First and foremost, please note that this review is currently for both The Asterisk War and The Asterisk War (2016) with certain ratings being averaged out between the two seasons.
Story: 3/10TAW: 4/10TAW (2016): 2/10
The Asterisk War (TAW) is the telling of a very clichéd story set in the future in which humankind suffered a global disaster at the hands of a meteor. Many large cities were completely decimated as a result. However, due to a substance called mana, which came from said meteor, human civilization became greatly advanced into the future. Plus, this “mana” proved to be useful in somehow granting select people with special abilities known as Genestella. They, along with the rapidly advancing technology, are to be the future of humankind, with the epicenter being the city of Rikka, also known as Asterisk.
The city of Rikka is home to six academies, all with Genestella students, all who compete against each other in various tournaments in order to claim the right of being number one. People from around the world witness these tournaments for pure entertainment, at the behest of these academies and its students engaging in combat. One of the most renowned tournaments is the Phoenix Festa, which is what the most significant and largest part of the anime revolves around, leading all the way through to the sequel season, The Asterisk War (2016).
Now for the critiquing. TAW is very clichéd as previously mentioned. However, it is a decent telling of such a re-hashed plot. The worst part is the huge cliffhanger at the end of season one, which would’ve been awful for any one watching this when it first aired since there is a gap between the seasons; Fall 2015 for TAW and Spring 2016 for the sequel, its direct continuation. That is a poor job by A-1 Pictures, which leads us into season two, or TAW (2016).
The first few episodes of TAW (2016) started off relatively good, especially since I had minimal expectations after witnessing TAW. However, it was not meant to last. After the solid start to TAW (2016), it completely imploded after that by the addition of way too many potential mini story arcs and scenarios happening within the main story arc. Everything was all over the place with little to no cohesiveness.
To make matters even worse, the damn anime doesn’t end! It leaves the viewers on another large cliffhanger with only the light novels and/or manga left to find out what happens. In all honesty, who would want to though? The story is so broken and incomplete that the potential from the first few episodes of TAW (2016) gets entirely wasted. Season two ends up being horrendous for an anime that only had an “okay” first season to begin with.
Animation: 6/10
The animation featured some good fluidity throughout with acceptable CG elements mixed in. In terms of artistic merits, A-1 Pictures succeeded in creating a world full of color, which continues all the way through with the battle scenes. Where the studio failed was in its generic character designs and simplistic backgrounds, which is surprising since they produce some of the highest quality looking anime in the business.
Lastly, I was surprised to see the quality, or lack thereof, in the HD streaming. It just looked bad at times, standard definition bad with pixels popping up all over the screen. Whether it was due to the studio’s inconsistencies, or my Wi-Fi or hardwire connection is to be debated. I will say that my internet is above average, that I do know.
Sound: 7.5/10TAW: 8/10TAW (2016): 7/10
Season one’s initial ED is wonderfully composed and completely memorable. It’s a beautiful song called “Waiting for the Rain,” sung by Maaya Sakamoto. It is the best part of the entire anime. Outside of that, the remainder of the ED’s and all the OP’s are fine.
The sound effects, especially during the battle scenes, are good. When Ayato wields his Orga Lux, the Ser-Veresta, it has a robotic, Star Wars-like light saber sound to it, which is actually pretty cool. Overall, no complaints here.
Characters: 4/10
Representing the Seidoukan Academy’s team in the Phoenix Festa is Ayato Amagiri, Julis “Glühen Rose” Riessfield, Saya Sasamiya, and Kirin Toudou. They are a fun bunch to watch between their competitive battles and the overall interaction of their personalities amongst themselves. It is not always the case on an individual scale. Ayato is way to agreeable and shows varying emotion that is often inconsistent and all over the place. He is a badass, but an unremarkable one. Both Tsundere princess Julis and Kirin are two of the better characters. Julis has a spunky attitude and personality that makes up for some of Ayato’s deficiencies in that department. Kirin’s use of a real katana versus an Ogra Lux scores some major awesome points in my book, personally. That said, she can more than hold her own against equally powerful opponents, sometimes flat out kicking their asses. Saya is borderline Stoic, but likeable. Her team partnership with Kirin is strong in technique, but a little on the weaker side in personality. However, they’re more engaging when they are partnered in one of the storyline’s mini arcs.
Where the rest of the general cast is concerned, there are some definite issues with poor writing, bad development, and general aggravation. Just to mention a few standouts: Gustave is old, arrogant, and overpowered. He’s a worthless Elderly Genestella who should find himself a coffin and be buried in it. Dirk is another shit bag like the just mentioned old man. It’s too bad we don’t get to see him get knocked off and buried alongside Gustave. The likeable Eishirou Yabuki is the first to last character I’ll specifically mention. He has some uniquely crazy ability that only gets briefly showcased once, and then only slightly hinted at another time prior. His ability is not clearly witness to fully identify it, which would’ve been nice to do so in his character background that never happens. Julis’s childhood friend, Orphelia, is another one whose back story never comes to fruition despite her evident strength and abilities. I’ll stop here because this list could just keep going. That’s poorly executed these characters are in conjunction with the poor storyline.
Overall character development was seriously lacking. It didn’t help that A-1 Pictures introduced so many additional characters in TAW (2016), especially mid-point or later into the season. Their introductions were poorly timed, random, and thrown into the mix with little to no understandable purpose, other than to bolster lousy mini story arcs and create unnecessary drama. That’s a nearly unforgiveable job done by the studio.
Overall: 46.5/100 points*
This anime often gets compared to Chivalry of a Failed Knight, or CFK, and I can certainly see some similarities. The main differences being that CFK is better in storyline, animation, and character development. That’s significant considering that TAW/TAW (2016) had a total of 24 episodes to tell its story, where as CFK only had 12 and it did an overall better job.
How this anime rates as high as it does is totally confusing to me. Season two starts off as if it’s going to better than its predecessor before completely crashing into confusion and burning in sub-mediocrity. It gets so bad that another Post-apocalyptic event can’t save this garbage. Clichés are bad enough, but lousy telling of an already mundane concept is the worst.
TAW was what I expected. TAW (2016) was hopeful in the beginning but ultimately a huge failure. I cannot remember the last time a hopeful, even promising second season pissed me off this much! It was the inspiration I needed to write what has been the longest review I’ve done on anime-planet.
Maybe the third season that will never be can fix this. Oh wait! It probably won’t ever exist. Whether that's a good thing or not is up for debate. Personally, I don't care due to the shear disappointment of TAW (2016).
ENTERTAINMENT SCORE (COMBINED AVERAGE): 5.5/10TAW: 6/10TAW (2016): 5/10
1️⃣Weighted Average System Score: (9 + 7 + 7.5 + 12 + 11 = 46.5/100 points)
Additional Information:
Video Format: HD Streaming
Audio Format: English dubbed
Publisher: Hulu
Equipment Used: LG 60UH6550 4K TV, Vizio 5.1 Sound Bar System SB3651-E6
Screenshots
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