I can get why people have a problem with this show. The pace is quite uneven, the story isn´t that coherent, much is not explained, and the clear haram vibe can be a turn off. I haven´t read/played the popular visual novel that the anime adaption is built on, so I can´t say if it´s a good adaption or not. However, I actually quite liked the show, its just demand that you are focused on the bits and pieces of information you get, and that you puzzle them together yourself. But before we dig into the actual review, some background information can be good. Let´s firstunderstand the title “Dies Irae”, the show actually makes more sense when you know the meaning of it.
“Dies Irae” is contrary to what many believe (me at the beginning as well), is not German, it´s Latin. Directly translated it means “Day of wrath”, and I found out when googling some, that it is a real psalm text about the absolute dooms day, which has an old catholic origin, and were translated to German in the 1700th. Dies Irae, is the day the world will be dissolved in ashes, much like the Vikings “Ragnarök”. Which basically telling you which direction this show will take.
Now when we cleared that out, let´s take a look at how “Dies Irae” were as a show.
The fractions of the show that let you in on the plot, weren´t that bad at all. An old society of super powerful mages, with some dark plans and a big end game, the origin of the main character Ren and his friends Kasumi and Shirou, the connection with the mages powers and human souls, and the techniques and incantations they use to preform magic, are all some interesting parts. But it´s just that, it´s just fractions of those bits throughout the show, which never were explored or explained to an extent that would have taking the show from “this is kind of cool” to “kind of really damn good” level.
As for the 0 episode, if you didn´t get it the first time, re-watch it after the 7th episode, it fits pretty good there, and the episode will make since.
The show has some of its focus on other parts, such as the harem part (yes, it´s very harem influenced, hence the several routes), surprisingly much slice of life, and some fights that felt kind of pointless in the beginning, besides present many of the villains as psycho sadistic assholes (with a few exceptions). Personal opinions aside, many of the characters are stereotypes with a twist, and used as such. For example, the childhood friend that wishes she now would be teenager MC´s girlfriend, MC´s rival male childhood friend, and a loli-looking tsundere senpai. But at the same time, I weren´t bored with them, they had enough importance in what´s was unfolding, and interesting enough personalities.
Some explanations of the circumstances and certain characters place in the story are provided during the watch, but they could´ve have focused much more on those parts to really make it interesting.
Besides that, I actually looked forward to watching a new episode each week. “Dies Irae” grow steadily on me, and had something that made me not only keep watching it, but looking forward to it. And that may been partly because of the plot development, it takes a little bit of a lift in the 7th episode, and partly because of the soundtrack. Some of the soundtrack is some real high-class pieces; German classic-music-orchestras, sometimes with some good opera. Which fitted the atmosphere of “Dies Irae” really well, with the German inspired uniforms, plot-base, and names. And after googling some more, I found out that the incantations the mages preform is individual, and are based on famous German literature and operas like Wagner and Goethe (the quote which is seen in every episode, just after the opening, is from Goethe´s two pieced tragedy). The rest isn´t too bad either, with some nice rock pieces fitting the darker theme. The opening "Kadenz" by Yui Sakakibara, is engaging and presents the mode and spirit of the show well. It´s a lot of characters and connections, which the visuals do a good job of displaying. With the highlight being the ending song, "Opera” by Phero☆Men. If not watch the show, just look that one up, it’s pretty great, it was the best part of the show according to me. The VA´s were well matched, with a nice sounding Japanese accent.
I liked the art and animation. The character design seemed to be somewhat similar to Kouta Hirano´s works (the man behind Hellsing), with their specific hair styles, eye and face shapes, long limbs and bodies, gloves and uniforms with Nazi-Germen design. Which is in my opinion isn´t a bad thing, I´m a big fan of his work. To see the similar style in another show, was just a plus. The animation, by studio A.C.G.T, is absolutely decent, it often looks pretty good. Nice colours, backgrounds, effects for the super natural/magic parts, and the fight scenes were fluid and interesting enough.
So, to round things up, I actually did enjoy most of my time with “Dies Irae”.
Especially after I looked up some information, that gave the show the platform it needed. Some will be explained throughout this first 11 episodes, and since the show is scheduled for at least 6 more episodes (ONA), it has the opportunity to grow in that department, and give the show a solid feeling. The soundtrack, opening, and ending were worth the time on its own, I´m still a bit surprised about how good they were. And the Kouta Hirano inspired art were a clear plus as well. I will definitively check out the visual novel it based on, I haven´t had the craving for a game in a while, but Dies definitively awoke up that feeling a bit.
SySylth_Asmodeus
May 17, 2018
RecommendedFunny
I'm proud to tell everybody that this anime has a potential to become a masterpiece, people complained about it for being too short or cutting important points in the VN, but the most common thing people said about the anime are sentences like: "What did just Happened ?" "What did I just Watched", etc... However "in my case" I'm not confused at all, the story is easy to understand, and I'm not even joking... I could only advise people to read the description/sypnosis first especially before watching and not skipping the important EP 0. This anime is one of the most unique I've ever watched... Itcombines almost all of my favourite topics: World War 2, the French Revolution - History for short..., Philosophy, Magick, Life and Death, the Round Table, Norse Mythology, etc. It contains some intriguing elements, it is also important to analyse the subtitles/character's words in order not to get lost...
Also people should understand that, this anime was made, with the help of FUNDRAISING, so we should be able to understand why the anime was made that way. The art of the anime translates the overall budget as you can see, there some parts that are not smooth (in terms of frames) but still this does not mean the anime should be labelled as one of the worse...
Story +300/10 - Its unique on its own, the theme and atmosphere is very serious, it has a dark tone at almost all the time, etc.
Art: 9/10 - As stated above, there are some parts where frames are not much smooth, but this will never be the case for me... it's still great...
Sound: +250/10 - The Opening Song matched the anime well, BG Sounds may at often times not amuse the audience, well that being said we can't please everybody... but for me they still done a great job.
Character: +500/10 - Even though there's not much backstory shown, most of the characters are unique on its own...
Enjoyment: 100/10 - I said it before and I'll say it again... the enjoyment this anime gives is just fine and great, one of the most unique anime shows I ever watched but of course not the best but absolutely not the worse.
Overall 10,000/10 Its quite easy to understand (I haven't even played the VN mind you...), has a unique way of storytelling, all I can say is they had done a great job for this anime... If only the studio have enough budget, this will be one of the Greatest Anime Ever Made... I still hope for that time to come....
Note: This is my first time writing a review on MAL, I apologised for my bad grammars... ^__^ just stating my opinion...
