(CR) Hoshi no Samidare (Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer)

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Kanon

This episode will definitely go down in as one of the most badly animated in the history of anime. Even Musashi Gundoh looks good compared to this. How did this happen to Hoshi no Samidare? It would have been better to have no anime than this. At least we could have kept fantasizing about what could have been instead of having to face this harsh reality. Only two more episodes, and I'll pretend it never existed.

Well, as someone who never read the manga, while it wasn't the most ideal adaption I'm glad I got to experience the story and the cast .

It's never confirmed in the story, but Animus' final words leave little doubt that his reincarnation will be... Akitani Ikitani, the Swordfish Knight. Psychic powers... check. Omniscient... check. 500 years of living to make up for his sins... check. When you think back to the message he wanted to pass along to Animus "we are humans, not Gods" and his overall role in the story, it hits different.

Peak irony .

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Frontier

Well, as someone who never read the manga, while it wasn't the most ideal adaption I'm glad I got to experience the story and the cast .

One good thing came out of it then. Do yourself a favor and read the manga someday. The problem isn't only the animation, they cut and changed a lot of content too.

[grecefar]

Originally Posted by Kanon

One good thing came out of it then. Do yourself a favor and read the manga someday. The problem isn't only the animation, they cut and changed a lot of content too.

I hoped it was at least a good adaption and didn't cut that much, it was that bad?

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Kanon

One good thing came out of it then. Do yourself a favor and read the manga someday. The problem isn't only the animation, they cut and changed a lot of content too.

I get that. But I'm glad I've got the voice cast in mind because I think they've done a great job here .

[Xical]

ep. 23

All I can say is that the VAs are on point, and even will all the problems this series have, it manage to deliver when no action scenes are involved.

[Frontier]

It's everybody versus Yuuhi! Well, everybody who can still fight, which is pretty much just Nagomu, Yayoi, and even Hanako who bravely pushes herself despite not having a power upgrade like the rest !

I can understand Mikazuki kicking himself for not getting his final fight with Yuuhi when it would be the most awesome fight ever...meanwhile Taiyo is just chilling out and dreaming of Hawaii. But he also gets carried by Yuki, so that's nice for him .

Poor Yayoi...first Yuuhi wraps her up in her own skirt so she's flashing her pure white panties in front of everybody, and then Yuuhi basically rejects her for Samidare (not that I'm surprised, but a bit of a bummer for her). I don't blame her for basically losing it and unleashing a powerful blow. I did appreciate the view though .

Oh, I guess he also uknowingly rejected Anima too, because all those longing looks and blushes towards him weren't just for show, she admits she did fall in love with him. Glad to at least have had that confirmed after all the hints .

Nobody can stop Yuuhi...which is fine, because Yuuhi will be the one to stop Sami, because he's the only one left who can. Just piling on the twists to this final battle, but I think on some level we all knew Yuuhi would pull through .

Even Samidare excepted it on some level, having fallen deeper in love with Yuuhi over this past year and that everything she fell in love with him for is on fully display as he stands up to her to stop her from destroying the Earth...but even as much as she appreciates that even while fighting him, and she loves everyone else and all the time they spent together, she still can't stop herself knowing that they'll all move past her with what little life she has left to live .

Yuuhi and Neu have the combined wills of everyone behind them! And Neu even manages to upgrade into Invincible! The Black Dragon Knight is an awesome name for a hero, no ?

The Beast Knights find out about Samidare's condition, and that her time with them just made her existence even more difficult, but that's enough to inspire them to stop Sami even more, knowing that what she was going through and wanting to really be there for her. They all want to spend more time with each other and get to know each other better as friends after everything they've gone through together .

Just when it seems like Yuuhi has lost and can't reach Samidare...in comes the rest of the Beast Knights pushing him towards her so he can finally reach Sami and tell her that he loves her enough to take the place of the Earth so she doesn't need to sacrifice it. And it actually works, because Samidare does love Yuuhi more than she loves the Earth, and that's enough for her to finally stop. Now we've got the two declaring their love for each other and falling to Earth together! And is that a kiss we just witnessed ?

[Kanon]

This was a really great climax. It was nice to get Samidare's POV on everything that happened in the series. Her situation was really tragic because when Anima asked her for a wish, she didn't ask to be cured because she didn't particularly want to live and wished to be reunited with Yuuhi instead. But because she used up her wish for that, she discovered the joy of living and became afraid to die.

But since her power is now greater than Anima's, can't she cure herself?
Not really sure how that works.

[Frontier]

Sami is a little embarrassed around everyone after, y'know, almost destroying the world...but everyone's just happy to see her back and safe! And Samidare can now cry happy tears !

Anima feels on some level guilty for roping the Knights into this, but they feel nothing but gratitude towards her, which is sweet .

But now it's also time for Anima and the other Beast Squires (even the ones who went on with their fallen Knights already) to leave, taking the Knights' powers with them, and return everything to normal, even if the experiences the cast had together will be etched into their memory. Hopefully once Anima finds the Ring of Reincarnation she can find a new life where she can be happy and truly get to live .

Very effective use of bringing back the first Opening as we get Anima saying her farewell to Samidare and telling her to trust that the future can be changed as we see the rest of the Knights bid tearful farewells to their partners...all the while Yuuhi and Mikazuki have their final fight as the Knights watch on. To the point where it goes on long enough that most of them are falling asleep and want to go home .

Neu's farewell to Yuuhi hit hard, having seen their relationship from the beginning and how far these two have come together, and knowing just how important they are to each other. It was sad to see them part, even if their last words to each other meant so much .

We even got Mu to speak! And she's a woman! And quite a nice voice at that .

I love how Mikazuki actually beat the main character because he feinted him by saying he'd punch when he really kicked. That's so Mikazuki .

Samidare and Yuuhi have finally graduated to handholding and proper first name basis! How sweet !

10 years later! And now future Yuuhi has to arrive at his spot during Yuuhi's trek through Blues, and gets to reunite with Anima and give her an update on how the cast are doing, which was nice .

So Hangetsu and Hisame were Anima and Animus' ancestor? I guess the future really has changed with Hangetsu's death, but at least we can think that in one timeline they two really did end up together and became a family .

Despite Anima's power and aura, deep down she was just a girl who made up a bunch of Beast Knights out of animals she saw on the moon with her brother and who still gets flustered seeing the guy she loves as a fully-fledged adult...and who cared about the girl she bonded with and those who joined her cause .

So Yuuhi became a detective like his dad and serves under Nagomu's old partner, and Nagomu is now a detective consultant with Subaru working under him, while Mikazuki has turned into a vigilante wearing his brothers hairstyle and maybe sort of has something going on with Subaru. You go girl !

Meanwhile Hanako is running her own restaurant (living up to Tarou's dream), Taiyou works there while attending college and has become a positively upbeat and energetic young man, and is also dating Yuki (another ship sails!), while Shimaki is a college professor married to...none other than Yayoi! Man, as random as that pairing was (even Anima felt so), I'm glad Yayoi was able to move on and Matsuoka proves he's got it even when he's not playing the MC .

But obviously Anima wants to know what happened to Sami (whom she notices Yuuhi calls without the honorific, finally) who after years of operations and medical treatment with her family was FINALLY able to overcome her illness and become an adult with the same energy and vigor of her teen years, and Yuuhi is still more than ready to serve her as always .

Can't think of a better ending than the Knights reuniting at the beach with plushies of Anima and their animal companions as Yuuhi and Samidare hold each others' hands once more as we close things out! Pretty great and conclusive ending, all things considered !

[Kanon]

As horrible as this adaptation was, the final episode still made me pretty emotional. Just goes to how good the original story is, and I have to give props to the seiyuus for bringing the characters to life. I was particularly impressed with Tsuda as Neu, who for once went completely outside of his comfort zone and killed it.

Adult Samidare looks pretty damn good. Second best looking girl of the entire cast. Would have definitely been a loss for the world if she had died in her childhood, especially since she's going to win Gold in every sports at the Olympics

I was disappointed with Anima's reaction to Shimaki and Yayoi being married. It was hilarious in the manga.

Well, I did it. I survived the Hoshi no Samidare adaptation!

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Kanon

As horrible as this adaptation was, the final episode still made me pretty emotional. Just goes to how good the original story is, and I have to give props to the seiyuus for bringing the characters to life. I was particularly impressed with Tsuda as Neu, who for once went completely outside of his comfort zone and killed it.

Adult Samidare looks pretty damn good. Second best looking girl of the entire cast. Would have definitely been a loss for the world if she had died in her childhood, especially since she's going to win Gold in every sports at the Olympics

I was disappointed with Anima's reaction to Shimaki and Yayoi being married. It was hilarious in the manga.

Well, I did it. I survived the Hoshi no Samidare adaptation!

All the girls looked great as adults .

I haven't seen an adaption carried so hard by the story and characters in a while .

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Frontier

I haven't seen an adaption carried so hard by the story and characters in a while .

It's not like the animation could carry anything

I'm thinking having an AI drawn the entire series using the manga as reference would have given us a way better result.

[serenade_beta]

Spoiler for final thoughts:

You know, there are a lot of anime out there with bad animation, but there are very few anime out there where just everything is low quality. The audio is so bad, that you could almost think that they were using newbies for VAs, but most have done plenty of stuff before, so the fact they sound so bad in this anime only makes it just so much clearer who is the problem here.

Anyways, I'm not going to go over the specific problems with the anime. Anyone that has watched it knows how bad it is. It isn't hard to tell.

We already have a limited supply of well-established stories. The anime industry really needs to treasure them more.
And not just nut over one specific anime they go all out to advertise.

Just a shame
1/10

[grecefar]

I did enjoyed the story but yeah...

6/10.

[Alchemist007]

I'll lean a bit on the story because clearly the budget was lacking and no point in droning about that any more.
Glad to see things worked out, unfortunate for Animus' ancestors but probably better for the future, such is the strangeness of the butterfly effect.

6/10

[Wandering Soul]

I hope Sprit Circle gets treated better if it ever gets adapted.

[Frontier]

Apparently part of the reason for the production issues is that a certain famous animator came onboard and wanted to do anime original content (like Yuuhi being an assassin and his mom a serial killer) until Mizukami stepped in, and the production collapsed two times with their involvement and departure.

[Kanon]

So we could have had a well animated series that butchered the original manga's story. I think I'm happier with what we got.

What was that guy even smoking? Yuuhi as an assassin with a serial killer mom? Like, how do you read this manga and think "that would be a great change"?

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Kanon

So we could have had a well animated series that butchered the original manga's story. I think I'm happier with what we got.

What was that guy even smoking? Yuuhi as an assassin with a serial killer mom? Like, how do you read this manga and think "that would be a great change"?

I can't think of any production that veered that far off from the original, at least that the author didn't approve of, in recent memory.

[Om Nerabdator]

my favourite manga, how badly they killed it, couldnt even watch it after 3 eps why was the animation so damn bad, they did the mc character dirty too they skipped how bad his character was at the start when he was about to kill that girl that saw them fight