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As someone who has read the light novels (LN), all I have to say is....wow, and not in the good way.

I've read the, and continue to follow, the light novel and was quite excited when I found out it was going to be animated. That excitement disappeared quite quickly after I was 3 episodes in. Aside from the first episode (which quite thoroughly covered the first chapter), everything is rushed. Obviously when you use up 10 volumes **edit: 5 vols** worth of material and jam it into 13 episodes its not going to look pretty (12 eps in reality cause ep 1 was ... chapter 1). The overall effect this has on the show is that it feels like your typical, unremarkable series with specks of harem thrown in. In all honesty, with 13 episodes, they should have slowed the pace down and just went up until after the "Roland" arc.

I wouldn't be stretching it if I said that non-LN readers wouldn't really understand what was going on. I wouldn't not recommend this series unless youre a fans who has read the LNs. Even then, i'd still say its worth a watch only if you really want to see "parts" of the series animated. Don't expect too much though, because I was clearly disappointed.

For those who are impatient, my simple review would have me say that i found it a mixed bag. I really wanted to write two separate reviews for this -an unbiased one and a personal one- but that's quite tedious and im not sure MAL would allow it. Anyways, i'll try to keep this short and simple.


Going into the film, i really really wanted to like it - I really did. And that's likely why i felt a bit disappointed. The simple plot of the story sees our lone heroine move into edo to live with her brother and to help ... him hunt down the fuse (human/dog hybrids). Her search leads her to meet with Shino.

My unbiased review would have me say that the story is fairly simplistic (no major plot twist) and maybe even enjoyable. In other words, if i were to take it at face value, there's nothing really wrong with it. However, a personal review would have me say that something about it just irked me. One of the genre listed with this film is "drama" but it didn't really feel as dramatic as it could have been. I blame this on execution. I personally think they could have focused more screen time on the fuse and their situation/circumstances instead of the heroine who hunts them down.

The character development was almost none existent imo. I wont hold it strongly against the film, cause it IS a film but im suppose to feel inclined towards Hamaji and Shino when they only meet up 4 times in the movie? About the fuse, particularly Shino, I just never got around to really liking him. I cant really describe why i feel this way without spoiling so lets just say i felt he doesn't get enough screen time/explanation for a character of his importance.

As for the art, i have no real complaints per se, but i personally don't think it really matched the theme(s) of the film. The art is variant and almost colorful but that doesn't really match with the theme(s) found in the film, etc:'we're gonna hunt down these fuse, cut off their heads, and display it for the public.' This is just a personal opinion and most people are hardly going to have much issues with the art.


OVERALL

There's nothing really wrong with the film, it has decent plot and action but i found that it suffers from its inability to make me want to try and connect with the characters. I think the story would have had a much stronger impact had they choose Shino as the main lead instead of Hamaji. Anyways, as another reviewer said, it does kinda have a Princess Mononoke feel to it except that its more action orientated and slightly less developed characters.

So, do i regret watch the movie? kinda, but not really. Would i recommend it? As long as you go in not expecting anything great. It has a "meh" fell about it.