ThatAnimeSnob

When this anime was announced, many expected the best show of the millennia. The reason was the story being written by the author of Legend of the Galactic Heroes and the artwork being done by the mangaka of Full Metal Alchemist. Both titles are exceptional and are even in my top 10. Unfortunately, Arslan is not even top 1000 material. Compared to its predecessors:
- It lacks the semi-realistic character designs of LOGH
- Its cast lacks the charisma and individual importance of FMA characters
- It looks bland compared to the ethereal artstyle of the 90s version of Arslan

Another way to view it is like the 2 Star Wars trilogies. The 70s trilogy was a space opera masked as a fairy tale, thus keeping expectations low and succeeding in the longrun. The 00s trilogy on the other hand was a fairy tale desperately pretending to be a space opera and self-imploded in the longrun by promising way too much. It’s the same thing with Arslan; it’s not as good as it wants you to think it is. It’s a silly fighting shonen that tries to present itself as a serious historical epic and fails miserably at it.

The general premise and overall plot are fine; it’s always cool to see a prince trying to gather an army and protect his kingdom from various enemy factions. It reminded me of a simpler Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The problem lies in how it was written in a very dry way since it was inspired by the famous contemporaries of that time (Conan the Barbarian, Erlic of Meliborne, Guin Saga) and as such it is a hard sale when it comes to a more modern audience. The storyboard planners didn’t adjust an anachronistic plot so it won’t be boring to Zoomers watch it.

As a result Arslan the protagonist comes off as the most boring character. Everybody around him is ten times more capable and interesting than he is. I understand that the show is the coming of age of a naïve prince, slowly becoming a capable king thanks to his interaction with all sorts of mentors. It still doesn’t make him an interesting lead. He’s completely worthless and passive to the most part, and even looks like a girl. Why does he even have so many loyal subjects? Ok, fine, he is the lawful heir to the throne, but in those chaotic times the moment you were showing weakness you were executed and the throne was taken by the strongest man available. The story is not plausible from the get-go because of that simple fact. In a more realistic scenario Arslan would be a puppet at the hands of his subjects, if not a decorative head on some pike.

Compare that lead to LOGH and FMA. You can never complain about the protagonists in those shows. They were capable, charismatic, and the story doesn’t begin with them being greenhorns. We saw how they improved in flashbacks and whatever happens in present time is the peak of their power. That’s what makes them compelling. To make an analogy, it’s as if you are watching Romance of the Three Kingdoms from the perspective of the Han emperor, a completely worthless ruler that was being manipulated by everyone. He sucks compared to every general and advisor around him, and that’s exactly what Arslan is in his own story.

Speaking of everybody else besides him, they are a fine bunch of cool guys and gals, each one usually specializing in some sort of skill. It’s ok as long as you see them as no more than rule of cool, but falls flat if you bring in a bit more realism. They are closer to the Avengers than masters of ancient warfare. It’s not like Romance of the Three Kingdoms had that much realism either; it’s just that it can be very immersion breaking when you are supposed to be watching historical events that happened in ancient Persia and everybody is breathing fire. I didn’t have this problem with LOGH, since that was taking place in the far future and most head scratching moments had to do with technology and physics that could be excused simply as futuristic science. In FMA it was a setting where everyone could use magic. Arslan has no such excuse. People fly and breathe fire in what is supposed to be our world.

Do you know what else LOGH and FMA didn’t have that Arslan does and can be very immersion breaking? CGI crowds! I can tolerate plastic looking cars or spaceships but not hundreds of Lego toys pretending to be fighting each other. It made everything fake looking and cheap; I didn’t care about anyone dying because of it.

I can go on bitching about a dozen other things, but you get the gist by now; it’s not a good show. It’s poorly animated, the protagonist is terrible, the plot is childish, and as a whole it was promoting itself as legendary when it’s just a throwaway mediocrity. Once again modern sucks and retro wins.