天下制覇

Well… this certainly lives up to its reputation. I’m not sure that’s a compliment.

No summary for this one. 

Impressions:

Where to begin… the art is excellent. Most of all the technical merits in general are top notch. The music is a little lackluster, but it’s shooting for more of a period feel than to sell CDs, and at least on that level, it’s pretty good. The OP, though… if you’ve seen Ghost Hunt’s opening, then you’ve seen Shigurui’s, only instead of green sparks and a decent song, red static and a crappy song. The animation is also excellent, but not particularly interesting. You’ll get really details CG flies buzzing around, throbbing organs, dripping blood, but no actual fight scenes in a show about samurai fighting.

All that said, I detested the episode. I knew the manga was gory, so I was expecting it, and I believe that Madhouse did tone it down a little bit from the manga, but there’s still quite a bit of organs, anatomy and stomach twisting violence. I can recognize that probably a fair number of people will be interested in it for the gore and whatnot, but personally, I cannot imagine looking forward to being disgusted and repulsed week after week. It’s one thing for grotesque monsters like those in Tokyo Majin who are clearly inhuman and typically swiftly killed. It’s another thing altogether when it’s some guy sticking a sword through his foot and then twisting it while we get to see an in-depth look at the blade-in-foot anatomy going on.

So, yeah, in the end, I can see why people would like it, but it’s really just not for me. Gross anatomical exploration and gratuitous disembowelling are not the things I generally look for in an anime.