Sengoku Youko: Senma Konton-hen

The chaotic aftermath of a confrontation between Jinka Yamato and Yazen results in the power dynamics between the magically gifted katawara and humans being turned upside down. As the news of the downfall of dangaishu—the katawara-hunting monks led by Yazen—spreads across the country, rogue groups of katawara start to form, worsening the already-fragile relationship between them and humanity.

Having lost faith in his abilities, Shinsuke Hyoudou now spends his time heavily drinking in the company of Senya, a former enemy of his who controls one thousand katawara within his body. Senya indirectly causes the death of the father of Tsukiko, his newfound friend, after a surprise attack of a local god gone berserk.

Despite the circumstances, Tsukiko holds no grudge against Senya and is determined to become Shinsuke's disciple no matter what. Although Shinsuke refuses to become Tsukiko's sword instructor, he reluctantly agrees to let her travel with him and Senya. While the unlikely trio heads towards their next destination, Tama Youko continues her journey to find the trail of Jinka, the nine-tailed fox who has the power to destroy the world.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hyoudou, Shinsuke Main

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Senya Main

Nanami, Hiroki Japanese

Tsukiko Main

Uchida, Maaya Japanese

Youko, Tama Supporting

Takada, Yuuki Japanese

Douren Supporting

Inada, Tetsu Japanese

Shakuyaku Supporting

Kurosawa, Tomoyo Japanese

Yamato, Jinka Supporting

Saitou, Souma Japanese

Ashikaga, Yoshiteru Supporting

Hatano, Wataru Japanese

Mountain God Supporting

Takagaki, Ayahi Japanese

Mudo Supporting

Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu Japanese

Katou, Shinichirou Producer

Aizawa, Kagetsu Director

Iida, Satoki Sound Director

Hanada, Jukki Script, Series Composition

Reviews

Dec 29, 2024

StorMiX451

Recommended

In an era of Shounen Jump when so many battle Shounen are either rushed, axed or meander around losing the point of their premise, it's really cool to see Satoshi Mizukami cook up something with such an interesting plot structure, thematic backbone and deliver on all of that perfectly from start to finish. From S1's portrayal of imposter syndrome, spiral of hatred and what it means to be a human or something other to S2 interrogating what it means to be strong, accepting your own weaknesses and realizing that all of us are worth something to someone else. That someone can be loved, no ... matter who they are. The series constantly grapples with these motifs and comes to very worthwhile conclusions in the end. I particularly adore how well the series tackles its exposition and how much it uses action more as a set dressing to far more impactful character moments.

Only took a decade for Mizukami to get a worthwhile adaptation and boy did White Fox cook. It wasn't really a sakuga fest most of the time, but consistently good drawings and debut director Masahiro Aizawa's background as an animation director and key animator really gave the show a strong sense of direction. Fantastic storyboards, lovely use of color scripts ala someone like Masashi Ishihama's directorial works and a resourceful production all around.
Shigeyasu Yamauchi's episodes were a particular highlight for me. I hope to see him around more outside of his works with studio MASSKET.

It's just good to see a 35 episode production these days when most long form Manga that aren't turbo popular get scrunched into episodes far fewer than needed to accommodate all of it.

Spirit circle adaptation next, White fox?

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Dec 25, 2024

Marinate1016

Recommended

Well-written

Sengoku Youko has been peak battle shonen since the first cour, but this second and final season really elevated it to new heights. Loveable characters, a great story and adventure, tons of action and romance undertones, this has it all! It’s the quintessential battle shonen anime and goes back to the roots of the genre in many respects. This was the perfect way to cap off a modern classic.

As someone who grew up watching OG DB, YYH and other classic shows this felt like a return to my childhood. The journey to save Jinka and Senya’s growth was such a cool experience. It felt like ... I got to watch these characters grow up and evolve right in front of my eyes. I’m a big sucker for stories that take place over years and getting to see the physical and emotional changes to our characters! The transition to Senya as the MC from Jinka was well done and I believe he made for a much more interesting lead. His constant internal struggles and self loathing were hard to watch, not in a bad writing sense, but just how attached I became to him as a character and hated seeing him in pain. His relationships with Tsukiko, Shinsuke and the others we meet along the way were very endearing. Again it had that classic adventure anime feeling where you meet a lot of great supporting characters that help the main lead grow or join the party.

Narratively I think this was a big improvement from season 1. There’s higher stakes, character deaths, a ton of emotional moments and this race against the time to save the world element that made every episode feel important. We got a lot more information about the general lore of this world, the relationship between Katawara and humans, the void people, spirit realm etc etc. Respect to the author for all these fun ideas. The only complaint I have is that the void people felt underdeveloped to me. Not sure if that was just an adaptation issue or if the author just didn’t want to focus on them more, but other than that I loved all the worldbuilding. Senya and Mudo’s rivalry pushing both of them to become stronger, and the last 4-5 episodes with the climax being my favourites. Very satisfied with the romance in this cour too. It was a constant undertone, but never too in your face. Served as a motivation for some characters, but not their only personality trait. Held that balance I like very well. I was very happy to see how it all ended as well!(my ships sailed)

So this season’s story is bigger and better, but the production values are where this season lags behind. It looks pretty bad at times I’m going to be honest. I don’t know if it’s because Re:Zero was airing with this for a time or what, but generally I found the animation to be worse than season 1. There were a few moments like the big final battle where it was as good as ever, but you gotta slug through some subpar fights to get there. It’s a shame because the narrative behind the fights in the show are so good, but the production doesn’t always match that. Design wise, I’m a big fan of all the timeskip designs for the characters. The OST was also a banger.

Sengoku Youko is one of the best battle shonen I’ve seen in a long time. If you like Japanese history and mythology, good characters, a great story and some solid action it’s a no brainer to watch this. This has been a big part of my life now for most of the last year. I really enjoyed this show and I’ll miss Tama, Tsukiko and the others greatly. A much better adaptation than the author’s previous work, Lucifer and the Biscuit hammer. Here’s to hoping we get more of his stories!

Sengoku Youko gets 9 out of 10

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Dec 25, 2024

whiteflame55

Mixed Feelings

Informative

Well-written

Spoiler

There were certainly glimmers of brilliance in this series that were significant enough to keep me going through what was, unfortunately, an oddly paced story interspersed with some good action and introspection. I can point to some great character development and a couple of the action scenes are excellent, but the series spends a lot of its time in middling territory. It certainly has the time to do that, since this season is the second and a dual cour at that, but a lot of the decisions made this season end up making it underwhelming.

First, the shift in character focus. I can understand the reasons ... to shift to Senya given where Jinka’s story ended after S1, but by almost completely moving away from him (aside from Shinsuke), the series loses almost all emotional investment in Jinka’s story. Even Tama’s arrival and finally finding Jinka end up feeling drained of any real emotional weight because Jinka essentially ceased to be a character for most of the second season, functioning entirely as a goal for other characters. Even Shakugan’s return feels underwhelming and she had a lot of emotional weight behind her character by the time she exited S1. I chalk that up to, once again, a long delay in her return.

So the series has to maintain weight on the new characters. It manages that decently well, particularly through Senya and Yoshiteru Ashikaga, and even characters that return late like Doren come back into the story like they never left, but others end up feeling half-baked. We learn what Jinun is about so late that it almost feels like an afterthought. Mudo, to his credit, does undergo some changes, but is largely one-note. The gods they run into all feel similarly underwhelming. Tsukiko and Shinsuke fall somewhere in between with some good moments of development and a whole lot of drag despite a lot of screen time.

Second, the “villains.” The first season found a few antagonists and largely stuck with them, while this season seems to just keep acquiring new antagonists. We get The Tribe of the Void, a set of characters from the future who look like Senya (though there’s little narrative significance to that relationship) that largely just go around catching as many katawara as they can to capture a couple of significant targets to prevent a civilization-ending threat. That could have been interesting, but we barely get to know these characters at all beyond their dedication to the cause and a single explanation from a single character they could have sought out at any time results in their dropping their efforts, making this one large idiot plot.

But there are other antagonists as well. Jinka remains a constant source of tension in the narrative even without his presence… though it feels nebulous and he’s largely sealed off from the world, so he doesn’t serve as a threat. Mudo serves as a bar for Senya while he’s an antagonist, but at least he’s a physical threat. Jinun returns as another physical threat that largely falls under the thrall of the Tribe. Banshou appears later to be an even higher bar (seeing a trend?). There are other, more minor threats thrown in as well, including a few characters who flip-flop between antagonism and support for the protagonists, but the general direction of the series is just to create characters who will power level Senya until he’s strong enough to take on Jinka, which isn’t exactly riveting stuff. Jinun at least has some interesting exchanges with Senya that progress their characters, so that helps their interactions.

Unfortunately, the above two issues drive a lot of the narrative along paths that don’t end up coming together for me. The fights have some weight and punch to them, but they are largely not very creative or interesting, and whlie a few stand out, most of them are shot in a way that seems tailored to reduce how much you see and many of the others are just big and colorful punch fests. The threats of certain foes just end anticlimactically and various characters just switch sides, which gives them more dimensions, but also confuses their aims. Plots from the first season either take too long to return to, dulling their impact, or just take a backseat to other issues. And while that does leave a few good character arcs, some powerful moments, and a couple of great mentors, they all feel let down by a narrative that can’t rise to their level. I do really like the place where it leaves us in its final episode, it's a neat take on immortality and seeing how the characters handle their long lifespans is interesting, but it's not enough for me to give this a full recommendation, even if the character arcs and their resolutions keep it from falling into "Not Recommended" territory.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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