Review of Katana Maidens: Toji no Miko

Ohhh boy, Toji no Miko is one of the shakiest starts to a season LA had seen in a while, but it got better...then worse...then better, what LA is saying is that Toji no Miko was a shaky ride through and through. Toji no Miko is an anime original anime about what are essentially miko sword maidens who kill Aratama's (demons in general) where they are trained in an academy, HOWEVER for a shaky start of a series, the first episode, the leaping point to attract audience was actually pretty great where the main characters Kanami Etou voiced by Kaede Hondo and Hiyori Juujou voiced bySaori Oonishi tries to take down the school head Yukari Origami voiced by Asami Seto have evil intentions and even have a hand in the Aratama's and they along with the rebel faction who is against Yukari. However for this plot, it just takes SOO LONG in order to get to this point and there are some friendship and character developments from both sides. Kanami and Hiyori's friendship easily grows as well as getting to know the newer characters like Eren Kohagura voiced by Eri Suzuki, the genki character to Kaoru Mashiko voiced by Risae Matsuda's cynical diminutive yet brash character and later on Sayaka Itomi voiced by Hina Kino, the quiet one who doesn't have many social skills and once in Yukari's faction and Mai Yanase voiced by Azumi Waki, Kanami's best friend but the mother figure to the entire cast. As for the villains, Suzuka Konohana voiced by M.A.O, Maki Shidou voiced by Yumi Uchiyama, Yomi Satsuki voiced by Mai Fuchiyama and Yume Tsubakuro voiced by Inori Minase gets development and really the main cast tries to talk and later battle it out as to what Yukari's true intentions are...the only exceptions to this however being Yomi and Yume, Yomi because it's all she has and she's consumed by the Aratama's power and Yume because she's batshit blood hungry...seriously.

Yes, LA will say this but LA probably told the the first HALF of the anime to what happens to all these characters and yes, the huge cast of characters doesn't help with the character development screentime of many of the characters and it doesn't help as the halfway climax ending only brings in MORE characters afterwards and them also taking away some of the main cast's screentime and them developing now LA isn't saying that due to the large cast of characters means none of the cast members have no development, as the anime throughout does develop many of the core cast, from Kanami's always genki attitude and her knowing the world building to Toji no Miko's world along with Hiyori to knowing Kaoru's backstory and her personality a bit more, Eren's family gets more screentime and like Kaoru how she got the personality she got and probably LA's favourite of Sayaka finding out that not all Aratama's are just plain evil as some can live with humanity. Overall, LA's faovurite character development came from Sayaka, LA's favorite villain was Yume (seriously the DRAGON to the first major villain) and LA's favourite overall character was Hiyori by the end of the series.

So...Toji no Miko for LA was one of the shakiest animes releases and onwards and it didn't quell for some time for LA for some odd reasoning, LA might have easily said it was the pacing, from a slow slog and giving us character development and world building fine but the anime goes to a freakin' crawl feeling almost fillery and wasting time, the first half it definitely felt like this but the second half was different at the very least.

The second half does get more interesting than the first half, as ultimately for LA, the first half's and heck first episode subtlety new direction it took off away from the typical "school of kids beat up demons"...into "taking down the HEAD of the school the main cast were in and eliminating the corruption that dwells in the school where the Aratama has seated themselves in". The second half gives us a more narratively focused structure, giving us certain character development proper what was slightly shown in the first season, gives us world building in terms of the politics and the militaristic force of Toji no Miko's world in taking down the Aratama's and best yet a secret concerning the major villain as well as Kanami and Hiyori AND the first half's villain...yeah we're getting that as well. You can easily tell that LA was MUCH more interested in the second half than the first half as the kid gloves and the slow slog is gone and instead replaced by world building, character development and moving the plot smoothly even when a character focused episode is concerned.

LA thinks the biggest problem with Toji no Miko is the abundance of characters that LA will talk/write sooo much more than this, like Kanami's fan who's OBSESSED with fighting with Kanami, Yomi's superior Yukina Takatsu who's a semi-yandere towards Yukari and later on the major villain of later half, Sana Maniwa voiced by Romi Park, the drill sergeant nasty to Kaoru...yeah LA isn't even skimming the surface, LA didn't even talk about the major villain of the later half, the newer and older allies, villains, family members, support characters and third party characters all in all this and it makes screentime to this anime nigh impossible to get full backstories of many of these characters let alone if they have a force in the plot or not.

So, the animation done by Studio Gokumi, well the character designs are pretty to say the least with a bit of shine to them not to mention the VERY exotic cast of characters overall that Gokumi managed to create. -sigh- Toji no Miko incorporates 3D, not only for it's Aratama's BUT also.......in it's battles...and no this isn't like ufotable blending 2D and 3D CGI together to make it seamless, instead it's entirely CGI of the HUMAN characters and the battle is JANKY because of it and it's similar to seeing the rapid yet easily noticeable CGI shifts from 2D to CGI of Love Live's first season. Like Love Live did that in it's choreography and they used it sparingly, Toji no Miko meanwhile does it ANY CHANCE it can even if a character tries to swing their blade in ONE MOTION, and back to the comparison, Love Live's CGI got better by the second season, Toji no Miko had a similar amount of time and the CGI company Graphinica did NOT improve it's CGI AT all, as applying CGI to a human character doing a fast motion just doesn't work, in LA's eyes and it becomes easily noticeable right off the bat, the Aratama's CGI makes sense as they are non-human let alone if the anime is entirely CGI LA would excuse the human CGI motions, but Toji no Miko's CGI just tears down and makes almost every battle janky to the point of battles being nothing but clash of blades and NONE of the flair. As much as LA ragged on the CGI, the animation is overall good, not great as it has some derpy jankiness in terms of quality here and there but overall...the animation was fine...not great...just fine, but the CGI...does LA even need to say more?

The voice acting, is pretty standard in terms of an almost all girls cast, with the typical wide range of vocals but also mostly moe vocals, especially from Kanami's voice actor Kaede Hondo but Saori Oonishi's Hiyori with her stoic no nonsense attitude was good nonetheless. Eri Suzuki's engrish genki was good as Eren and along with Risae Matsuda's Kaoru constant no fucks given personality seeping to her vocals was good as well. LA could go on but LA will say there are TWO MVP's in this anime for LA at least (if LA went through the entire cast LA would be here all day) and those two would be Hiyori's Saori Oonishi as she was LA's favourite character and Saori did go through some wide range of emotions and changes in terms of character from the stoic loner to the opened up, near tsundere level as Hiyori, the other would be Inori Minase as Yume as she was the resident crazy blood hungry character and Inori Minase brings her insanity to Yume but ALSO made Yume both a crazy yet sympathetic character by the end of it.

The final arc to say the least did try to get into a great climax which obviously was MUCH better than it's first half's climax which it did some crazy thing down the line, HOWEVER, LA felt that the anime's finale did try some plot holy moments here and there because friendship...no seriously, but nonetheless for a finale, it definitely ramped up it's "end of the world as we know it" situation and one last time it made something of an anticlimax but at least "tried" to tie up any loose ends it had by the end of it.

Toji no Miko for LA is just one of the shakiest start in anime LA had seen in a while and sure it took a while for the anime to get going, but it has one of the most atypical beginnings to the typical "demons invading kill them" anime along with having the core aspect of the Aratama/demons to have relevance all throughout the anime. Character development is focused to say the least and we see MANY interactions, character developments and relationships grow as a result YET with the plethora of other characters doesn't give us a chance to know EVERY character, just the ones that matter in terms of the plot have this. The world building opens up in the later half of the anime and though the animation is "ok" to say the least, the CGI was atrociously implemented in (cept the non-human Aratama designs they at least made sense and were decent enough)

Toji no Miko has it's problems and boy does it, but if LA had to give an overall verdict to Toji no Miko as a sum of it's parts, then LA would say it was a decent but not great anime and constantly tightroped it's great start and concept for what it had going for it as well as the atrociously implemented CGI did not help but as a whole, Toji no Miko is bi-polar to say the least, from dipping in terms of plot of being almost fillery to outright great moments here and there. Toji no Miko DID deserve at least to be 24 episodes like it did, but Toji no Miko ALSO squandered it's screentime for all the build up, character development and world building which may or may not have worked time to time and Toji no Miko just trying to meet a quota at times.

Toji no Miko is ultimately what LA could say as an anime with a great start but slowed down immediately afterwards, then greatly improved by later half and the end of it as a result. Not too horrible but never reached the greatness it could have been.