Shoukoku no Altair

First of all things do not get fooled by the low score that this show has on mal, it should be over 8. Second don't believe those rumors about this show being bland or boring I assure that's not the case at all, this anime is great from the first minute of episode one and filled with great stuff until the end. Finally read what i wrote in this review if you are planning to watch this show and you are hesitant about some stuff.

Shoukoku no Altair takes a different approach on the hystorical battle/war anime and portrays what happens behind the stage (battle). ... It focuses on evidentiating the gains, merits ,profits and interests that each participating side will gain from the war. It also shows the preparations and different strategies used that at first glance don't seem big but have bigger influence later in deciding the winner and loser.
This show takes things like economics and trading to a whole new level and display their meaning and influence on the war stage.

The characters are great and manage to shine on the war stage with their cunning strategies and good decisions .Their development is fantastic across this anime , they know how to use their own strenght as a weapon and grow after each battle learning from their defeats and wins. They also don't mind taking risks and thus making this show more exiciting to watch.Keep in mind that most of them use their mind more than their brute force but still manage to create something captivating.

Although the main focus are not the battles I gotta say that the tactics used in each one of them gave me a bump of adrenaline . The clash of ideals , ambitions and wits together with their innovative and creative strategies made this show unique and enjoyable. Choosing your right words for your speech can motivate or demoralize an army but can also give you benefits in forming an alliance and influence the course of the war.

This show in conclusion displays a brilliant presentation of what happens behind the stage of war , the profits and interest gained by each country and also how the character's decisions and strategies influence the course of war thus the hystory itself. Fantastic! A gem that is hidden behind an low overall mal score which deserves more attention and love!

I’m a sucker for historical-based fantasy, so Altair should’ve been the highlight of the year - but it ended up falling flat. While it did some interesting things, it ran into speed bumps that shows why anime rarely attempts epic scale fantasy stories.

The political in Altair interplay is on a level most anime don’t come near touching. The countries all feel unique and like a good deal of thought went behind their creation. The leaders and military commanders have refreshingly realistic stances that usually make sense and don’t feel like they were contrived to create drama or follow an oversimplified black/white, good/evil paradigm. However, ... a lot of the details get lost in the mix.

Altair moves at a breakneck pace. Sometimes, it feels like you’re meeting a full new cast of characters every episode. The nuanced political play ends up getting lost in a sea of strange names and terms that frustrates the viewer.

Because the details are there.

This show isn’t about flash and bombastic moments, filled with borderline illogical plots in order to satisfy the “rule of cool.” There’s real thought behind everything that happens, but it moves way too fast to pick up on everything. Often, you end up feeling lost and only seeing the surface-level of the story.

The pace ends up hurting the characters too. Supporting characters start blending together because there’s just too many of them and not enough time to differentiate them. Even the characters that show up in the majority of the episodes don’t get the chance to develop because they’re too busy jumping from one country to the next.

Altair could greatly benefit from a few scenes where characters just sit around drinking and having fun rather than always being in the middle of a political discussion or battlefield. Because I want to care about them, but it’s hard too when the anime never attempts to make an emotional connection with the viewer.

The animation itself leaves something to be desired. While the cities and clothing are varied by country, the animation can’t keep up and often skimps on details. Likewise, fight scenes usually fall flat for the same reason.

You still have to appreciate what Altair attempted. If doubled the number of episodes, or halved the content covered, Altair would’ve been a masterpiece. Every single country visited is rich in detail with the occasional Easter egg is thrown in to the delight of history fans like myself. Leadership and countries getting portrayed in mostly grey-and-grey morality is a refreshing and change from the notion of simple “good” and “bad.” And when the anime does slow down or spends more than two episodes on a conflict, the end result is highly engaging despite the lackluster emotional connection to the cast.

I haven’t read the manga, so I can’t confirm this, but I highly suspect this is a case of a poor adaptation of great content and that Altair will go down like Kingdom - skip the anime and read the far superior manga instead.

If you’re looking for anime that rely on detailed storytelling rather than flash and fanservice, then you might enjoy Altair. Sadly, the details fall through the cracks thanks to pacing issues that also end up hurting the characters.

This absolutely butchers the manga. So many scenes were cut out and shortened down to almost nothing, and plenty of scenes were changed for the worse. Even some characters are cut from the show. I don't know why they even bothered with animating this series if they're gonna cut out so much from it. The opening songs are nice and so is the animation, as is the soundtrack and voice acting, but this anime bares little resemblance to the manga it's adapted from.

At the start it wasn't so bad, it had the characters and the scenes, there were some deviations but nothing that was ... bad. Around episode 15 and up, it's nothing but shortened scenes and many strange changes, plus the pacing feels strange because of the cut plot. Don't waste your time with this anime, read the manga instead and you'll have a much more enjoyable and less confusing time