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Edit: So far with only 7 episodes of this anime being released, it okay. I am re-editing my review as I watch more episodes.

Story: The story is an interesting one since it revolves around a present day apocalypse that is overrun by Gibia, or reptile monster like creatures. Somehow these samurai from Sengoku era Japan are popping up in present day Japan. It's not a unique concept, time travel, but it doesn't present it in an interesting way by relating it to the monsters. Do I think this story is a great one? No, I think that it's a pretty generic story using two ... of the most popular topics out there, time travel and zombie/virus/apocalypse. But I think they do have a pretty good set up to have a decent story line, as long as they don't deviate too much off the path. This anime, unlike many, likes to give backstory, but I feel that there is a potential where side stories could be starting to form where if they aren't careful the story will be thrown off by too many plots happening at once.

Art: The character designs are "realistic", though some of them do have accentuated features that are just unique to this anime, such as sharp chins. I still feel like the character designs as well as the creature designs are very eye catching and unique to this anime. They aren't amazing or really unique in the sense that no one has done it before. Before I said that they try to accentuate main characters by making them stand out either by adding color to make their outfit more extravagant than average wear. Though later in the anime you don't really see that as you don't see them around as many non-main story characters.

Characters: Overall, unlike most characters in anime, they actually do try to give backstory on all the main characters, even if they cover two characters in one (mother in daughter or father and daughter). Now with that being said the characters themselves are not very original and seem almost cookie cutter or kinda bland. Kenroku and Sensui remind me much of Jin and Mugen from Samurai Champloo. Where Sensui is kind of this by the book samurai. He is more down to earth, realistic, and traditional. Wheras Kenroku tends to be the more out going character. Talks a lot more, easily able to adapt to the new environment and technology. Even in his time period he was well adapted to the new "technology" that came out. The one thing I do like is Kathleen, the main female lead, doesn't really act like most main females when surrounded by male leads. She doesn't fawn over them because they're handsome. She likes them because they can fight and has a working relationship with them. Though, from this point, it does look like with most females in anime, she has become an accident fodder. When the author needs something bad to happen she just happens to be the person that gets caught or suddenly falls. So besides that, I do have to give props to them that they did create a generally strong lead female that doesn't seem to really have any real sexual interest in our male leads and truly cares for them outside of a physical relationship.

Sound and Music: Kind of forgettable. What sound effects you get are on par with the average "monster" sounds. There's nothing unique about the sound effects. As for the music, honestly if there was music, especially during fight scenes, it was forgettable. For the most part, for fight scenes I truly don't remember much music. Mostly it didn't rely on music for many of the major fight scenes from what I remember. As for other parts of the anime, as typical in most anime, you had the ambiance music that set the mood. So if a sad scene was coming up you had generally a melodic piano or violin. You had a happier moment you had upbeat music. Nothing was really eye catching (or I guess ear catching in regards to music). I think of any parts, the sound probably lacked the most. I can't say it was poor because it wasn't poor. It was good, just very forgettable.


Enjoyment and Overall from what I see in the few episodes that have been released, it is a mish mash of old ideas like time travel, samurai, and zombie/infectious diseases and combine all the concepts together. I can't say it's amazing, as after 7 episodes and this is a (probably) 13+ episode season, it's too far gone to be amazing, but it is still pretty good. I think that for actual enjoyment purposes, it's definitely a niche market. You will have to have a lot of patience to watch this. It's not that it will make you angry or that it's even slow. it's just, I can see this being a cookie cutter kind of anime where typical tropes of samurai, time travel, and apocalypse are present. You got the strong male leads, who are quiet and to themselves. Seem almost untouchable while those around them are dropping like flies. Now I don't mean to discredit this anime, as I believe it still is a good anime, I just want everyone to know what they are walking into as this anime is not for everyone. I REPEAT, THIS ANIME IS NOT FOR EVERYONE. I would definitely recommend giving it a gander as a quick watch, while all the episodes aren't out yet. Formulate your own opinion of this anime.

Story: 4/10
The story started out very promising. You start off with an action packed fight scene, showing a previous "play," where you then go to the current play. You start to look out for the important characters, but from there it really just goes down hill. The story felt like it was all over the place, where you would end one episode and suddenly you were at a totally different scene.

*Spoiler*
One of the episodes ended with a fight scene at the school, and then the next episode it started up with the team, with members you "technically" didn't know were part of the ... church, destroying these historical sites.
*End Spoiler*

Scenes like this really created a disjointed scene making it overly confusing as to what had happened in between scene jumps. The story itself also seemed lacking in substance. It kept talking about how the past was the end all be all. Your fate can't be changed, but we never understood what the previous fate really was. We saw one whole scene, and all other previous fates weren't even mentioned until the last 2 episodes.

The only interesting thing about this anime was the morally ambiguous sides. This anime, unlike others, didn't present a good or bad side. They presented teams that had their own reasoning behind their actions. This allowed you to choose a side where as most anime predetermine your "favorite" team.

Art: 5/10
There is nothing really spectacular or notable about the artwork. Very average, but not terrible.

Sound: 5/10
Similarly to art, there was nothing truly awesome or notable about the sound. I did find that in the dub, the characters voices didn't really suit some of their characters. I felt like there could have been better choices.

Character: 4/10
There is very little character development. Chihiro got the most development and even that, for almost 10 episodes straight, they hinted at the same thing over and over. If they hadn't kicked the poor dead horse so many times, it would have been an earned reveal. It even lead Kakihara, to being a babbling nuisance. He kept harping on Chihiro, blaming him for everything and it was to the point that this interesting character, became annoying and you kind of wanted him to die. As for the others, they got little or no growth. We don't get to explore their powers, we only explored Chihiro. Most of the characters just appeared with no explanation as to who they were or what they could do. We just knew that they were 10xs weaker than Chihiro and would probably just be killed out.

Enjoyment: 4/10
I did enjoy exploring this anime. I kept looking forward to new episodes to see if there was anything really redeeming about it, but there wasn't. I honestly thought this anime would turn out to just reset time and un-screw everything up. I did truly enjoy figuring out who to side for since both sides had their faults, but other than that, nothing really stood out.

Overall: 5/10
It was just a poor anime. The story could have had so much potential, but assuming do to little budget, there anime's run was short. It felt like to fit the entire plot in 12 measly episodes, they had to rush the plot along. Leaving a lot of things disjointed and not enough to time to explain anything or even provide character development. There was just so much to digest in this anime, that this series is not suited for a 12 episode season.

Recommendation: I still recommend watching this anime, see what you think. It was still a fun few hours of my life, but I definitely would not go back and re-watch this.

All together this anime is okay. Nothing really stunning or amazing. If there was anything in this anime that I truly had to say was good, was the voice actors and the designs for the more complex familiars. Overall this anime was quite generic with a predictable plot.

Story: 6
This anime had possibly a great story and a great plot, but unfortunately with what good plot they had, they just gave basic tripe that really doesn't stand out. They were more focused on making the main character have a love connection then really make sense to the plot. With 24 episodes, it felt like I ... legitimately went no where. I actually had to skip through most parts of this anime because it was either boring or was just pointless filler, almost like they threw the characters in just to remind you they are there, or to give the VA something to say so they get a paycheck. I'm not sure if it was because I skipped seconds here and there, but I did get slightly confused with who was on what side since they made it so intricate, that unless you really paid attention, you couldn't figure out who is fighting on what side and why they were fighting.

Art: 8
Like I said before, the art was pretty good. Nothing really stellar about it, but some of the familiars that the main characters had were quite intricate and cool looking.

Sound: 7
Like someone else said, they had no real stellar songs that made that moment memorable. The fight scenes felt bland without them. Usually the music motivates you and you feel the energy and emotion the character is feeling, but this anime lacks that. The VA's were well picked and quite a large cast. Nothing sounded funky or weird with the VA's or the sound effects.

Characters: 5
Ahh the characters. They had so much potential with the characters, but it fell quite short of stupendous or even good. Again, like I said before, they really focused on trying to give our main character a love interest, and unfortunately that meant 3 different females. Thankfully the most they ever really get into the relationship is the females having slight amorous fantasies (off screen, but very evident they are having). As for the other "main" characters that weren't Natsume or Haruto, they got little to no character development. Even the main characters got little development past, we grew up and now I kinda like you. I learned little to nothing about any of the characters other than Touji having a notable secret and a bad boy past. That's it. They had such good characters, Touji being special, and the divine guardians or whatever they're called, but you learn nothing about them. I felt like the 12 guardians (if that's even what they were called), was more like the Pirates of the Carribeans, 9 pieces of 8 BS (don't ask why). You only see a whole 5 of them, you don't understand how they are ranked or how they even get that position. They are just there because and they are supposedly super strong, but as seen throughout the anime, apparently that is only when it pertains to the plot. If not they are about as strong as the average character. That's the other thing, the strengths of the characters felt like they were at a stand still. With how much they study and learn, they got no stronger than they were at the beginning of the anime or whenever they first gained their powers. I felt like I was at a complete standstill.

Overall: 6
I personally only remained watching this because of Touji due to him kinda being cute, and the fact he was being voiced by Ian Sinclair. Overall I felt like the anime developed little in plot and in story. The characters felt like bricks that gained little to no growth. This anime did not take me on an adventure like others did. This one took me on a long long ride that felt like I went no where and gained little out of it, other than some solace that in the end everyone is alright. Not my cup of tea, but that is for you to judge. I definitely say give it a go. It doesn't really pick up until around episode 3 or 4 if I remember correctly.

This is my first real review of an anime. So here it goes.

Story: 8
It had a really great premise, the dead coming back to life as machines, but there were points where the story became arbitrary and it felt like there was unnecessary information. What I truly enjoyed about this anime was the fact that it all took place in Germany. It is a change from the aliens always invading Japan. Also the fact that a bunch of humans without much help from any technology besides their weapons and their cycles (at the beginning), they were able to take out demoniacs without any ... help from a super powered monster that is 10x strong than anything else and could easily win with a single blow. This anime definitely was a breath of fresh air in comparison to many other animes.

Art: 7
The regular human art was just regular, nothing spectacular or stellar about it. It was basically the run of the mill characters that you really get from any anime. As for the demoniacs, or Blassreiters, their design was very interesting and unique. Each one having their own form that fit their personality, as long as they were the main character. For the minions or the rogue demoniacs that you see at the beginning, you honestly really could not tell one from another. Of course that is the whole point, all eyes on the main characters, but often times that did make the fights confusing. Same thing can be said for many of the XAT members, although each pair had a unique color, if you were not really paying attention, you could easily get confused as to which character you are currently spectating and the demoniac that they are fighting. Multiple times, I had some issues separating Gerd from the rest. In addition, the CGI wasn't terrible, but it was by far pleasing. It felt so out of place for this anime. Suddenly they would go to the average, 2d (in a 3d design) to CGI racing. Even the demoniacs looked pretty normal, well as normal as a 6-7 ft robot alien can look. They did not look that strange among their environment, almost like they belonged there. The CGI felt more like a, see this is what we can do, but that was it. It felt like a show of advanced technology that was totally out of place.

Sound: 7
I found the music interesting, but they only seemed to have one track available. For me it felt distracting and annoying at times. I would focus too much on the sound track than the actual fight or event that is occurring. At times it felt like it was unnecessary and did not add anything to what was happening. Music is supposed to be motivating and get you pumped, often times it really didn't need any music because they had so much background noise, it filled up the empty silence most animes would contain if they didn't add background music. The music really did not mix well with the blades clashing, the guns, the squeezing of tires, or just crashing of bots (human or demoniac). Usually I appreciate the music, but this time it just seemed partially unnecessary. That is to say that the music isn't great, but it just felt so repetitive. As for the actual sound affects, they were appreciated and they went well with the actions being performed.

Character: 7
Unlike many animes, this anime actually did give time to character backgrounds. They didn't just make them 1 dimensional characters. The only issue is, they were not in the anime long enough for me to really care about them. Even though they got a backstory, it felt like it was partially thrown in to make us feel pity or proud for a character. Even characters like Mallock and Gerd felt really pointless. Gerd especially felt absolutely pointless. There was no premise for him to be in this anime, really his purpose was to make Jarmon look like less of an untrusting asshole. Without Gerd's pointless 3 or 4 episode appearance, Jarmon really would be a 1 dimensional character that could die and we didn't give a damn about. With Joseph being one of the main protagonists, you really did not see or hear much from him unless he was injured or saving someone else's life. Other than that, you really only saw Jarmon, Amanda, or the XAT team. I know it is important to give other characters some personality or some purpose, but Joseph felt more like that ex-machina that is thrown in when needed. Kind of as a reminder of, oh yeah this guy is supposed to be the main character. Guess we should include him eventually.

Enjoyment: 8
In general I liked this anime. Although you see all my negative comments, it actually was quiet enjoyable. You definitely got a family vibe from the XAT team. Everyone was willing to sacrifice their lives for the safety of another. The action was great and unlike many anime, this anime showed that they really don't need "human controlled" demoniacs to take down the bad guys. Just give them some guns and hell, they can kill them all, it will just take them some time and may possibly risk the lives of others. The human controlled demoniacs like Joseph and Gerd just make killing them just a little easier and quicker. Although certain parts felt unnecessary or drawn out to an ungodly proportion that really should not exist in an anime that is 24 episodes long, it definitely had it's action packed moments.

Not after saying all of this, I did watch the entire anime. Definitely was not my favorite, and I doubt that I will truthfully ever back to it of my own free will, but it was enjoyable. I definitely say give it a chance, but my advice is skip the first few episodes because they felt pointless. I will admit that I did have to skip through some parts, because they were drawn out or were only necessary for the character development and nothing else.