Anime Reviews Reviews

Anime Review: The Heroic Legend of Arslan (2015) by Noriyuki Abe

Based on the Persian epic, “Amir Arsalan”, which became a Japanese fantasy novel, then a manga and then an incomplete in 1991, “The ” finally gets the on-screen adaptation it deserves.

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The story revolves around Arslan, the crown prince of the fictional kingdom of Pars, which is taken over by the Lusitanians, after his father, the king, Andragoras III, falls victim to a treacherous plot led by some of his most trusted retainers. During this fight, Arslan barely escapes with his life and manages to rejoin with Daryun, who has previously sworn to his uncle, Vahrez, to protect the Prince with his life. The two of them slowly but steadily find more comrades to accompany them, starting with the exiled tactician and aspiring painter Narsus and his retainer, Elam, and continuing with an “exiled” priestess of Mithra named Farangis, a travelling musician and con-man named Gieve, Alfreed, the daughter of the murdered chief of the Zott clan, and Jaswant, a Shindran soldier. Arslan sincere generousness and mercy gradually affects all of them as they try to raise an army to retake his throne, against enemies like the Lord Silvermask, who proves to be another contender of the throne, ex comrades who have become enemies, and Bodin, the sadistic Archpriest of the fundamentalist religion the Lusitanians follow. Etpole, a Lusitanian who enters Arslan's life early on, also plays an important part.

directs an intricate anime that includes themes of religion, ruling, democracy, slavery, politics in general, and friendship as the intrigues and the treacheries in the various palaces seem to shape the whole world. His characters are not so complex, apart from Arslan, whose growth as a man and as a ruler is one of the title's highlights, and Gieve, who is quite mysterious as the cool “gangster” character. However, all of them are analyzed to the fullest. Most of the script's highlights come from the impressive stratagems Narsus seems to use constantly, with the rest of them resulting from the many plot twists of the intricate story. The only fault I found derives from the misplaced humor, which the title could definitely do without, since the script is quite serious.

Technically, the anime screams “big budget” from the beginning, with the various battles being magnificent, particularly due to the artful depiction of the armies' maneuvers, with the animation by Liden Films and Sanzigen being impressive. The duels are also great, and even bloody at times, and there are also some exploitation elements, particularly through the tortures depicted. The artfulness also reaches the surroundings, both outdoors and indoors, which are very much detailed. The characters' drawing by Shingo Ogiso, Ushio Tazawa and Kazuo Watanabe, however, and particularly their faces, is quite simplistic. Expectantly, some fan service could not be missing, but is only represented through the voluptuous priestess Farangi and does not reach the extremes so frequently appearing on many anime these days.

“Heroic Legend of Arslan” is a very fulfilling title, placed somewhere between “Berserk” and “Gundam.”

About the author

Panos Kotzathanasis

My name is Panos Kotzathanasis and I am Greek. Being a fan of Asian cinema and especially of Chinese kung fu and Japanese samurai movies since I was a little kid, I cultivated that love during my adolescence, to extend to the whole of SE Asia.

Starting from my own blog in Greek, I then moved on to write for some of the major publications in Greece, and in a number of websites dealing with (Asian) cinema, such as Taste of Cinema, Hancinema, EasternKicks, Chinese Policy Institute, and of course, Asian Movie Pulse. in which I still continue to contribute.

In the beginning of 2017, I launched my own website, Asian Film Vault, which I merged in 2018 with Asian Movie Pulse, creating the most complete website about the Asian movie industry, as it deals with almost every country from East and South Asia, and definitely all genres.

You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

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