Bastard!! Ankoku no Hakaishin Part 2 (ONA)

The pacing of the story was already getting bad towards the end of part 1, but in part 2 it simply drops off a cliff. There's literally a 5-episode battle with a single villain. Just try to imagine that: A full 100 minutes of over-explained attacks that happen *extremely* slowly. In fact, the entirety of part 2 is back-to-back fights, and not even good ones with funny moments or emotional depth. The sheer number of death fakeouts is simply insulting, and they make everything happening onscreen feel utterly inconsequential because a character being "killed" by an attack doesn't matter as long as they have plot armour. Allthis time wasted on bad fight scenes means that all the comedy, emotion, and lewdness that gave part 1 its charm is mostly absent.

Bastard is a dark fantasy, action comedy manga from the eighties. Places, characters and attacks are named after various metal bands and songs. It's a story about four kingdoms, each holding a seal that keep the god of destruction in slumber. Of course some people with evil intention are trying to steal the seals and thus Dark Schneider, a loud, highly perverted, childish, dark wizard is summoned. The anime follows the manga faithfully and the animation, voice acting and music are all great. Since it's an old story the pacing might feel off to some. There is a lot of fourth wall breaking and theseries does not take itself seriously. Also be prepared for a lot of ecchi scenes. Manga readers will probably enjoy the anime because they know what they can expect. I'm not so sure about new viewers.

I mean, do we have to take Dark Schneider in a serious way? lol I love the animation and the overall production, I think that part it's flawless. I could say the story have some issues but it was intended that way since the beggining and i'm no talking about the sexual tone of it, I mean the plot in general but that may have to do with the type of story that it is (was created in the late 80's for god sakes) Having said that, I find all the metal music enchaments and the characters 'adorable'. I really enjoyed the story, I think ismore like a satire. I wish there would be an annoncement regarding the finale because I need to see more but I would say also, that some might no enjoy this type story

Bastard is an ambitious anime that clearly shows the animation studio’s readiness to create a new classic. It’s a shame it only remained a wish. It’s not a bad anime, but in the end, it wasn’t the success they hoped for. The reason? The lack of a compelling narrative. It takes much more than a story based on an ancient curse and fierce battles to create an epic-level story. At some point in the plot, the author loses the thread and focuses on sending monsters and more monsters to our protagonist, the legendary Dark Schneider, without any kind of plot or storyline. This ends up, while not being adisappointment, boring and leaving Bastard in the drawer of animes that could have been incredible but weren’t. THE GOOD. It has an interesting ending. THE BAD. A repetitive narrative where the same plot is repeated over and over again. I REPEAT. It ends very well, leaving questions for the next season

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