Shigurui

...it would be called Shigurui Death Frenzy.

This thing is a very atmospheric horror samurai tale. The baroque approach reminds me of Lynch on occasion, and the bloody and nasty violence certainly recall the icky tactile gore of Richard Laymon's books and some of Takashi Miike's best known work.

The narrative is not straight forward and there is a fair amount of ambiguity, so this is not thoughtless action fare. Typically, when things get this violent in anime (nc-17 kind of stuff), the creators have far lower aspirations than did the makers of Shigurui-- this is bold experimentation with the medium and dark/perverse storytelling. (Yoshiaki Kawajiri is involved, the man best known for Ninja Scroll and Highlander and Wicked City, but should be best known for directing the X TV series, which is the most nuanced and beautifully navigated television show of the last decade in any format).

Anyways, Shigurui is structurally diverse, very dark, graphic, engrossing and disturbing (really, there's some unsettling stuff here, not just 'blood fountains'). It compares to Berserk, though is more experimental and darker. Really.

This is a dark and gritty series with none of the fluff that typical anime includes in order to cater to younger viewers. Its strong points are its unique animation, understated score, and pervasive mood. The animation is stylistic and highly detailed. The action and pace are slow and deliberate, so that the animation really focuses on the details of the scene. This type of animation looks like it could be the inspiration behind some of the recent American motion comics, like Iron Man Extremis, which I really enjoyed. The score is also carefully paced and understated, combining with the art to set the perfect mood of darkness and despair.

Sounds pretty good so far right? Well the story and plot are fairly straightforward and simplistic. There's nothing blatantly wrong with them, no cheesy plot-fillers like in the early episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist. It's just that there's nothing that unique about the story (one stoic samurai seeking honor, another ambitious samurai seeking power), and not many surprises or strategies to the plot (of which Death Note was the pinnacle). Additionally, the plot jumps multiple time lines, making it a challenge to keep up with the story.

But despite the slight flaws in the simplistic plot and story lines, the art is definitely worth checking out if you want to see something innovative and have the patience to stick with the deliberate pace of the series.

There's a lot of weirdness in the anime world, and this is one of them. It's a samurai anime, but there's a bunch of muscle flexing like Baki. However, what made the anime so disturbing was the animation and the story.

The anime looked entirely surreal. During the day, everything is dreamy and bright, while at night it was ominous. All of the samurai' faces, except for Fujiki, creeped me out in different ways. One has ginormous eyeballs, one has a wide mouth, one has feminine lips, etc. Then, the slow music added more creepiness to the show.

The main story wasn't that hard to follow, even though some transitions were too abrupt. However, the characters' actions were what greatly disturbed me. Some scenes had me internally screaming and cringing. If you think samurai are cool, then this anime begged to differ.

The biggest bummer about the anime was that it has been 14 years since season 1 ended, so the anime ended on an unfinished cliffhanger.

Overall, a bizarre, gory, violent, yet somehow very good anime. 8/10.

Be prepared, Shigurui: Death Frenzy is not for everyone. It's gruesomely violent, has very few redeemable or likeable characters, it's rapey, shockingly gory and has pretty much zero moments of humour.

I also kind of loved it.

The story takes place in the 1600's in a dojo where the sensei is training samurai in order to choose his eventual successor and the backstabbing, murder and betrayals going on in the background. That's the basic gist of it, i don't want to spoil anything.

Pretty much every character is a psychopath especially the sensei, the fight scenes are so stylish and brutal and the tone and atmosphere so thick with dread and tension that i do not blink when i watch this show.

The violence really is extreme with dismemberment, eyeballs being slashed with swords (and eaten), jaws being detached from faces and characters having teeth stuck in their fists after delivering particularly hard blows to their opponents.

It really isn't for sensitive viewers but if that sounds cool to you then....well it is pretty cool.

I enjoyed the soundtrack too which is mostly traditional Japanese instruments and dark ambient drones which make it feel really intense. It's like watching a horror movie.

I can definitely see some people hating it due to it's slow pace, relentlessly downbeat tone and extreme content (including sexual violence) but i think this is an underrated gem.

When i've seen shigurui 1 episode, i was hooked. If you wont, then don't bother to watch whole thing - its not for you. This anime is really hard to follow, the story is jumping to past and present and in between... So you really have to concentrate on what is going on or even read out in the internet parts you don't get, ...but in the end it's totally worth it. This is one of best experience the anime can give you, and after watching anime 3 times or so and not knowing how this will end, I've read the manga and it's GREAT. And now I can't wait for the next chapter or the season 2 of anime... This anime is not for kids, nor for women, it's for people who admire Japanese culture and samurai.. Here you wont see stupid pop culture junk, like women samurais, or fast hitting katana to katana, as if that is the way of sword fighting. Katana is one-strike blade and that's how it is done here in shigurui. The story is slow but very deep. It's about concentration and will power. It's about overcoming obstacles and defending honor. Truly The best Manga and Anime ever, if you wont "get it" , that would be sad. And I just hate people writing bad reviews about this masterpiece, because they don't get it, because they enjoy watching stupid stupid childish pointless animes suitable only for children. There are only 2 superior animes really worth watching: Shigurui and Death Note. That is it.