Izumo: Flash of a Brave Sword

MuddyCarrot Aug 3, 2011

5.5

Please keep in mind this is my first review. This story is about two guys and four girls who all go to the same school. They get transported to another world and the group gets seperated by certain circumstances. The world they're in apparently is in a war with two sides, one being the humans and the other being evil spirits. The evil spirits want to connect both worlds to create a perfect one while the humans in the "Ne" world want to protect their world. The story had a lot of potential I think, but the problem was the animation and parts of the story. The story started off well but at times it made no sense and stuff was explained really poorly. There was very little character development, even in the short 12 episodes you learn little of the characters and feel nothing from them at the end. This show didn't leave an impact on me at all, almost as if I didn't watch it. The character designs were pretty good in my opinion, they just weren't developed at all sadly. Overall, if you have nothing to watch, I still wouldn't reccomend this show. But if you really wanted to watch it and waste your time go ahead. It's not that it was bad, it just wasn't good.

AnimeWulf Sep 2, 2018

7

Before I get into my review of this anime, let me first say I initially saw this series back for the first time in 2010 on an app called crackle on my old ipod. Because the title was in Japanese I totally forgot the name of it. I've been searching for this series for the last 8 years and I finally found it thanks to this website. I just finished re-watching it again, so with that being said let me get into my review.Story:Looking at this from a story point only, I think the structural design of the plot is very well developed. I've always loved the fact that this group of friends gets split apart into 2 seperate views and is forced to fight against eachother for what they think is right. Absolutely 10/10 on story.Characters:Each of the characters is very unique. I can't say I've yet seen an anime where 2 main charcters (who are best friends) names both start with T. Aside from that, if you look at each of the characters qualities, they are very unique from eachother in their own way. Minus the fact that the background characters are a bit bland, all of the main characters each have distiguishable traits. Easy 8/10 for characters.Animation:I feel like this category is controversial simply because this series was made back in 2006. If you compare this animation with anime like InuYasha, you'll notice that the animation style is very much designed in a similar means. With that being said, I am reviewing this category on a standpoint from what 2006 animation was like. Back in 2006 HD simply did not exist, so if you look at quality, the best comparison would be against something like InuYasha. I had a difficult time locating a place where I could even watch this series again online. When I did locate places, the best I could find was probably either a 360p or 480p resolution NOT on a 16:9 ratio screen. So with such a quality loss it is hard to determine how good the animation had a potential to be. However, presuming 1080 HD did exist, I would have to presume it would have been as good as InuYasha's anime. So with that said, I am going 5/10 on animation for equal balance in results vs assumption.Sound:Again, another controversial category. Sound back in 2006 was not crystal clear HD. So I will be rating this again on a standpoint from 2006 based on a comparison of what InuYasha's sound was like. The music in general was alright, the OP and ED were very good in my perspective from 2006. The ED in my opinion is probably the best piece of music in the series, followed by the OP. The pieces of battle music while the fights were taking place definitely made the fights stand out and feel like a fight. However, the use of musical sound fx (not including battle fx such as sword clashes, jumping, standard combat effects) were a bit annoying to listen to while the battle music was playing. Another thing I found annoying was that there was only ever 1 song played on a flute that comes up a lot in the series. I think a more creative approach could have been taken on that. Overall, I liked the music that was played and the combat fx were pretty good all for what 2006 was. I give sound a 5/10 for good use of music but bad use of musical sound fx and annoying repetitive use of flute.Overall:Overall, I give this series a 7/10, because thats what you get when you add 10+5+5+8 /4. :pOn a personal note, after having this anime's plot vaguely stuck in my head for the last 8 years. I can say that the scenes were very different then how I'd forgotten they actually were. Very similar, but very different. I love this series for every bit of what it's worth, and I'm very glad I got to find it again.I would highly recommend giving this series a watch even though it is very old. And keep in mind the 2006 guidelines when making your final personal opinion of this show. :)

Radaghast May 23, 2012

4

You are so lucky that someone cute cares about you.(Repeated multiple times by different characters). Some series are devoted to a misconception that if you mash up random characters based on classic concepts and/or archetypes, and turn them all into cute girls, the result will be fascinating to the viewer. Perhaps true for some viewers, but not for me. I repeatedly found shows like Ikki or Inukami excruciatinly boring at times and kept looking for the plot and other show elements, which are not always to be found if the creators suppose it suffices to have girlish representations of recognisable character types. The one who was responsible for character design, did a reasonable job: (s)he needed to come up with so many different hairstyles, because a bundle of schoolgirls is dropped on the viewer in the first episode, assuring a constant headache of distinguishing them. I can say I had trouble with it, but that's just me: I can tell any fighter from DBZ from the shape of his hair, but it's harder for me to tell a bunch of new chatacters apart if they are suddenly introduced together. The show features Amaterasu and Susanoo, Gozu and Mezu, Shiseijū (Genbu, Byakko, Seiryu, Suzaku), etc. It's basically a "harem-in-a-strange-world" anime with two male characters (who share a soul anyway) deciding who's better in front of an audience of cute girls of their age (which are usually not in distress, just tagging along). The girls are ranging in power from the goddess who created the universe to a helpless coward calling out to her sister twice per episode. The plot is okay-ish, not too convincing, but also not totally disappointing. The motivation is pretty random, and not all lines get any closure. The fights are poorly designed, depicted and drawn. In the final scene, they are alluding that there will be a sequel, but I sincerely hope not. Watching Izumo was a wild shot for me (as many anime these days), and it wasn't a huge success. Maybe if you are more into cute girls and less into fighting than me, you mileage will vary — in that case, good luck!