With its gorgeous landscape and prosperous people, Great Japan is the envy of all other nations. But a serious threat hovers over the country. Mysterious guardians known as Master Samurai are Great Japan's only defense.
At the behest of the student council, young samurai Muneakira Yagyuu arrives at Buou Academic School. Run by the Tokugawa Shogunate, here children of warriors are given aristocratic education required to run the country. The school is led by the student council president Yoshihiko Tokugawa and his sister Sen, who also happens to be Muneakira's childhood friend.
Upon arriving at the academy, Muneakira finds himself in the midst of a terrible fight. During the chaos, the sky fills with a peculiar white light and a mysterious girl named Juubei Yagyuu appears and suddenly kisses Muneakira. With his kiss, she awakens an unknown power that protects them.
Just who is this girl, and where did she come from? Muneakira finds himself entangled in the fate of the country and a threat that will shake Great Japan to its core. He must learn the secret behind the Master Samurai and the kiss that awakened Juubei's power in order to protect his country.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
DangoSadge
Oh man.. It's another samurai harem. What's with Japanese people and turning historical figures into high school girls? Anyways, this anime series is based on a light novel series written by Akira Suzuki. Wait a minute. I know what are you wondering.. "Hey isn't the main male lead name is Muneakira?" Yes you're right. I mean if you're writing a story about a harem, wouldn't you want to be the center of it? And let's just add "Mune" to your name and nobody would even notice. (Yes, I know Mune can also mean breasts..) I really had high expectations with this one. No kidding. It's been along time since I've watch an anime about samurais. Unfortunately, as promising as this anime looks, here comes the hundreds of unnecessary fanservice and fillers to drown out the story. Oh sure, I'll like a few fillers now and then but they're rush the entire plot buildup right to the end of the series.
Now on the positive side, the reason why I sticked to this anime (No it's not because of the fanservice...) it's the astounding art this anime brings forward. It's a bit nostalgic as this reminds me of the game I used to play about a b*tch.. Umm I mean about a wolf (Ookami was it?)
Anyways, rarely I've seen an anime which uses the traditional ink style for all it's censorship and transition point however it gets annoying over time.
I have no complaints about the sound either.
And here comes the characters. What? Only three girls in his harem?? Lame.. However, all three of them have some useful personalities to assist with their ever useless male harem lead. And Im suprised there's more tsunderes than Ive expected! As usual, as the story develops, each girl had their chance to express their feelings to Mr "Breast" Akira here.
Oh boy, once again the male harem lead is there as a wallflower for every battle. Every battle when you think Muneakira is going to take charge and battle, prepare to get disappointed. Remember, this anime is aimed for people who loves fanservice so they wouldn't want to see a guy in the battle now would they? Hey, at least he isn't dense unlike some other male harem leads.
And what about the villains? Twisted as usual. Nothing new here.
Personally, I quite enjoyed this anime. That's because unlike others, I did not take the story seriously from the start after watching a few episodes of fillers. If you're looking for a nice samurai story with a decent plot then go look elsewhere. As entertaining as this may be, I wont be watching it again as this sort of anime is where you watch it once and you're already content. I mean, can you watch 12 whole episode about "Love", "Honor", and "Bond" all over again?
Overall, it's a good time killer if you have nothing better to do. Definitely a must watch anime for all you harem lovers. Just don't let the whole ideology of "Love and Honor conquers all" get stuck with you. Remember, an anime is an anime, and real life is just like an anime, without those big eyes.
Haremu Kingu,
Signing off..
AquaHaze
Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls isn't a series that I expected much from so I guess in a sense it exceeded my expectations. It is not the best series out there and it's not for everyone either, but it can be a good time waster. The series does have a plot but it only significantly advances in the final episodes. So like many ecchi comedies out there, there is very little plot and when there is it's pretty weak. However not every series requires a strong plot to succeed, in fact there are many series out there that are successful with no plot. Alla series really needs to do is satisfy it's viewers and I would say it satisfied me. There were a lot of attempts at comedy in this series, some worked and some didn't and there were some moments that were just hilarious.
The artwork was really stunning and beautiful. The style of art seems really unique and the detail is just amazing, even in the background. The last couple of minutes of the final episode were full black in white which was visually pleasing to me too. The battle scenes are also well animated and looked nice too. I'm amazed at the amount of detail that were put into each one of them. Then there was the censoring. The ink dots that were used to censor inappropriate body parts could really get annoying especially when characters were moving around, since the dots would have to move with them. But it really depends on the person, some may be bothered by it and some may not be.
The sound department did an okay job. The opening sounded great with an intense rock song to get you pumped up for action. The voices seemed to fit each character's role. There's really nothing else to say about the sound.
To be honest, the characters could have been done better. Although the protagonist, Muneakira, may be unique in some aspects (he's a samurai for crying out loud), he seems a bit generic. He's useless and usually doesn't have a clue what's going on, yet somehow almost every girl manages to fall for him. I still don't the sick magic that makes girls fall for useless protagonists.
Our main heroine,Jubei, actually has two sides, her normal form and her bad-ass form. She's usually only in her bad-ass form during battle, in this form she's really strong but also pretty smart as well. In her normal form she has a really innocent personality and refers to herself in third person to be cute. I like how both personalities contrast from each other.
Of course a harem would not complete without our 2 love rivals, Sen and Yukimura. They both seem bland. Yukimura is our short, flat chested character she is a bit tsundere but at least it's not overly done. Then we got Sen, at first I hated her because of her jealousy but by the end she was tolerable. Both of these characters aren't bad but they both really don't have the qualities that separate them from your typical harem characters.
We also have some side characters and they sometimes do add to the jokes in the series especially Kanetsugu but there's nothing really notable about them.
The series as a whole however is enjoyable. Although some of the jokes weren't well executed the others were hilarious. The story might have been lacking but I really can't complain about that since these types of series tend not to have plots. It's definitely a good time waster
Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls is far from being a masterpiece but it managed to pass the time. Although it's not for everyone, the series manages to entertain and at the end of the day that's all I really ask of an anime.
8thSin
'Hyakka Ryouran SAMURAI GIRLS' is the 40th anniversary media-mix project by Hobby Japan, a plastic model / video game magazine publisher. This series is an interesting watch because it's not only a "media-mix" as in franchise with products in multiple media platforms, it also feels like many popular anime series are mixed together. However, it represents everything that went wrong with today's anime industry. ART: Series like 'Gankutsuou', 'Mononoke', 'xxxHOLIC', 'Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei', and 'Yojouhan' have such distinctive and unconventional art style or character designs that you'll never forget once you've seen it. Sounds pretty cool, we should do it too! And there we have it, sumi-e (washpainting) style backgrounds, ink drops and brush strokes for censorship and scene transitions.
I have to admit that the style was unique, background is visually pleasing, and there were couple of breathtaking scenes. However, this art style was executed very poorly in many aspects. For one, the character designs were rather ordinary and they looked out of place in the picture even with the thick outlines as a buffer. The presence of modern day gadgets and use of CG made it seem awkward at times because it did not conform to the era or the style. The censoring technique was fine in still pictures, but it was unsightly and annoying when character is moving because the way ink dots follow and disappear screams of "look at me! I'm different!"
The action is cool, and labeling of people and attack move's names were done rather well though.
The animation in this series will certainly be remembered, but it simply did not work for the most part.
SOUND:
Yagyuu Juubee's voice is really cool when she's transformed into Master Samurai, but sounded way too cute/loli despite her appearance in normal form. Muneakira sounds too girly for the macho hero who's supposed to be all about samurai honor. Otherwise, the side characters' voices were done pretty well and sound like they should.
BGM was pretty generic. OP is a really good intense rock song, not only is it very catchy, it also had the Japanese flavor, and the vocal was amazing.
STORY/CHARACTER:
The title "Hyakka Ryouran" has two meanings. The first, more literal meaning is "Profusion of Flowers Blooming in Chaos", as in girls (flowers) of various (profusion) backgrounds are unlocked (blooming) into master samurai and wreak havoc (chaos). The second meaning is "Appearance of Abundant Talent in a Short Period", which describes the resurgence of Master Samurai after a considerable draught in awakening. This series has a great naming sense in its own title, and also the names of signature moves for each character. For example in Sen's "DenKouSekka", a lightning attack which reads "Lightning Fast" in Japanese, "Kou" is deliberately written in wrong kanji that has same pronunciation that means "Royalty". D'Artagnan's ice attack that seals enemy movement "Zettai Reido" means "Absolute Zero", but written "Absolute Slavery(Imprisonment)".
A lot of moves have such creative names like that. However, the originality ends there.
The setting is really, really bad. Sure, it's an alternate universe where the Shogunate rule survives, and there's zero Western influence in Japan, but then you have all the advanced technology (from the West) like air planes, cameras, and computers. It got so bad at one point that commando units holding guns were guarding ninjas and samurais. Talk about awkward.
The premise is basically Evangelion ripoff, you have a chosen hero who unlocks the power of super-powerful beings to fight ones that want to end the world, and an organization trying to prevent that. The secretive organization functions through unethical practices (human experiments/sacrifices vs child labor), and yes, there was mass production of the super-beings to build up the force.
Then all the characters were for manufactured harem. All the girl fighters except Sen have names of MALE historical figures or fictional characters of major literature with similar attributes. It's not even 'Sora no Otoshimono', and girls literally fall from the sky, and yes, one of the them is a cyborg. The initial villain is identical to Vegeta, he thinks he's above all others (emperors and kings), he does have a good purpose but uses any means to achieve his goals, he even wears a Power Level Scanner, and of course, he joins the hero and heroines in the end.
There were many other similarities to DBZ, from "Her power level is over half a million!" to "They are far beyond our capabilities, we can only watch". The girls basically power up like Super-Sayan, and then a heroine even flies like one, before getting spirit bomb-like power recovery from allies. The whole action is like 'DBZ' meets 'Sengoku BASARA' with ridiculous power and constant yelling about love, honor, and justice. While this could've been quite funny if it was parody, there was nothing in this series to suggest that was the case.
And there's these random fan-services with explosion ripping off girl's clothes, a girl wearing thongs all the time (historically some men did, but still...), dumb activation of power (kiss), and 'Sailor Moon' ripoff naked transformation.
Character behavior in general made no sense, and things happen just to advance the plot.
ENJOYMENT/OVERALL
It's nearly impossible to create a completely original story or characters in this day and age. For example, one of the villains in this series also had a magical eye like Alpha Stigma, a ripoff of Geass, which is a modified Sharingan, which is a souped up version of Hiei's evil eye, and then you can trace that all the way back to Medusa.
However, good storywriting can camouflage similarities well enough that they won`t be easily noticeable and bother us. On the other hand, the mix of themes and reference in this show is blatant and shameless. They are so poorly executed that the apparent lack of originality is obvious to the viewer. And then you have excessive moe and ecchi fan service, failed art style innovation, and manufactured harem environment to distract us from the flaws in story and production. Like many similar harem anime today, 'Hyakka Ryouran' was a very poorly produced and forgettable series.
That said, the story is shallow and cliché, but it does have a good pace and some of the tried and true formula do work, and the action scenes are exciting. The show is a true mix of previous anime and lacks originality, but it does offer quick entertainment.
pluslethatminun
Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls. “Oooooooooh, lookie-lookie! Another harem series rated with mild nudity!” --- Me I’ve been a fan of harem series as long as I can remember. I don’t know; maybe part of it was because it won’t happen for me in real life. I know I’m not the only one who projects themselves as the protagonist, and that’s why, maybe, I don’t watch shoujo series at all. Enough about me spouting nonsense. Let us proceed further into my review of Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls. Story: 7 Hyakka Ryouran’s story isn’t that great. But the setting will pique a bit of your interest. Why? It’s because ofthe odd setting of the story. If you think that the story happened in the samurai era, which was in the past. You are wrong, mister.
The story happens in the early 21st century, in an alternate reality where the Tokugawa Shogunate has remained in power. 21st century, meaning computers (in fact they’re using Microsoft OS on their computers), airplanes, trains, etc. exist. So don’t get confused. I like the fact of mixing modern and feudal-era in the story. The setting is unique in its own way.
As for the story, a girl mysteriously appears in front of him descending from the sky and steals his first kiss. And voilà, he gained one of the girls he’ll be adding into his arsenal of samurai babes! There’s more to it than that of course. Buuuuuuuuuuut! You halfta’ watch the series yourself to understand it more. Considering that Hyakka Ryouran has only 12 episodes, (second season not included) it is in fact very short. The story’s really easy to grasp so you don’t have to worry about it.
You can say I’m lazy for not telling you the plot. Half of its true, half of it is I just don’t want to spoil you.
Art: 9
Hyakka Ryouran’s art is great. Or it’s just a biased opinion of silly self. Either way, Hyakka Ryouran’s art is very appealing to me. Everything that was drawn was surrounded by these heavily inked borders around them. And the fight scenes weren’t half bad, too. In short, everything was bloody messed up with ink. But it comes with colours, too! Like black, purple, white. INK, INK, INK!!! Even sword slashes were inks.
Characters: 8
Considering Hyakka Ryouran’s a harem series, we should have a lot of bishoujous surrounding our MC. Oh and yes, did they deliver. An air-head; a loli (who is voiced by Rie Kugimiya); and a jealous-type girl. The supporting characters were decent, too. The lack of male characters in the story is quite disturbing. I’ve only seen two guys in the story. Oh whelp, who cares about males. What am I even saying? This show’s for guys anyway.
Sound: 7
I don’t know why, but the background songs in the fights scenes seem really familiar to me. For the OP theme and ED theme; I did like the ED theme which was done by Rie Kugimiya! The OP theme’s made by Faylan. They also made songs for Seikon no Qwaser, which, incidentally, is like Hyakka Ryouran. Although it’s a lot more mature than Hyakka Ryouran.
Enjoyment: 7
Did I enjoy it? Of course, my inner male did. But my inner plot-centred-self isn’t quite as happy as my inner male did. Why? It’s the lack of legitimate plot. What I irked me the most was the progress of the story. The first few episodes were good, explaining some things how this and that happened. But continuing to the middle episodes it got boring. What I mean is, the plot of the story doesn’t progress that much until the last few episodes. Nevertheless, the simple punches and sword swings that could tear the girls’ clothes really made me happy.
Overall: 7
Hyakka Ryouran’s far off from being called a masterpiece. It lacks a lot of essentials on how to be a great series. Looking at the fan service it provides, especially to adolescent boys, it’ll be a decent show, or better, a great show (for them). Let’s all face it, boobies and panties aren’t enough to wow viewers these days, or even make them watch the series.
My verdict: Hyakka Ryouran’s a good watch, not a “must-watch” series. But it’ll definitely entertain you.
helur
Ahh, the classic ecchi action show. I am not a fan of the genre in general, but the first episode seemed like it could turn out well. It also seemed like it had a plot. The art also seemed rather unique in its genre of bright and happy. Yes, it was all what it seemed. Expectation: 6 Episode scores:-,-,-,-, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 6, 6, 6 Actual: 4 Bad Yet the plot is quickly put aside for the last episodes, nothing unusual, as the harem tries to become master samurai. Now what can be wrong with that? Well, i don't mind the cliche random guy getting all thechicks, and the fact that at first they are essentially just trying to use him as a stepping stool. Yet, while there is some actually relationships that seem to do well, any interaction is transformed into interaction between a master and his samurai. Well at least for the dense lead anyways. Even the kisses are lame, and insignificant because of the same property.
With Samurai you would expect some good battles. Yet, we are bombarded with poor fight after poor fight. Either it is a master samurai beating the crap out of somebody defenseless or them pulling off their 'named move' once or twice inbetween talking. The only exceptional scene is the climax, but they sacrifice any logic for the pretty effects.
There was a lot more comedy that i enjoyed which was unexpected. It might of been one of the few redeeming qualities of this show, but even then they are not that good. i might of just felt like enjoying slapstick humor for some reason when i was watching this.
The characters are not very deep. The harem consists of tsunderes with a side dish of servants and energetic idiots that fell of of the sky. Their characters are not really anything special, nor do they have at least one oddity about them. At least i was a Rie fan so i was able to appreciate something about at least one character.
Overall, not that much different from any other ecchi show. The plot is pretty lame, and the comedy is not up to par with a lot of better actual 'ecchi comedies' out there. I would call this average for this genre, but the standard is set pretty low as far as i am concerned as of late.
Siscon2000
a few side notes: 1. this damn review is all about hyakka ryouran samurai girls (1st season) NOT samurai bride (2nd season). 2. english in not my native language I m not too good in english so... HYAKKA RYOURAN SAMURAI GIRLSso one day I downloaded that hyakka ryouran samurai girls and started to watch. well they show boobs so...
yes they show boobs there. YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but anything else is not so good.
well first of all anime setting is in some alternative world where "great japan" is attacked by outside forces and "great japan" instead of using their millitary using "master samurais" who are a sexy females in patsu. no theres no males. only females. and only in patsu. and those master samurais is somehow japans only hope to survive attacks or something.
and so we see the first and most ridiculous scene where few bitches jumps to FUCKING SKY and cuts bomber jets with katanas... ok this is not just stupid and imposible but just... a cheap copy of Dragonball?? oh shit not another one...
now from the beggining theres no logic in this anime. not at all. not even a little bit of logic you will find here. and story is complete bullshit. a female fell from sky into protagonists arms and he kiss her and activate her superpower so she became a master samurai and we have transformation scene similar to those from sailor moon and here she is a legendary Jubei Yagyu who's power level is way beyond 9000. and so that bitch who fell from sky can transform into a master samurai if she is kissed but in regular life she is retarded stupid girl with big boobs and 3 year old brains just like that fucking Lucy/nyu from elfen lied. well she ofcourse not the only bitch, theres a whole harem that includes every type and every size from boobless loli to enormous boobled childhood friend. and yes they show boobs openly, no censoring. well if it would be hentai it would be so much better but we have what we have...
so also the whole story is just pure nonsence. have no point. it would be as good without story at all. it actually is without any story at all... like just nothing, I repeat NOTHING that would make sense. just a boob/ass show that pretends to be about samurai honor.. somehow...
so yeah samurais! yes theres also katanas and "sword fights" (if you can call that bullshit fights). yet these fights are so cheap and stupid that it just makes me angry... well dont expect ANYTHING similar to that Rurouni Kenshin historical japanese mood and sounds of coliding katanas in those (almost) well animated sword fights. nooooo here we have A FUCKING NUCLEAR EXPLOSION every time some bitch draws or swings her katana. like BOOOM and fight is over! yes fight is over. a nuclear explosion ends fight really fast. oh you might think that there's no survivors after nuclear explosion caused by katana.. somehow.. but nooooo the only damage that those massive nuclear explosions inflict to human beings is that it rips off their clothes. yes rips off clothes. so you can see a boobs. thats the damage you get after nuclear explosion somehow caused by katana.....
in short there's no sword fights at all. only those regular energy blasts, explosions and similar bullshit we seen so many times since DragonBall times (1989). and sailor moon type of transformations that you will see EVERY FUCKING TIME before "fight" starts.
in short all this anime is offence to Japans culture and history as it uses historical names and pretends to be japan historicaly based or something...
and also we have that stylish green haired dickless pussy main protagonist Yagyu Muneakira. he's not just bad character... he's not really even a character. he have stylish katana and suposed to be a brave samurai ready to die for great japans sake yet soon he turns out to be "general" of several bitches who's the only one who can activate their "hidden power".. by kissing them.
and that all he do. in entire show his only job is to kiss his bitches and act like a complete fucktard. and most important - whining, crying, worrying and act like a fucking dickless pussy shit kirito bitch kasanova shit for fuck sake. seriously this is one of the most boring, stupid, stereotypical, useless and regular harem character I've ever seen. arguably worse than kirito kirigaya itself... guess how many times he fought in those 13 episodes?? how many??? huh? your guess?? NONE!! he never even fucking fought a single time in entire 13 episodes! he only hidding behind womans back like a fucking pussy!! whenever enemy comes he hides under the backs of his bitches! "save me girls! I m in trouble" .....is he even a man? isn't its a man who suposed to protect a woman? but yeah lets not forget this is alternative twisted world where womans protecting those weak mans who are all pussies like Muneakira. also millitary is made exclusively out of womans. yes all the soldiers in this world is females only and no man serve in millitary forces... mans here can only be "generals" (harem masters, kasanovas).... seriously...
this should've been made as Hentai and that would be almost ok... almost..
but now its a fucking disaster...
this is one of the shitiest anime I've ever seen.
2/10
why not 1/10? because some nice boobs out there.. yeah if you want to watch this nonsencial bullshit just for the sake of boobs go on!
also theres a 2nd season for this shit called "samurai bride". didin't watch this one and not gonna watch it. not for me...
caseyc13
Overall this was a really great anime. Of course to get through this you have to be ok with Ecchi, but if you enjoy Ecchi then this is right up your alley. There are great fights, and intriguing premise, and moderately well developed characters. Sure alot of the things in here have been done before, but this anime manages to have fun without losing sight of the importance of the plot. Sure there is fan service and the requisite awkward situations, it still maintains a serious undertone since the fate of Japan is riding on them. Overall a great littleseries, more than worth watching.
lotte310
from my point of view the basic story is about a guy that is just normal who has the ability to turn girls into Master Samurai by kissing them. The fact that there are a lot of ''nude'' (censored but still) scene's bothered me at first but well, i guess some people are into that. I really liked the way the main characters are introduced because you know from the beginning what they are like and how they react to things. I also really liked the fact that Jubei had two personalities and at the beginning you thought they were opposite from each other butat the end they had a lot in conmen.
I liked the art and sound but didn't love it but that might be because the videos i watched were bad quality. I think it's a bit to 'blurry' (That's not the right word for it but i can't think of the right word, but it is close) buy the sound was fine, nothing special really.
Overall i did really enjoy it but the 'nude' scenes could be, well, scripted out i guess ;). I might watch it again but i'm first going to watch season 2 because i HAVE TO KNOW what happens next
Scrypt
If there's one thing 2010 isn't short of, it would have to be the abundance of ecchi anime that's aired this year. From titles like Kiss x Sis, High School of the Dead, and even Seikon no Qwaser, it makes one think that Japan has had a rise in lonely boys who are buying into this stuff like ice to Eskimos. Hyakka Ryōran: Samurai Girls is no different in that all it really is, is a show about samurai with breasts set in neo-Japan. Die-hard fans of historical anime/literature may feel insulted to this as famous names like Sanada Yukimura, Yagyū Jūbei and even Senhimé aremade to cast as moé characters.
Story - 6
Ryōran takes place in an alternate world where the samurai co-exist with modern technology. How Akira Suzuki(author of the light novels) came up with the idea is beyond me but its definitely not unheard of if your a fan of Gintama. In this reality, master samurai are like guardian deities who serve their shogun as well as protect the populace with their godly powers that differentiate them from your average samurai.
Sound good so far? I thought so too until I realized this series was more a rom-com harem then an action anime. Don't get me wrong, there definitely is action in the series but there just wasn't enough to outweigh the lame overdone comedy. For those who have seen the series Sekirei may see some similarities(like the norito kiss) in this anime, and will probably get the same disappointment in regards to Ryōran's plotline.
Art - 7
If there's one thing Ryōran will be remembered by(if it ever gets remember by next season), is its art and animation. From background to character design, everything is presented in a unique fashion that is different from your typical 2D or CG anime. Of course that doesn't mean that characters are drawn in a weird way as first and foremost, this is an ecchi anime that has samurai girls showing off their assets. One thing I have to commend the director with is the method to which they use to censor the ladies naughty bits. Instead of using the traditional white light or white fog, we are shown ink blotches which coincide with the series artwork.
Whilst I wouldn't say animation is first class for Ryōran, I'd definitely rate it higher then other battle anime that's come out recently(like Nurarihyon no Mago)
Sound - 7
Another component I guess I enjoyed for this series would have to be its sound. With J-rock band Faylan performing the OP "Last Vision For Last", your easily swayed into thinking this series is well worth watching as it pulls you in with the beat like any good shonén anime should. The ED "Koi ni Sesse Tooryanse" performed by the leading ladies of the series is not bad either(nor is it any good) and the BGM is nicely set in place giving you the right ambiance and pacing.
I really have no complaints with the voice cast, asides from that anyone who has seen School Days may be clearly reminded that the main lead for this series is Makoto. Thought I'd throw it out there :D
Character - 3
This is where the series fails. The characters of Ryōran are shallow and there is not one character in the anime that I could say is solid. We are reminded time and time again through each character, that this really is a two-bit harem. The main lead at first showed some promise but quickly fell into the endless spiral of uninspiring harem males and the supporting ladies are a joke. If someone was to ask me if I've seen Ryōran, my first reply would be "Oh, that boobies show?" because that's all the women of Ryōran is all about.
Enjoyment - 6
Watching Ryōran is like riding a bicycle through a mountainous valley. There are so many ups and downs to the series that its not worth counting. As long as your not looking for a deeper meaning to what this show portrays, then its all downhill in regards to enjoyment.
Overall - 5
Hyakka Ryōran: Samurai Girls is first and foremost an ecchi anime. If that's what your looking for, then this series should definitely please. Yes it has action and a bit of story, but I wouldn't call it its selling point and is more a bonus.
NoblesseOblige3
At this stage of my review, that is to say, the very beginning, i feel obligated to let you know that this review will not end positively. It's a warning you perhaps do not wish or care to hear but one i must inform you thusly. There will be positive comments throughout but they will all fall eventually into a melancholic tone to highlight certain disappointments. This show can be summarised in the following sentence; that is to say if i do not go off on a random tangent instead, big breasted female samurai fight against villains. That is, there are only two villains of theshow but one of them isn't really that bad. He's just extreme. There are also only two males who actually do something. I believe there to be a third but he would hardly count and you do hear about other males but they are never seen. Expect a lot of harem clichés to slither their way in and out of the plot. I say out but to be fair they never leave. They stick around to the end. I will not claim Hyakka to be great and groundbreaking for its genre or claim it to be so terrible it's an insult.
The setting for this show is a hard one to grasp. At first you start thinking perhaps it is set in the edo period or a period similar but then a character whips out a computer from nowhere. Unless the writer of this show knows something the rest of the world doesn't. I don't think they had computers that far back, at the very least, we do know it is set in Japan and that it is set among very traditional Japanese people; Dojo's, Kimono's, those sliding doors. Not really surprising. It would be weird having a samurai show in modern day Tokyo or something. It's one of the shows facets that help it differ from the likes of Sekirei and Ikkitousen.
Each character from this show i found out (help from wikipedia was much appreciated) shares their name with famous Japanese icons from the past albeit gender flipped and huge personality changes. I mean ALL of the characters do, not just a couple or a few. There are two who do not however rendering my previous inflection on 'all' moot. Muneakira is our harem protagonist and to be fair to him he is a lot better at it than most HPs but he isn't that great. He actually does very little but what he did do was pretty bad ass. Yukimura is a small flat chested girl and is basically the 'smart' one of the group. Sen is the Ojou type who is incredibly bossy but does lessen as time goes on. These two become quite obsessed with the HP at times, i know, a pain right? Jubei is a slpit personality of sorts and claims the family name Yagyu, the exact same as our HP, yes they managed to throw in the classic non blood related little sister. Her 'other' half is so cool, that it can be forgiven. Matabei, Kanetsugu and Hanzo are pretty much there for the fan service. I mean, Matabei only ever wears a loincloth and a small shirt, Hanzo's attire consist os the standard maid uniform and Kanetsugu looks like Hatsune Miku of Vocaloid fame. With the abundance of clichés you should expect these characters clothes to get shred to pieces. I watched the blu ray (oh boy the blu ray) so everything was revealed in full HD. Something of which is hard to explain to people walking by glancing at what i am watching and having to explain not all anime is tentacle and boobs. Ah yes. I do believe i forgot to mention there are in fact two separate tentacle monsters and an invisible fiend. If you do not possess the ability to see me through your computer monitor i am as of mentioning the three monsters, shaking my head. You do have a blond haired big breasted d'Artagnan to look forward to (or straight at if you tend to perv).
The music was an area i don't have any particular feelings towards. The opening is enjoyable as far as openings go. I will listen to it for one minute thirty every episode but i will not hunt down the full mp3 anytime soon. Same goes for the ending. Had i not watched this on my tv but instead on my laptop i would most certainly have skipped it. Now holding my hands up in regret, i did not pay an attention to the background music for the most part. That is not a good thing, if it didn't stand out it was probably out sounded by speech or destruction or just wasn't very good at all. My money being the latter. One thing i did notice a couple of times. The battle music sounded awfully similar to Black Lagoons opening theme song.
The voice actors did an ok job. I watched both sub and dub. Well only about a thirds worth of it subbed but still subbed non the less. Now there were a couple of moments in which phrases such as; 'Ooooh' and 'Aaaah' would uttered from my lips in reply to the occasionally badly acted line but i would put the blame on the scrip more than the actors. This is a show in which the sub out ways the dub but i would recommend watching the dubbed version due to the reason stated in my next paragraph.
The best part of is the art. Not necessarily the greatest compliment you could get. In fiction i consider the story and characters to be far more important than how good something looks. Here though it should be seen as a compliment as had this show used a regular art style it wouldn't stand out in the least. Everything is drawn with a thick black outline compared to a normal thin line that may not even be black. Often when looking at a still you could compare it to a more traditional western comic book. They also had some fun with color. The entire final abttle is in black and white. Not the kind of black and white where it's drawn in color and then a black and white gradient map in Photoshop has been applied leaving a more grey feel to. No. This is drawn verbatim. Black shadows and outlines. White everything else. It really did make it look quite nice. They also used blood splatter on a regular basis. Even in calm moments just to pan from scene to scene. It was a nice change. Even during battle certain characters had different color motifs.
The art is the single part of Hyakka that sets it apart from the crap you usually find in battle harems. It is also why i probably would never recommend Hyakka Ryouran to anybody. Because what am i supposed to say? 'Watch Hyakka, it looks pretty', i'll likely get replies along the lines of 'Sod off' or 'anime always looks good idiot' or 'So does Gankutsuou and that's better'. Anyway, i find this show to be top of it genre, not really a compliment in as much, the rest is just shite. Quite frankly my dear the bad far out way the good and i can fully understand why it has the MAL rating it does.
razorblade81
One thing that made me want to see this show. THE ART! I saw the trailer, and was unbelieving. I watched the entire series, and now am a believer. This is one of the most unique and well done art styles I have seen in an anime in a long time. The heavy lines, softness of the colors, detail, all combines to make it very nice to watch. Granted, there is a lot of fan service. And I agree with others assessment, the ink blots used to cover naughty bits was annoying, especially in combat. However, getting the blu-ray version obviously fixed this problem. I don't havea problem with naughty bits, in fact it is a plus for me. (I am a guy duh) But I don't like that it will take away from some of the demographic because of that. With such great art, action and story, I know there are people that will miss out because of it.
Snakeskins
Samurai girls... I had never heard about this until I watched it, and DAMN was I happy with it. This is a harem series as it follows our main male protagonist muneakira and the band of big-boobed, (with one exception) weapon-wielding girls that follow him around all the time. He appeals to everyone, be it; a princess, her archenemy, a few servants, and all the naked girls falling from the sky... Yes, naked women rain down on this guy all the damn time. After this I decided that I should move to wherever the hell this takes place, because the climate here sounds way moreawesome than where I live.
Back to the harem part, whats a good harem without high amounts of meaningless fanservice? This show is like tits en masse! Be it all the girls jumping in baths together, or just grabbin on each other all the time, or whippin em out for muneakira's sake there are enough titty flashes to sink a really big ship!
The story kinda just floats along with the happy harem on one side, and the devious plot to fight an ancient enemy on the other. The nice thing with this show is that it doesnt wait until the last episode to do something, it actually gets some fights and shit going halfway through which as far as anime goes, is pretty good. The downside is that we hear samurai and we want some amazing fights, well thats not gonna happen here, we get some okay fights, and of couse a big showdown, but we have to remember that the main part of the story is going to be focused on the harem/ romance stuff.
The art is pretty cool to me because it is actually quite simple but it looks so good at the same time.
The characters are all good, shallow perhaps, but c'mon its harem! all they have to to is have big jugs(with that one exception) and they're in!
I enjoyed watching this alot, in fact once i finished, I immediately watched it again, and thats what you should take away from this.
Also, I am a firm believer that a shows music can make or break it, and I loved the theme songs for this, they were fucking awesome!!
This is all i have, if you like romance, tits, humor, more tits, and an interesting story this is definitely something you should consider watching.
HsXIII
Now watched all of the episodes, I have to say that it was quite an amusing series with some funny and, of course, many ecchi scenes. The characters were convincing and one could understand their feelings quite well. The art was very special and I liked this new style, seen in some of the new anime series that come out recently. The story was nothing special to be honest. A few battles and, of course, the good ones won all of them. The end, to that, wasn't something unexpected. It bored me a little, to be honest. All in all it was quite an enjoying show and I would adviceto watch it for the ecchi fans who don't care for the content, since, in this show, there wasn't much of it.
Therefore it was a little above average, thus I gave 6 of 10 points overall.
SevenKnights
wow... I don't know where to begin. I was truly touched at the end of the series. I guess I'll talk about the artwork. It takes a little getting used to since it literally looks like a painting. The artwork is really nice and pretty but the ink blots were really annoying lol. The story was pretty good. I never felt like there was much filler but who knows. I tend to enjoy anything, and everything when I watch a series so I guess that's why most of my reviews are really high haha. The ending was really sad though. I don't think I've been this affectedsince I read Elfen Lied, or when the "familiar" (I forgot his name lol) in Zero No Tsukaima died :'(
All in all I enjoyed this series a lot and I would hope others would enjoy it as much as I did.
Luquillo
Taking place in an alternate 21st century where the Tokugawa Shogunate still rules Great Japan, the generals of the country relied on Master Samurai's; very powerful women with special powers to fight their battles. As time passed, this breed of warrior has become more scarce. Muneakira Yagyu heads to the Buou Academy to meet with his long time friend Princess Sen, but he ends up in the middle of a battle taking place between students of the academy, and their rival Yukimara and her assistant who both represent Toyotomi. During the battle a girl falls from the sky claiming to be Jubei Yagyu before shepasses out after the fight. Who is this girl? And what was that display of power? These are only some questions leading to the coming events. -summary
I really wish that I stuck with my gut and avoided this atrocious anime title like AIDS. I've just about had it with Sentai Filmworks and their ridiculous line of anime titles. At this point in time, I've completely seen four of their titles and every last one of them rank amongst the worst anime I have ever seen including Samurai Girls. Despite not getting into the trailer at all, I came into this completely from a level-headed perspective. I gave this anime the benefit of the doubt and it made me literally cringe during the entire duration. Samurai Girls is almost completely devoid of all imagination, and it heavily relies on those same tired old harem comedy clichés. It features the same old mousy loser who's completely afraid of pussy, and is surrounded by a host of women for the flimsiest of reasons. The tired old love triangles, the girls who berate him for things that's not his fault, it just goes on and on. I am so sick and tired of this weak shit.
In all honesty, and I'm not trying to come off offensive or like some type of elitist, but Samurai Girls is for that type of anime fan who either has no standards at all, or are completely new and really haven't experienced the absolute best titles the genre has to after. The only positives I can think of lies in the visuals and music score. The anime is indeed stylish with a heavy manga influence filled with dark lines, and very nice looking backgrounds that reminds me of Super Street Fighter IV. Visually, there's just nothing bad to look at here and the character designs are very sexy for the women. There's some great detail in the loads of fan service provided. In addition, black ink blotches frequently drop down to the screen, and later on in the series, they feature different colored blotches that really does look cool. The action scenes contain many flashes and light shows reminiscent of Bleach and Dragonball Z. The BGM which is provided by Tatsuya Katou complements the anime well, when working for the action and comedy. Unfortunately, although these things stand out, they really didn't make getting through this anime any easier.
Samurai Girls was a chore for me. The visuals tend to overshadow the characters, plot, action, and story, because none of those things are anything special. The plot spins its wheels very early with little to no progression at all. The characters soon learn that the female samurai's can be transformed into Master Samurai's by kissing Muneakira, this pits at least three of them in this unoriginal, by the numbers love triangle that grows boring and annoying very quick with lots of bickering. To add to the lack of originality and completely insipid, the main character Jubei goes through a Lucy/Nyu-esque of Elfen Lied fame transformation, from powerful samurai warrior to an infantile retard that is nowhere near as annoying as Nyu, but is annoying as hell in her own right. None of the characters were the least bit interesting to me. If it wasn't for the fact that they were named after real samurai's of the Sengoku and Edo periods, I would have never even known their names.
This anime features one comic relief after the other, and even though I chuckled here and there to the characters antics. I felt the writers were trying way too hard to be funny, and more than half of the time the jokes were completely flat. They get even worse due to the constant rehashing. Later on around the ninth episode, something of a plot develops when the heroes learn they will have to face a demonic threat that could wipe them all out. Unfortunately, it's too badly paced and thanks to all of the filler before it everything feels too tacked on and very rushed. The action, which should be a stand out, is made up of flashes of action and falling bodies, with way too many high energy attacks. The writers cut way too many corners as there aren't any choreographed sword on sword exchanges, which is completely ridiculous for a show with a samurai setting.
There's no doubt that I personally believe I sat through a certified shitcapade, but what keeps these DVD's from being certified coasters, is that the anime never attempts to take itself too seriously. There are no tonal shifts, it's a straight forward light hearted ride meant to be fun; but the problem is that it doesn't accomplish any of its goals in the areas it set out to excel in as far as I'm concerned. This anime is an ant amongst giants when compared to series close to its type such as Excel Saga and Slayers.
Samurai Girls is a very poor excuse of a samurai/harem show. The only area it really stands out in is the prodution values; character designs, flashy action moments, fan service, music score, and for me, this just isn't enough. I hated the characters, their played out interactions, non choreographed action scenes, that troll final episode. It was just a bad experience for me. I only recommend this to the very easy to please. If you enjoyed Needless and High School of the Dead, then you'll love this.
Highs: Production values
Lows: Plot, characters, comedy, etc.
llama612
I was surprised when I watched this anime. It actually had some very good moments in it. Unfortunately those moments were few and far between. Overall though this isn't the worst anime I have seen and I did enjoy it. It's a good anime if you just feel like binge watching an anime, but only have one day to do it. Also this is a good anime if you want to see boobs, lots of boobs. Also if you aren't into anime like that then this is not the anime for you.
ArtimesGamer
At the beginning, Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls almost seems to know where it's going in terms of plot. Almost. A fascinating introduction informs us that this show will combine historical elements with fantasy and science fiction elements. Somehow, in this world of Zeppelins, DragonBall-style scouters, and bio genetic mutations, the Tokugawan Shogunate is in charge. And this re-imaged version of the Tokugawan Shogunate maintains its grip of power by utilizing attractive female super-warriors that it calls "Master Samurai". Now, this is all pretty far out there, but its also kind of cool, and after the first episode I was eager to see where they weregoing with it. The premise felt very promising.
The show becomes more and more complex, with naked Samurai-girls mysteriously descending from the sky, and angles relating to a government conspiracy unfolding. I don't shy away from complex stories, but its clear that they bit off more than they could chew with this one. As far as the romance goes, wait did i say romance? This isn't meant to be a sweeping love drama. It's a harem anime; you get your typical haphazard sexual tension with jealousy at first. It certainly never takes itself too seriously in this aspect, but as a result it's never particularly moving either.
The Characters in Hyakka Ryouran are, as a rule of thumb, flat. Occasionally we'll get a flashback that attempts to inform us more of that characters resolve, but these flashbacks usually aren't very exciting or interesting and mostly forced and not properly integrated into the experience. Most of the characters don't even receive this treatment, and we are instead left with stock characters pasted into the story to fulfill their purpose. Among these are the hotheaded, pampered princess, Sen Tokugawa, the super genius-tsundere Yukimura Sanada, and the male character who does absolutely nothing but act as plot-glue for the girls, Muneakira. I don't want to give away spoilers, but you will see when you start watching it. What exactly is the MC's main role?
They are not, however, without their positive qualities. Aesthetically, almost all of the characters have an interesting design (at least the female ones.) And despite being generic, the characters aren't unlikable. Characters such as Yukimura fulfill an archetype that works; and it would take a person without a heart to hate the adorable Jyuubei. Aside from that though their really is nothing redeeming or inspiring bout the characters in this show.
This show's artistic style boiled down to one word: ink. This was never meant to be a series that looks "normal" like other animation. Character outlines here are strikingly bold, but the thickness of the lines vary as if it were done with a brush stroke. Backgrounds appear to have been painted in a similar way. It never looks bad, but it's also strange to see this application of style in an anime. It appears more to be a style used in visual novels or video games. Still, it looks great when animated; screen captures do it little justice. Hyakka Ryouran's love affair with ink doesn't end with the character and background lines though. During battles, the ink blots actually splash off of the characters weapons onto the "camera." During transitional screens, the ink blots are again prevalent. In fact, even the rain is drawn boldly in black, as if it were meant to be ink. Not even the opening and ending videos are spared the splatter. This effect is really incredible in episode one, but by episode twelve, it begins to feel really stale. They did something great, but they went back to the well too often with it. This is perhaps my personal most favorite aspect of the show, no joke. It reminds me of some video games like "Okami" or Muramasa the demon Blade's visual anesthetic art style.
Now speaking of the music. I will say that the opening song is what actually drew me to this show in the first place, the opening is very catchy and a great j-pop with a mix of rock in it. I truly enjoyed the opening and it even gave that unique artistic style in the first episode, the moment i watched the opening, i was drawn to the series. As far as the music in the series it self, it was pretty mediocre. The music did improve towards the end of the series.
The animation quality is high, and the visual effects look quite good. Unfortunately, none of the battles in the show have any punch to them. They feel as though just pretty pictures of still images on screen flashing back and forth during transitioning of scenes.
I do want to say that one thing I found appealing was that the girls each have their own unique attacks which appear on the screen (written in ink of course.) I found this aspect kind of cool. I am not sure if different fansubs differ in that regards but i watched the Ryuumaru fansubs and each character, along with attacks had their own colored texts.
Final Words
Honestly, if you've read this far you've probably already decided whether or not you're going to watch this show. It's an ecchi. If you're planning to watch it, it's for the blend of comedy and the fan service even though the comedy was not that hilarious to me. I had a few chuckles here and their but thats bout it. You're going to get all of the breasts shots, tits and even ass. Lots of soft core nudity as expected with most harems. Think about (Sekirei). If moments like that are what you're after, you won't be disappointed.
Aside from that, Hyakka Ryouran doesn't have much going for it, though. Everyone should watch at least one episode just to get a sense of the unique style, since it is something different, and it's something kind of cool. Ikki tousen ( I am taking bout the 1st season of course) came to mind well watching this, but as sup bar as ikki tousen is, i would say that ikki tousen does a more improved job of integrating the story and not just heavily focusing on ecchi as a primary core element of the series. Taking into account everything, else, story, plot, character development, i am going to say pass on this one. Their are much better samurai girl anime's out their.
realanimefan
I liked the premise behind this anime especially the fact that it was set in an alternate Japan during the 21st century where the Tokugawa Shogunate is still in power instead of Imperial rule being restored. I like how each character has a name that is related to actual people who existed in the past. One thing about the anime I really enjoyed was the animations. This is the first anime I have ever seen where the animations remind me of a manga, it is a very clever idea. Although the story was clever I think they should have put moreof an emphasis on the main character I am referring the General. Although his samurai’s followed him without question I couldn’t get over the fact that he seemed like he had no ability. The anime shows a flash of his ability in the first episode which is what originally made me want to see this show; however, they really stopped developing him as a character as the show progressed. The ending was spectacular but the finale left me quite angry and disappointed. I do hear that there are some new ova’s coming out though so maybe that will sooth the anger. The show was good but could have been better and the ending was really good but hard for me to swallow.
imprezagc8
Back in the time of the samurai, where guys controlled girls that had mystical powers. [sarcasm] yeah that totally makes sense. [/sarcasm] The girls are obviously more powerful than the guy but they listen to them. They like to be controlled by a powerful guy. Talk about a S&M relationship, and sadly not the hentai kind of S&M. This anime hardly has nudity, and when you think might get to see something it is censored. OMG the stupid ink blob things that cover the screen can get very irritating. I have to say that 70% of the time you seetons of ink blobs that cover about half the screen at times. It is used for
censorship and during fight scenes. The FIGHT scenes....... I mean come on! It may look cool to some of you but I think i completely gets in the way. !@#$%^&*
Honestly i can't give a good evaluation about the sound because I some times I needed to concentrate in order to read what people where saying and watching what was going on, or at least what I could see.
One thing that I can not figure out was the point of Jubei and Muneakira having the same surname. What purpose did it really serve? Maybe I just don't remember. Then there is Matabei and Yukimura. Both of them are the bad guys, or at least that is what it seems like when the show first starts. Then all of a sudden they are not the bad guys. Turns out the bad guy is really [Insert giant ink blob here]
Despite me saying a bunch a bad stuff about this anime I did like it, to a certain extent. Otherwise I wouldn't have finished it. Everything was just barley good enough for me to keep watching. I do like anything with a little bit of ecchi, but that is just my personal taste.
