Anime Hajime Review: Amatsuki

Series Synopsis

After failing his Japanese history test, Tokidoki "Toki" Rikugo (voiced by Jun Fukuyama) visits a high -tech virtual museum in order to complete his make-up work. This museum is unique because it's able to recreate the Edo period of Japan with the use of virtual reality goggles. However things don't go as expected.

Toki is suddenly attacked by a mythical creature known as a nue; a beast with the head of a monkey, the body of a raccoon, legs of a tiger, and a snake for a tail. He is saved from the creature by a young swordswoman named Kuchiha (voiced by Romi Paku), but not before losing the use of his right eye. To make matters worse, the virtual reality goggles are destroyed and instead of returning to reality, Toki remains stuck in nineteenth century Japan.

Forced to adapt to his new surroundings, Toki finds himself in the middle of an ancient conflict between humans and demons. As it turns out, he is not just an average bystander. It is reviled that he has the power to drastically alter the course of this fight.

Being one of the few humans able to see the demonic world, Toki learns that he possesses the power of the Blank Page; a being whose destiny has not been foretold by heaven. He must now choose whether to use his power to side with humans or with demons. To help him with this task are Kuchiha and his friend Kon Shinonome (voiced by Koji Yusa).

Series Positives

I always say no anime is perfect and even the worst of shows have at least one positive aspect. Amatsuki is no different, but it is closer to the latter. The show had potential to be something really good. Sadly much of it is wasted.

The Characters

Toki

The series does have strong characters. Please note that I'm not saying there's strong character growth, because there isn't. What you're left with though is a surprisingly likeable and very enjoyable cast. Never does anyone come off as annoying or frustrating.

Kuchiha

While not the most memorable group of people, for what it's worth they do stand out amongst all that is wrong with the show.

Kon

Tokidoki does make a good protagonist for what the story wants to do. Lax and easy going, nothing really seems to bother him (if I may contradict myself for a moment, this personality trait of his does get rather annoying at times; more on this later). He's the most neutral character and is always trying to save everyone; whether they are human or demon. One of his most notable aspects is his sensitivity to other character’s emotions. This is able dissolve a lot of unneeded tension that would only add to the slew of problems with the series.

The most interesting character is Kuchiha. When first introduced, she leaves a powerful impression. Undoubtedly the most serious person in the show, Kuchiha is also the most developed in terms of background. She has a symbiotic relationship with an Inugami (dog god) who lives inside of her; making her a social outcast feared by her fellow humans. While displaying a proud and rough demeanor, Kuchiha does succumb to embarrassment and she allows herself to be a tad more feminine whenever around Tokidoki or Kon.

Kon Shinonome is also from modern day Japan. However he has been stuck in the Edo period for a full two years. This is an interesting and important detail because the two guys actually met in the museum the same day Tokidoki was attacked. Although a good student, Kon does have the tendency to get himself into many fights. This has not change during his time in Edo. His relationship with Toki is one of a mentor, and with Kuchiha its very love-hate. Despite being one of Amatsuki’s main characters, Kon is an example of many things in the show not having a point in the overall story; which I will get to in a bit.

Series Negatives

While I do believe that all anime have their good points, never will I say all anime is good; case in point, Amatsuki. I do not like this show. Yes there are some things that it does right, but there is not enough to save it from itself.

The Story/ I Have No Idea What’s Going on Ever

I don’t even know where to start.

 

The story is extremely jumpy. Things happen for no reason, characters just show up, nothing gets resolved, nothing is explained…I…I don’t even.

We know that Tokidoki has failed his Japanese history test and to make up for it he visits the extremely high-tech museum of...I have no idea where. All we know about this place is that it is able to recreate the Edo period of Japan. You know what, that’s really cool. I want to know more about that. But nope, we're not going to learn anything else. So this whole virtual museum is nothing more than a gimmick to get to the main story.

Tokidoki walks around for a bit, he meets up with Kon (who has absolutely no back story whatsoever), and finally he comes to a bridge leading towards Edo Castle. What is waiting on the bridge? Why just a gigantic beast from Japanese lore.

The problem isn't even the beast itself, the problem is that it just shows up. No warning, no notice, just shows up. It would've made sense if the system glitched a little beforehand or if there was some sort of display on Japanese mythology. Even a simple narration in the first five minutes of the show summarizing the hostile relationship between humans and demons would have been sufficient. Instead there is nothing.

This is how we are brought into the story by the way. There is no moment indicating when Toki crosses from reality into the virtual world, which alone could have been a really awesome segment.

Very little time is spent wondering how the two guys ended up this way; not to mention there is no effort in explaining how it's possible for Kon to have arrived two years before despite the two meeting in the modern world mere hours ago.

Earlier I said that Tokidoki’s carefree attitude does get annoying, this is what I mean by that. It’s fine if Tokidoki doesn’t worry about every little thing, but he should be a bit more concerned on how he ended up in a computer program.

But whatever, let’s move.

Okay so now we have to follow this one guy to this his castle; I guess? Why? I don’t know, but I’m sure it will make sense when we get there. Wait where are we now? Who is this new person? What happened to the other guy? This is not who I thought we were about to meet? How is this person involved? How is the first guy involved? What is going on!?

This kind of event happens in cycles. A little bit of story, some confusion, then a little bit of a new story, some more confusion; rinse and repeat three times.

About half way through, things appear to start coming together. Eventually the show introduces how the human-demon structure works. There are three different God like beings and Tokidoki has the ability to unbalance the natural order. Finally this is all starting to sound pretty interesting maybe this series is about to make sens…wait why is there now a fox demon?

This next “arc” makes up the final episodes of the show. Here things really start going in circles and by now dozens of additional questions have been added without answering any of the initial ones. To add to the frustration, plot twists start to be thrown into the mix. Hey what do you know, they’re awful. Like the rest of the story, these curve balls never leave you feeling “oh that’s cool”. Instead it’s more like “oh that’s awkwardly convenient”. Then the show ends.

Amatsuki must have thought it was getting a second season because why else would it leave everything so open ended. Even if a second season were ever to be made there is nothing worth expanding on when there is little to no interest left.

Final Thoughts

I don’t think I have to say it, but I am not a fan of Amatsuki. However it is by no means the worst anime out there and that fact alone is the most important thing to remember about the show. There are worse out there, a lot worse.

But don’t let that misguide you, Amatsuki isn’t a good series. The grand ideas and intentions of the show truly prevent it from being something meaningful. There is just a devastating lack of focus and wasted potential.

I can’t recommend this anime to anyone. Even to the most avid of fans, go ahead and skip of this one.

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