Onimusha

I am beyond surprised that Capcom actually gave Onimusha to a team that cares about the source material that they are adapting. This, in my opinion, is an amazing adaptation with superbly choreographed fight scenes and plenty of likable character moments.

The only shred of hope I had for this adaptation came from the fact that Takashi Miike was at the helm of the production as director and he is most likely the reason why action scenes look as amazing as they do. I think on its own, the show is still good, but as an adaptation of Onimusha, it is great.

Animation:
To start ... it off I don't think a lot of people will be fond of the CGI. I had no problem with it because the hand-drawn backgrounds looked amazing and so did all of the fights. There are so many genuinely epic shots and camera angles used here, both in and out of action sequences.

Also, the art style is just super on point, there are some areas where the color grading straight made me feel like I was watching a video of one of the games, especially when it comes to the backgrounds.

Story:
The story is fairly basic, it just follows Musashi and his companions while they go on an adventure and face various foes along the way. I think many people would rather love to see an adaptation focusing on Samanosuke or Jubei, but what we have here is genuinely good and can be treated as its own “game” because it perfectly fits into the Onimusha franchise.

Character:
As I briefly mentioned earlier, the anime focuses on Musashi traveling with a bunch of other characters as they go on an adventure. All of these characters get a lot of time to shine and akin to most of the games all of these are very memorable; I would argue that the show even has some of the best characters in the series.

Conclusion:
Amazing action sequences, really likable characters, respect for the source material, & stellar choreography all make this an easy 8/10 for me and as a Capcom adaptation this is like a 9/10 lol, because they never give their IPs to people who care.

Have you ever given 3D anime a chance? If you're willing to overlook animation that's not up to par for a good story and well-written characters, then I highly recommend you watch Onimusha.

Despite being based on a video game, Onimusha stands on its own as a unique and captivating anime series. Even though the 3D animation isn't the best in the first couple of episodes, the story quickly draws you in and keeps you hooked. The characters are strong, intelligent, and relatable, and the plot is full of unexpected twists and turns.

Don't let the 3D animation deter you from giving Onimusha a try. It's a ... hidden gem among anime series that deserves more recognition. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I hope you will too.

I wish I could rate the first and second halves separately.

What begins as a fantastic and enthralling ride with a diverse cast of characters set in a beautiful historic setting ends with a nonstop rollercoaster, and not the good kind. Abrupt, nonstop, splash introductions of characters, places, and powers that had no relevance at all until this very moment are suddenly slammed right into your face for the sake of hastily pulling together surprise twists or over-the-top battles. One second, it's a samurai drama, and the next, it's Sephiroth vs Goku: cheesy one-liner edition.

I'd like to joke that the first half was written by someone ... with a large amount of talent who, due to a lack of funding, could not be hired to finish the script, so they just fed what he/she wrote into an AI and let it scrape together the rest. Go into this series expecting something along those lines.