Seisen Cerberus: Ryuukoku no Fatalités

Maintaining a delicate balance of power, the kingdoms of Amoria, Ishilfen, and Vanrodis rule over the continent of Kuna'anh. Even the slightest hint of trouble in one country could spark a continent-wide war. However, their one common fear is the evil dragon Daganzord, whose only meaning of existence is to devour and destroy all life.

Ten years ago, a group of mages worked together in an effort to seal away the malevolent beast. But the ritual—later known as the "Balbagoa Tragedy"—was a failure, and many lost their lives. Though his parents died in this tragedy, Hiiro was saved by the swordsman Giruu. Under the latter's tutelage, Hiiro learned swordsmanship with the sole purpose of seeking revenge. Now a budding master himself, he sets out in search of Daganzord in order to realize his long-awaited vengeance, or to be consumed by the dragon and meet the same fate as his parents.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hiiro Main

Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu Japanese

Saraato Main

Ichimichi, Mao Japanese

Sharisharuu Supporting

Ise, Mariya Japanese

Erin Supporting

Uchida, Maaya Japanese

Giruu Supporting

Kusunoki, Taiten Japanese

Mumuu Supporting

Numakura, Manami Japanese

Parupa Supporting

Ueda, Youji Japanese

Bahharoppa Supporting

Omoro, Masayuki Japanese

Kismitete Supporting

Kawasaki, Meiko Japanese

Nanbuuko Supporting

Sakuya, Shunsuke Japanese

Shukuwa, Kousuke Producer

Nakayama, Koutarou Producer

Chan, Ming H. Producer

Kondou, Nobuhiro Director

Reviews

Jun 27, 2016

Traitorman

Recommended

If you don't want spoilers, I would stop reading this now, as a very minor one lies in this review. However, I would argue that the spoiler helps greatly with the enjoyment you'd get out of this show.

TL;DR: If you like unintentionally funny and have a good knowledge of tropes, you can probably enjoy this a fair bit. The characters have some incredible stupidity going on, which can actually end up being charming. Eventually, it can grow on you as well. If you don't like that stuff? It won't have much to offer you.

Cerberus is not a great show, it's not even a good ... show.

It is, however, a hilarious show.

Now I'll be up front. If you're looking for a good story, with good production values, excellent characters, world building, deep meaning, and original twists then....

None of that is to be found here. (Maybe check out Re:Zero instead)

Cerberus uses a pretty much by the numbers hero's journey comboed with a revenge story, makes use of pretty stereotypical character archetypes without much thought as to development or characterization, has quite a generic fantasy world (with an odd fascination with crystals) and tropes and twists pulled right out of all kinds of other fantasy and mystical shows. It's not original, and quite frankly I can't argue with most of the reasons people give it a 3-5.

However, in exact opposite to other reviews, I think the show actually has a very weak first episode and gets better from there.

So you start off in the first episode with a generic, sneering edgy protagonist who seems like he's going to be overpowered and played up like a badass. He's got a giant sword, the camera actually focuses on his glinting sorta-jewelry and people are reluctant to pick fights with him/are intimidated by his presence. In other words, a typical power fantasy.

And oddly enough, if you like those type of power fantasy protagonists then you should stop watching Cerberus *immediately*.


By the next episode, it's revealed that the main character is actually *incredibly* incompetent. He barely can wield his sword right, he loses to slimes all the time during training and he can't keep his shit together for five minutes. Yet, beautifully, he still keeps CLAIMING to be a badass. He does this for a good portion of the series, and all the other characters recognize the immediate discrepancy between his bark and his bite.


Headed up by this clumsy asshole, the party consists of a greedy, whiny lizard dude, a sneaky titty-cat girl, a put-upon blue-haired conan (who serves as the protagonist's mentor), a straight-man boy thief, and a wandering moron with a female voice actress so bored that the character sounds like she's on tranquilizers for the whole shebang (or maybe the VA was).

These fools are the only ones that can stop The Villain(tm) and his quasi-competent raging shithead loli sidekick.

Hilarity ensues.

The show seems to waffle between taking itself seriously thus generating humour from the incompetent flailing of the protagonist as he tries to stumble his way through the (honestly not that challenging) plot, or seeming to know damn well what it is and having the other characters point out and make fun of the protagonist's nearly endless flaws. If you're ready to laugh right along with and at the show, and if you get a perverse kick out of crappy tropes, you'll like this. It's one of those so bad it's good things...for a while.

See, what the show accidentally does with all the character's incompetence is successfully make him the underdog, which makes it kinda easy to root for him. The other thing is that the characters, while generic, aren't really bad people either. As one of my friends said, that means that the protagonist might grow on you like some kinda purple haired fungus, and his companions as well.

Suddenly, you're into the story and realize you're actually engaged with Seisen Cerberus of all things.

Of course, your mileage will vary.

So:

Story gets 6/10 for being competent enough, though tropey, to hold itself together. It's servicable as a vehicle for the comedy. If you're actually looking to take it seriously, however this would be a 3/10 as there are little to no surprises here.

Art 6/10, it's serviceable with some generic designs and a weird crystal aesthetic. Nothing offensive, but nothing too pretty either.

Sound 6/10. It does its job, and the voice acting is okay for the most part although Saraato (the wandering moron)'s VA's performance is so phoned in that it comes out on the other end as hilarious and AMAZING. If you're actually taking that seriously though, a 4/10 would be more accurate.

Character 7/10. Tropes! Tropes! Tropes! However, the endearing hilarity and odd ability for them to grow on you makes this a weak 7.

Enjoyment. 9/10 I loved this. It was hilarious, and by the end I found I was satisfied with the simple story. This is my own experience, though, so I can't really speak for anyone else.

Overall 7/10. It was good due to its comedy, both intentional and unintentional.


That's Cerberus for you, barely competent enough to get by while being hilarious unintentionally, much like its characters. But, like its characters, you might find it grows on you by the end.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Traitorman (2)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Dec 27, 2018

Kurt258

Mixed Feelings

The best I can describe the show in one word is "Mediocre."

The story is rather bland and there is not much character development. Everything the show has going for it has been done before with greater success.

The character development wouldn't be as bad if they focused on the quality of characters and not the quantity. They would introduce and important character for the story in one episode and we would never see them again.

The main character is stuck up and overestimates himself, Though unlike other stuck up anime characters he tries but in the end he is still weak until hes in danger, ... then the mystical plot armor appears.

Though despite everything I kept watching and coming back to it.

In the end its not trash but i wouldn't recommend it to others.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Kurt258 (2)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Jul 1, 2016

3xTripple

Not Recommended

One-word-review: Garbage.

Are you a fan of adventure anime?

Do you want to be entranced by a fantasy?

Are you looking for that cool and strong main character with interesting side characters?

Hate to break it to you, but you're in the wrong place. The more I watched, the more I thought that it was complete trash. That is, until about episode 8. Then it picks up and becomes a slightly below average series with a bunch plot conveniences EVERYWHERE for the last 5 episodes. I have seen numerous anime and usually give high ratings. I think that this is actually not worth wasting your ... time on. Adventure and Fantasy tend to be my favorite genres, but this...

To emphasize to you how bad this show is: Take a typical cool and strong main character of your choice, remove all of his coolness, strength, intelligence, skills, charisma, and ALL other good qualities. After you're done, take whatever bad characteristics you're left with and add in the personality of a whiny 3-year-old. In fact, might as well make him a Jinchuriki like Naruto while you're at it. Finally, after He-man descends to help and train the main character, you have this series' protagonist who still ends up being a failure.

Story: (2/10)
The show introduces the main character as this mysterious apparently strong guy. Despite training, he gets almost nowhere in terms of individual skill.

Here's a synopsis of what you're getting into:
Dad: "We gotta seal away this ultimate beast, OH NO IT'S TOO STRONG! I... must save my 6-year-old son.................... WHO ALSO HAPPENS TO BE ON THE BATTLEFIELD!"

Son: "Mom, Dad---- NOOOO!"

Dad:"Don't worry, I'll make you a 1-dimensional spoiled knockoff of Naruto before I go!"

Everybody dies and the 6-year-old is now driven by revenge to kill the ultimate beast and most likely has some sort of secretly powerful skill or ability or something, or at least that's what we are all hoping for. (Sound familiar? That's because it's the overused cliche.)

Unfortunately, the reality is that the main male character actually is one of the least attractive main characters that I've seen since school days' Makoto. He's similar to the main character from Tales of the Abyss before he recognized how terrible he really was and changed for the better. I originally dropped this series at episode 7 but decided to give it another chance since my original review painted this series as pretty terrible. Luckily, it did pick up slightly, but it's very boring and slow. The main female character has trouble speaking complete sentences and is very aloof, weird, and illogical. I was hoping she would be some sort of mysterious beauty with a deep background story, but it didn't end up that way.

Art: (4/10)
I only began watching this show because of how interesting the characters looked visually. But the art itself is not that great, it's on the below-average side of standard for newer anime. Battle scenes are kind of dry. Background art is pretty good, though. The animation is absolutely terrible. Welcome back to the early 2000s. Just bad. Overall, the art is on the not-so-good side of average, but since I like the character designs I bumped it up to a 4.

Sound: (5/10)
I must say, I think the music is most satisfying part of this anime. That says a lot about the anime since the music isn't really that good at all. There is nothing special about the sounds. Battle scenes are fine and the music is fitting for a fantasy-styled anime. Character voices are fine as well. But the music is pretty good. To be honest, I'd rather listen to the music on repeat than watch this poor excuse of a show.

Characters: (2/10)
1-dimensional zero-effort characters. No character is interesting or has any real backstory. The main character is a spoiled 3-year-old in a cool-looking older body. All of the characters are pretty bad. As the series progresses, it only gets more unbearable. However, you may start to get attached to them if you watch it until the end.

Development? What development? Let's just make the characters do random things and have a ton of plot conveniences.

The main human villains look very weird and are psychologically just strange. The main girl is pretty bad as well. The side characters are all pretty bad and I don't feel any interest in any of the characters in this show, so I didn't bother to remember any of their names.

Enjoyment: (2/10)
I most likely would've dropped this show around episode 4-6 if I weren't writing a review on it. It's really not worth the time. Towards the end, it wasn't COMPLETE trash, but it was unbearably slow. It could've been worse, but it's nowhere near good or decent.

Overall: (3/10)
The first 7 episodes of the series were very dry and boring. It started to pick up a bit after episode 7, but not anywhere near close enough to a point where I would watch it if I weren't reviewing it. First 6 episodes 2/10, the last 6 were probably around a 5/10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by 3xTripple (26)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Anime about Revenge

by iftsistrnn

38 Entries · 43 Restacks

Great Songs Wasted on a Mediocre Show

by SheyCroix

34 Entries · 26 Restacks

underrated anime? imo

by Kazu_aoi_aze

50 Entries · 74 Restacks

Spring 2016 Simulcast List [Update 5/25]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of anime acquired for simulcast release during the Spring 2016 season. Anime series licensed for home video rel...read more

Mar 31, 2016 12:20 PM by Snow | Discuss (81 comments)

Spring 2016 Preview

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of Spring 2016 titles with an accompanying promotional video (PV), TV ad (CM), or trailer. This post will be up...read more

Mar 15, 2016 1:56 PM by Snow | Discuss (75 comments)

	Poll: Seisen Cerberus: Ryuukoku no Fatalités Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Jun 27, 2016	60 replies	by Satoshi12ia »» Jan 23, 5:51 AM
	Poll: Seisen Cerberus: Ryuukoku no Fatalités Episode 4 Discussion Stark700 - Apr 25, 2016	41 replies	by ToG25thBaam »» Oct 15, 2018 4:06 AM
	Poll: Seisen Cerberus: Ryuukoku no Fatalités Episode 3 Discussion Stark700 - Apr 18, 2016	49 replies	by joe_g7 »» Jan 30, 2017 12:55 AM
	Poll: Seisen Cerberus: Ryuukoku no Fatalités Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Apr 11, 2016	70 replies	by joe_g7 »» Jan 30, 2017 12:52 AM
	Poll: Seisen Cerberus: Ryuukoku no Fatalités Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Apr 4, 2016	109 replies	by joe_g7 »» Jan 30, 2017 12:50 AM