Shigurui is best experienced via Blu-ray.Believe it or not, Shigurui currently makes my top 10 list when it comes to my favorite anime series of all time. Mainly because it's an experience I won't ever forget, despite all the graphic content contained within. Why won't I ever forget it? The atmosphere, plain and simple.
To start off, we've got Kiyoshi Yoshida's (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Kaiba, Kurozuka) ominous, minimalistic score. Not only is it great to listen to as a standalone soundtrack, but it adds so much to the series that I probably wouldn't have liked Shigurui nearly as much as I do had a different composer been involved. Secondly, we have Hirotsugu Hamazaki's (Texhnolyze) direction. He infuses such style into this show! The series is sparse on dialogue, so Hamazaki enhances this by filling the series with numerous moments of pregnant pauses to add to the tension of a scene. Slap on some stellar production values (especially the sound direction) and you've got a series that is a feast for both the eyes and ears.
Despite the absolutely enthralling atmosphere, the story will undoubtedly be what turns most viewers people off. It's shockingly graphic in more ways than one, as the series pulls no punches when it comes to violence and other mature content. There's hardly any intended humor in the series, but I feel that humor would only serve to ruin the atmosphere of such a gritty, nasty series so that's perfectly fine from my perspective. Also, the story doesn't come full circle -- the original manga is currently unfinished -- but the portion of the story it does tell is wrapped up quite nicely. It also isn't the deepest story in the world, but even so it's a very compelling one. I especially enjoyed watching Seigen Irako's rise and fall and then his inevitable revenge.
I really hope that more of the manga is animated. Sadly, I doubt that another season will be produced. Apparently Shigurui didn't sell all that well in Japan, and it probably didn't fare much better in North America. Still, I'm glad that FUNimation took a chance on this series and brought it over. Hopefully this write-up has convinced those of you who aren't squeamish to give this show a look.
1 comments:
I've only seen 4 episodes in myself, mostly due to the fact that I really, really can't watch this show on our computer at home.... ^_^' Not sure whether or not I intend to finish it though, it was good from what I saw but there were indeed some very shocking things in just those 4 episodes, in fact I actually had to stop myself in the middle of a marathon of it because of how too much it was. And I'm sure that's not even the end of it either...... There is a part of me that does want to finish it though, that's for sure.
Post a Comment
Got something to say? Then post it, darn you!