Anime: Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis

Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis, aka Rage of Bahamut: Genesis, is a breathtaking fable about friendship, betrayal, demons, Gods, some unknown creatures, and repentance. While it is not flawless, I believe that this series is worth your free time. Not only the animation, but also the beautifully written story-line will make your viewing unforgettable. Rage of Bahamut will tell you a story, where angels, demons, and humans have no other choice but to fight together against even a greater evil, Bahamut.

The story of Rage of Bahamut: Genesis takes place in an alternative world, where humans, demons, and angels coexist and are even at war with each other. However, one day, the black-and-silver winged Bahamut makes demons and angels cooperate and seal it. This creature is so strong that only Zeus and Satan are able to seal it. Alack, even they are powerless and the both Lords are forced to sacrifice their lives to seal Bahamut. The key to that seal is split in two: one half is given to the Gods and the other to demons. The both Lords are now dead and no one can imagine what demons and the Gods will do. After two thousand years, a human woman steals the gods' half of the key and the peace is destroyed. Who is that mysterious woman and what is she trying to achieve? Find the answer by watching Rage of Bahamut: Genesis.

While the story is not something new for the anime world: someone steals something, they find friends, and are trying to overcome all the difficulties together; the story of this anime is still very interesting to follow. Some events are easy to foresee, but the most important ones; however, are not. I guess it is always pleasant to find an anime that will be able to amaze you and this series can do that. On top of that, I would like to note that the story is very understandable, every important thing about it is explained, and I cannot name you even one obvious flaw. Yes, the only obvious flaw of the story is that there should be a new season that will be able to conclude the story and this new season has already been announced, by the way.

The art of Rage of Bahamut: Genesis is controversial. On the one hand, the animation seems very western-influenced, which in some cases might be a one huge disadvantage. However, on the other hand, this series succeeds in presenting its animation; it even does not spare neither strength, nor resources on its OP and ED themes, showing that “yes, we even have enough money for that.” Character designs, a huge variety of spells, creatures, all of them are just so beautiful that you want to see more and more. If it is a demon, then it is dark and horrific. If it is an angel, then it is beautiful and majestic. If it is an undead, then it is frightening and disgusting. Anyways, you can watch the opening theme of this anime and you will immediately understand how beautiful this anime is.

The music is worthy, as well. I would not say that I am a big fan of the music that is shown in the opening theme, but, at the same time it fits this anime well. The ending theme also brings the feeling of a closure, helping you to relax. Other music pieces included in the OST are also on the level; however, the only noticeable flaw is that there should have been more tracks. Anyways, it is not even something that I would call a flaw. The voice cast of this series is also another reason for you to watch this anime. While I believe that the Japanese cast did a better job, you can watch it in English, if you are not a fan of Japanese voice actors.
The characters of this series are all interesting to follow: be it a supporting character, or a protagonist, they all receive enough development. Of course, it is an open secret that the main protagonists receive more development, but it is always pleasant to find a series that even pays enough attention to its supporting characters. Anyways, the anime mostly revolves around Favaro Leone and Kaisar Lidfard. They are amazing! At first, what they do and what they are trying to achieve is unclear and you only think that this series is just some ridiculous comedy. But as the series progresses, you find out more and more about the two and from being funny, Rage of Bahamut: Genesis becomes even more dramatic than funny, or action-oriented. The other two main cast members, Amira and Rita, are less entertaining than the male duo, but they complement them, making them one single unit. Separately, the cast members are weak and uninteresting, but together they are very interesting to follow.

All in all, Rage of Bahamut: Genesis seems to be more a long running Hollywood movie than anything else. It is surprising that this anime adapts a mobile game. You can rarely find a good PS anime adaptation, but Bahamut is just a mobile game adaptation and it is very good. The series manages to keep you entertained, leaving you absolutely no time to yawn, or to relax. Yes, at some point, it loses its pace and becomes less action-oriented; however, later episodes compensate well for it. Anyways, if the new season, which has already been announced, does not spoil the reputation of the first season and if it reworks all problems of the first season, becoming even better than the previous one, I am more than sure that Rage of Bahamut will become one of these “must buy anime.” Anyways, I cannot even think of one reason that will make you dislike this anime. I would highly recommend it to everyone, be you a male, or a female, a teenager, or an adult. Even if you want to watch it with your parents, or with your girlfriend, this series will definitely not disappoint you.

I hope you will enjoy Rage of Bahamut: Genesis.

GOOD HIGH FANTASY

One of the genres anime never seem to get right is high fantasy. Berserk and Claymore don’t count, since they are dark fantasy, Attack on Titan doesn’t count because it is a typical zombie apocalypse with shonen characters, while Lodoss War that counts is as dry as the chamomile leaves we gathered last year for tea. Most others that claim to be high fantasy are more like slapstick comedies set in a pseudo-medieval setting, thus they do close to nothing when it comes to capturing that 2nd edition of Dungeons and Dragons I grew up with, back when everything are great because it was retro. And of course there are also light novel adaptations, which are complete garbage, regardless of what genre they deal with, high fantasy included.

So here comes this show to finally break this curse by capturing exactly the magic of what high fantasy is all about. A strong sense of adventure, really high stakes, cheesy dialogues, random enemy encounters, unexpected plot twists, emphasis on character fleshing out, and epic showdowns with dragons, gods, demons, or all of them at the same time.

BEATS THE SOURCE MATERIAL

Despite being based on a virtual card game, not only it doesn’t feel like it promotes it by using its gameplay mechanics, but it also does not use cheap tactics like fan service, in order to simply sell, and doesn’t even resort to an episodic structure, so it can be nothing more than an aimless adventure with pretty colors. You want more? There is a plot, and there is a finale, which is solid. You want even more than that? The protagonists are not beta males and sexualized lolis but dynamic men and women you can show respect for, since they don’t constantly act like horny sluts.

This is not a lifeless adaptation, made solely to advertize a game. Studio Mappa did a splendid job in making it stand on its own, and at the same time being far superior to its source material. As much as I don’t care about pretty colors, I can’t deny the effort they put into the presentation. The attention to detail when it comes to backgrounds, character motions, and dynamic music, is enough to make even the dullest of episodes fun enough to watch.

GARBAGE SCRIPT

The worst part of the show is the script and I am not sure if that even matters in high fantasy, but let’s pretend it does. From a critical standpoint it’s garbage, since just like most actual pen and paper role playing games, stuff happen because they need to happen at that particular moment, and not because there is a reasonable chain reaction of events that lead to them. If you dislike characters appearing out of nowhere, doing something, and then flying away without anyone being able to do the slightest thing about it, well, too bad, because Bahamut could have easily be called Teleportation, the Animated Series. It is completely chaotic in its story structure, so any strategy the characters have, means absolutely nothing. In other words, this is a show that lives and dies by the rule of cool. Trying to look for depth or underlying messages can only damage the experience. It is meant to be loud, flashy, shallow, exciting, and nothing more.

PURE FUN

If you stick to the action and adventure parts though, you won’t be able to get enough of it, since it is made with such passion that it grabs you in seconds and doesn’t let you go. Enjoy a cursed rogue with a tail, as he is chased around by a guy who wants to avenge the death of his father, while he escorts a half demon woman with the mentality of a little girl, through dungeons, and haunted forests, and stormy oceans, trying to get to hell and prevent the dragon of the apocalypse from awakening and wiping out everything, as gods and demons are fighting for supremacy all around them. Also, there is a talking duck.

IN CONCLUSION

If you are wondering why I sound so positive about it, when I keep bitching about the script being more important than entertainment, it’s because it avoids all the done to death anime stereotypes modern anime are full of. No schools, no sexualized sluts, no beta males. It stands out from almost everything else and the character chemistry helps to mesh everything together in a satisfying way. If that is not a good enough excuse for you, then see it this way: It is also the only good high fantasy anime ever made. And even if that is not enough, at least it’s very fun.

Review
My first contact with Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis (Rage of Bahamut) was through an awesome figure of Dark Angel Olivia. That thing stunned me. I searched about it in the internet and learned it was yet another web game to cash on japanese. Suddenly my interest was gone.

When the anime was announced my interest was still none. I mean, a show based on some web card game? Nonsense. I don't want a Kantai Collection show. Thanks anyway. Yet, when the end of the year was upon me I found myself noticing the horde of medieval fantasy shows releasing and decided to give Rage of Bahamut a chance.

The show itself is about a running girl, half demon and half god, who meets a good-for-nothing thief and enlists him to take her to Helheim, a land where she is supposed to meet her mother. The truth however, is far more complex, involving the most powerful gods and demons and the overwhelming entity, currently sealed, known as Bahamut.

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1. Typical High Fanatsy Stuff
   Rage of Bahamut is your typical high fantasy show. It has angels, demons, knights, dragons, etc. It can be classified as unoriginal, but considering how it tackles with such stuff I might suggest thinking otherwise. Unlike most japanese works of this kind, it severely lacks eastern cliches and does a far better job at portraiting a western fantasy than the rest. Maybe because of that, the "typical" stuff ends up being quite a refreshing divergence from the norm.
   
   A protagonist with a personality
   Perhaps the biggest difference in the show to everything else in the industry is Favaro, the protagonist. Although he receives little development through the course of the 12 episodes of the show, his personality is simply outstanding as compared to others. He draws some inspiration from Vash (Trigun) and Zidane (Final Fantasy IX), bringing to screen a funny guy, liar, egoist, and at his heart troubled by the events around him. It would be better if he had screen time to shine, as he suddenly gets pushed aside in the later episodes only to return for a cliche'd finale.
   
   A fun cast and plot, but absurdly shallow
   The idea of Rage of Bahamut is already kinda teen. An almighty entity sealed by gods and demons working together, fated to rise again and destroy the world. The whole thing, joined by a somewhat flashy main trio and a ton of random support characters, don't mix that well to the larger picture. You get an amazing holy warrior (stupid name though... Jeanne D'arc, so much for originality) with divine-like powers, tons of demons, tons of gods, and they just get a few seconds onscreen because there is always a pursuit, a fight, explosions, and divine beams dominating the screen. There is not enough room for the plot to thicken or the cast to evolve, everything is dominated by action and combats.
   
   The result is a shallow experience as a whole, although a fun one.
   
   A nice visual identity
   One thing that should be noticed is Rage of Bahamut's art style. Studio MAPPA is certainly one of the new guys in the market that are making a stand. They already did a decent job with Zankyou no Terror and Sakamichi no Apollon, and also worked on the new Hajime no Ippo. Now they manage to make a show with a great visual identity, mixing a classic anime style with a decent animation, a good amount of variation, and skipping the current trends of lolis and cutie cuties deres altogether. Sometimes we have red contour lines such as in No Game No Life, sometimes the eyes reminded me of Berserk, and the character design from the card game is certainly a great contribution.
   
   Not so with the sound direction
   Sound-wise, however, there is not much to be happy about. The background music is not that bad, but what they try to show with it certainly does not match with the ongoing presentation. Sure, action and some street-like music go hand to hand, but not when it is in a fantasy setting with androgenous angels and colossal dragons. Fortunately, the themes are nice to hear and the voice-acting is of great quality.
   

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Comments
This show surprised me. I was expecting a lame fantasy stuff as nearly everything else in this season, but perhaps this was the best work amongst all. It lacks depth and progression, but the visual experience is enjoyable, the cast has interesting personalities, and the basic plot is decent enough to avoid self-destruction. Favaro and his attitude of the 90's, however, was perhaps the best refresher in the show, which can make you overlook the teen idea of a fantasy world and the terrible use of demons and gods in the setting.

Any game based anime is bound to be awful.

Especially those that are based on card trading games. These are vile. And unwatchable. And awful.

They always seem like their creators don't even try, that they know they are making a glorified infomercial. They just hack a story together that only tries to give some major characters a bit of screen time, with half-arsed dialogues, that are overacted by bored voice actors. Then, they add some tacky 3DCG, they sprinkle the end result with some awful background music, ripped directly from the game (in the case of video game adaptations), and then they call it a day and go back to their homes.

In this context, Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis is a masterpiece, as it stands head and shoulders above its shabby brethren. Yes, the story isn't much to write home about: an unwilling hero aids a damsel in distress and take on Gods, Demons and Monsters in an epic quest to same the world from doom and themselves from their tragic fate. That is pretty much the standard adventure fare, with enough twists and turns to keep you interested. And yet, the story is snappy and well paced, the dialogues well written and the characters nicely fleshed out. The goofy yet streetwise anti-hero, his virtuous -if obsessive- frenemy and the oblivious and sweet, yet powerful, maiden, interact nicely with a host of generic -but convincing- secondary characters and move the story forward with very few hiccups.

The actors do a very decent job, as they have nice material to work with, while the music works surprisingly well. Heavy orchestral scores for the battles and a... different opening song (sang by a Japanese Slipknot ripoff) show that the sound direction was in competent hands.

It is also helpful that all these nice elements are contained in a very nice visual package. The environments are richly colored, the characters distinctly designed and easily recognized and the battles full of eye candy and mayhem. The animation is fluid enough to suggest that its budget was healthy, with nicely choreographed sequences and rich facial expressions. Unfortunately, some 3D models are not up to scratch, as they suffer from a lack of textures, and are similar to the efforts Gonzo made a decade ago. This mars an otherwise pleasing visual experience.

Overall, Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis is a very enjoyable way to spend 3 hours. It won't change your world, nor will it be an animation milestone, yet it will keep your interest up to the last moment and maybe manage to leave something more than a fleeting impression on you. And that is rare in sea of forgettable and expendable entertainment.