I don’t think Angolmois: Genkou Kassen-ki is the sort of anime that’s going to get a whole lot of traction, but as a fan of military history it’s pushing a lot of the right buttons for me. We aren’t straying much into the world of fantasy here, which I like – I mean, this story is so larger than life and frankly unbelievable that it hardly needs that kind of embellishment. I’ve never quite understood manga and anime’s obsession with taking Japan’s incredibly swashbuckling figures and grand historical events and adding a bunch of supernatural elements to them. I mean, the real story is usually amazing enough.
No, so far Angolmois looks like a good, basic straightforward military epic. The art style is unusual – and that’s proved divisive – but the narrative seems pretty on-point. These kinds of series are often rather difficult to write about but very easy to watch, so we’ll have to see how the blogging side of things works out. But I’ll certainly be watching unless the show unexpectedly jumps the shark.
While the Jinzaburou character seems as far as I can tell to be a fictional construct, the basic storyline playing out this week pretty much happened as we saw it. The Lord of Tsushima, Sou, did indeed ride out to meet an invading army of Mongols whose ships had landed on Tsushima. The accuracy of historical records as far as size of force and such is entirely uncertain, but it seems clear that the Mongols vastly outnumbered the defenders, and those defenders were indeed wiped out. Whether they fought as fiercely as the storybooks (and this series) say, who knows – but they’re just as dead, either way. The Taira just don’t have much luck.
Shouni Kagesuke – the higher-ranking (than Jinzaburou) daimyo who promises to return with three thousand men in a week, may or may not be a real historical figure (I suspect he’s based on one anyway, because this is tacking pretty close to the historical record of events). But he’s most definitely left Jinzaburou an unenviable task – hold the island for 7 days until he can return. Not only that, Sou has left Jinzaburou with the responsibility of ensuring Princess Teruhi’s (who may be illegitimate) safety. Can an exiled warlord, a pirate and bunch of petty criminals and still-green boys hold off an invading Mongol horde for a week?
Well, of such questions are military dramas made, I suppose. And this is a pretty good setup for one if you ask me, especially as Jinzaburou is quite a charismatic and engaging protsgonist. The details may be fanciful, but at least for now no one is time traveling or summoning magical weapons from another dimension or anything. If Angolmois can hold its nerve and tell this story more or less straight, I think it’s going to prove a pretty exciting watch.
elianthos80
July 18, 2018 at 8:31 amYay still good so far :D. And I expect the princess to achieve a decent level of ass-kicking soon. Seems like she’d have more of a talent for that than playing girly flirty lady, good for her the MC looked mostly a mix of embarassed and willing to be done with such nonsense asap XDD. Shipbait noted in any case.
I really like the art style btw but I do agree to a point about the filter overlay being noticeable/distracting when the shots feature a lot of flat or cel-shaded dark colours + slow camera panning: as said filter is a light colour and blurry texture it doesn’t really blend well in such instances with the pictures underneath.
Btw… is the wild cat glimpsed on that village roof and later in the forest going to become a mascot of sort? Not gonna complain if this were to be the case 😛
Guardian Enzo
July 18, 2018 at 3:26 pmIs it me, or does this almost look like a Tintoretto or something?
https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Angolmois-02-20.jpg
elianthos80
July 18, 2018 at 4:32 pmI can see why you’d say that. Face-wise he would be mostly at ease among the venerable patriarchs of full to late Renaissance https://lucatraini.blogspot.com/2014/09/recanati-lorenzo-lotto-e-giacomo.html (see first picture in the post), palette-wise the show is rather close to late Titian, Cerano (Giovan Battista Crespi) and – yes – Tintoretto’s colour palette if I had to choose.
elianthos80
July 18, 2018 at 8:45 am* part of the comment went MIA, recap *
– I appreciate our reluctant hero ways of gathering intel
– Adopted son vibes badly. Internal conflict ahead?
– colour significance nothwistanding persimmon-based dye makes fabric durable + persimmon juice coating has water-resistant properties? Persimmon symbolism alert via significant flashback? Dun dun dun dun.
– Taiko! The ships! Gunpowder? Period details * inhales *
– I guess the red armour we see in the ED is the one gifted by the old man in that box today. Good luck retrieving it from the battlefield provided it doesn’t happen offscreen 😀
leongsh
July 18, 2018 at 1:45 pmFor now, this and Banana Fish are neck-and-neck of the new Summer 2018 series. The rest aren’t close.
Ronbb
July 19, 2018 at 7:25 pmThis is a solid episode…it progressed fast and came stronger than I expected. I also like that Jinzaburou isn’t a hotheaded and reckless protagonist…he thinks and at the same time speaks up when the situation calls for it. It could be a personal preference, but I’m liking this show more than Banana Fish…I’m feeling more engaged.
Matti
July 20, 2018 at 10:54 amThe art style is divisive? That’s news to me.
Have where reached the point where any style that doesn’t have characters with embryo sized eyes is considered divisive?
Fishy Bananas didn’t quite do it for me. Haven’t yet started Serious Jaegermeisters yet, and Fishy Bananas didn’t quite do it for me (might give it one more ep), so this is the only series I’m watching as of now.
Khalid
July 20, 2018 at 1:19 pmI’m surprised by how good this show is turning out to be, and also how many characters are introduced seamlessly. So far it’s scratching my itch for a Kingdom anime sequel (they had to stop at the best arc -_-). Too bad the old man had to die, he was a fun fella to have around. Jinzaburo has the brains to go along with the brawns, and that’s a big plus in my book. I had fun trying to figure out the Mongols’ strategy before Jinzaburo spells it out.