Review of The Heroic Legend of Arslan

Arslan Senki Story; 5/10 The story is a textbook example of the 'Rags to Riches' story archetype with not much added to that. The protagonist Arslan goes from his life as prince to being a cast out, on his way he learns he knew nothing about real life and wants to become a good king when he claims back the throne. It plays of in a historical Persian/Middle-Eastern setting. Art; 8/10 Characters are drawn in the same style as FMA(BH), random backgrounds and buildings are very detailed with Persian and Middle-Eastern inspired patterns and architecture, most clothing designs fit the theme very well except for Falangies'clothing design of plain loincloth barely covering anything being very much fan service and not really fitting the theme or situations. Some of the characters feel a bit redesigned/recycled characters from FMA(BH) but since I liked really FMA BH it feels a bit nostalgic rather than lazy character design.

Sound; 8/10 I liked the music used, no complains really.

*Warning: ''Character'' contains mild spoilers*

Character; 5/10, Arslan himself is a ridiculous case of goody two shoes to the point of being boringly bland throughout the story. Whenever something bad happens Daryun, a practically unkillable warrior who never loses a fight, is there to save him and when a plan needs to be made or when there are problems his friend Narsus manages to come up with a plan that fixes everything so nothing really bad ever happens to Arslan. Arslan's unnatural amount of good luck since his fall from princedom which to me felt like lazy writing. Pretty much all other characters in the anime are feel very shallow, overly goodhearted and especially overpowered.

Enjoyment: 6/10

Overall; 7/10 A shallow Rags to Riches with unreal amount of good luck and a bunch of Mary Sue/Gary Stu characters is pretty much all this anime is about but the richness and detail of the backgrounds, music, historic feeling and character design make up for a bit the shallowness of the characters and the simplicity of the story making it ok watchable but not great. It could have been much better if it had extra character dept, negative character emotions/traits, flaws, bad luck, loss, plot-twist's, betrayal etc. Since this anime still doesn't have a proper ending maybe it will get better?