Visionary Nexus Network

‘Sup guys. I’m Cloud, the newest blog writer here at Visionary Nexus. I’ll be covering both anime and video games, either whatever seems to be overlooked by the rest of the writers here or what seems to be too old-school for them. I’m sarcastic, kind of a douche, and I can get pretty asinine and ridiculous. Don’t worry, most of the time I’m kidding, and I honestly don’t judge people too harshly if it turns out they like shit. If you like shit, then you like shit. I even like some shit. We all do; why lie? I’d like to start off with video games, since I’ve actually been playing them lately whilst I’ve been getting further and further behind on anime, but I honestly haven’t played anything lately worth mentioning(dammit, Cave Story Wii, hurry up and get on the damn Shop Channel!), but I’ve been watching one anime that everyone else has neglected to mention until now, even though I’m sure they’re all aware of its existence. I’m talking about…

Sengoku BASARA. The most badass show this season which rivals Eden of the East as my favorite.

The show is based on a Playstation 2 game of the same name released way back in ‘05, titled Devil Kings in America. It was basically what we got when Capcom was like, “Yo, guys, we should combine Devil May Cry and Dynasty Warriors. That’d be pretty sick, right?” So, they did. The result? Well, hell if I know, I didn’t play it. Sounds pretty cool, though, right? There’s a bunch of other games in the series, but that’s not important. What IS important, is that Production I.G.(fap fap fap) took the series and made an anime for it this season.

And man, it is awesome. Take the crazy fights of Gurren Lagann, minus the mechs, and mix it with samurai action, lovely Engrish, feudal Japanese wars, and some bad ass characters, and you’ve got a sure fire hit, my man. It’s entertaining as hell, I’ll tell you that. However, it isn’t really a series for the faint of heart; you’ve gotta be a man to handle this. This isn’t your Lucky Star, or your Haruhi Suzumiya, or whatever you watch. The best way to sum it up is “manly japanese guys punching and slashing each other while enormous amounts of energy circle around them.” Reminds you of Dragon Ball Z, right? Well, it sorta is like that, if DBZ had higher production values, was 13 episodes long, and wasn’t filled to the brim of WATCH POWERFUL MAIN CHARACTER CHARGE FOR 30 MINUTES!!!! So, you have no excuse for not watching this.

You might be wondering what the story is like; to sum it up quickly, Japan is split up into several areas, and there are lords who govern these areas, and they all go to war with each other a lot, because that’s what feudal lords do. Eventually, a Demon Lord appears by the name of Oda Nobunaga and, because that bitch is scary(Cloud note: he is voiced by Norio Wakamoto. His voice fills your head. You are now scared.), our lords eventually have to team up to kick his ass. At least, that’s what I’ve gotten from the 3 episodes I’ve watched. Shut up, Frostii is the only group subbing it that I like, and they update slower than Light does(Light Note: fffffffffffffuuuuu-). So, as you can see, the story is your usual feudal Japan crap, except exaggerated up the ass. It’s interesting, yet simple enough that it doesn’t bog you down with too much.

Remember those awesome characters I mentioned? I wasn’t lying. Sengoku BASARA’s main characters are all pretty awesome. First up is Date Masamune. My personal favorite, he’s the leader of the Date clan, wields about 6 swords at once(Man, if you thought Zoro was crazy…), has an eyepatch, rides a horse with motorcyle handlebars and mufflers attached(for no real reason. Just because he can.), and rallies his men with Engrish yells. How much cooler can you get? The answer is not much. You liked Kamina? You liked Domon? You like hot-blooded men in general? You’ll love Date Masamune.

Next, Sanada Yukimura. He controls fire and wields two crazy ass spears, and gets into manly punch fights with his leader. He has a rivalry with Date, and they get into crazy laser light show fights whenever they’re within 100 yards of each other.

Finally, at least for the main three, there’s Maeda Kenji. He’s lazy, fights with a large sword, has a pet monkey, and is often mistaken as a traveling performer a lot. I’ve only seem one episode with him it, so he’s not the strongest character yet, but he’s not bad by any means. The other characters are pretty great, and fill in their roles nicely so far.

I think the only thing that disappoints me so far about Sengoku BASARA is the fact that some of the fight scenes are very short. Again, keep in mind that at this time, I’ve only seen three episodes, but the fights were all a bit on the short side. I mean, they’re still pretty rad, but once it’s over, you have a feeling of wanting more, but it doesn’t really deliver until the next episode. I haven’t gotten to the meat of the series yet though, so this could very well change, and I damn well expect it to.

My final thoughts on this series? Well, so far, it’s fucking great. Unless you are allergic to awesome, you need to watch it. I can only tell you to PUT YA GUNZ ON and get with the program. Especially if you’ve got a weak mind like Zenk and cute girls in K-ON! make you wish you’d be grinding in Dragon Quest VIII, Sengoku BASARA will be there to punch you in the face, and give you cake too.

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