Onihei

This anime is on a small shortlist I have with a a friend of mine. It looks pretty interesting from what little I know about it.
 
01:

Man, I really found myself enjoying this quite a bit, this was actually pretty entertaining, an appropriately gritty, and cool episode. I will say the animation isn't exactly great, and the CG crowds are a bit distracting, but I think it more than makes up for it, with style, and atmosphere. I especially really dug the music, thought it was fantastic in setting the mood and the opening was great. There's just this very classic samurai flick feeling going on and the episode had me completely engaged from start to finish. I also found Heizou to be pretty likeable, and I'm already curious to find out more about him.

Good stuff, I'm definitely interested in what's coming next. It may not blow people's minds though, but it's pretty well executed.
 
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This sounds interesting. It'll be on my to-do list if the consensus is that it keeps being good.
 
Episode 1:

I watched this episode hours ago, but I'm still struggling to find something to say about it other than it was okay. The best thing about the episode was the music. The OST sounded great as did the slick OP and ED. However, everything else about the episode was too paint by numbers to garner much interest from me. It wasn't a bad episode by any means and while the story for the episode was pretty trite and something we've all seen a million times it was well executed.

None of the characters really stood out this episode. Heizou is the closest to being interesting, but he doesn't get much screen time. The thief guy was pretty bland, more like a collection of tropes than a realized character. Same goes for the gang leader they were searching for this episode.

Stylistically this episode seemed to take inspiration from Cowboy Bebop. The jazzy OST and structure of the episode both reminded me of Bebop. Unfortunately, the episode isn't able to carry off Bebop's style with weak animation and by the book direction.

Not that I want to be down on the episode too much. It kept my attention throughout. I wasn't bored while watching it, which is more than I can say for ACCA.

Also, did the thief guy seriously murder someone in the middle of street for harassing a woman? Yeah, it goes along with him wanting redemption for breaking the code of thieves, but that bit was way too over the top.
 
I watched the first ep on the day it aired and all I can say is that I was left feeling nothing. I don't really know if what I watched I liked or disliked, only that I wasn't really all too interested. I am very willing to give this a proper chance though.
 
I'm far more in line with Gen on this episode, I definitely got a lot of enjoyment from it. It's a pretty cliche story all in, but by the time the episode finished I couldn't believe that 20 minutes had passed. I think there's a lot of potential with the setting and the premise, I liked that the fight scene emphasised more of the style and less of the (obviously lacking) animation budget, and I was left wanting to see more.
 
Episode 2:

I enjoyed this episode more than the first,
because of Ofusa was a more interesting character than the thieves in the first episode. She was a woman living in a rough era, when females were often exploited in horrible ways. After being exploited herself, she finds power the only way she can.

What I liked most is the episode let Ofusa's story play out tragically without manipulatively trying to make us side with her. The Ofusa in the present bears no resemblance to the Ofusa, we see in the past. There's no redemption for present Ofusa because she was driven to do bad things in the name of revenge. Rather, her misdeeds in the present are because life has beaten the innocence and good out of her. She enjoys her life of crime. While, she does try to rob the store that screwed her over, it's more a crime of opportunity and the revenge is just a sort of bonus.

It's not the most original arc, but I like the way its presented here without a lot of exposition. I like there was the implication that the younger brother was most likely responsible for both the miscarriage and death of the husband without the episode spelling it out.

The very male friendship between Sama and Hasegawa was well presented in a short amount of screen time. A lot of their dialogue together was pretty cliche, but I liked their little bromance and their rivalry for Ofusa.

It still doesn't wow me, but this was a solidly entertaining episode. The soundtrack continues to be awesome.
 
02:

I honestly don't have too much to add to what ZK has said. This was indeed a better episode, with a better character placed at the centre and I did really like the bittersweet nature of it. As much as I sometimes rag on the feudal era shows, this just does a good job for me, in presenting this era and setting, in a charming way, and I still do find the culture of it, to be actually pretty interesting. I also feel like I can be a lot more forgiving and don't necessarily mind the cliches, as long as there's good execution behind them. (But you know, I'm kind of biased here, if you couldn't tell lol)

Anyway, this was another episode that just breezed by quickly for me.
 
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Episode 1

Zany jazz beats and a chase scene? This is already better than Cranking the Shaft.

The music is tops, a kickass mix of jazz and classical and outstanding throughout. This alone makes it the best thing I've watched this season thus far. In all fairness, I watched Masamune's Revenge and Hand Shankers. Both were shit.

It had action, a guy breaking another guy's neck in the street so he died from his wounds instead of having his neck broken because of the Thieves Code and dynamic camera angle fights which in this case is actually good and not complete fucking shit. I am content. Also agree with @Taekwondoin on the animation, it's hilariously cheap and still looks better than Hand Shakers. I will take every chance I get to denounce that show even in other show threads.
 
03:

Well, I really feel like I can't be particularly nice about this episode, and felt it was a step down, from the solid 2nd. I mean, the very obvious death flags, the assassin and his little romance, ends up being actually too by the book for me this time and the tragedy just ends up feeling weak in general. I also, just found him to be a pretty uninteresting character. I kind of feel like this was generally a squandered opportunity. I did enjoy the action bits as usual, but other than that, it was a disappointing episode, watchable, but disappointing for me. Which is a shame, because I think an assassin type character could've been pretty cool.
 
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Episode 3:

Yeah, it seems like this show is going to live or die by how interesting the episodic characters are. This week's story was really generic and there was nothing to give it an ounce of personality. The plot hit every beat you'd expect and the assassin was less a fully fledged character and more a series of common tropes with one quirk that did nothing to flesh him out. There was nothing to make him memorable or stand out.

The stylish action is cool, but if there's no story or characters to hold it together, then I get bored pretty quickly.
 
After two episodes I am just not on board with this show. The first episode left me with nothing, it just happened before my eyes and then it ended. The second episode didn't do much to help either, it was probably a bit better but I was still left thinking, 'That was something I watched apparently'.

I doubt that the third episode is going to be any better, especially having read the thread's thoughts on it. This could be a rare drop for me.
 
Episode 4:

It's interesting that this show does better when it deals with female characters. In an era dominated by men, women had to have steely resolve if they didn't want to end up subservient. Like episode 2 my favorite parts of the episode were the ones focused on the episodic female character. I don't think this episode was as good as the second one, but I still enjoyed it.

I think the thing that held this episode back was the focus on action. Hasegawa infiltrating the base and going on a killing spree reminded me of something from a ridiculous 80s movie and didn't fit with the more down to earth tone of the series. The abundance of action just ends up showing how weak the animation is. The anime has stylish fights, but they only work when used sparingly.

My favorite moments of the episode were the ones focusing on the lady thief. My favorite being her declaration at the end that she wouldn't be getting married. She was clearly in love with Hasagawa, but she knows that he's out of her reach, so she'll have to make her own path and atone for her mistakes. The other thing I liked about this scene is the way that Hasegawa's wife let her have her moment with her husband without getting jealous, but was happy to let her have this bit of closure. The females in this series might have limited roles, but they're far more interesting than the male characters that all seem paint by numbers.

Also, the chick cutting her arm to leave the trail of blood for Hasegawa to follow was pretty cool.

The episode wasn't anything revolutionary, but it was decent.
 
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