's stories are a mishmash of unorthodox proportions, but yet creative at the same time that you'd be wondering how someone like him is able to be so gargantuan at his many notable series. From the likes of the famed series of Spirit Circle (which is the mangaka's greatest work that hasn't got an anime adaptation yet)to the rather lukewarm adaptation of Fall 2018's Planet With (which J.C. Staff did decent where the "original" anime came first before the manga's release), and the abomination that was Summer-Fall 2022's Hoshi no Samidare a.k.a Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer (which the anime was the series's biggest sin by way of poor and lackluster production values), the anime counterpart definitely needed a lot, and I mean, A LOT of time in the oven to cook.
All of this, leads us to the other ironic side of the coin, which is this Winter's season's Sengoku Youko, which covers the 1st part of the manga: the Yonaoshi Kyoudai-hen a.k.a World Reform Siblings Arc through the first 13 of its intended 37-episode series for a "complete" split 3-cour season. And for an interesting fact (if you want the TL;DR critique) of the show in general: Sengoku Youko is Satoshi Mizukami's weakest work, but given the most competent AniManga adaptation thus far from a near-far-gone, returning renowned studio.
In Sengoku Youko's fantasy world, there exists 2 factions of creatures: ordinary human beings, or monsters in the form of Katawara, experimental beings who are laden with power. The latter is true for a girl named Tama Youko (yes, which literally means fox), whose only goal is to like Jesus Christ (if he was not a human), correct the people in their evil and sinful ways and guide them back on the proper path of goodness and justice. However, what is said truer to her, doesn't apply to her brother Jinka, who is a human, and still hates humans in both bone and flesh, with his grudges unknown. Their journey to reform the world is met by Shinsuke Hyoudou, who's a samurai, but a coward by the main fact, who vows to become stronger to protect his loved ones. Together, the trio may have their separate ambitions, but the goal is one and the same to explore and reform the world as they deem fit. But enemies stand in their way, not to mention ruthless, and a ploy to experiment on humans and transform them into the aforementioned Katawara creatures, set them onto a path where dangers lurk at every corner, fighting against people that will give them quite the challenge on the road to purification.
At first, the trio are faced by the Dangaisyuu: a group of monks who're just as they look, innocent monks. But its leader, Yazen, is one that has a quench of power, and the people that serve him, serve the Katawara side of the community on their path towards evil, so much that they have power unabashed to trample on their opponents with much katawara power. But then again, this is the sibling duo of Tama and Jinka they're facing against, and the trick about them is that while Jinka is the human, Tama is the Katawara source which provides him powers to be transformed into a powerful Katawara, much like Tama's namesake of being a Youko to give Jinka fox powers, which the more tails, the more powerful Jinka is. The more colourful characters that follow thereafter, say, from Shakugan (saved from being a Katawara), to Jinun, Douren and Resshin, these are the true masters of their craft who also sides with the Dangaiyuu to push Yazen forward in his world-conquering quest of transforming humans into Katawara, which does not bode well with Tama's philosophy, while testing Jinka's limits of becoming a human-Katawara hybrid to the detriment of his thirst for power.
If you ask me, Sengoku Youko's a pretty wild story of the standard Satoshi Mizukami style that is really Mizukami levels of unmistakable both from the manga and anime standpoint, though Part 1 of 2 here of the Reformed Siblings Arc that covers the manga's first 6 volumes of 35 chapters worth, it does take some time to get used to, especially if this is your first time watching a Satoshi Mizukami show or have been burnt by Hoshi no Samidare a.k.a Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, and wanted an exoneration in his name in the animation department. Well, we finally got that treatment.
Well, well, look who's back. I did not expect to see the famous Re:Zero studio come back from the grave, especially since the studio's massive undertaking to complete another season of the Utawarerumono series. Taking a year apart to get back to the Re:Zero groove coming back this Fall, studio White Fox may have an episode of their fall from grace, but that doesn't NOT give us a chance to praise their ever-so-consistent production, even if this is kind of a re-start for the studio before the famed series will take up most of their time, leaving the 2nd part of the show after Season 3 (which I'm totally fine with). Finally, Satoshi Mizukami gets the name recognition along with good production values to boot from White Fox, albeit with director Kagetsu Aizawa who had a misstep with 2018's Hakyuu Houshin Engi modern reboot.
The OST by Evan Call, really helps liven up the atmosphere of the show greatly, even if the show does kinda wobble from time to time. Still though, that does not stop the theme songs from being great songs, of which MindaRyn has a song that I finally can say that her OP song "Hibana" is her best Anisong thus far. KEIKO's ED song does the job following the show's historical and mythical fantasy, which is great since it's famed composer Yuki Kaijura, showing that her craft is still unmatched.
Despite all the praise I can really give about Sengoku Youko as a whole, the story unfortunately is still the weakest link tying everything together, and it will not be until it's latter part of the double-length, 24 episode-long Senma Konton-hen a.k.a Thousand Demons Chaos Arc, is shown that has the story explode in terms of mythical lore. Again, I can only judge the show by its completion one-third of the way, which is decent overall.
Still though, this is your best chance to experience a new Satoshi Mizukami anime, and trust me, things in the future will look better once Part 2: The Thousand Demons Arc arrives later in Summer...just not now, not yet.
Kgandhi00
Criminally Underrated anime, first few episodes start pretty typical run of the mill supernatural anime set in feudal? Japan. Very similar in setting at least to Inuyasha, and once it picks up, each episode is has you anticipating the next. Each character is unique with their own conflicts, well though back story, and personal motivations so you will definitely find one to attach to. Initially thought of this as a anime with an intended audience of younger children but the show quickly subverted my expectations and quite literally had my jaw dropped. Its been a solid few months since I've seen this, so hopefully thisreview is fairly unbiased.
I went into this show not really expecting much and after the first few episodes I thought I was right. I stuck with it because I was bored at work and thought it was pretty looking/wholesome at least and as the season went on I was surprised by it time and time again. I'll start with what I disliked about the show first.
Cons: Personally, as an young adult, I don't like having main characters of a show I'm watching to be actual children, sometimes its fine but that's mostly a personal thing. To be fair, there is literally nothing childish about this and I would not watch any child watch it. Next, like others have said, the show starts pretty mediocre and slow paced but again it quickly makes up for it. Another thing is the pervy anime tropes, like I said the characters are literally children and even if it's "totally a 10000 year old spirit bro" and taking place in feudal times, that gives me the ick and WILL dock points. Another thing is that certain plot elements seem kinda forced and make you think "literally why is this happening like no rational person would do this." But in the show's defense they are children and people are inherently dumb so I'll let it slide. Also the power scaling is dumb and makes no sense but its anime so who cares.
Pros: Firstly, the opening is an absolute, certified, gym banger. Next, ALL the visuals from color to art style, to backgrounds and more were amazing. They were incredibly detailed, vibrant, and fairly unique. Next, the character designs were all pretty fire and the little guys are all cute (iykyk). Story is pretty milk toast at first but slowly gets deeper and more interesting, still nothing crazy but interesting enough to be unique. The main thing that draws me is each the characters' individual motivations, internal struggles, and interactions with the others in the world. This show does a fantastic point of showing all sides of human emotion and thoughts, def had me tearing up at times and laughing at others. If you enjoy supernatural action adventure anime taking place in the past, or those that take heavy inspiration from Japanese folklore like yokai, give it a shot. If you have have a short attention span, go away.
Sir_Zedmore
As I write this review, Sengoku Youko has over 8,000 ratings - and yet the score is exactly 7.00. Does it deserve this figure of widespread agreement? Should it be higher or lower? In my opinion, it's exactly right. STORY: 6 (Fine)/10 I was about to put a higher rating - but the story is quite basic until the end. My main problem with this show, something that holds it back from an 8 or even a 9, is the first few episodes. I almost dropped the show - twice - because of it's incredibly dull start. The progress is very slow and nothing very interestinghappens until around episode seven. The reason my rating is 6 is because it's quite a simplistic story, and lots of it is setup. However, I think that the second season (and I believe third, which will come out if the next season does well enough) will be much better, getting that 8 or 9 I mentioned.
ART: 8 (Very Good)/10
The artstyle of this show is my favourite - with lines and borders of various thickness and great shading, so it might just be my opinion, but I thought it was great. The choreography was pretty good but the moves themselves were not half bad, and the transformations were beautiful. It definitely adds to the vibe of the show and fits the setting.
SOUND: 6 (Fine)/10
I might go back and change most of my 7s on sound to 6, because I am yet to see a cast that sticks out as particularly bad, let alone below average. For the original sound track, I enjoyed the music played during the show, but as for the OP and ED, I think they were just average, but I have seen a handful of reviews describing each as a masterpiece, particularly the opening.
CHARACTER: 7 (Good)/10
The characters were like the story, but slightly better - they start out appearing quite basic, but they get more interesting and complex as the show progresses. Once again, my rating is held back by the slow start - so I'm definitely hoping for a good season 2. The character development was definitely good, especially with two characters in particular. I also enjoyed the antagonist because most modern shonen nowadays that I see have antagonists like Shigaraki and Sukuna, forces of chaos and destruction. In Sengoku Youko, the characters remind me of the World Government in One Piece or the (if you've watched, you'll know, this is a twist so I won't say it) of FMA - they appear to the public as heroes and allies, and many of them believe they are, but there is darkness in their core.
ENJOYMENT: 7 (Good)/10
Here, I will use the expression 'high highs and low lows' because that's pretty much sums up this show. To mentally illustrate it, if it was a graph, it would rise slowly, shoot up a bit around episode 7 and then rise slowly again. I did enjoy this show a lot, particularly the fights and episodes 7-10, but I also think the first 6 episodes really drag this down.
I recommend this show, especially since you no longer have to watch the boring start over 6 weeks, and can breeze past it in a day or two. But, I don't really recommend it for the show itself, but so you have context for future seasons that I can imagine will be great.
phantom346
This anime is a hidden gem of Winter 2024! Despite its current score of 6.97, I believe it deserves much more appreciation. If you’re hesitant to start it because of the score, I encourage you to give it a try and form your own opinion. Admittedly, the first three episodes are a bit slow and might have been challenging to follow on a weekly basis, but that’s no reason to rate it so poorly. This anime is a classic yokai/human conflict story, a staple in Japanese media. Although I haven't seen Inuyasha, it's clear that Sengoku Youko draws inspiration from it. While it doesn't introduce anything groundbreakingin terms of folklore or complex storylines like Durarara, it excels in delivering well-executed clichés. If I were to compare it to another good series, Katanagatari comes to mind.
The narrative is straightforward: save the world. The simplicity of the story is one of its strengths, allowing for a focus on character development and thematic elements. I’d rate the story a solid 7/10.
The animation quality is superb, arguably the best of the entire season. White Fox has outdone themselves with stunning visuals and fluid motion that bring the story to life. It’s a 10/10 for animation from me.
The sound design, including the opening and ending themes, perfectly complements the anime's atmosphere. The voice acting is exceptional, raw, and unfiltered, conveying every emotion powerfully. Both sound and voice acting deserve a 10/10.
The characters are a major focal point of my love for this show. Jinka and Tama are endearing and heroic, while Shinsuke brings depth and emotional drive to the story. Shakuyaku is a fascinating character, she bridges the gap between humans and katawara in a way that Jinka never could and I thoroughly enjoyed her development. Overall, the characters deserve a 9/10.
Watching Sengoku Youko week to week has been a downright supernatural experience. Sengoku Youko has a nostalgic feel to it, reminiscent of classic anime, and embodies a distinctly Japanese essence. White Fox has delivered yet another outstanding production as they usually do for me.
If you haven't seen it yet, Sengoku Youko: Yonaoshi Kyoudai-hen is a gem that deserves more recognition! Despite its slow start, it develops into a rich and engaging story with top-notch animation, sound design, and character development. If you’re a fan of yokai tales or simply looking for a quality anime this season, give this one a chance. You won't be disappointed.
whiteflame55
Not a bad start by any means, though it took a little while to solidly get going for me. Speaking as someone who has read Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, it certainly hasn't hit as hard as that series did, but it's planted opportunities to do a great deal more. It's not so much that the series is slow, but rather that it lacked an identity beyond its worldbuilding and basic establishment of its core cast. From there, it just became a series of fights that slowly built on those identities before a couple of big moments started to shift the momentum. The series has beenslow to become more dynamic as it builds things out from a basic "let's fight a new powerful opponent" as a template for most episodes and has started to introduce the larger issues in the world surrounding them and how each character relates to them. I can't say any of the characters have been terribly investing so far, but they've given them enough building blocks to make them worth following.
This is a long series, slated for 37 episodes in total with these 13 episodes comprising the first arc and the remaining 24 comprising the second. Moving slowly to create an investing narrative in order to build out the world and establish the characters is fine by me if there is certainty that there's going to be more, and based on that ending, there's a lot to expect. I'm cautiously optimistic, especially as we've seen some admittedly abbreviated character arcs play out over the course of the series so far. I can't say any of the characters have really grabbed me yet, and though there's some interesting worldbuilding, it seems minimal so far, largely kept as background noise while the series focuses on the central characters. That's not bad, but it does mean that the second season needs to go pretty hard to make this series more than just a good time.
Turzin09
Let’s talk about the work of the acclaimed Satoshi Mizukami, which, in my opinion, is his best manga. I found it very interesting that White Fox took on this project, especially considering the context of “Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer.” Sengoku Youko, like all of Mizukami’s works, has something unusual and subversive in its story and plot. Mizukami always liked to take shounen tropes and subvert them in a more interesting way. In Sengoku Youko, the subversion happens after an important event in the plot, which in the anime was used to divide the series into two arcs. The plot follows the story of the yokai foxTama and her brother Jinka, who aim to make the relationship between humans and katawaras more friendly. The aspiring samurai Shinsuke follows them to develop his skills and, in the future, build an important bond with the two. From this, they discover that a group of monks has been conducting experiments between humans and katawaras, creating a conflict between our protagonists and the antagonists of this arc.
This first arc serves as a contextualization for the future construction that Mizukami would develop in the next arc of the story. What seems to be a story focused on racial themes and the power of friendship typical of a shounen battle, later reveals itself to be something more elaborate and well-connected. The plot develops in a much more interconnected way, encompassing the points of each character. The greatest merit of the first season of the anime is the contextualization for what will be built in the future, from the characterization of the main characters to the plot itself.
As for the production of the work, I see a great effort from the team to do something well-done in important episodes. Overall, the quality varies, but there are good peaks of direction and production. I think the anime has more value in some points than the manga, mainly because of the medium it is in and the source material. The production of Mizukami’s mangas is weak, especially in Hoshi no Samidare. Although it has aesthetic value in terms of its art style, it is very simple and lacks more adequate layout. Still, the manga has great moments, especially the double-page spreads. The anime production, at specific moments, managed to adapt these aspects well. The direction often managed to convey the appropriate feelings and visual appreciation. The voice acting is good, and the soundtrack is quite memorable.
I am eagerly awaiting the end of this adaptation to see if White Fox managed to adapt Satoshi Mizukami’s best-written story adequately. So far, the first season has adapted several parts well and had a suitable pace. The direction works at key moments, and the story has contributed well to the value that will follow.
