Aug 3, 2019
At its best, this anime must have been an interesting concept, beautiful art and animation, and compelling to watch. However, I'm sorry to say that this anime has not aged very well. It first aired in 2004 and the overall quality of anime that is currently being produced will only continue to outshine Tactics. I noticed that the later the year is, the lower the rating gets for this show. It is not an anime that could pass the test of time, however if you are ok with watching something like that, then I think it's interesting enough to at least look into.
It begins with
...
a boy named Kantarou who can see spirits and do spiritual magic stuff that seeks to find a powerful "oni-eating Tengu". That's the general synopsis that you'll read but that is basically only the first episode. After that, the anime turns into an episodic series that has Kantarou and the "oni-eating Tengu", Haruka, running around helping people with yokai problems and sealing away the demons that are causing a problem. There is a slight story line near the ending of the anime, but it wasn't all that interesting or memorable.
I really love anime about yokai so I was excited to watch Tactics. At first, I enjoyed it but it did not capture my attention enough to make me binge it. It took me 5 years from start to finish, and I think that says a lot about the show. Tactics is very episodic, which is completely fine for me, but the characters were not interesting enough for an episodic type anime. To be completely honest, they felt like very downgraded Rurouni Kenshin characters, that anime aired 8 years before Tactics did (I know that they're both manga adaptations but still). The characters in Tactics weren't exactly developed, but they weren't exactly one dimensional either. They were just sort of lukewarm, if that makes any sense.
The art style was fine, I liked it, it wasn't amazing or unique or anything but it was good. The animation was ok, again, it was not really special. The art was a kind of typical anime look but I really liked the setting of the anime, how most characters wore traditional Japanese clothing like yukata. The character designs really fit that look and setting, that was probably the best part about the art.
Soundtrack was forgettable. The opening was at least interesting compared to the generic anime opening songs but that doesn't make it inherently good or bad, just different. I personally didn't really like it and skipped over it. One thing though is that one of the reoccurring characters had a really distorted audio quality whenever she talked, which made me really cringe at the sound. It almost hurt my ears, but for some reason all the other character's voices were fine.
Overall, it was mildly enjoyable but not at all gripping and it became an anime to watch when there was nothing else. It did take me a long time to finish it because of this. Unless you're really into anime with yokai or enjoy mid 2000's anime shows, it's not really worth your time.
I want to be clear that it isn't a bad anime, it's just a decently entertaining anime that did not age well. It started out as an 8 for me, but as the years passed, I put it down to a 6. I rated it by how much I enjoyed it, especially since it is hard to give this anime a solid review due to how much has changed since Tactics has been out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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