Kaze no Yojimbo

I have experienced how great Kurosawa's works are, as well as how great works can be created by borrowing Kurosawa's ideas and adapting them (for example, putting them in a different setting). I have one such "remake" which is in my list of the best movies ever made (The Magnificent Seven), and for example, I also like the movie For a Few Dollars More a lot, which is also (like this anime series) supposedly based on Kurosawa's Yojimbo, and that is clearly worth five-stars in my opinion. So this anime series ends up in the same boat, as the atmosphere alone is a real treat from the very first episode! The characters all too often portray various stereotypes (the mysterious stranger, gangsters, bosses, a young student, the mysterious, beautiful, and confident woman...), however, they are all very well written and memorable. Personally speaking, I have to applaud the main male protagonist especially, who is almost as excellent as, say, Harmonica in Once Upon a Time in the West. So what about the narrative? Well, the narrative gradually unfolds, there are indications of what is going to happen, and the attentive viewer can perhaps be able to predict some of the big revelations that eventually turn up later on. However, despite that this anime series does not lose its air of suspense, which it manages to maintain for most over all the twenty-five episodes. On the other hand, I cannot deny that, like every anime series, this one has its weaker episodes, and for me personally it was the one with the college professor trying to unravel secrets from the past, and who wants to discover an ancient treasure... Still, all the episodes have a satisfying ending, I did not see any major holes in the logic - in other words, for narratives in an anime series, I thought this one is of a very high standard. As for the soundtrack, I found the opening and ending to be interesting musical themes that have grown on me, they suited the vibe of this anime series and I surprisingly never once felt the need to skip over them. The music itself, which they used throughout this anime series, is not that memorable on the whole, there are just various simple motifs that are used in certain scenes, and I would perhaps compare it to some of the classic westerns, for example, occasionally there is a piece of music that just fits the scene, although, at the same time, you hardly notice it... Well, I have saved what I thought of the animation for last. The biggest shortcoming of this anime series is how imbalanced the artwork is. It has some decent scenes and backgrounds, however, at the same time, the fight scenes look incredibly cheesy, slapdash, and ridiculous at times. It is therefore hard to take some important scenes, especially the fight scenes, seriously. However, on the other hand, I cannot say that it spoiled my impression of the show so much that I wanted to take back my already announced rating because I enjoyed it a lot. I binge-watched the whole thing almost in one go, and it was both interesting and suspenseful - in other words, the storytelling (style of narration), the atmosphere, the characters - all of these things made for an incredibly entertaining show, and I enjoyed it even when I was not really in the mood to watch anything at all. I think it is worth 9/10, with the caveat that I am surprised how few people know about this anime series and how very few have rated it because for me it is almost (except for the animation + a few other things) like a hidden gem… (04/08/2018) (less) (more)