I'm fresh off binging the series out of boredom and I have a few things on my mind that I want to vocalize. Sirius the Jaegar was a very average anime, it's premise had a lot of potential but in the end 13 episodes wasn't enough to flesh out a concrete storyline. Japan has a creative problem in it's anime industry, there is almost no risk taking. The majority of anime are adaptations of a manga, light novel or game, typically a franchise with name recognition and a built in fanbase. Many anime aren't even taken seriously, serving to advirtise a certain publication rather than attempt to tell a coherent story. In this space, original anime aren't given the support they need, they are constrained to 13 episodes with little promise of a second season, meaning that all points of ones intended story need to be crammed into the initial run.
Sirius the Jaegar falls neatly into this trap. (Spoiler Warning).
We begin with a likable enough crew, we can see the brains, the brawn, the beauty, some Brit and an edgy wolf boy, all hunting vampires. We see that they are organized, part of a larger international organization, with concrete cover, adequate resources and access to a secret information sharing network straight out of a spy movie. The setting isn't bad either, post-WW1 Japan is a rare sight in anime and seeing the feudal-meets-technology vibe was very encouraging. The gang sets up in a large mansion with a pretty girl/love interest, add a fun chase and fight scene and the base is fully cemented.
The initial problems begin with initial characterizations. I get that the title is Sirius the Jaegar, but an abnormal amount of time is spent on fleshing out wolfboys backstory. Every other character gets 1, maybe 2 sentences of dialogue. British boy gets an animated flashback, yay for him, his character arc consisted of him hating Sirius' because one killed his parents to not hating Sirius' because a little girl told him he was stupid for bearing a grudge, and this is also probably the most dynamic change in the series. More action shots, and a super funny Samurai terrorist later, and suddenly we shift into the series' main plot: wolfboy's father took a doodad from the wolf village and vampires want it. Wolfboy ventures to some place to find his fathers doodad, finds it, and then goes shonen protagonist. The orb that could end the world (for some reason) is protected by an impenetrable barrier that wolfboy not only breaks but then surrenders to the vampires with little fight. More idealistic nonsense about how he's bearing his fathers burden and the final fight scene commences, a fight scene which is easily the most boring in the series. In the end wolfboy goes fully Gary Sue by absorbing the orb of power and becoming a benevolent god. The end.
Things that irk me in particular:
- The first half of the series was better than the second half
- The badass sword girl never actually draws her own sword
- The major was wasted in the final episodes
- The villains are unbelievably cheesy and Mikhail is unbelievably benevolent
- The Dogville tragedy was a boring, over played back story
- The majority of supporting characters didn't receive any level of characterization
- The whole project comes across as being rushed, not uncommon of original anime
Overall I rated this anime 6/10, and leave the show disappointed over untapped potential. Thank you for hearing my rant.
|
