The manga speaks for itself at this point. It´s too long, too meandering at times, too fetishistic, etc. but it´s also one of the best chanbara manga of all time. Go and read it now. The new sequel is equally worth your time. The manga already had 2 solid adaptations through the 1 cour anime from the 00s and Takashi Miike´s live-action film. This one has trouble written all over it though due to the involvement of LIDENFILMS. Their last "full adaptation" of a long-running classic Seinen lead to the last gasps of the Berserk Saga Project, aside from the fact that the studio still has to produce even one actually good show. Terra Formars and Arslan Senki equally collapsed despite drowning in material to adapt... sigh. On to my review of ep. 1-3:
The 2008 anime from Bee Train of all people is now officially the best out of the 3 adaptations. Wow, just wow. Ep. 1 of the reboot corresponds to ep. 1-3, ep. 2 mercifully settled on only ep. 4-5 and ep. 3 corresponds to ep. 8-9. You read that right, the reboot already skipped a storyline. Most scenes with the main villain Anotsu are further cut or abbreviated and the backstories of the leads and Makie are rushed like crazy. The eclectic direction and the meager animation budget aren´t helping either. You could argue that last anime changed things around but Liden Films still rushed through 200 pages in 2 eps. and then though another 200 in ep. 3, while skipping 120 pages in-between. Argh. I may stick around as i want to see some of the later stuff come to life but a world of hurt is upon us if I consider that this was their best foot forward. Let´s see if they are mad enough to stuff 30 volumes into 24 eps. All signs point to yes... You've done it again Liden Films! Another classic wasted. Don´t watch this anime if you haven´t read the manga, as its 100% impossible to follow otherwise. 5/10 with room to drop further.
Update: I decided to suffer till the end. They it really condensed the whole 6000 page manga into 24 eps. The original´s quality somewhat shines though here and there but barely. The 2nd half especially is utterly incoherent and barley animated for long stretches. Don´t waste your time but nobody was tricked by this shallow and cheap mess anyway. Epic fail. 4/10.
The 2008 anime from Bee Train of all people is now officially the best out of the 3 adaptations. Wow, just wow. Ep. 1 of the reboot corresponds to ep. 1-3, ep. 2 mercifully settled on only ep. 4-5 and ep. 3 corresponds to ep. 8-9. You read that right, the reboot already skipped a storyline. Most scenes with the main villain Anotsu are further cut or abbreviated and the backstories of the leads and Makie are rushed like crazy. The eclectic direction and the meager animation budget aren´t helping either. You could argue that last anime changed things around but Liden Films still rushed through 200 pages in 2 eps. and then though another 200 in ep. 3, while skipping 120 pages in-between. Argh. I may stick around as i want to see some of the later stuff come to life but a world of hurt is upon us if I consider that this was their best foot forward. Let´s see if they are mad enough to stuff 30 volumes into 24 eps. All signs point to yes... You've done it again Liden Films! Another classic wasted. Don´t watch this anime if you haven´t read the manga, as its 100% impossible to follow otherwise. 5/10 with room to drop further.
Update: I decided to suffer till the end. They it really condensed the whole 6000 page manga into 24 eps. The original´s quality somewhat shines though here and there but barely. The 2nd half especially is utterly incoherent and barley animated for long stretches. Don´t waste your time but nobody was tricked by this shallow and cheap mess anyway. Epic fail. 4/10.