Senyuu.
戦勇。
Once upon a time, the demon lord Rchimedes spread terror throughout the world, until he was eventually sealed away by the legendary hero Creasion. Since then, a thousand years have passed peacefully. However, a mysterious hole has opened up between the demon and human spheres, and countless demons have surged into the human realm once more. Coming to the conclusion that Rchimedes would soon return to wreak havoc, a human king summons the possible descendants of the legendary hero—all 75 of them. Unfortunately, after so long, it was too difficult to pinpoint his true descendants. Among the lionhearted prospects is the amateur adventurer Alba Frühling. His skills may not be top-notch, but he is accompanied by the talented soldier Ross, who helps the young hero whenever he is in a pinch...or at least, he is supposed to. Though undoubtedly a skilled warrior, Ross is actually both sarcastic and sadistic, and hence revels in Alba's suffering. Senyuu. is a comedic adventure following the unlikely duo as they struggle in their endeavor to defeat the demon lord, meeting various eccentrics along the way. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
Synopsis
Once upon a time, the demon lord Rchimedes spread terror throughout the world, until he was eventually sealed away by the legendary hero Creasion. Since then, a thousand years have passed peacefully. However, a mysterious hole has opened up between the demon and human spheres, and countless demons have surged into the human realm once more. Coming to the conclusion that Rchimedes would soon return to wreak havoc, a human king summons the possible descendants of the legendary hero—all 75 of them. Unfortunately, after so long, it was too difficult to pinpoint his true descendants. Among the lionhearted prospects is the amateur adventurer Alba Frühling. His skills may not be top-notch, but he is accompanied by the talented soldier Ross, who helps the young hero whenever he is in a pinch...or at least, he is supposed to. Though undoubtedly a skilled warrior, Ross is actually both sarcastic and sadistic, and hence revels in Alba's suffering. Senyuu. is a comedic adventure following the unlikely duo as they struggle in their endeavor to defeat the demon lord, meeting various eccentrics along the way. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Reviews(19)
Ryntaia
May 17, 2017
Hoo boy. How does one review Senyuu? Well, I suppose its best to start with its origins. You see, Senyuu has some rather unusual origins. Most of the anime you see will fall into one of three categories: based on a light novel, based on a manga, or (usually the most rare) original properties from the studio in question. Senyuu is none of these--its based on a webcomic, though its likely not what you think when you see the word 'webcomic'. I guess the best way to define it would be to call it the Japanese Homestuck. This may be a strike for or against itdepending on your outlook, but keep in mind that this comparison is 100% only to the sequential format of the original comic and not to the storytelling or comedic style. So yeah. Not something you'd expect to have an anime adaptation. But the Senyuu webcomic exploded so much in popularity in Japan that Liden Films & Ordet joined forces to profit off that popularity (in association with Nico Nico, I can only assume thanks to the various Nico Nico plugs). What we got was something that was definitely BETTER than the original webcomic, technically speaking, but is still very strictly a 'your mileage may vary' kind of show. Basically put it just isn't a show for everyone. The first thing that might irritate people is the format. Your average Senyuu episode is about...three to five minutes once you shave off the opening, ending, and narrative explanation of the previous episode. This is a format that can work well in a lot of stories that are episodic jokes, but Senyuu runs into the issue that it is ultimately not an episodic story. Instead of small chunks of jokes, we're basically seeing small chunks of a full show here. There's a narrative being cut apart, that being the narrative of the hero Alba's journey and the ultimate goal of defeating Dezember, Juli, and Rchimedes. And while the show is still funny as can be, clever, and peppered with great characters...this format can get annoying. Which leads me to the story itself! Senyuu is a tried and true parody of the RPG fantasy genre, even going as far as to include classic game screens into some of the episodes. There is even the classic storyline: the Hero is recruited by a royal to go and defeat the Big Bad. It pokes fun at many of the aspects we've become accustom to -- the descendant of the hero (except wouldn't he have lots of descendants?), the Demon Lord whom all fear (except he's really not worth fearing), and ultimately the role of how use(less) a destined hero can be. Make no mistake, this show is an onslaught of jokes both at the expense of RPG fantasy and at the expense of the world that they've created. And its funny. Its a good deconstruction of its genre while managing to make plenty of jokes outside that scope at the same time. There's a few groan worthy jokes (I still can't make myself laugh at the 12 Demons named after months) but for the most part the show presents great humor at the expense of themselves. And this brings us to the true strength in Senyuu: the characters. When describing characters like these, the words 'idiots' and 'jerks' come to mind pretty often. But for once, that's actually kind of a good thing. This is because the main character, Alba Fruhling, is pretty much a straight man character that the world loves to beat up on for realizing how insane all of these tropes are. He's accompanied by a sadist soldier with a secret and...uh, the Demon Lord who all fear. Or at least the Demon Lord's 10 year old granddaughter, ripe with cuteness. Follow this with two Heroes who are money hungry and halfway to crazytown, a princess in an Fullmetal Alchemist suit, a demon who didn't even want to be here and is feeling so attacked right now, a masochistic cat, a school delinquent immune from the laws of realities whenever his friends are in danger...oh jeez, the list goes on. It could be argued that maybe Senyuu has too many characters but honestly, when each and every one contributes so well to the jokes while being so contagiously likeable, its hard to say that this is a problem. They're all just so brutally fun. There isn't much to say about the sound. The voice acting is REALLY good (though this specific show lacks a dub) with each character's execution of their lines adding a whole new dimension to already funny jokes that were in the webcomic. Unfortunately, besides the good voice acting, the sound is just kind of there. The background music isn't memorable in the least and, well, if you like the opening/ending songs then more power to you but they come off as more boring than anything else. At least, that's my two cents on it. Good voice acting, pretty mediocre everything else. Overall, I honestly loved this show. It's a 9/10 for me. But I have to recognize that the show has its deep, deep flaws and that not everyone is going to be into this kind of format. It's the kind of show you'll either love or you'll hate. It doesn't take itself seriously in the slightest to the point where it will even mock itself if it DOES start to get serious, and the way the story is strung together through short episodes is a good idea in theory but just is annoying in practice. If you have an open mind about unique formats and like parody, then this show is probably for you. If not, it still might be because the characters are so delightfully brutal and the jokes aren't always about parody. It's an easy show to dislike, but its also an easy show to absolutely love. Which is probably how a webcomic became a television show to begin with.
