Shigurui

Popular to contrary belief, Japan's Tokugawa (or Edo) period, wasn't all about fancy clothes and fairy tales at all. It was a time when honor and loyalty ruled in a man's world. Where women were treated as mere objects and held rather little to no power. And being formal with your enemies was as common as wielding a blade. This story basically follows the trials and tribulations of two warring clans rife with sex, lies, and deceit.




Don't get me wrong, Shigurui isn't a complete historically accurate show, but it's damn close. Starting off with the music, its very reminiscent of something you would hear ... straight out of a Japanese stage opera and sets the mood and pace perfectly for this show. If you turned off your monitor you swear you were watching a Japanese play unfold before your very ears its all a beautiful experience. Even the cold silence can emit a feeling unlike any other.

The actual sound effects of the show are also very play-oriented. It's usually silent with the exception of the actors playing their role, but when there are sound effects they are usually very subtle, environmental, sound effects like wind rustling, or flames snapping, or even the sound of gravel being undisturbed beneath a warriors feet. Less sound in this instance is good as it gives immerses the viewer in to such an intriguing drama.

The voice acting are all top notch as well. I'm not a big fan of a mostly male seiyu cast, but all the voice actors play their part with such passion and seriousness that I am not very accustomed to. Albeit its not very hard to act as a badass or a madman with very little lines in every episode. Compared to all the cute loli anime being released in droves recently, this is a very welcome change of pace.

From the beginning of the opening credits, one can already see that they are in for a visual treat. Its not often that you get to experience something like this. EVERY scene in this show is so beautiful that each cel can be a masterpiece in its own right. The background art is so pretty you swear you've seen the art off a history text or a museum its that immaculate. Even every camera angle has its own beauty and flair. To add to its historic feel colors are pretty limited to a neutral tone (brownish green tinge) more reminiscent of tapestry paintings of the time. Apart from the background art, the character art has its own beauty and uniqueness not found anywhere else. Each character (including stand-in's) are all drawn with the utmost care. Wrinkles, shadows, beards all drawn in with large detail. Each person looks completely unique from their eyes hair and face, all the way down to their clothing (with unique patterns and colors) and sandles. Little forewarning there are a lot of adult situations including violence and sexuality, but they are all there for reason. Even if its only there to show how brutal and harsh (yet elegant) the Edo period really was.

The story itself is a rather hit and miss mostly because of the "Tarantino" effect they did with the main story. After a few episodes you almost forget about the main story. But how they skillfully use art and sound and voice acting in every episode the viewer is more drawn to the situation at hand rather than what happened 4 episodes ago. It can be intriguing for some and a turn off for others. But I really appreciate the detail and accuracy they try to pull off with this show. Now I'm no expert in the Tokugawa period or Japanese history in general, but I am a decent history buff and know more than enough to truly appreciate an epic such as this.

For you kiddies expecting to watch something like bleach or samurai champloo or even Inyuasha, i highly recommend reading up on some good Japanese literature. Namely, Amaterasu, List of Divinities, or Kojiki (they were required reading for my uni). Or wiki up some Tokugawa period history (specifically Kan'ei) if you don't feel like reading up on such historic pieces. As for everyone else, I highly recommend watching this as this should be one of the best examples on how to do an artistic anime. Don't expect much in terms of pace, treat it like you were watching a stage play on your pc. One word of caution, be prepared to experience cold, brutal, reality

Overview:

Shigurui or "Death Frenzy" is a...controversial anime. This anime has a LOT of gore, a LOT of nudity and sexual violence, and doesn't exactly tackle its gloomy subject matter with artistic subtlety. Basically, imagine combining the 1990s OVA Ninja Scroll with elements of Rurouni Kenshin, Berserk, and some exploitation movie that the Cinema Snob would review! THAT is exactly what Shigurui feels like to watch! Despite all of this...I actually enjoyed this series. This is definitely not a series for everyone, but it has some positive elements that are truly worthy of praise.


Story:

The story starts in the year 1629 with a large kendo tournament using ... real swords and matches to the death. This tournament is being held by the brutal tyrant Tadanaga Tokugawa, who is the younger brother of the shogun ruling Japan. Tadanaga was executed for his "criminal insanity" and is sort of like Japan's Caligula, so this tournament is not out of place with the kind of deeds commonly attributed to him by Japanese historians. However, that isn't to say that Shigurui tries to be 100% historically accurate. Shigurui will instantly remind viewers of the much more famous Rurouni Kenshin with legendary swordsmen standing around and waiting for their opponents to unleash the "Super Secret Bullshit Technique" of the "Does not exist" school of sword fighting. Shigurui is infamous for having so many rape scenes, but nothing gets raped worse than the laws of physics in this series! The 2 main fighters in the tournament are long time rivals and mortal enemies. The entire series is a flashback explaining their histories and all the bad blood between them. The main 2 characters are the samurais Fujiki and Irako. Both were once students of universally feared Kogan School of Kendo, which was run by a brutal and completely insane old man named Kogan Iwamoto. Irako was blinded and exiled from the school for cheating with Kogan's mistress and now wishes to annihilate the entire school for revenge. Fujiki is loyal to the school and wishes to get revenge on Irako for killing everyone it it besides him. That's the entire plot! Also this is a condensed adaptation that didn't want to create its own "filler ending" so instead it just abruptly ends in the middle of the story! What makes the series interesting is its action, music, portrayal of history, artwork, and believe it or not the questions that it asks!

Characters:

The 2 main characters have commonly been compared to Guts and Griffith from Berserk and although this was actually based off a novel far older than Berserk, I can REALLY see why people would say that. Fujiki is a one armed swordsman who is loyal to a fault and against his conscience will carry out brutal deeds if ordered. Fujiki lives on for the sole purpose of getting revenge on Irako for killing all of his friends. Irako is a highly effeminate, Machiavellian bastard that wears lipstick. Irako was born to the lower class, but he is extremely ambitious and charismatic, willing to kill anyone and everyone to rise to the top. However, here is where the similarities end! Fujiki may feel sort of bad for following terrible orders, but he would never quit his master like Guts did after Griffith ordered him to assassinate the Duke. Guts would never follow an order to hurt someone he cares about, while Fujiki willingly held down a girl he liked so another man could rape her. Guts shows a lot of strong emotions and is a Byronic Hero, while Fujiki is NOT portrayed as a hero at all. Fujiki is frequently called a "puppet" with no will and ambition of his own, and this is honestly accurate. Irako may share similarities to Griffith, but the show never at any point attempts to make the viewer admire Irako. Griffith has his many "magnificent bastard" moments when the viewer is awed by his cunning, intelligence, and skill. Griffith also was shown in Caska's flashbacks to have at one time been a fairly decent person that sort of cared about the lives of his men. Irako is a straight up evil motherfucker. This guy laughably murders a kitten for absolutely no reason! He randomly murders prostitutes and only joined the Kogan School to "drain everything it had and move on". To top it all off, he's not even very cunning and is only the 4th best fighter in the series! His revenge only succeeded as well as it did due to random outside help combined with dumb luck. He hires someone to poison the # 3 best fighter, beats the #1 fighter by backstabbing when he was distracted, and gets his ass kicked by the #2. There are some other characters with potential, but the 2 scorned and revenge obsessed female characters don't have enough development. Kogan is a sick old fuck who happens to be freakishly strong, much like Wyald from the Berserk manga. There is a reason Wyald keeps getting cut out of the adaptations! He is a plot device, not a well developed character. Now on to the things this anime really does well!

Art:

Shigurui was animated by Studio Madhouse and it looks absolutely fantastic! Japanese characters actually fucking look Japanese!!! People actually have intestines and well drawn organs instead of red paint and indiscernible chunks. When a character gets his head split in 2 we actually get to see a Sagittal Plane view showing everything inside with decent anatomical accuracy! The characters wear clothes that are period accurate and look like some actual thought and effort went into them. The backgrounds are well detailed and aren't marred by horrible use of CG. This was made in 2009 when bad CG, lazy backgrounds, and "Moe" absolutely dominated the anime industry. This series took a gamble and it really paid off!

Music:

The music is entirely traditional Japanese music that stays consistent with the Tokugawa Shogunate time period. It doesn't switch back and forth between period appropriate music and a really crappy comic relief track played on synthesizer whenever some dumbass appears on screen! This may not sound like much, but seriously I have seen over 300 anime and this basically NEVER happens!

Portrayal of history:

The days of the samurai in Japanese pop culture, much like Europe's Medieval Period in much of Western literature, is frequently romanticized as "the good old days". This was when people knew their place in the world, served with honor, and nobly sacrificed themselves to avoid shame befalling their family. Much like Game of Thrones, Shigurui rejects this nostalgia and shows the poverty, disease, filth, and low quality of life that the ordinary people of this period had to suffer through. The author of the original novel was named Norio Nanjo and he was a Japanese soldier in China during WW2. He felt it was unjust that Japanese history at that point solely focused on Emperors, Generals, and the people at the very top. The life of an ordinary Japanese soldier or the civilians they massacred weren't written about and historians simply didn't care about that part history. Nanjo not only wished to show history from the perspective of the common man, but also to reveal the whole truth and not conceal any embarrassing details. For example, Shigurui actually has the balls to mention that samurai very commonly had 5-10 year old boys as assistants called "wakashu". A samurai was fully expected to have anal sex with their wakashu in order to teach them submission and loyalty to their master. In addition to this, most respected samurai did NOT remain faithful to their wives and visited prostitutes FREQUENTLY. I'm not talking about Geisha for music and conversation, I mean actual prostitutes! How about the fact that women in Japan until the Meiji Period would purposely blacken their teeth because blacker teeth were considered more beautiful? In a country like Japan with such reverence for ancestors and history, to show the naked truth and not polish up the unpleasant details is a rather bold and commendable feat!

Philosophy:

There is no good and evil in Shigurui. Instead we are left to decide which is worse: a man who will follow any evil deed like a robot, or a man who commits evil of his own volition and cares only for himself. Neither is portrayed in a flattering light and no answers are definitively given here. Normally the concept of absolute loyalty is revered in Japan, but after personally witnessing the actions of the Japanese Army in China and the willingness of soldiers to follow the "Kill all, Burn all, Loot all" policy, Nanjo began to question this supposed truth. In many ways, the simply evil and selfish character Irako is actually the anti-hero and chief protagonist of this story for rebelling against the Japanese cultural principles that led to the deaths of over 10 million civilians in just a few years. This is a rather interesting question and not one that is frequently brought up either in Japanese media or elsewhere. The supposed hero of the story Fujiki is someone the viewer grows to both pity and despise for embodying what is almost always portrayed as a great trait in anime.


Overall:

Who would have thought that an anime that features a martial arts master karate chopping a prostitute's nipple off and then eating it would cause the viewer to reflect and think?! I really would have preferred that the anime had more episodes and completed the manga instead of remaining faithful for the parts that it covered... but just abruptly ending. However, the fact that this wasn't a big hit in Japan and didn't get a sequel isn't the fault of Shigurui. It is the fault of consumers that demand Ikki Tousen have 5 seasons and frequently neglect more worthy anime. This is certainly a series with some big flaws, but as I explained I also really loved some aspects. It is certainly a series I would recommend checking out, as long as you have a fairly strong stomach that is!

Among the numerous things a review is supposed to accomplish, there's this: Give the reader a sense of what to expect from the content that's under examination in order to help them determine whether or not they should dedicate their valuable time to checking it out. To that end, I'll try to steer some poor souls away from trouble immediately by saying that Shigurui contains a massive amount of exceedingly gruesome gore as well as all manner of violent sexual predations, and in many cases those two things appear onscreen simultaneously. If you have a strong aversion to the stomach-turning, you can probably just ... continue on your merry way, because this show is two cuts above grotesque. That being said, I don't believe that art is under any obligation to be shiny and happy, and content of a violent and brutal nature doesn't necessarily make something “bad” (although, in this instance, the point is a little moot). But for anyone who remains undeterred, there is an actual review up ahead.

To say that Shigurui has high production values would be an understatement. Even by the standards of the frequent overachievers at studio Madhouse, Shigurui is looking at “high production values” in the rearview mirror half a mile back. It's a shame that much of the show takes place in dimly lit dojos and huts, because the outdoor backgrounds are nothing short of gorgeous. I'll be blunt in saying that the character designs are repulsive—everything about them is exaggerated, and from their overblown facial features to their overly pale, shiny skin, they look more like wax caricatures of humanity than anything else. Given the show's general love of putting the disgusting on display, I'd wager that this is intentional, and while the designs aren't aesthetically pleasing, they're fitting, and their remarkable level of detail and consistency can't be denied. The one artistic aspect where Shigurui falls a tad short is the animation; on the rare occasions where fluid animation is actually present, it looks great, but unfortunately the series defaults more to blink-and-you-miss-it shortcuts and fades for its fight scenes, which are less than enthralling (more on that later).

Shigurui is musically minimal. Most of the score consists of slower, more traditional Japanese music. Ominous drumbeats and strings are par for the course, sometimes punctuated by a deep, wailing chant. Atmospheric sound is common and used to good effect, with the old standbys of keening cicadas and chirping birds being the most noticeable. Some of the show's better music actually comes in the form of rhythmic folk songs sung by field laborers or village children as the samurai pass them by. To some degree, this befits both the setting and the “slow but violent under the surface” nature of the series.

And now we come to the writing, which, for the most part, is where I lose the ability to say anything positive about Shigurui. For all of its artistry and its attention-garnering violence and sexuality, the plot is built on fairly typical samurai fare: In the present time, a swordsmanship tournament is being held. Facing each other are two decrepit samurai, one of them blind and one of them missing an arm. They are both students of the same school of swordsmanship, they have a historic rivalry with each other, and the rest of the series is a flashback that delves into that rivalry. Revenge, rivalry, and betrayal can be made powerful with a quality story and good characterization (see Berserk, Gungrave) but it just isn't so here. Shigurui's writers seem to be going for the “slow but deliberate” buildup, and as a result the story dawdles, takes frequent forays into the backgrounds of characters and objects which have a minimal connection with the plot, and all the while fails to generate tension or momentum in any significant amount. A lack of complexity isn't always a bad thing, and good execution can take a simple plot, run with it, and make it compelling. But here is simplicity done wrong: Meandering, directionless, trying its hardest to pull something out of nothing and be more than it really is. Entire episodes could be skipped with minimal loss. You can practically see the seams where the plot is stitched together—in the first half of the show, someone is wronged, and in the second half, that someone seeks revenge in a methodical, predictable fashion while everyone else runs around like chickens with their heads cut off. The show's ending is somewhat fitting, but it's also anticlimactic in the first degree, and leaves many questions unanswered. It's insult to injury, and as a result, Shigurui's story is an absolute drag, a bloody, swerving run-on sentence with no period.

Memorable characters could probably dig the show out of the hole, but to call Shigurui's efforts in that area “paper-thin” would be to short-change paper. The leads, Fujiki and Irako, are both tools of the plot, and they bend to its will in completely unreal turnarounds. Irako goes from “sinister, merciless, master swordsman” to “blubbering, defenseless idiot” seemingly at the drop of a hat, and Fujiki, originally the least offensive protagonist, develops into a brutal, sadistic shell of a man for what appears to be no reason whatsoever. Both characters have motivations that are either completely unknown (Fujiki) or laughably simple-minded and one-note (Irako). As previously mentioned, the show would rather spend time delving into shoddily introduced plot elements than fostering any sort of actual interaction between these two characters; it glosses over their development as fellow swordsmen completely, and in the end the root of their much-touted, show-spanning rivalry seems to be limited to “Irako beat Fujiki in a practice match this one time and then Fujiki punched Irako in the face.” They hardly ever speak to each other; the show seems to be going for effective minimalism in this aspect, but it falls short. We know almost nothing about the ideals of either man, and while they might have good reasons to kill each other, the truth is that they're both cold and simple characters to a nearly inhuman degree, and it's nearly impossible to care about them or relate to them in any sense. Add to that some terribly flat supporting roles who seem to exist for the dual purposes of dying gruesomely and killing time while the show struggles to reach the 12-episode mark and you get a lackluster cast that's utterly incapable of picking up the slack left by the similarly flawed story.

In fact, Shigurui as a whole feels like the result of one big case of writer's block. That there's talent and effort poured into the series is beyond question—the near-flawless artistry, the attention to detail, and the willingness to show things that the audience might not want to see are all hallmarks of a strong creative team. It's even directed by Hiroshi Hamasaki, who managed to score a home-run with similar directorial style in the slow-but-powerful Texhnolyze. I've little doubt that if Shigurui's writing had been handled differently, the show could float above average, maybe even to greatness. I'm all for rooting for the underdog, and I'd love to be able to write a cute blurb along the lines of “despite its outward mask of grotesquely twisted sex and violence, Shigurui has numerous redeeming qualities...”

...but, truthfully, short of the art and the general atmosphere, I just don't see anything worth praising. Shigurui has nothing to say. It has all of the means in the world, but no conceivable ends. It's completely without vision, and as a poor replacement for vision, it reaches onto the shelf and pulls out the book of sheer brutality and shock value. It's the angry pre-teen, screaming (admittedly creative) obscenities, hoping that others will mistake them for maturity. In a sort of sad irony, its positive aspects actually look retrospectively silly when coupled with its writing, like lipstick on a pig. The fight scenes, which amount to staring contests punctuated by swift blows delivered via animation shortcuts, could have been effective if there was any emotion brewed between the characters involved, but lacking that element, they ring hollow. The slow, traditional music and voice-over narration sound absurdly ham-fisted and out of place next to the needless sexual violence. Countless artistic shots of butterflies and cicadas, symbols of change and rebirth, are not a substitute for writing characters who actually undergo convincing development. The show has zero self-awareness; at its best moments it's a halfway entertaining gut-spiller, and at its worst moments it's borderline BDSM smut, yet from start to finish it operates under the misleading pretense that it's an engaging work of art. In all walks of life it's best not to kid yourself, and I can't help but recommend that if you're going to make something as pointless and mind-numbingly gratuitous as this show, you could at least maintain some honesty about it.