[Review] Utawarerumono

[mafiaman]

Genres: romance, fantasy, drama, action
Summary:
Waking up injured, a man finds himself in a small village after being rescued by an apprentice physician. Having no memory of who he is and a mask he cannot take off, he decides to live with the other villagers peacefully. But peace is fragile, as a single event in their village plunges himself and his fellow villagers into a path of war. Based on the ero-game by Leaf/AQUAPLUS.
animation studio: Oriental light and magic
licensed: yes(originally by ADV but now by funimation i believe... not sure which)
on sakurahana @:
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my review:
as the summary suggests, utawarerumono is very war oriented, which is ironic for an anime based on an H-game. as such there is a large mount of combat, including but not limited to duels and/or fully animated full scale battles. thats right, i said FULLY ANIMATED. although utawarerumono is war themed there are heavy romance elements incorperated into the show through an(obvious to the viewer) underlying love story which stretches from the first episode up until the last second of the final episode. it is a touching story with the background music melding beautifully into every scene. it is beautifully animated with consistant, good quality, smooth animation in every scene.
as a reviewer, i wish there was a series that i could accurately compare it to without spoiling it however it is a one of a kind anime(soon to be 2 of a kind...see below) in thuroughly mixing shoujo and shounen elements. it a has a beautiful storyline that leaves the viewer wishing the show was longer. being a lover of both romance and warfare and very impressed with the overall quality i gave this show a...
review score: 9.5/10
Class: masterpiece




2 of a kind: amusingly there is another, extremely similar anime coming out. its called... "Tears to Tiara"
it should be completed either this year or the next.
They have the same Character designer, Both from the same game company Leaf/AQUAPLUS that made the game. Both have war as a theme. And both have a lot of Cute and beautiful girls.
as with Utawarerumono, Tears to Tiara is being animated by Oriental light and magic.

[devrait]

Hmm.. utawarerumono had a some twisted story for me... but this is a good anime.. based on h-games...
just same as tears to tiara... it's based on h-games

[sagitta]

Well, I'd agree with what you wrote - it's a good anime with very good animation and nice chara designs. The part I found lacking was music, though - to me, the OP and ED was quite memorable, but I couldn't find any of the themes interesting. In contrast, I was humming half of the themes from the game when I was midway through my first playthrough of Utawarerumono.

[UltimaLuminaire]

^Hey, don't forget about Kimi ga Tame. That song had me in tears when I was listening to it while playing the final scene from the game.

On another note, the anime completely makes all the jokes fresh again! It's amazingly rewarding watching the show after playing the game (without voices too!). Oh, and the DVD specials! Oh, lord, the DVD specials... poor poor Oboro.

[mafiaman]

ha ha
"oboro barrier"

[sagitta]

Quote: Originally Posted by UltimaLuminaire

^Hey, don't forget about Kimi ga Tame. That song had me in tears when I was listening to it while playing the final scene from the game.

Hm, agreed. That wasn't a bad song... and I absolutely agree that the dvd specials are a very nice addition :P

[multy]

Had seen the anime and played the game (hard as hell... damned!)

Tis really great story... but I am a bit disappointed with the anime is focusing solely on Eruruw (correct my spelling if mistaken)... Hakuoro is practically managing a well balanced harem in the game... every girl gets equal share of attention (allright... there ARE favorites > Touka, Karura, Eruruw)... and some bear his offspring... ... ... who?....

Hakuoro kinda reminds me of Taikoubou from Houshin Engi... both got to build a country... both equally clever and a strategist of war... and both got a devilish and insanely strong woman chasing down their ass... also to mention that both have twins...

[dante_vergil]

Spoiler!

Yeah I know what you mean EXCEPT Utawarerumono's twin are actually he instead of she. I MEAN SERIOUSLY the twins looked like female. The game's original design for the twins looked very different.

Dunno about Houshin Engi. Never seen it.

[VWPY]

I liked the game better cause it went into mor detail than the anime and I liked how u moved the characters around...kinda like FF Tactics. Tho the anime was also good.

[dyrean]

This one great series that I've watched it deserves to be praised hope to be localized here in Phil.

[turtle-san]

played the game and had the anime in my harddisk. never had the motivation to watch since i played the game though.

seems like i should starting watching it soon :D

[Ahinigami]

This is a great anime and especially the game but too bad you need to download the sound ripped from ps2 seperately.I love the sad ending but too bad it just have to end so early but they are planning to release the ero Ova soon.

Any1 know where can I the 1080 or 720p blu-ray ripped by THORAnime in MU or RS? Been finding out for a week but not much hope.

[PassionofAnime]

Wow the last post is like 3 months ago.
It seems like I am one of the few who do not like Utawarerumono very much.
First of all,the beginning was quite interesting with the man not knowing who he is and the opportunity to start a new life.
The first fights were quite entertaining,too but there wasn't anything new in the battles.

Spoiler!

I mean,Hakuoro won everytime and it was boring as hell since it was so obvious.

Not liking Aruru and Eruru it was difficult for me to continue watching the Anime.
I didn't hate them but the most fitting words to describe them would be 'nothing new'.
There also were some kinda weird things like Aruru,a young girl,riding a

Spoiler!

tiger

and killing people without having any regrets altough people are dying everywhere around her. ==> What the hell?
Eruru was just the typical kind wife most people would love to have but didn't offer anything interesting at all.
The most annoying character was oboro.Why didn't he just shut up?!
I mean where's the point in continiously talking rubbish and trying to solve problems by violence instead of thinking even a bit?

The fights started to get boring too since the animations started to repeat and the CG Animations were really terrible.
The Animations were hardly even average from what I expect from a good Anime...

The worst part of the Anime was the 'Mecha' part.
I was like 'wth is going on?!' when it started and really angry aswell since the Anime wasn't that bad yet but everthing was ruined by combining medieval and mecha (future) elements.

The Sound wasn't bad but again nothing special.
Unfortunately I can't remember it well which means it wasn't really good and that's why I can't continue writing about it at this point.

[Sashev]

the anime was just awesome , i liked it a lot , also the music was totally awesome , Op and Ed was ... , and the game was just awesome as the anime , but much more . I was really happy that game was in english too , not to mention that there was an voice patch :P