Bastard!! Ankoku no Hakaishin (ONA)

This adaptation of Bastard isn't what you think it is. You might be looking at the title HEAVY METAL, DARK FANTASY and reading other reviews and expecting it to be the animated version of a Frank Frazetta painting with Rhapsody blasting in the background but no, that's not what you're in for. What Bastard actually is, as funny as it may sound, is a dull, slow anime with extremely standard violence compared to other "violent" shows and constant fanservice that isn't even that explicit. This isn't that CONTROVERSIAL ANIME with SEX AND VIOLENCE that you heard about. In fact there's almost no sex at all, justgroping. But enough about that, let's talk about the technical aspects, shall we? For starters, the pacing is horrendous. You'll have many episodes where barely anything happens at all, with the characters standing still and occasionally casting a band reference spell. Sometimes we'll also have the old "characters have a very slow fight while someone watching comments on it" trope too. How exciting. How METAL. The writing isn't anything special, but it doesn't try to be. Not being "deep" or "well written" isn't exactly the problem here, however. The problem is the writing fails miserably to make the flow of the show exciting. As I've said before when talking about pacing, this show drags a lot, and the writing doesn't help at all. The characters are dull and don't do much except for commenting in the current event. Most of them are just bland allies or enemies who eventually turn into allies or die after the most mid fighting scene you'll ever see. The animation is... decent. It suffers from the dull plastic look a lot of modern anime does tho, but it doesn't actively bothers me. The choreography of the fights is what drags the animation down, as a lot of it is just boring and doesn't have much happening. You'll have decently well made effects of fire and magic and lightning and whatever the fuck while nothing exciting happens or the characters exchange a boring dialogue. The music is, as par for the course, isn't jaw dropping either. Sounds like non-copyrighted 80s/90s power metal as you'd expect. It is pretty disappointing still, as something with a huge metal motif should at least try to stand out for its music and not just name dropping metal bands for attacks and locations. In all, Bastard is bad, but not even the type of bad that would turn around into fun, it's just boring and not fun at all after the few first episodes where you realize it's going nowhere else. It sells itself as some hardcore badass metal show, but doesn't even have the balls to show nipples or real gore. Like I said, this isn't Rhapsody or Blind Guardian. Hell, it's not even Manowar.

I love this show It's basically if you take 80's metal album covers and gave them a story full of lewdness, violence, and a main character that solos every verse with gigchad energy alone As a metal head and anime fan this anime is 10 out of 10 Dark Schneider is what the red pill guy think they are but they will never be anywhere near the level of Chad energy that is Dark Schneider and the opening is the greatest anime opening of recent memory The story is bat shit insane if you like the metal life style you'll enjoy this The art and animation are greattoo The show is call Bastard heavy metal Dark fantasy the Dark fantasy part feels like it could be replaced with just fantasy and make more sense the show can be Dark but the comedy and fan service keep me from saying it's a true Dark fantasy This show is for you if you like: If you like metal, If you like lewdness, If you like violence, If you like old school DnD.

A major selling point of this anime is the abundance of rippling abs and the flocks of women breasting boobily about. But sexy anime characters don't appeal to me, so I was only sticking around for the schlock. And there's plenty of schlock here. It's got that unashamed old school corniness to it. Insanely dumb in an endearing way. The first episode was a joy to watch, the second was fun, and the third was okay. By the eighth, the fun had worn off and I wasn't sure why I was still watching. The production value was... better than this show deserved. Surprisingly pretty animation,lovely use of light and colour. Great music, memorable and distinct character designs. I listened in English and I was happy with the dub. On the down side, the characters were weak and the plot bounced around like a pinball. It was badly written, but self-aware enough to be entertaining. This is probably a show that would have benefitted from a weekly release. It's simple enough to remember across a season, and releasing one episode a week would have kept the silliness from getting stale. Overall I give it a 5/10. Not good, not bad.

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