An injured man was found in the forest and rescued by the elder of a village, becoming part of her family. The man has no memory of his past and wears a mask he can't remove. Hakuoru, as he becomes known, proves to be a strong leader and eventually leads numerous missions to liberate the people throughout the country of its corrupt politics. While on this journey he unknowingly seeks out his past, as well as his true purpose while at the same time protecting his new found friends and family.

Written by littlejonny100.

Story & Characters

It has been quite some time since I've watched an anime that has captured as much attention as this one has. On the outset, it seems like one man's rise to bring peace to the countries but it slowly develops into one with numerous devastating wars and battles, and finally it goes back towards its main optimistic message and theme, "Peace, life and happiness". Small nuances aside, Utawarerumono has a healthy balance of characters and storyline. Despite the fact that we are introduced to so many characters by the end of this series, this anime never loses that original feel of unity that it began with. Furthermore, the storyline is interesting and appealing enough to keep you glued to the screen: not only are there plenty of large scale battles, but there are often various subtleties during dialogue that may be missed if one does not pay attention to it.

I really liked what they did with it at the end. I always had the question of "Why is Hakuoro the only guy without those ears" and at the end, it basically told me why. I also liked how they referenced a lot to the untold storyline early in the storyline that allowed the viewer to try and guess exactly what is going on in this world.

I found the story to be a bit vague, however, and hence it does not really get a perfect score. Also, they also rely a bit heavily on war events to take up time - but this allowed a lot more time to get into the characters. One more thing... there were just so many events happening (good thing) that they didn't have much time to devote to some story episodes (karura storyline)

The storyline may also be considered a bit farfetched to some. A bit similar to how Trigun told its story, the beginning of Utawarerumono is basically some sort of medieval style world with castles, sword fights, and only arrows as projectiles. However, towards the end, the series starts getting a little science fictiony to the dismay of potential viewers who did not see this coming. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed all the war scenes and battle scenes.

Rating: 8

Art

Some characters looked awesome (samurai leader, aruru, eruru, kuuya,, karura) while some look a bit 'iffy' (oboro, houkouro, anyone not a main character, basically all the winged race). So this basically balanced each other out.

The animation quality was quite nice. Although it was pretty obvious at some points that they were using computer rendered animation (especially the war and dual scenes), it didn't really detract from the overall experience. I really wanted to rate this an 8 but I guess since it felt kind of artificial at times, I rounded it down.

Rating: 7

Sound

Nice soundtrack, although they could have used a different OP/ED sometime along the way. Regardless, the music was properly used and enhanced the mood quite well.

Voice actors fit the characters very nicely. Really a good use of sound space.

Rating: 8

Presentation

Because Utawarerumono does well above average in nearly all aspects, it does not excel in any particular one. There are many possible complaints and annoyances that one may point out. For example, there really are a lot of characters... and by the end, even some of the more key characters from the beginning are just ... there, not doing much. Of course, each character gets its own episode focus and we do get to know each one of them quite well AND each character has a decent role in each flowing episode, but it is just hard to give so much attention to everyone at the end.

Despite the potential problem of overextending itself, Utawarerumono tells a great story, with a great cast of characters.There is a good balance between personal stories and war events. The excess of cute girl characters that keep popping up may distract some from the awesome story, but overall if viewed from a purely storytelling entertainment purpose, Utawarerumono should not disappoint!

Although I enjoyed Utawarerumono for its dynamic pacing and varying events, I doubt I'll re-watch it anytime soon due to the fact that I have so much to see in so little time, but the storyline definitely intrigues me. If possible, I would read want to read more into the game's storyline.

Rating: 8

Final Verdict

7.83 (good)

Reviewed by nauxolo, Nov 12, 2008

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