Anime: Senkou no Night Raid

Disappointing on almost every aspect.

With a secret organization acting on political stances, Senkou no Night Raid claims to be an intelligent and political action show. Anyone who has seen Darker Than Black probably believes that this has plenty of potential to develop into one of the better shows this year, but this show fails on nearly every aspect it should excel in.

Animation: Varies.

There is good animation to be found in this show. Especially the background designs are done extremely well.
Unfortunately, there are also scenes where you see awkward hesitant movements, a few crappy fight scenes and backgrounds that are obviously not part of the anime creation team. Most of the time the backgrounds are really well done though, which makes it all the more painfully clear that there was not enough consistency throughout the show.

Sound: Painful voice acting.

The characters in the show speak several languages, which gives them the upper hand to create an interesting atmosphere. But as most of the people know, speaking a language is pretty tough if it isn't your native language and you don't practice it on a regular base. The voice actors had this problem, so despite them speaking German, English and Chinese languages it feels so horribly off that they would've been better off not doing so.

Story: An overly simplified plot in a too complex environment.

The story is much more simple that it looks at first glance and that's not even a bad thing in this show. If anything, the shows tries hard to be a superpower-James Bond playing out in a historical setting.

The problem is that there is too much historical baggage to deal with and too many parties with their own agendas involved in the show. That results in chaotic scenes or dialogues that don't make sense. They try to show all kinds of historical values of wars, faction revolts, revolutions and the likes which makes the show hard to follow if you don't already have a fair grasp of the historical events and parties involved.

Now, it would help if there was a fair share of good action involved, but several episodes don't involve any action and the ones which do are often devoid of why the opposing party actually plans the event. This makes the show more or less a political thriller, but despite the suspense and the secrets throughout the show, the show never actually becomes good in persuing the thriller-aspect.

If anything, the show becomes dull and uninspiring despite all of the historical events and the characters playing a role in them. It is almost as if the show is being told by a narrator without feeling in the voice. Which is perfectly clear by hearing the end of several episodes, where the narrator actually does that.

Characters: Varying characters.

There are a few core characters of which some get some decent character development, but others of that same core group never really come close to developing. They experience a lot, I admit that, but them actually doing something with it that makes them a round character is too often not true. And with a political show like this, one would imagine that the characters would actually balance a thin line between good and evil, but the characters never really feel like they feel torn between them. If anything, they are only divided between what to do if there is a questionable event taking place. You end up not being able to identify with any of the characters, which makes the show pretty boring.

The result is that, even when there is something happening that actually involves that balancing, you don't really feel with any of the characters. None of the parties become clear enough to give you a feel of which you really want to support and as such it doesn't really matter what the characters do either, even if that same character actually has character development.

So, is it worth watching?

If you're interested in historical events played out by a secret agency with superpowers in a neutral way, then this might suit you. For most other people, however, this might just be a bridge too far because neither the characters nor the plot development is anywhere near interesting. A documentary would give you the same information, but then based on hard facts and it would probably be more interesting as well.

At least it would feature actual people instead of bleak characters you can't identify with.

Note: This review is based on RAWs.



An original work written by A-1 Pictures and directed by Matsumoto Jun (Blood+), Senkou no Night Raid[/b] depicts the fictional events set in 1931 Shanghai and is centered on a super power wielding special operations squad which works undercover. The show follows episodic nature for the first half, telling random stories about how our cast gets their hands on terrorists, spies and so on. In the later half the show gets centered on one particular villain, but frankly, never really goes out of its way to become something notable. Though if offers a complete ending and some solid writing from time to time, the few last episodes are rushed and the story as a whole is simply not that interesting.

It doesn't help that most of the characters are totally dull without a single interesting trait to offer, and that production values are hardly outstanding. Thanks to this not particularly exciting combination, and the adequately written but boring plot, all Senkou no Night Raid eventually achieves is becoming an alternative treatment for insomnia at best. Unless you are really excited about super power wielding squads or pre world war II Shanghai, forget this show. I mean, it's just like a washed down version of Darker than Black, which wasn't that much of a groundbreaking show either.

Animation: 6/10

Animation done by A-1 Pictures is pretty simple. While none of the backgrounds are particularly breathtaking, both attractive color palette and above average detail make most of the sights a pleasure to watch. There is a moderate variety of sights and all of them are realistic for the most part, thus making the show a little bit dull if you are one for imaginative fantasy like sceneries.

Character designs, on the other hand, are of surprisingly low quality when compared to the backgrounds. For starters, everyone is forced to look really realistic.. and really plain at the time. I had trouble telling people apart, and I'm pretty sure you will too. Not to mention that none of the cast look particularly attractive or cool either, you'll actually end up mixing your main guys with the background extras a lot. Detail put into faces is not exactly high level and there is some deformation going on here and there. Some episodes near the middle drop in quality even further offering you nothing but a sight for sore eyes. Being that dull character designs blend in the backgrounds well. Unfortunately, sometimes they blend into them so well you will have trouble noticing them, and again, that's not a particularly good sign, is it? Fluidity is nothing to get excited about either, you wont see any impressing sights, nor anything choppy enough to raise your eyebrows. It just flows through in the average way you'd expect from its average planning and boring battle choreography. In-betweens are indeed here, but don't really offer anything particularly worth noting.

Sound: 7/10

Energetic OP song Yakusoku by Mucc is great, probably much better than the show deserves. It's nice to listen to, it fires you up, and the allegorical imagery which follows it looks awesome. ED Mirai e by Himeka, while not as cool as the OP, is still a nice relaxing song fit quite well for the closure of the show. Background music is likely the best thing Senkou no Night Raid has to offer as it spurts a variety of nice classical instrumental songs which can please you more than the actual action on the screen. However, while many scenes are indeed imbued by the music very well, there are way too many moments spent in silence or wasted on bland themes I can't even recall. Nonetheless I wouldn't mind putting some of the instrumental pieces this show offers into my mp3 player, some are really nice.

Japanese voice-acting is moderate, if not particularly outstanding. What I can't say about English, Chinese and whatever other language these clunkies decided to use. Not to mention that pronunciation sometimes gets so bad you have to read Japanese subtitles despite being better at the spoken language than the actual Japanese, all the lines said in languages other than Japanese are completely dried of emotion. I get the feeling some of the seiyuu didn't even know what they were saying, while others, who might have been natives of the language had so little experience with the actual voice-acting they just read their lines straight off the script without anything as much as an intonation. Really, I wish they just used Japanese discarding other languages whatsoever, I mean, you shouldn't even consider putting things you don't know how to use in a non-home brew work of art.

Story: 5/10

The show is set in the pre-World War II China where people are just about starting to understand what globalization and international conflicts mean. While it's the first time I see such setting in an anime and I indeed was excited by it at first, the China one hundred years ago didn't turn out to be as interesting as I thought it was... Or at least this show couldn't portray it in an interesting way. Everyone is having trouble with life, there is a lot of political propaganda going on, and short of some special army units and bloodshed nothing interesting ever happens.

Which brings me to the plot which, though in essence grand, ends up as being nothing more than a 'meh' material. The first half of the show is filled by hardly interesting episodic fillers which have our main cast of super power wielding agents do something for their Chinese superior. You also get some insights on politics, organizations and society of the setting during those missions, but frankly, anything is hardly interesting. Not to mention that most of political talk is expressed through horrible English which you can't understand unless you read Japanese subtitles (for raws at least). Either way, there is a lot of stuff going and our special unit guys eventually end up clashing with a messiah-like revolutionary, Takachiho Isao, and kind of try to foil his plans of revolutionizing the whole Asia... You have some twists thrown in for your pleasure and the whole affair kind of grows big enough to threaten the entire Asian society, but frankly, the realization of the story is so dull you'll be yawning through half of the show. And even though big things happen, none of them are expressed in a particularly cool or dramatic way so you'll likely get the same feeling you get from reading a history book or something. Yeah, there was a conflict, many died, many have not, political structured changed, end of the story. Creators forgot to add drama somewhere along the way making Senkou no Night Raid into a really dry and quite boring show. Nonetheless, political and social parts of the scenario are relatively well written and the show, unlike many other anime, has a real ending, so you might as well like it if sour political conflicts without hardly any drama are your thing. Though I still get the feeling the last episode flew through twice as fast as it was supposed to be.

Characters: 3/10

The main problem of Senkou no Night Raid is its completely bland characters. While a few guys from the cast do indeed get backdrops, none of the characters are any interesting to begin with so the particular backdrop only serves to bore you even further. I mean, everyone has considerably normal personality for an anime and follow archetypes which are overused to death in live action fiction already.

Main character is a carefree secret agent on the outside, but is actually crying for his lost dead lover inside. His partner is dead serious guy who is just.. well... serious about everything. The villain of the show is, as we all know it, intelligent and scheming, "means are excused by the goal" type of person. And then we have a little sister of his and her attendant who also have special powers and work for the squad which actually tries to catch him. Actually, now that I wrote it, I realize I barely know anything about characters apart from the fact that they are not interesting and try to follow the most boring archetypes ever. There are very few conversations in the show which would express any character traits and there is barely any development going on in their heads. Really, they just do their job and rarely get emotional at anything. All you really end up seeing is a bunch of boring leads attempting their hard missions in the plot which is already dried up enough to look like a history textbook.

Myers-Briggs personality type indicator:

Iha Kazura - ISTJ (E)
Miyoshi Aoi - ESFJ (E)
Sonogi Yukina - ISFJ (E)
Takachiho Isao - INTJ (E)
Kagiya Natsume - ISTJ (F)

Show Spoiler

Value: 4/10

While music and a few action scenes might indeed fit for a re-watch material, the show as a whole is way too boring for me to even consider watching it again as a whole. It has absolutely no originality either, so I'm not even planning to keep it in my collection. I mean, Darker Than Black was like this anime and more already. And I bet we are gonna see a better version of a show like this released sometime in the future anyway.

1. Conclusion[/u]:[/b] Rated for 17 year olds and older due to profanity and violence Senkou no Night Raid is just your run of the mill episodic action show which throws in a few historical elements and some megalomaniac schemes for spices. It's not a show you'd want to watch if you want to boil your blood, nor it's a show to entertain your intelligent pursuits. Frankly, Senkou no Night Raid is below average at everything it does and while I can't really call it terrible at anything, it's simply doesn't offer a single special trait to become worth watching. If episodic special squad shows are your thing, then Darker than Black and Ghost in the Shell are what you would rather want to see.

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