DRIFTERS

DESCRIPTION

CAST

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OVA ActionDrifters (OVA)
MANGA ActionDrifters
OVA ActionDRIFTERS OVA
OVA ActionDRIFTERS: Special edition
SPECIAL ActionHELLSING: THE DAWN

REVIEWS

• 

  Pandoras

  89/100
  Epic as fuck bois?, i mean this shit is "Telita"

  Before starting this review, I would like to note that almost every character of Drifters is a historical figure, so I would highly recommend you to Google it (search Drifters characters in a real life historical figure Ej- Shogun Tokugawa.)Anyways lets start.

  Story : Toyohisa of the Shimazu clan is in the heat of the battle of Sekigahara in 1600 (prepare your anus).which signaled the start of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan; the only thing he thinks about is how to behead the enemy commander and he is ready to achieve this goal by all means. Having fatally injured the enemy commander, Toyohisa is also about to die. Suddenly he finds himself in a white corridor, facing a man that man is wearing in office clothes hes sitting at a desk a few moments later he is sent to a new land, where some historical figures in this world there's only 2 instances (Drifters and Villians) where they fight some actually strong villains, but even then there's no tension because you know they're gonna win for sure and i don't really care enough about the characters to give a damn about those fights. Now Shortly after that he finds out that he, as well as his new companions, are Drifters. Why were Drifters sent to this world? Find out the answer now!.

  Art and Music: The art and music are close similar to Hellsing, so if you have already seen Hellsing you will recognize it immediately and will not have any problems with it. If you have not seen Hellsing Ultimate yet, it will not be a problem, either. The art style is amazing, every single detail of all characters is just beautiful. And, yes, that Japanese themed Alucard is just badass. The music, however, did not leave a huge impression on me. Of course, the voice actors did one hell of a job, but I was hoping to see something close to what was in Hellsing Ultimate. Anyway, the music used in Drifters is a mix of traditional Japanese music, jazzy beats, and rock.

  Characters: Thank God they all look great, because they are way more of a mixed bag when it comes to their characterization. The main character, Toyohisa, is a cool intense badass samurai, but he is sort of boring in the way that Superman is boring because he is pretty much invulnerable. Of the other two mains Nobunaga is actually pretty great and my favorite character on the show; he is a great blend of funny critique of Nobunaga Oda as historical figure and wacky anime guy in crazy anime world. He is clearly having a great time, which makes him fun to watch. Yoichi, the other (semi)prominent lead, is kind of just an archer who kills things with archery. Cool but vanilla. Speaking about villain some of the villains are also pretty interesting in the context of the historical figures they represented. At one point I was like "yeah I guess Joan of Arc might be a little pissed about getting lit on fire." That was an entertaining tangent. The identity of the main villain will probably piss some people off a whole bunch, but I though it was a pretty neat examination of a controversial historical figure
  Overall:
  All in all, this show feels OLD. The jokes feel old, the story is about olden times, the main cast is markedly older than the majority of anime casts, and the target audience appears to be people who like Tolkien but also really enjoy reading world history textbooks in their spare time (which is, I guess, kinda me). If you catch all the references to history, you might think its pretty funny at times.

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• 

  CodeBlazeFate

  54/100
  This show is a tonal mess that's hard to care about on any level that isn't related to primal, epic bloodbaths.

  "FATALITY!" -Every Mortal Kombat game since 1992.

  SPOILERS FOR DRIFTERS

  War is hell. We know this to be true by now. This also applies to the fact about there being a lot of "sent to another world" anime adaptations. You really need to do something really unique to stand out if you're one of these shows, and while I'd like to say that SAO and Re:Zero conditioned me to think otherwise, its obvious that their additions to the concept alone (bloodthirsty video game world and reset after death respectively) were what made them stand out, even if the actual concept, for most part does the exact opposite. With this show, they decided to make it have a full-fledged war, with loads of carnage peppered throughout. The concept is very interesting, especially since the war consists of famous people from many different eras of different countries. It's sort of like the Fate/ series, except that this time, all of the combatants were based on real people instead of sprinkling mythological people into the mix. So, was this a true breath of fresh air for the genre? Did it manage to do that while being a genuinely great war story? Well, let's find out, shall we?

  So, there is some kind of conflict between Easy and Murasaki (which doesn't get explained or fleshed out) that caused them to start sending people to this unidentified new world in which there are two main factions at war: Drifters (deceased war heroes), and Ends (once noble beings who have gone bad for their own reasons tying into their demise, but not all of them have their backstory shown to us). There are also humans who enslave two kinds of demi-humans: elves, and dwarves. Drifters are fighting to bring down the human governments of this world via conquest, and destroy the Ends, while the Ends are fighting to destroy the world and all inhabitants (despite the fact that their leader just wants the demi-humans to be the main inhabitants). So, what the hell happened here?

  Ultimately, the first few episodes were rough. Not only were there some minor plot holes, but there is one gigantic issue that really damages this series: the tone shifts. You can have a moment in which villagers all horrifyingly stab a man to death in brutal fashion, and then seconds later, they show cracks a random joke. They do this so often, and sometimes, in the most inopportune of times, ruining some of the darker and heavier moments of the show. Sure, this means that, inevitably, a few of these end up being funny, but, for most part, they end up harming more than helping.

  The series does pick up, but a few new issues really hamper this show. Every time one of the Ends is about to die or be defeated, we suddenly get their backstory in order to make the story sad, and that just doesn't work. In order for that to work, we need the characters to be more than just one-dimensional baddies before-hand, and they pull this stunt three times! Also, the finale just...ends, without any major resolution. Just, a battle ends, and here is one image of where each Drifter is at the moment, in an obvious, and quite frankly, rushed sequel-hook, particularly because some of the characters, like Scipio and Butch Cassidy, have been left by the wayside, especially Scipio with the fact that he has been left in the jungle but suddenly he's in a navy ship with a character that has only been seen for one brief moment. Hell, there are other moments that required some time to explain, like how the Drifters suddenly got human armor when their last battle (which was two episodes prior) didn't have nearly as many people killed to remotely equal the amount of armor and weapons present. Shame too, since if this concept was explored more and the story were tightened up, this would've definitely been a good first season to what looks to be an otherworldly war epic.

  It's really hard to tolerate these "Drifters" early on. I mean, they were all a bunch of quarreling assholes without anything interesting about their character, and by the end of it, some of the more minor additions (like Hannibal and Scipio) were still like that. Luckily, our main trio grew. Toyo is a crazed warrior who loves decapitating enemy warriors, as long as they are male. His culture and all Japanese war cultures at the time do not like the thought of women engaged in combat. He ends up also being a bot more chivalrous towards females and children than his cohorts while understanding people more than he probably should (reminding me a lot of Ragna the Bloodedge, from the Blazblue game series) and I'll touch on that in a bit. Nobunaga is a much more brutal tactician as well as being a hardier individual than his allies. His violent streak, as a result of his culture and his multiple times being betrayed, makes for some of the best usages of military tactics I've seen in a war anime in quite some time. Yoichi ends up being more in between when it comes to his companions' traits, but with more of a tragic war past, which is shallowly explored via his commander, who ends up chatting with him once, and that's it. He's probably the least interesting of the trio, but at least, he ends up being the crux of some of the better comedy moments of the first 3 episodes.

  Butch Cassidy and the other Drifters are infinitely less interesting, but he is easily the most tolerable of them (along with The Sundance Kid for how little he shows up), with him actually doing some cool stuff. Sure, Naoshi takes down some dragons in a WWII plane, but he's just there to provide some refreshing amounts of swearing, which ends up becoming excessive. There is also Count Saint-Germi (the son of Hitler) with his coup d'etat scheme, and his annoying posse (Alester and Flemi), but they are mostly there to be annoying and provide bad comedy until the count himself starts that plan with the Drifters to overthrow the human government.

  The Octobrists are overall very uninteresting, except for Olmine, who is constantly made fun of for her voluptuous breasts, but has some genuinely great interactions with Toyo, as he shows her some good chivalry and allows her to use her spells to great effect in the latter half of the series. She is literally the only remotely interesting Octobrist. As for the Ends, with exception of The Black King, all of them are as plain as they come (with the slight exception of Anastasia, who is barely in this show). Then, they (except for Anestasia and Rasputin) get their backstories to explain why they are so evil and a bit about how that ties in with their powers (Only Joan of Arc does. Gilles de Rais and Hijikata doesn't get anything relating to his powers, and nobody gets their power origins outright explained) in a poor attempt at making these lame characters come off as tragic, which is really horrible given their real-life counterparts.

  The Black King is an interesting figure, wanting better civilization for the demi-humans, and being able to create food as well as grow cells (to regenerate, but also to harm, as shown with the Bronze Dragon in episode 10), but even with his somewhat interesting motivations and enigmatic figure, he can't really make up for how bland his subordinates are. Easy is the one who sends the bad guys in, is moody, and that's about it aside from having a cutesy and girly room to herself. Murasaki is even more bland, though. Overall, despite a few characters that grew to be legitimately interesting and compelling, the cast is stupidly bland at best, and irritating at worst.

  Hoods Drifters Studio (not to get confused with Hoods Entertainment, though they may or may not be affiliated) is brand new to this game, and they did a really good job with their first series, which is, of course, this. As if to make up for the writing quality, the action is refreshingly brutal, with loads of decapitation and blood, and no censorship anywhere. It's pretty fun seeing how much of a chaotic gore-fest the action scenes are, and they detail some of the bullet moments and impacts very well. The character models, while looking similar to Kouta Hirano's most popular work, Hellsing Ultimate, they also feel realistic and sorta unique. The only problem I have isn't with the art-stye change during most of the comedy moments, but rather with the usage of CGI for the dragons and some of the soldiers. They try to cover it up and make it work with everything, but it doesn't really help much, as it looks awkward. Luckily, that problem is barely present in the second half. Some moments in the earlier episodes are a bit off though. Still, I really hope to see this studio grow since they did such an impressive job with their first project.

  I don't have such high praises for the music, sadly. Gospel of the Throttle (by Minutes 'Til Midnight), the OP of the series, doesn't fit the show as well as I wish. On its own, it's a slick piece, but I don't feel it works here. Luckily, the ED, Vermillion (by Maon Kurosaki) is a very good song, with a more epic and buildup heavy feel to it that really fits with how gruesome and heavy the show can be. The rest of the OST isn't memorable or worthwhile at all, save for one ok piece. The dub is pretty alright. No major hiccups here, but nothing spectacular in terms of performances. It's a relatively solid dub so far.

  Honestly, despite how cool and refreshing the action scenes were, this show kinda left me feeling bored and annoyed every now and then, especially in the first half. I admit, the action is fun, and some moments were definitely bleak, the horrible tone-shifts really leave me dazed and confused, and completely taken out of the experience, which is horrible given that one of these moments take place immediately after the darkest moment of the show! If not for the cool action, this wouldn't have engaged me at all, especially since the first 3 episodes left me with the feeling of darkness-induced apathy. I nearly dropped it during those first 3 episodes and even then, outside of fight scenes, this show is still very boring at times. Plus, not a lot of the gags make me laugh, but at least some of them do.

  Unfortunately, while this is a very gruesome action show and some of the gags get a laugh here and there, this show is a tonal mess that's hard to care about on any level that isn't related to primal, epic bloodbaths. At the very least, I hope that this series ends up bringing some notoriety for Hoods Drifters Studio. Still, this show is a bit of a disappointment. With all that said, I bid you adieu.

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• 

  KaylAguas

  83/100
  One of the best Isekais I've ever seen

  Review will be broken down like so :

  Story
  Art
  Animation
  Characters
  Sound
  Overall Enjoyment

  #__Story 8/10__

  Not a surprise to think that Drifter’s is your standard, world domination story line with cool characters to try and save the world. It’s more character driven rather than an overarching plot with a hyper-detailed world.

  The world is set in a fantastical universe, like most isekai, where there are multiple different sentient species in the form of elves, dwarves, and hobbits (though they do not make an appearance). Drifters are people from the real world in the brink of death and are transported to this world. They are sent there by, what seems to be a deity, Murasaki to combat the “Ends”. Similar to Drifters they are people brought into this planet, however their primary mission is to destroy this planet. Like I mentioned before, a relatively simple premise with interesting characters.

  What I feel like is the theme of the show is how humanity doesn’t really change despite which time period they may be from. The bare bones of humanity’s societal hierarchy, ideologies and morals are consistent throughout its history. The difference only being in the advancement of technology. In a way the anime showcases humanity’s lack of maturity throughout its history. Sure we may have been improving but throughout humanity’s recorded history, the most common occurrence is war. War never changes. We have only attained peace in the last 60 or so years. You have multiple drifters coming from different eras and one thing they always have in common is absolute destruction to wars. What really puts the nail in the coffin is the fact that all the drifters are real people we’ve seen in the past. And you know what they say, history always finds a way to repeat itself.

  An issue some may face during the entirety of Drifters is that most characters are based on real historical figures. So having some historical knowledge on the characters will add to the overall experience, although it isn’t necessary. For some it may feel jarring, especially during moments of banter between characters. But the banter is still funny nonetheless.

  #__Art 8.5/10__

  I really like the art style for this anime, it feels fresh. It’s my first Hoods Entertainment anime but it looks unique in comparison to the standard anime look. This is because of the way the characters and anime are shaded. The shading in Drifters is absolutely top notch, especially at night, when illuminating objects light up particular parts of the characters, it just looks so satisfying and so well lit.

  Character Design, absolutely love it. The 3 protagonists all have clothes that look like feudal Japan, however, it looks modernized. Take Toyohisa Shimazu :

  

  If you look at his clothing, it’s very reminiscent of Feudal Japan with the vambraces, shin-guards and kusazuri (the waist armor). But it looks modernized, because it looks nothing like what Samurai’s wear, the kusazuri most especially, it's shorter and only has 2 sides to it while traditionally it has 4. Shimazu’s armor just reek of cool.

  

  You can see this modernized look in Nobunaga and Yoichi as well. I really really like the design of these characters. For some they may think it’s not accurate, but it’s isekai and it definitely does not break your suspension of disbelief. I think it gives drifters a unique aesthetic in regards to old-time Japan. Plus its isekai.

  My only issue is the setting, I knew the inspirations for certain elements of the city. However, I felt that the castle's design looked too textbook. It didn’t feel unique and kinda reminded me of other stories and media . Not a bad thing but it just looked like I've seen it before.

  #__Animation 8/10__

  Animation, no real issue but nothing too ground breaking. It definitely captures the speed, power of Toyohisa in all the fight scenes he’s in. But nothing I haven't seen before. Funnily the animation of the OP is what really draws my eye.

  

  I love the sketchy look, it brings out this raw animalistic feel in the action sequence it’s in. It’s so fitting because of how messy and dirty battles can be. The ED brings the same concept of having a specific art style playout in the ED. It’s reminiscent of Japanese watercolor painting.

  

  While the song itself was forgettable in my opinion, the beautiful animation in this ED really speaks for itself. Some really good examples of animation:

  

  What grinds my gears is the fact that they can do beautiful action sequences but they really love the protagonsist-pulls-out-his/her-katanna-and-cuts-to-protagonist-past-his-enemy-sheathing-his-katanna-back-and-exploding-in-blood this trope is so over-used i cringe seeing it. Yes it looks cool but is a cop-out because there’s a million ways to do that and still have it look epic.

  All in all animation is a solid 8/10 nothing i would give 9 or 10 for. Does it’s job and is well executed.

  #__Characters 8.5/10__

  To put it simply, I love the 3 main characters, Toyohisa Shimazu, Oda Nobunaga and Yoichi Nasu no Suketaka. I just love the dynamic between these 3 characters. They’re this weird twisted family consisting of 2 Samurais and a Daimyo. The 3 of them absolutely reek of feudalism and it's so weirdly wholesome. As you watch and learn more about them through the series, you see that they are not inherently good guys but warriors that follow their code. Take Oda Nobunga, he’s a man who commits to things that mostly benefit him. He just wants control over the state alongside Toyohisa, as his advisor; a puppet master. However, Toyohisa is a man who does not care for politics, he’s there to be a warrior and do what is right in his own eyes. Nobunaga then learns from Toyohisa’s mentality as a warrior and understands why he got betrayed in his previous life. He can manipulate people’s minds but not their hearts. You see this father-son relationship between Toyohisa and Oda. We’ve seen so many different iterations of Oda Nobunaga, I appreciate how they continue his character development based directly from the books (albeit there are some artistic liberties).

  Toyohisa Shimazu, put it bluntly, he’s as straightforward as it gets. He does things, his way and lives by a strict warriors code. For some they may find him boring, because he's quite strong, he’s straight to the point and his character does not really change by the end of the show. However, the way he deals with situations and applying his warrior’s code to situations make him an endearing and interesting character. Instead of seeing him change as things progress, we see him affect change in his surroundings. To me, that is also an engaging way for audiences to learn more about him as a person. I think he’s a solid protagonist.

  Yoichi is the least developed character within the trio. He’s kind of a wild card, and feels like he’s mostly used for comedic effect. However, we do learn certain things about his past relationships but really that’s the furthest they went. Like Toyohisa, he doesn’t change as a person, rather he changes the surroundings around him. But my main issue with this, is the fact that he really doesn’t cause a lot of meaningful change besides teaching the elves how to shoot a bow. Even so, he’s not a bad character by any means, he’s the funniest out of the trio and for an effeminate character, he totally breaks the norm by not being stereotypically and cool with relation to his looks. He’s a generally funny character in the show. Genji Banzai!!

  For the antagonists of this show, I felt they really lacked depth. Maybe the characters will be developed further in the next season but for the purposes of this review, they were severely underdeveloped. The interesting villains in this show only appear in the latter half of the anime. We also don’t know anything about them but they did bring me curiosity as to who they were. The leader of this band of antagonists, wasn’t too interesting; he's the run of the mill over-achieving world conquering villain with a likely sob story. Though like i mentioned earlier, i am still invested in what he’s going to turn out like and appreciate what he brings to the table

  #__Sound/Voice Acting 8.5/10__

  Naoya Uchida and Yuuichi Nakamura are definitely strong and talented voice actors. I think they are the highlights when it comes to good voice acting in this anime. In my opinion, Naoya Uchida is the definite Oda Nobunaga. Everytime i hear Nobunaga I hear Naoya Uchida’s voice.

  The OP, The Gospel of theThrottle Remix, specifically the AMV is absolutely well done. It really matches the mood and setting of the show. The ED however was quite forgettable for me except for the cool visuals I mentioned earlier. It definitely suits the show but it didn’t really interest me.

  One thing that really enhanced my immersion was the OST. It was a beautiful mix of epic, classical and fantastical soundtracks. Each distinct soundtrack added depth to the scene that was playing. For example Saint-Germi, in most scenes with him or his compatriots you would hear classical music playing, accentuating that he’s from a classical period. You would have traditional Japanese music when the trio were fooling around. There was a very adventurous/fantastic track playing when the bird riders bombed ships. I just love how these different themes bring out different emotions to the show. It was well done and I thoroughly enjoyed them.

  #__Overall Thoughts 8.5/10 and Miscellaneous Things__

  I have a weak stomach for things like rape. I don’t like it, it really affects me emotionally. It wasn’t explicit but i just hate the idea of it. Though, I did get a kick when those guys were killed. The show is pretty straightforward with simple underlying messages coupled with a great OP and a an alright ED it was an overall quite an enjoyable experience.

  __Story: 8/10__ __Art: 8.5/10__ __Animation:8/10__ __Characters: 8.5/10__ __Soundtrack: 8.5/10__ __Overall Enjoyment: 8/10 __
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