emmerich.chaz - 2014-08-05 16:22:18

If there was one particular word that I could use to describe this anime it would overwhelmingly be: "Average." It never reaches too far out into any ideas that would make it stand out in any way but it never really does anything to harm its cause either. For example, the main character has a standard motivation for wanting to join the Shinsengumi- and later on we find out it gets more complicated but, it never really goes in depth enough to really make it interesting. 

Story:
The overall story is that our main character, Tetsunosuke Ichimura, wants to join the Shinsengumi and get strong so that he can get revenge for the death of his parents. Throughout the episodes it deals with his development in terms of his character and skill with the sword.

If there was one complaint I have about the story is that some parts seem out of place, and characters do things that seem weird to me as a whole. While they do give reasons for it, that doesn't excuse it from pulling me out of the story and making me wonder why it was necessary to include it.

Animation & Sound:
Note: I am simplifying scoring on these sections. 

1 - if I noticed it was bad
2.5 - if I thought it was fine
5 - if I noticed it was good

As I am not an expert on animation as a whole I can only give you my overall feelings which is not conducive for a 1-5 scale. I will be scoring the sound in the same way because I am more focused on the story and overall enjoyment in my scoring.

Character:
The majority of the cast is your standard band of characters and since most of these characters are based on historic people those traits will be easily noticed. (Okita is a very skilled swordsman who is sickly, for example)

There were only two characters in the whole series that I thought were particularly interesting, one is a girl who is unable to speak named Saya. The second is one of the vice-commanders of the Shinsengumi named Hijikata Toshizou. The main reason I thought these two were the most interesting is because they both have a large influence on the main character and how he develops during his time in the Shinsengumi.

So in the end this anime never really brings a strong enough story to make it different from all the other Meiji stories. Even though most of the anime is average, the points where I was let down actually drag the score lower because of my expectation that it would develop into something more.

I can't really recommend this as there are other Meiji era stories that seem to be somewhat similar. As I stated in the beginning, this whole series was just average for me so I would rather look for one above average.