Review of The Heroic Legend of Arslan
**this review will contain minor spoilers** Yoshiki Tanaka, you may not recognize his name but you've undoubtedly heard of his highly acclaimed behemoth Legend of the Galactic Heroes; a seminal war epic that influenced many series in its wake, with a legacy that still ripples through the world of anime and manga to this very day. When I heard that another one of his creations were going to get the anime treatment with Arslan Senki, my interest was immediately piqued. I was expecting another grand series with rich themes of political warfare, larger-than-life moments littered throughout and a far-reaching cast of developed personalities to carry itthrough. I was expecting a show that handled its content with a sense of gravitas, leaving no room for shortcuts. I was expecting something with a discipline, where proper writing and coordinated planning wasn't just an afterthought. And as if to solidify the deal even further, I found out that the character design work and manga adaptation of Tanaka's work was done by Arakawa Hiromu of Fullmetal Alchemist fame. The person behind one of the greatest war epics of all time partnered up with the person responsible for what's arguably one of, if not, the best shounen of all time. With such promising creators taking the helm, what could possibly go wrong?... Well, as it turns out, everything can.
Arslan Senki was an anime that attempted all of the qualities expected from a Yoshiki Tanaka work but done so with none of the nuance or tact. It's juvenile in presentation but takes things seriously, it relies on implausible scenarios but pretends to be strategic, and it reeks of abused literacy devices in substitution for proper storytelling. Arslan Senki was simply a war epic that wanted to wear big boy pants while still not knowing how to tie its own shoelaces.
The primary focus of Arslan Senki was a common tale that has been told many times over. A timid prince turned gallant leader slowly building his support and will to reclaim the throne that was stripped away from him. For all intents and purposes, the story itself was a coming-of-age just seen through the eyes of a more privileged individual. This isn't exactly a bad thing as long as the writing is solid. After being betrayed by factions within his own kingdom, Arslan, the crown prince of Pars, found himself fending for his life with everything around him being thrown into turmoil. This 1st season follows Arslan as he finds himself befriending new allies and growing out of his naivety with each new obstacle he's forced to encounter.
The story itself was fine but the way it was handled was anything but. Writers often use characters within a story as plot devices to either move or manipulate the narrative to their liking. In order to make such an underhanded, yet necessary ploy less noticeable, the writers would evenly distribute the abilities or relevance among several characters, as a means to avoid turning any given individual into a Mary Sue/Gary Stu. So you can have a character who excels at X but not Y and vice versa. And while the set abilities and roles of the characters involved in Arslan were indeed separated, they only manage to avoid being Mary Sues/Gary Stus to only become HAX beyond probability instead.
Narsus was a HAX tactician to the point where no matter how unfathomable or detrimental the circumstances, he would asspull a strategy just in the nick of time to save everyone's asses. Daryun was a HAX warrior that made mincemeat out of hundreds of men with no visible signs of fatigue or any human tenancies to speak of. Gieve was simply HAX at life, as he seemingly found a way out of death flag territory time after time again with little in the way of proper explanation as to why. Falangies, for no God-given reason, turned into Trinity and walked through a barrage of arrows like she was auditioning for The Matrix. And finally, there was Arslan himself, a character that's so much of a goody-two-shoes, that if he was tossed into the Game of Thrones universe, he would have been dead in 5 minutes tops. There's being nice and then there's being unrealistically lenient, Arslan was the latter. He might as well be a Care Bear.
The implausibility of the characters wasn't the only problem that made itself apparent, the scenarios were equally as mentally challenging in that regard. To just name one example, we had a horse jump 20 feet into the air and landed a perfect mount onto a rampaging elephant to rescue someone at mid-gallop. And remember, this occurrence took place in a world that tried to be as realistic as possible. Something that felt inherently contradictory when the audience is shown actions akin to a Looney Tunes cartoon.
The show required a high suspension of disbelief to buy into it. It placed the characters up against impossible odds only for the outcome to always be the same. There's no struggle to become better. There's no uphill battle to the top. There's no fight that posed a challenge, despite the handicap they're constantly placed in. All that we ended up with was a HAX team of misfits that plowed through obstacles like they're the Justice League. When the outcome always manage to be the same, why bother to get invested? Trying my best to avoid comparisons here but this is why Legend of the Galactic Heroes is constantly held in such high regards. The outcome wasn't determined, both sides took causalities, suffered losses and had no jarring plot armor to speak of. It was relentless, it had tension, and it wasn't a one-sided victory. Arslan Senki never demonstrated any of these attributes and just ended up being too idealistic for its own good.
Another left-field issue that reared its ugly head was the random inclusion of magic midway through the series, which was up to that point, a "realistic" depiction of war. The show spent most of its duration trying to build a war drama where everything was grounded in reality but out of nowhere tossed in a new genre that was previously nonexistent. It single-handedly sabotaged its own foundation. This isn't like other medieval titles similar to Berserk, where there were foretelling signs of supernatural occurrences scattered throughout its runtime. No, Arslan never gave any indication whatsoever that magic would have worked its way into the narrative. The supernatural elements of Arslan just hits you like a Mack truck and if unprepared, can break any semblance of immersion that was established beforehand (that is, if you even had any immersion, to begin with).
The art and animation for the show were appalling, not only by modern standards but in general. There are titles in the mid-80s that show better fluidity and attention to detail than this. It doesn't even rise to mediocre status. Not even the inclusion of Arakawa Hiromu's character designs could save the numerous times the animators had inconsistent models. This was derp central folks! Picasso face pandemonium! Every time a character was presented at a different angle, the act of looking disturbingly off-putting was guaranteed. This was made even worse by the deplorable usage of CGI. It was breathtakingly bad, seeing hoards of CGI fodder soldiers, animals and other objects just plastered across landscapes with no effort to conceal them. I'm talking PS1 level graphics here. The kind of mismanagement expected from the early 2000s when CGI integration was still being played around with. It was truly a messy patch job, apathetically slapped together in a way that's too obvious to give it a pass.
If this anime had any saving graces, it would be in the music department. The show had grand sound to it that really helped in placing you in the middle of the action (even if the "action" was hoards of CGI dummies). The Iron Age vibe was captured quite well. The opening and ending themes were all pretty decent as well, and while not as important, even the cut-scene tapestries was a nice tough. None much of an auditory standout in its respective season but still serviceable nonetheless. And really, that's the bottom line with Arslan Senki as a whole, it's just serviceable but never becomes anything more.
All in all, Arslan Senki proved to be a challenging watch. It wasn't eye-candy, it wasn't smart and it was far from enthralling. What little it attempted to accomplish has been done better elsewhere to a much more successful degree — hell, almost everyone staffed to create this thing has a better version of this lying around. It barely managed to scrape by and when you take into consideration the creative minds behind the project, it's quite disheartening.
Enjoyment: 6/10
The show had a somewhat decent start but after a few episodes, what seemed like a sturdy foundation turned out to be a house of cards. I wanted to like this show but it kept on giving me reasons not to.
Overall: 4.5/10
Arslan Senki was an overlooked title that has little to no hype behind it... and you know what? I hope it stays that way. Unrealistic to anyone paying attention to it and insulting to the eyes of anyone who watches it, Senki was an anime that had the backing of proven creators to become something great but spewed out a mishmash of bad ideas instead. It may have had good intentions but good intentions aren't enough to make a good anime.