Sengoku Youko: Yonaoshi Kyoudai-hen

The second season of Sengoku Youko has so many similarities with later parts of Dai no Daibouken that I wouldn't be surprised if it was a direct inspiration. Of course that's the second season, and I'd prefer to recommend the original 1981 version of Dai; but someone else had already recommended these two entries specifically, so I'll double down for the visibility. 

If one were to read the Sengoku Youko reviews, you would find many comparisons to Demon Slayer. Both shows are about humans fighting monsters/demons in historical Japan. There is also a male and female sibling duo at the forefront of the story in both. The animation of Demon Slayer is obviously better, as it has some of if not the best anime animation as of writing, but both shows are visually pleasing with colourful character design. I recommend this to anyone who likes human vs monster eye candy like Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer especially. 

Very dope transformations, nine tailed beasts and both set in a similar period of time. 

Yatagarasu and Sengoku Youko are two series that fell under the radar for many as they are constantly going in their own direction, without using familiar tropes and stereotypes to tell the story. Both are set in a medieval japan with supernatural elements, but the focus is actually character development rather than the outer action. Both has a big and diverse cast of characters I certainly came to love. 

These two series are superficially about fighting, pretty much like any other fighting series. But beneath the surface it's much more about character development, finding a purpose and all that.  

Both Naruto and Sengoku Youko deals elegantly with the question of power and "becoming strong", and they are both set in an unstable world of victims and victimizers with lots of fights and backstories. We also follow these characters over a long period of time and see them grow and change their mindsets.  

There's a similar kind of pacing in these to series, even if Seirei is way more realistic in it's approach to the plot. Both shows deal with loss and serious topics and actually tries to give proper reactions to adverse events. Bad things happen and you just don't move forward without being affected by it. It's also a similar setting of rural Japan with supernatural elements, although it's a clear difference as Seirei is seinen and Sengoku Youko has a deconstructed shounen feeling to it. 

Sengoku Youko and Natsume Yuujinchou can be said to exist in the same universe, just at very different time periods. The plot is very similar as well as it revolves around the friendship between humans and youkai, and the people who are in-between worlds. Both are similarly highly sentimental, calm and inspired by zen Buddhism and Shinto philosophy, especially the mono no aware. If you look beyond the superficial tropes of Sengoku Youko you'll find a very touching story well comparable to Natsume Yuujinchou. 

It strikes me how similar Fantastic Children and Sengoku Youko are. Both are seemingly conventional shounen shows which under the surface are completely different than most, where plot orbits around a spiritual logic rather than a worldly. Because of this these shows easily gets brushed off as inferior copies of more popular shounen shows. However these series aren't constructed from an exoteric perspective, where the worldly logic creates the chain of events. Instead it is the inner, esoteric logic which moves the plot forward. This doesn't always make the most fluid plotlines and the most heroic fights, as the point is to manifest a completely different logic than the one we are accustomed to in our daily life. read more