Ishura

After the demise of the demon king, the resulting power vacuum has broken the balance of the world. Eager to claim this power for themselves, self-proclaimed demon kings from various worlds assemble in the New Principality of Lithia to fight for it. Among them, master swordsman Soujirou Yagyuu seeks to take this coveted position for himself. Joined by Tooi Kagizume no Yuno, a young girl he saved from an army of golems that destroyed her city, Soujirou enters Lithia to battle his way to the title.

At the same time, the leaders of the Aureatia Kingdom seek to destabilize Lithia by launching bandits after the convoys of merchandise transiting through the principality. Enraged, Imashime of Taren, the founder of Lithia and defector from Aureatia, sends vicious thief Kasasagi no Dakai to investigate the origin of these attacks. With war on the brink of eruption, no one can predict what influence the contenders for the demon king's throne will have on the coming conflict.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yagyuu, Soujirou Main

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Hoshihase Alus Main

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Tooi Kagizume no Yuno Main

Ueda, Reina Japanese

Seijakunaru Harghent Main

Ootsuka, Akio Japanese

Rankai Ryoureki Nihilo Supporting

Takahashi, Rie Japanese

Toorika no Kuze Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Sekaishi no Kia Supporting

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Umitaru Higuare Supporting

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Sekki no Tsubasa Regnejee Supporting

Morikubo, Shoutarou Japanese

Akai Shisen no Elea Supporting

Noto, Mamiko Japanese

Tanaka, Shou Producer

Saitou, Kazuhiro Producer

Vig, Julien Producer

Satou, Taira Producer

Reviews

Mar 20, 2024

Marinate1016

Recommended

Ishura is probably the most unique action anime I’ve ever seen. A slow but rewarding burn that has one of the coolest premises you’ll find and an immense amount of worldbuilding. This was one of the best shows of Winter 2024 and it’s a shame it flew under the radar.

While not an expert in the field of battle royale anime, I’ve seen a few and Ishura stands head and shoulders above the rest. What makes it so good to me is the wide range of characters with unique abilities who are all very OP and have unique fighting styles. Additionally, there’s the perfect amount of ... characterisation for each member of the cast. By the time they’re all introduced it really feels like we’ve established a connection with them. Every character is set up with their own episode that shows us their motivations, their abilities, their backstories and just what makes them tick. While at times it may seem a little tedious because you just want to get to the big battle royale, it was definitely a great decision because it made the fights at the end of the series that much more meaningful. The other big thing for me is that every character is strong. I mean the diversity of abilities in this series was shocking. The victor in a fight is just determined by how they match up with a particular opponent which made things fun.

Ishura has no main character, at least not yet, so the story kind of goes from one viewpoint to another depending on the episode. I liked this because it developed a rather large cast in a short period of time. While a couple characters felt underbaked, most of the cast I felt a nice attachment to and liked. Also made it difficult to choose who to root for because of the various goals of the characters. In a way, this 12 episode season felt like the longest character selection screen.

The worldbuilding is also really good in this. The magic system is nuanced, the political situation is interesting and there’s a ton of fantastical elements in this that just work really well. You can tell the author put a ton of time into fleshing out the world, characters and making you feel apart of a living breathing universe. It’s a bit frustrating at times though, because while you can tell the world is vast and detailed, sometimes I felt it wasn’t being utilised to its full potential. I’m sure that’s intentional as this is just adapting the first book I believe and there’s a ton more story to go. It just can be a bit slow at times. Nevertheless it has all the makings of a cool fantasy world.

The only downside I really have is that the story really just got going at the end. Like we spent so long building these characters up for a big battle and then the battle happens in a couple episodes and that’s it(not the end of the story, just the season). I wanted more! This world is so unique and the anime was a blast to watch. This is more a testament to how much I liked the show rather than a serious complaint though. I do understand it takes time to develop characters and appreciate the author’s intent.

Animation and fight scenes are really good. There’s some cgi, but it’s not distracting and the direction during the big set pieces is more than good enough.

Ishura is a must watch if you’re a fan of action anime, battle royales or if you just want something different to watch. I watch everything every season and I really can’t think of a show that’s been quite like this one. I had a blast watching it every Wednesday and I’m looking forward to reading it now.

Ishura gets 8 out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Mar 20, 2024

KANLen09

Mixed Feelings

Ishura - A pseudo-Juuni Taisen, or a much closer reference, Record of Ragnarok?

At first glance, novelist Keiso's Ishura sounds exactly like what many of you would be similarly comparing this to: mangakas Shinya Umemura and Takummi Fukui's Shuumatsu no Walküre a.k.a Record of Ragnarok, and you would be right in the broad sense: fighters from all walks of life gathering together for a fated battle that would redeem the last man standing as the triumphant winner regarded as a Hero. But, where the action-fantasy elements are what make both Record of Ragnarok and Ishura regarded similarly, Ishura has a finite twist to the series that ... at least makes the foundation for a traditional battle royale and turning it into a high-stakes fight to the death...albeit with some hits and misses.

(Cue the intro narration and music)

"The True Demon King has died. The enemy of the fear that filled the world with horizons of fear, it was defeated by a lone Hero. To this very day, that lone Hero remains unknown, both in name and existence. With the age of fear coming to an end, that person has to be chosen. But even then, the powers left behind writhe in multitude, and they cannot be subdued by ordinary strength...the strength of 100 Shura-like demons."

These Shuras are basically demigod-like people who have the capability to bring down kingdoms and nations, and yet, they wander free to do whatever life takes them to. But with the lone Hero being an unknown figure, the Shuras now go head-to-head in a battle royale to determine who's the strongest and be given the Hero title. "All the world's a stage, and the men and women merely players" of Shakespeare's quote resides in the largest nation of Aureatia, governed by 29 Generals who are tasked to select that Hero, but its supposed ally of the independent city of the New Principality of Lithia has a different plan in mind, to be ruled by fear and terror, separate from Aureatia's democracy. And that's where the plot of the Hero takes shape in a bloody mess of a fight.

Here are your candidates for the Hero title:
- Soujirou the Willow-Sword, the one who is Isekai-ed from his own Distant World, who can defeat golems with his sword, and exercises excellent swordsmanship that reduces widespread legends into mere truths: the last swordsman, the minia a.k.a human Blade. Accompanied by a fellow minia, Yuno the Distant Talon, who've lost everything from her previous inhabitant Nagan, to seek out revenge for those who've tormented her life with golems wrecking the Labyrinth City.
- Alus the Star Runner, the one who can handle weapons with exceptional aptitude, and possess unusual magic items, whatever the challenge is from labyrinths to enemies, he has conquered them all, surpassing all dragons: the Rogue wyvern. He has a close but strained relationship with the Hargent the Silencer, the 6th General of Aureatia, who saved him in his young self, but grew to the rebellious in the later stages.
- Regnejee the Sunset Wings, the one who possesses a genius intellect and a sharp battlefield acumen, rooting himself within the core of a nition, and commands a fleet of wyverns who are obedient to him: the Command wyvern. He is frustrated at Alus for leaving the wyvern army, and seeks revenge for going rogue, who is close with Curte the Clear Sky, Taren's blind adoptive daughter.
- Dakai the Magpie, the one like Soujirou, is a Visitor relative of the Distant World, and one who can stop bullets at the speed of sound with his remarkable eyesight and enchanted sword. And that's not all: his insight makes him valuable, as well as being a rebel in the most devious way: the minia bandit. He serves Taren the Guarded, once the 23rd General of Aureatia, and defected her way to form Lithia, seeking powerful Shuras to her rule.
- Nihilo the Vortical Stampede, a girl enough to defeat an entire army, and kept under bars in Aureatia because she is a bioweapon of mass destruction: the revenant tarantula.
- Kia the World Word, a young girl whose power perverts all laws of justice, who can dominate the world with a single word, but with her potential yet untapped: the wizard elf. She is taken care of by the 17th General of Aureatia, Elea the Red Tag, as a mentor of the kingdom's spy network, who proceeds like Taren to expand with greater allies, just like Lana the Moon Tempest which they would eventually meet for the same political agenda, but for Lithia instead.
- Higuare the Pelagic, the one who has dealt through duels with poison that no ordinary human being can stop, and his bizarre physique doesn't stop his infinite brillant swordsplay, yet obeys all and ruled by none like a free slave: the Gladiator mandrake. He is accompanied by another Shura, Shalk the Sound Slicer, who is an undead skeleton mercenary hired under Lana's recruitment to serve Lithia.
- Kuze the Passing Disaster and Nastique the Quiet Singer, the paladin assassin who works in tandem alongside the real Shura, who is an angel undetected and immune to interference to all but one, taking everything unseen as the embodiment of one: the Stabber angel.

Feel overwhelmed at the number of characters? Well, too bad, because that's the definition of a battle royale to showcase as many characters as possible to show that anyone could easily achieve Hero status, no matter their origins or achievements thus far. It's one for the taking as Aureatia and Lithia experience turmoil of their own as they grasp getting as many Shuras as possible over to each's side, which unwillingly sparks a war on the outset against the respective democratic and authoritative leads of the two cities. It certainly is a battle royale at the heart of it, and a bloody mess Ishura is one that I'm legitimately surprised at how it's able to capture the tension of a high-stakes death match scene, anytime, anywhere...that's if you can stomach through learning all of the Shuras involved, backstories included.

In terms of production quality, studio Passione is definitely not one of the studios coming to mind when it comes to action-fantasy shows. That's only when you take into account of the studio's chief managing director of Takeo Takahashi's directorial role from Summer 2015's Rokka no Yuusha a.k.a Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers, alongside director Yuki Ogawa of Winter 2020's Interspecies Reviewers and Fall 2021's Mieruko-chan fame, then everything aligns together like cakework. The anime also having to integrate 3DCG animation from outsourcing to collab studio Sanzigen (i.e. BanG Dream! franchise), it's not the best, but it's certainly better than a studio trying to incorporate 3DCG by themselves, and then looking pretty bad. Sure, Keiso's LN may not be the best in the storytelling sense of having to put the characters first before the war showcase, but both directors took cues as much as possible to streamline the anime adaptation as it is, covering the characters for the 1st half, and then the rest of the story and plot for the 2nd half. It is what it is, so take it as you will about endurance when watching this show.

The show's OST is decent, though it does give off a sense of unnervingness, given its dystopian setting with the typical fantasy that relates as such. Sajou no Hana's OP song, definitely fits the show's vibes for a rather dark and gruesome show and is terrifying good to listen to. On the other side of the spectrum, Konomi Suzuki's ED song certainly paints a path of a sliver of hope, but otherwise, just decent and fine.

Sadly, Ishura as a show, being the way it's produced, it does not give and inspire confidence that its unorthodox way of storytelling is able to reel in people watching this show from its half-and-half character-plot methodology. However, that being said, if you can truncate through the character backstories, the plot will burst into a single colour: red, the colour of death, and make this show interesting from its own standpoint.

Still though, give Ishura a chance if the plotline of the show doesn't deter you from watching an underappreciated show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 20, 2024

whiteflame55

Not Recommended

The series gets off to a great start that really showcases the power and skill of a champion against a giant golem and placing them in the context of a world that is composed of fragile beings. Given the promise of a tournament featuring a set of characters like this one, it certainly set itself up for success.

…but it’s mostly downhill from there. There are some really good fights later into the series run as various otherworldly characters come into conflict with other powerful beings (many of whom would be participants in a future tournament that would necessarily pit them against one another anyway), where ... they really get to strut their stuff against calamities, sometimes in epic fashion.

However, that’s not the focus of most of this season. Instead, we focus in on a conflict between the Aureatia Kingdom and the New Principality of Lethia, which… is not what I came here for. I love a good war story, but you’ve introduced characters whose functions in the story render most militaries moot. You’ve established that most of this world is made of soggy cardboard compared with these fighters and introduced them with the promise that there will be a tournament used to determine who is the strongest. Telling your audience to care about the normal humans at this point just seems like an attempt to get us to care about doomed characters so their deaths can hit us that much harder, but what it does for me is make most of the deaths ring hollow. Even deaths of named characters just don’t matter much. The series does scant little to get us to care about its relationships, mainly just showing us “backstory” through brief glimpses into the past that barely help us connect with them, and that’s the best-case scenario.

But then there’s all the other elements. When a series leaves me with this many questions and only the barest of hints at the answers, I start to wonder why I should stay invested. This is a world in which the Demon King, widely agreed to be the most powerful and terrible being on the planet, was killed. Everyone assumes it’s one of these champions who did it. Fine. Now they want to hold a tournament to determine who the hero was that killed the Demon King. I guess they assume that whoever is the strongest must have done it and they want to reward them, but a) this seems far more likely to kill whoever the actual hero was, especially since just announcing the tournament guaranteed the kind of free-for-all kill fest that has resulted beforehand (especially considering just how diverse the sets of powers are), b) the fact that said hero hasn’t come forward means they’re pretty unlikely to take part in a tournament meant to uncover their identity, and c) that’s compounded by these characters requiring some national representation, which may just leave out the hero even if they wish to compete. Maybe they just don't care who killed the Demon King and just want a tournament for the sake of eliminating a bunch of these powerful beings and posting a figurehead - that's true for at least some of the stakeholders - but if that's the case, that just raises further questions about why they're doing it this way. Why couch any of this in the Demon King if you don't even care who killed him? Wouldn't this just result in a single powerful individual (or a small group of them) that no one can possibly defeat and that can take over by default?

Who these champions really are, where they came from (it’s only lightly hinted at), and why they arrived in this place are all up in the air. Much of the reveals deal in the warfare between the two countries instead, but even so, there’s so much we don’t know and this enigma is the kind that only serves to frustrate rather than intrigue. If you’re going to dedicate so much of your plot to these elements, the lack of a reason for them only serves to disengage your audience.

Beyond that, there are several other characters who have their own machinations in play, so there are all kinds of political power games going on that have little to nothing to do with the broader plot. Combine all that with a magic system that somehow gets specifically defined while simultaneously feeling almost entirely useless and a world that feels surprisingly small despite a broad variety of characters and environments, and what you get is a good seed of an idea that both feels like it’s been dramatically overcomplicated in many ways and overly simplified in others. And I haven’t even mentioned the CGI, which does look pretty bad in places. It’s not awful, but it does detract from opportunities to make the most of this series’ sakuga.

I don’t mean to make this series come off like a complete mess, it’s just a lot of interesting ideas that are thrown together haphazardly and result in a product that is less than the sum of its disparate parts. It does not help that the last episode suggests a lot of plots at play that just seem to make less sense the more you think about them. It’s the kind of show that prefers to use much of this season as setup for interesting stuff down the line, and while it might eventually get there, I don’t think that’s a substitute for engaging your audience early and often. Whether they’re talking about the period before the story where someone fought the all-powerful Demon King or the period after this season where an actual tournament is set to happen, everything sounds more interesting and narratively satisfying than this. As someone who is not a fan of series that seem to put off the good stuff in hopes that you'll be just hooked enough to see it through to the end, I can't recommend this one.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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