AKA: 鬼武者

Genre: Samurai Action/Fantasy

Length: Web release, 8 episodes, 28 minutes each

Distributor: Currently available streaming on Netflix.

Content Rating: TV-MA (Strong violence, mature situations.)

Related Series: N/A

Also Recommended: Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress; Onmyoji

Notes: Directed by Shinyo Sugai, written by Hideyuki Kudata. Based on a series of videogames created by Capcom.

Rating:

Onimusha

Synopsis

Mushashi Miyamoto, a skilled samurai, passes the test to borrow the Oni Gauntlet, which gives one immense power, from the monks who have it in their safekeeping. He needs this, AND a party of other accomplished samurai, to defeat a rogue samurai named Iemon, who has developed terrifying control of both the living and the dead. But some of Musashi's party may have agendas of their own...

Review

I think this is another one that's best reviewed by trying to put one's self in the frame of mind of a fan of its genre. Judged by the criteria of its genre (samurai movies), this one's pretty entertaining, with a strong "retro" feel, even if it IS based on a video game.

I really llked the character art here- the character's faces and physiques are quite distinctive- but I was less pleased with the computer animation. We've come a long way since the early days, but here it still looks just a little less fluid than old-fashioned cel work, different enough to be distracting, at least at first. But as it goes along, you maybe don't notice it as much.

Musashi's a very good (and very traditional) lead character- a tough, fierce (and unbelievably fast) fighter of course (and the show is loaded with over-the-top fight scenes, especially toward the end), a gruff but basically ethical person, an exemplar of samurai honor- at least until, near the end, an impossible choice forces him to sin whichever choice he makes, action OR inaction. And it's a choice that forces him toward the oni direction- a direction which the "Oni Gauntlet" on his arm had been trying to steer him toward all along. (He had, wisely, been avoiding using its power unless absolute necessary. As we've seen in Onmyoji, and even in My Oni Girl, strong emotional traumas, or some destructive (or even self-destructive) obsessions predispose one to oni-hood.)

Among the rest of Musashi's party (some of them we don't get to know well, due to premature demises), my favorite was the most intellectual one, named Sahei. But the purest, most morally uncompromised character here is Sayo, a young girl who's the sole survivor of her village, which was plundered by the Final Boss here, Iemon. Sayo joins Mushashi's party, and becomes a key player in the drama.

Speaking of Iemon, he's also a classical sort of villain, a grandiose megalomaniac of the type who likes to show off his "operation", which has admittedly grown to impressive size and intention. It includes, we're told, "Western weapons", a remark that is apparently intended to excuse one visual, except we're supposed to be in the Tokugawa Shogunate, which ended in 1868, so having a World War I era tank in Iemon's arsenal still seems a bit incongruous. Iemon can control the minds of the living (though for some reason he only infiltrates the thinking of Musashi's band through persuasion, and third-party persuasion at that), as well as resurrecting the dead (AND giving them supernatural powers, extra limbs, etc.) Iemon's lieutenants still appear more or less human, but his footsoldiers are almost completely skeletonized, and weaker than the lieutenants (but there are just so damned MANY of them.) Iemon even has a butler, named Alfred (to paraphrase Mel Brooks in Blazing Saddles, hey, this is set in the 19th Century, he can sue the creators of Batman!), but Iemon's Alfred is intriguingly weird, and like every scene in Iemon's lair, the encounter with him ends in a outrageous battle.

For the record, I could think of at least two interpretations of the ending here. I'm sure there are others. I'll say no more about that.

The show's well-paced for the most part, and the "good" characters are sympathetic (if some are fairly flawed). Now that I think of it, Mushashi and his band oddly reminded me of Arnold and his buds in Predator- a team of tough guys, some of whom don't make it to the end (because the enemy is unnaturally strong and devious), with a little treachery thrown in. (Well, in Predator, only Arnold and the girl make it to the end. Here... I'm honestly not too sure.) — Allen Moody

Recommended Audience: Neflix rates TV-MA. For violence of course, which includes beheadings, rivers of blood, and other fun boy stuff (carnage) that was just a part of the samurai lifestyle.