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I"m not familiar with the game that this is based upon, but it seems a decent samurai vs demon story. What made it interesting to me is how they base Musashi on Mifune Toshiro, who played Musashi in the films Samurai I, II, and III, but the character, to me, is far more reminiscent of the Mifune from Yojimbo and Sanjuro, imitating many of his traits such as walking around with arms pulled from sleeves and so on. There was even a quick scene where he makes faces, trying to make a child laugh, like Mifune's Kikuchiyo in Seven Samurai.

The action has its moments ... of gore and moments of well drawn swordfights, though much of it is just flashing of swords and seeing the result. Even so, it's been holding my interest. Perhaps it's more interesting to those. like me, who have read the Musashi novel by Yoshikawa, but a lot of people know about Musashi's duel with the Yoshioka family and the duel with Kojiro.

Even with something that had no connection to Musashi, or Mifune, it stands as a reasonably good samurai vs. demon series.

Sket Dance strikes me as an under rated show. While I've seen it compared to Gintama (and there were crossover episodes), somehow, it reminds me most of the first few seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. There were no world threatening vampires or other monsters, but the relationship between the 3 core characters reminded me somewhat of Buffy (Himeko), Wilow (Sketch) and Xander (Bossun, even though he's the leader here.)
It's a show that's greater than the sum of its parts. The story was usually a one episode plot, but there were several arcs throughout. There were several episodes that were LOL ... funny, several that were tear jerkers, and many that were both. While it was more a comedy than anything else, the back stories of the three main characters, and some of their friends, were moving, some tragic.

Going through the usual review list, story, art, sound, character, is a little difficult. Most stories, even the moving arcs, taken by themselves, were no better than good. I enjoyed the art, but there was nothing that made me say, Oh my, this is incredible. It was good, and didn't get in the way. The songs were good, there are some I enjoy enough to find on Youtube and listen to from time to time.

The characters are where the show shines. You care about them, and the show manages to show you how even the nasty seeming ones have their good points. There's the Captain, (so called because she's the captain of the female softball team), and in a few scenes, you see why everyone likes and admires her. There's the nasty girl on the student council, who you gradually get to know, and like. It's a large cast of characters, and eventually, you get to know and care about almost all of them.

I liked this enough so that when I finished the show, I went on to the manga and read it to the end. I think the only other anime that I liked that much was Gintama. And yes, there are similarities, but I still think it reminds me more of Buffy than anything else.

The strongest part of this show, and the reason I give it a 10 for enjoyment, was the wide cast of characters, and how well the anime made you care about them.

As someone who did karate and some other martial arts (albeit
unskillfully), for many years, I loved this show.

This series was a prequel to a manga about a modern day karateka (Karatepractitioner.) It has 3 distinct arcs, one around the beginning of the
Tokugawa reign, where the hero meets Musashi, one in the time of Iemitsu,
the third Tokugawa shougun, and one around the time of the Meiji rebellion.


Historically, there probably wasn't a roundhouse using martial art in Japan
till the 20th century, but if one suspends a bit of historical knowledge,
... the martial artist and history buff can both enjoy the series. It's far
more respectful of history than say, Sengoku Basara. Almost all of the
martial arts in the series are realistic. They sometimes use the popular
martial arts movie technique of showing a move, then going back in slow
motion to show what actually happened.

The gerneral animation isn't spectacular. As has been mentioned in other reviews,
during fight scenes, the background often disappears, but that's fine, it
allows the watcher to pay more attenion to the action. The drawing of the
martial arts movements is well done and realistic.

The plots are relatively straightforward. In the first arc, a Mutsu Enmei
practioner, Mutsu Yakumo meets the famous Musashi. The monk Takuan, known
to those who have read up on Mushashi, or the Yagyuus, also makes a small appearance.

In the second arc, Mutsu Takato, who is probably his son, drawn the same way though
with a different voice actor, participates in a tournament and meets several of the Yagyuus,
including Juubei and Munenori (who wrote a treatise that is still around in
transation, the Sword and the Mind.) Those who are fans of Munenori may
not like how he is portrayed here--he's not exactly evil, but he seems
somewhat cowardly and political. Historically, Munenori once singlehandedly
killed 7 assassins sent after the shougun, but, one does wonder about the
actual circumstances as one swordsman against 7 usually only works in the
movies. At any rate, Juubei is the heroic Yagyuu here in this series.

The last arc seemed somewhat different. The plot seemed to go a bit more
slowly, but I was moved by the fate of many of the characters.
This one takes place around thetime of the Meiji restoration, and Mutsu Izumi, again drawn identically but with a different voie actor, becomes friends with the
statesman Sakamoto Ryuu. He also runs into the Shinsengumi, including two
of their most famous members, Okita Souji and Hijikata Toshizou.

Although I did enjoy the third arc, it did seem to drag at times, and probably had less action.
Some of the fights in this one stuck me as less realistic than the other two arcs.

Although much of it was driven by the trope of skilled martial artist
looking for a challenging opponent, one could care about almost all of the
characters. I liked the interpretations of almost all of the historical
figures. There was a certain lack of realism of course--for example,
disrespect to a shougun was tolerated in a way that it wouldn't have been in
that time, but I think that any martial artist will forgive its historical
accuracy lapses and be glad of fight scenes that could actually happen.

To go through the standardized ratings quickly.
The art was fairly simple, but the fight scenes themselves were well-drawn. As that was one of the most interesting things for me, I didn't care about the background blanking out during the fights. I'll give it a 7, most for the fight scenes. However, the rest certainly wasn't terrible--it didn't (for me), detract from the show.

As for sound, neither opening nor closing song really moved me, I usually skipped them, so it gets a 6.

The characters get an 8. I think the trope of fighter looking for a challenge is overused, but I enjoyed each presentation of the historical characters.

The enjoyment and overall rating are a 9 for me--I think it was probably greater than the sum of its parts. I don't know how much I would enjoy it had I not been involved in martial arts, but after seeing so many absurd fights in anime, realistic ones are a refreshing change.

Perhaps it's because I grew up during a time when the formulaic western was popular, but half hour stand alone episodes of our heroines going into a town and (in most episodes) doing something to put things right, appeal to me.

When so many anime have an opening pop theme this opens with a more traditional sounding enka. It may be the only anime where I never skipped the opening song.

Some of the fight scenes were done quite well, being moderately realistic sword work. (Save for the lack of blood and, as seen in the opening scenes, the ... common trope of bad guys lining up to be killed, rather than attacking two or three at a time.) The characters were likable, though sometimes Ran reminds me of an Eastwood in the Man with No Name films, if he suddenly become like a little boy when offered liquor. Meow is the goofy sidekick. I think I had at least one loud guffaw per episode.

It was an underrated show and I wish there were more episodes. As others have said, simple but very enjoyable.