Rbastid

This series really plays out opposite of the phrase in which it’s titled after, as it comes in like a lamb, being a little slow and boring, but goes out like a lion, as an amazing series that goes beyond your typical competitive gaming, or slice of life, anime series.

Story - 7/10

Rei is a high school student who has become one of only five people to ever reach such a high level as a professional shogi player while still in his very early teens. Although he learned about shogi from his father, it wasn’t until the deaths of his parents and sister that he really became known as a prodigy, after being taken in by a family friend who also happened to be a master of the game. His skills caused some tension at the Koda household where he was staying, as he now became the primary focus of the father’s tutoring, so upon reaching his mid teens he moved out, living on his own, while trying to balance school and shogi. 

After leaving home Rei was prone to getting taken advantage of by some of his shogi rivals who were jealous of his ability. During one of those times they got him drunk and left him on the street, at which point he was found by a young woman named Akari. She, along with her two young sisters, became like a new family for Rei, but one that actually cared for him and treated him with the kindness he never really knew. 

Much of the show is obviously taken up by the game of shogi, both through Rei’s matches, as well as little entertaining portions where the characters try to teach us about the game. Through the game we also learn about Rei himself, and how deep inside he is filled with so many conflicting emotions that often send him down a dark road.

One path in that road has to do with a man he feels is his biggest rival, Goto. This high ranking shogi player is a former student of his step father’s who eventually starts a relationship with Rei’s step sister. Rei doesn’t approve of this relationship, and believes the much older Goto is taking advantage of the girl, which leads to a physical confrontation, despite Rei’s meek size. Now when the opportunity arrises for the two to meet in the shogi tournament, Rei works himself into a sickness trying to prepare for a match he’s waited years for. 

After things don’t go Rei’s way, he is convinced by his friend Nikaidou to join a small training group run by another well regarded player, Mr. Shimada.  It’s not until he starts training with Mr. Shimada that Rei starts to see how to balance his life a little better, as Shimada and his ailments become somewhat of a warning sign on how the stress of being a professional can affect you. 

Ultimately shogi does appear to get the better of Rei, as it’s caused him to miss too many days of school, leading to him being left back. This may be a blessing in disguise though, as his teacher suggests he start a shogi club, where in Rei can finally make some friends his own age.

When first starting this series it tended to lose my attention, as it’s slow and a little too focused on the game of shogi. As we shift more towards the game being a way to introduce us to Rei’s acquaintances, and his struggles, it will really start to grab hold of the viewer, as the show begins to offer us some very good and insightful storytelling. The show’s realism, and the way they build characters you really care about, become its biggest strength, and will have you looking forward to what comes next.

Animation - 6/10

The animation style for this anime is interesting, though I’m a little on the fence about it.  All the females look as if they were animated fifty years ago, with a style reminiscent of Japanese animation from the start of the colorization period. On the other hand most of the males look much more modern, but have one glaring flaw, as many times it looks as if their mouths are going to droop right off of their faces. It’s this weird thing just always looks terrible and off-putting, not so much conveying a look of sadness but more of sickness. 

The backgrounds are completely different, they are a bit simplistic and at times look like colored pencil or crayon drawings, but still they are beautiful and meld perfectly with the overall tone of the series.

Another somewhat weak area is when they animate the shogi games themselves. The overhead view is cool because it allows us to really see the moves and can maybe help you understand the game a bit, but the actual movement of the pieces gets very clunky, looking more like a video skipping than them attempting to show deliberate moves. 

Sound - 7/10

The voices for this show are very well done, though like the animation you may sway wildly on how you feel about them. For example the actor voicing Rei gets his emotions and overall tone perfect, but you can get to the point where you just want to start pulling the words out of him, as he’s so soft spoken, calm, and sometimes slow with the delivery. The two older females are the same way, with each sounding great, though at times almost too perky.  Really these little gripes would have to do more with the character’s personalities, as each V.O. artist is matching their performance to the character and doing it well, so I can’t penalize them for properly doing their job.

Though sometimes making the voice sound just right can be the worst choice you can make, and that is pretty much the case every time there is a little kid on a show. The younger sister Momo is voiced just as you would expect an annoying child that they are trying to make cute by having a speech impediment. But it’s never cute, and always just sounds terrible.

I wasn’t too crazy about the opening and closing songs for the show. None of them really fit with the series, as the two openings and first ending would go much better with a sports style series, and the second closing being more in line with a slice of life show, just not this one. Three of the songs, musically and vocally aren’t bad, but “Goodbye Bystander,” by Yuki, is just audio terrorism, with some of the worst vocals imaginable.  

At first the background music is okay, but around the midway point they start to use more and more songs that just work beautifully with the show, as well as sounding very well done. The soundtrack ranges from orchestral jazz and video game style music, to acoustic classic rock. Two songs really stood out, one which resembled a sort of Robin Trower-esc tune, and another, “That’s Why,” which sounds like a song you’d hear in the more serious moments of Trigun, similar to “Not an Angel,” which is one of the best songs in the anime world. And sure the Shogi cat song they played a few time was awful, but it was a small miss in an overall great background soundtrack. 

Characters - 8/10

Rei starts off, much like the show itself, as a somewhat boring character. He basically plays shogi and gets taken care of by the Kawamoto family sisters, at times feeling as if he’s more just a device to show the real main character, the game of shogi. It’s not until around the halfway point that we start to learn about many of the inner troubles that build him into a very compelling character. Rei is often overwhelmed with self doubt, has an almost extreme empathy for his peers, and struggles with a relationship with his step sister that appears to be abusive on multiple levels. 

All these life events tend to affect Rei when it comes to his career, be it in victory or defeat. When he wins he often feels bad about beating other players, knowing that his wins can negatively affect their careers, or even cause the players to give up playing shogi on a professional level. That pales in comparison to when he loses, which causes him to fall into a deep depression that really worries those around him.

These are the characteristics that help make Rei such a great character, and one different from most others you see in anime. He has massive flaws, he gains his ability through hard work, and in the end he isn’t unbeatable or indestructible. His growth through out just this first season is also done so well and realistically, allowing us to witness the process, instead of the usual flip of the switch that normally fixes all a character’s ills. 

The character of Akari seems very underutilized during the series, as we know what she did in the past to help Rei, but within the current time she’s not adding much to what’s happening. As the series progresses she almost seems to fade away, despite at first appearing as if she’d play a major role in the season.

Akari has two younger sisters who are very fond of Rei, and follow in their big sister’s footsteps in trying to help take care of him and make him feel like family. The middle sister is Hinata, a girl a few years younger than Rei, and who eventually develops a crush on him. The younger sister is Momo, who at not only five or six years old is the typical awful annoying child that has no place in entertainment. Living with the girls is their grandfather, who pops in every once in a while to play the goofy old man character.

One of Rei’s only real friends, though Rei seems to try to avoid him at all costs, is fellow young shogi phenom Nikaidou. He’s a somewhat overly intelligent and goofy character, a sort of anime version of The Simpsons’ Martin Prince. While he believes he’s one of Rei’s rivals, the two are actually world’s apart, with Rei closely inching his way near the true top tier of players, while Nikaidou hovers around the middle group. Despite wanting to ultimately defeat Rei, he is always there to try and push him to get better, as he not only see’s himself as his biggest rival, but also he greatest cheerleader.

After becoming an orphan due to a tragic accident, Rei is taken care of by Masachika Koda, a friend of his father’s and a fellow professional shogi player. Due to Rei’s mastery of the game, Koda begins to focus his attention on him, as he believes Rei has what it takes to become one of the greats, which leads to friction between him and his two foster siblings. 

One of those siblings is Kyoko, a girl a few years older than Rei, and once was thought to also have the chance to be a great player, though her father thought she shouldn’t even try. Her relationship with Rei is at times very troublesome, as she often tries to hurt him emotionally before matches, playing on his own self doubt, and at other times it even appears as if she’s on the verge of being sexual abusive to the younger boy, as she knows he is pretty much in love with her. Still Rei does his best to look after her when she comes to town, as he feels responsible for straining her and her brother’s relationship with their father, as well as thinking his involvement in the family is what pushed her to pursue one of their father’s older students. 

While Rei has a few rivals in the local shogi world, the one that he is almost singularly focused on is Masamune Goto, the highest ranked player in their vicinity. He too was once a student of Rei’s foster father, and eventually he and Rei’s foster sister Kyoko started a relationship that we’re not yet completely sure about. That relationship led to Rei getting into a physical altercation with the much older and larger Goto, and since Rei knows he can’t match his rivals strength, he hopes he can best him at the shogi table.

It’s almost a downside to the series that the characters are overly interesting, as even if you want the story to progress, you almost wish it didn’t, so that we could instead spend more and more time just learning about each of the people we’re introduced to.

Overall - 8/10

This is a very odd anime, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. The creators managed to put together a series that can be funny and family friendly with Rei’s interaction with the Kawamoto sisters, then in the blink of an eye we get a very dark and concerning series when we see Rei’s depression, and the violent and psychologically abusive relationship between him, his adopted sister, and his rival Goto. Finally we get a series that doesn’t just revolve around shogi as a plot device, but actively tries to teach the viewer about the game, and does its best to treat each move with utmost respect to the centuries old past time. Oh and let’s not forget the little goofy elements that they add any chance they get. All these facets of the show make the series such a deep and interesting one, that can pull in viewers from all different areas.

At first things start out slow, as there’s so much focus on both the game of shogi, as well as relationships we’re not one hundred percent sure about (and which honestly end up being a slight drag on the first season) but it’s worth the time to work through those episodes and get to the point in the series where a really great story starts to build.

Even though there is a follow up second season, you’ll still want more from these initial twenty two episodes, as there should be some plot lines that get worked out and completed before the season ended, but you’ll still appreciating every minute that was already put in to it. 

Positive Reasons for Score:

* Character building that goes beyond your typical series.

* A story that respects the viewer and doesn’t play games, dumb down, or soften it to be less realistic.

* Integration of the game shogi that doesn’t overwhelm those who aren’t familiar with it.

Negative Reasons for Score:

* A slow start that may drive away some viewers.

* Bad animation during shogi matches can be distracting.

* Momo is awful enough to tank a whole series.

Ways to make the show better:

* I would like a little more story having to do with the Kawamoto family and Nikaido.

* The ending arc was good, but wasn’t built up enough.