I don’t remember Nobunaga being there… or a giant wok for that matter.

Impressions:

Worlds better than season 2, but still missed that same fun of season 1. Why it seems obsessed with trying to be emotional or meaningful while also having Ieyasu giving speeches with a backdrop of a giant radish is beyond me. It should be taking its corniness and running with it. Ieyasu traveling the world giving hippy speeches and Mitsunari PMSing like he has a third ovary just make my brain ache. Of course, then Mitsuhide Tenkai arranged some master plan to let Oichi’s undead powers run amok at Sekigahara during a solar eclipse and this somehow brought Nobunaga back from the dead… with a Stand! And yet, despite having an otherworldly persona hovering above him, his shotgun remained his most powerful attack. Curious that. Everybody of course then teamed up to fight the true evil. Oh well, Nobunaga’s certainly a better antagonist than Mitsunari.

Production IG did actually put some effort into the production this time around at least, unlike the second season. Nobunaga of all people ended up being the biggest disappointment, just shooting some guns and then going down to everybody shooting their beams at the same time. Well, he got back up, but then had his throat cut after doing nothing more than shooting a few more times. Then he was hugged to death. Sigh. Oichi also killed Mitsuhide particularly gruesomely by cutting him in half, which didn’t stop him from screaming for a good twenty or so seconds after that.

Overall, despite the fairly weak ending (and I don’t mean the dance) and Nobunaga really not actually doing anything of interest after being revived, it wasn’t bad. If you liked the first season of Basara, I think you’ll like this. It was definitely worlds better than the second season and Masamune yelled all sorts of interesting things. I think my favorite was "It’s One-Eye Dragon!" which I think he also yells before sex. It still tended to bask in the hamhanded drama far more than it has any right to though, so prepare for maudlin 15-20 minute segments where nothing important or interesting happens and it doesn’t happen very slowly. I miss Sasuke and Kasuga. Hell, I miss Yukimura and Shingen punching each other. Go back to being fun, Basara. Give up trying to make me feel things. Better series than you have tried and failed.

And the award for the most randomly shoehorned in characters go to Motonari and Motochika. The former just showed up at the ambush because it was a meeting of antagonists, so of course he had to be there. Then Motochika showed up too on his landboat. They then disappeared again for the entire Nobunaga bit. Way to be a part of events, guys.

I’ll make a real post on the movie either late tonight or tomorrow after I have the chance to actually sit down and watch it instead of just flipping through and looking at the pretty colors while waiting for Horizon to pop. You have to wonder though… at some point, someone at IG thought to themselves that 5 minutes of CG feudal soldiers dancing like pop idols was a good idea. Actually… after Blood-C and Guilty Crown, it may be the best idea they’ve had in months. 

Who wants to see fighting when you can not?

Impressions:

Atrocious end made worse by fabricating a new character out of thin air for Kenshin to fight. Because Kenshin has been a central part of this show so much that he deserves to have the spotlight. Mouri hit Yukimura once, then Yukimura’s fighting spirit let him one shot him. Kojuro hit Hanbei once, and then Hanbei tossed himself off a cliff. Masamune hit Hideyoshi once, and then Hideyoshi simply fell over and died. Meanwhile, the ever-useful Maeda spent the entire episode on his back until the epilogue. So… remind me again… what was the point of him being in the show? Kenshin had more screentime in the big finale than him. Hell, Hondam had about the same screentime.

Even with the crappy focus, they could have salvaged it if they had at least made the fights interesting. Admittedly, it was better animated than most of this season, but still garbage compared to the first season. The best constructed fight of this episode was Kojuro beating up some grunts. Seriously. Masamune suffered the most. After cutting away at the start of his fight, they cut back to him already basically defeated. One more cut back to him being smacked again after staggering to his feet, and then just some yelling before the fight was over. And that’s the end of that. Hondam and newbie got even less. They leap into battle with major characters, and then are just gone until the epilogue. Finish your fight scenes? Nah. Nobody wants to see action when they can see Maeda run around with his monkey.

They did announce a movie at the end of the episode. I can’t say that I’m looking forward to it despite the promise of more Nobunaga in the franchise’s future, but eh… I think it’ll be a better format for the show instead of wasting literally two hours on nothing happening at all.

Final thoughts at the bottom.

Final Thoughts:

A tremendously disappointing show compared to the first season and not even a particularly good action show in its own right. The main two issues were that it took forever to do anything and the antagonists were little more than cardboard placeholders who we were supposed to think were strong and evil because characters said that they were strong and evil. The first season had its characterization and pacing issues as well, but easily had at least two or three times the number of fight scenes which helped it feel much more exciting and intense. It was more cartoonish and fun, instead of being mired in Yukimura, Kojuro, and Maeda feeling sorry for themselves.

The first season solved this problems by having constant action every two or three episodes with real consequences. Here, though, the action in this action show is mostly poor, infrequent, and had no dramatic impact whatsoever. Freaking Motochika had the most impressive fights of the show, and he only appeared for about 2 seconds in the big climax. Furthermore, after a brutal beating, possibly death, characters were back on their feet and roaming around literally the next episode. I don’t even want to talk about having metal blades simply bounce off of skin. The show spends so much time posturing about fighting and trying to build up drama over it, but then nothing of import ever comes of it. I’d make a sexual reference here, but I’m tapped out at the moment.

So the final verdict is yuck. This was a tremendously poor sequel that pales in comparison to the first season. It lost its sense of fun in a morass of poor pacing, a lack of focus, melodrama, and poor production. Unless you are a rabid fan of the BASARA series in general or have a fetish for samurai feeling sorry for themselves, steer clear. Maybe watch a couple of the fight scenes on YouTube, but since the build-up to them is nonsensical and the resolution is nonexistent, that’s about all that there is to this show.

Great bloody work, Hisahide.

<Aroduc> Last episode had antagonist randomly toss protagonists off a cliff
<Aroduc> This episode, they’re just back
<Aroduc> It just basically reset
<Aroduc> To before they were thrown off a cliff
<Aroduc> And the antagonist runs away
<Aroduc> God
<Aroduc> This season is going to give me an aneurysm
<Guncannon> I guess
<Guncannon> It was a 
<Guncannon> Failed cliffhanger
<Guncannon> </Bad joke>
<Aroduc> </sunglasses>

Impressions:

Let’s give Production IG credit where credit is due. They’ve completely surpassed my expectations. Every time I think that they cannot drive this series further into the ground, they look deep inside their souls and find a way. It wasn’t Hondam and Ieyasu just popping up from the dead out of nowhere to lurk around in the shadows, or Kojuro just getting tired of moping and walking out, or Keiji’s "I can stop Hideyoshi by standing in front of an army and whining," or the fact that Yukimura’s big THIS IS WHERE I PROVE MYSELF battle is against some random guy he’s never met before whose main power is "has a big boat and metal hula hoops." No. That was all exceedingly stupid, but it pales in comparison to dragging out this Hisahide nonsense across the entire goddamned season just to have him run away and disappear in the penultimate episode.

I… I think that I’m developing a bit of a nervous twitch.

So, another remarkably bad episode of nothing happening but people running away leading into the ‘final’ battle which should have come about 7 episodes earlier. Yukimura vs someone he’s never met to prove to himself that he’s not a sack of crap, Kojuro finally stops feeling sorry for himself long enough to beat up someone with tuberculosis, and everybody else vs Hideyoshi. Maybe this time Keiji will remember to bring his non-Nerf glaives. Remember, this is only the third battle that Hideyoshi has fought in the entire season, and the first for Hanbei and Mori that may last more than 15 seconds. You can cut the tension with a… well… something more dull than a wooden spoon. Good lord, do I miss Nobunaga. The best thing this show could do right now is just have next episode begin with a strike of lightning and Nobunaga shooting Hideyoshi in the back of the head.

Aaaaaaaaaah. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

Preview:

Just… Just animate the fights well so you can go out on a decent note, IG. Please.

Tactical geniuses.

Impressions:

The first half of this episode could have been cool if there were actually any antagonists involved. Or if they had spent more time animating the fighting instead of animating pirate/Masamune grunts running over landmines. Or if it wasn’t so painfully stupid. Or if it meant anything.

Okay, so we’re not exactly batting 1.000 here. Motonari sends his grunts in, Yukimura struggles to fight them, then Motonari wanders off again. That’s really… uh… great. Meanwhile, Masamune and the Jobber attack Hisahide by running their troops through a minefield, only to just be tossed off a cliff as soon as they got close. BATTLE OVER. SEEYA IN A WEEK. It would have at least been interesting to watch if every single bit of the ‘fighting’ wasn’t someone swinging their weapon, and then a still. Or if Yukimura wasn’t being beaten up by grunts. What’s happened to him this season? This is the manliest that Yukimura has looked in months. Remember when he used to fight Gundams? I miss that Yukimura.

The rest of the episode was the usual painful drawn out stupidity. All melodrama building up to nothing. There is zero compelling about these characters, so it’s still a tad bit mystifying. Nothing’s changed since episode 2, but we still have to have the weekly update about who’s attacking who, what happened earlier in the episode, and who snubbed Jenny at her birthday party last week. If anything, it’s just getting worse. I remember when Hanbei was a little menacing instead of coughing up blood every time he appears. At least Sasuke finally showed his face again. That’s a small pleasure at least.

Preview:

CG horse stampede!

Because when I think "fight scene" I think "morons doing sports cheers."

Impressions:

I guess this was better than a lot of episodes this season, but it was still pretty stupid. They spent more time focusing on how Motochika and Masamune’s lackeys cheered than they did on the actual fight, which apart from being completely trivial and meaningless, only lasted about 90 seconds and was broken up by sad sad Kojurou being so very sad. Yukimura’s little sparring match against Musashi was almost preferable because at least it was silly and it’s always fun to watch Yukimura have the snot beaten out of him, particularly when he seems bound and determined to be a whiny little princess. He and Masamune both get demerits for having romantic daydreams about each other as well.

And the rest of the episode was the usual bits of people standing around and talking about things that happened in the last few episodes and where everybody is going, which tends to override and obliterate any enjoyment from the first half of the episode. Nothing like talking heads doing review to really get the blood boiling. Here’s a hint, they’re all coming to fight the ‘antagonist.’ And what episode woudn’t be complete without Keiji getting sad over his monkey? Seriously, IG? "My monkey ran away." This is the plot point for Keiji that you’re going with? Maybe there really are chimps handling this one.

Preview:

And back to talking heads.

Okay, Basara, this is past the line.

Impressions:

Well, this was miserable. Most of it was Keiji bumming around whining about how Hideyoshi has gone evil. Then some more of Yukimura in way beyond his 2nd grade reading level before Keiji’s monkey gets sick which leads into a whiny flashback showing how evil Hideyoshi is. Get this. He killed some guys that wanted to attack him when he and Keiji were already beaten up by someone else. Soooooooo evil. Those people were probably actually puppies. Made of candy. And orphans. With sick mothers. That walk uphill both ways to school through the snow. I’m not even certain anybody even dies in this damn universe anymore now that Motochika is back in perfect health after a two episode break. That battle really bloody mattered then, didn’t it? The rate at which they’ve revived ‘dead’ or severely wounded characters in the last couple episodes is approaching mindboggling.

So yeah, nothing to this episode but talking heads. It looked slightly less cheap than last week’s snoozefest, but they didn’t even try to half-ass any action either. Also, remember when Sasuke and Kasuga were members of this show? And part of the plot wasn’t "Keiji’s monkey has a fever?" I miss those days. At least next week appears to have some action, although I’m not sure how much anybody will care about Motochika jobbing to Masamune. I wonder if episode 11 will be Motochika respawning for a third time out of nowhere to take on Yukimura. At the rate this show is going, I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest.

Preview:

Motochika versus protagonist. I wonder who’s going to win.

So much for last week’s inertia.

Impressions:

Normally if you play a drinking game like "Drink every time that you can see a character speak," even the hardiest of men will be toasted by the end of a twenty minute episode. For this one though, I’m not sure that you’d finish a single beer. This episode was amazingly poorly made. Almost the entire thing was stills, shots of the backs of people’s heads, flashbacks, or distance shots. All so that they wouldn’t have to spend even the extra four or five frames required to draw moving lips. It got really bad at times, like when they kept showing closeups of Masamune’s unmoving forehead as he spoke, or how Yukimura’s collars grew an extra foot (or his neck disappeared) just so they’d be long enough to completely cover his face up to his eyes.

Yukimura and Musashi’s five second battle was about on par with what Zexcs would throw out on an off-week of Chuu-bra, and Shingen vs Masamune was just roaring and then an explosion. And then they dumped us into about 30 seconds of flashback about Oyamada’s life and times followed by Yukimura wailing like a little girl. Great followup, Madhouse. I guess that I must admit that it was better than the angsty episodes insofar as that it made me hate the production staff for making such a visually vacuous episode instead of the characters for whining. I guess it’s a step in the right direction. An optimistic person might even assume that this means they’re saving up for a big fight next week, but a realist would note that there’s nothing but people looking sad in the preview and take another hit of Goldschlager.

Preview:

Sad samurai~~~~~~~

Who are these people again?

Impressions:

Now this is a step in the right direction. Let’s start with the negative though. The biggest issue is that Motochika (and Oyamada) have had barely any screentime whatsoever. Outside of the OVA, this is the longest we’ve seen him. Don’t even get me started on Oyamada and suddenly being ganked by a bunch of grunts while Yukimura screams his name. Neither of their apparent deaths (like anybody believes that) are particularly relevant or dramatic. I also do take small issue with Hideyoshi destroying the ocean and raising entire mountains with his punches. It’s stretching the limits for even this overpowered world. All the flash and explosions are easy to take, but when his punches sometimes raise mountains and sometimes just cause light bruising, I’m getting conflicting messages. The animation after the bizarrely placed ED cut (seriously, it’s 18 minutes in and then the episode picks right up after it) was also a bit… well… full of stills. This show has seen better fights too, but at least this one stretched out for basically the entire second half of the episode.

Regardless, it’s great to see this show getting back to being more ridiculous, less whiny, and having more things go boom. Sure, the first 10 minutes was as mindnumbing as ever, but at least after that we have warlords actually warring instead of being stricken impotent by ennui. Those giant cannons just scream overcompensation too. Next week looks to be action packed too, and aside from Musashi popping up out of nowhere, looks to even involve mostly main characters. Hopefully this means that the show got all its melodrama out of its system finally.

Preview:

Shingen vs Masamune and Musashi shows up.

I’m oh so glad I took that nap earlier and was awake for this.

Impressions:

Holy crap. This episode may have pissed me off more than the recap episode of Zombie Boobs. This embodies every single thing that this season is doing completely wrong. Gone is the fun. Gone is the over-the-top craziness. Gone is the burning spirit. Instead, we have 20 goddamned minutes of angsty samurais, flashbacks, and a single forlorn violin playing mournfully over the entire blood thing. Every single time the music stopped, a small hope rose in my chest for a moment, only to be dashed a moment later when the sad strings just picked right up 10 seconds later. Sometimes, they’d add percussion to compliment is wailing sadness. But only sometimes.

This show can do so very much better than this. It cannot rely on its writing or character development because both blow, and angst with sad music is not a way to make up for that. It’s needless melodrama about a bunch of warriors who fight each other for the hell of it and win based on who can yell the loudest. Get back to your goddamned strengths and stop paying half-assed lipservice to the jokes that had already worn thin three episodes into the first season. At least shoot the violinist if nothing else. Good god. I don’t even think a single one of Key’s melodramatic emotional pornfests had this many crying violins crammed into a single episode.

About the only positive thing I can say about this one is that I chuckled at the homoerotic daily events of Masamune’s army. One of them is accessorizing his flags to find just the right one to wear into battle while two more wash each other… one of them gasping and moaning. I miss the days of Nobunaga and his mountain of skulls. Now that was an antagonist. This… is a bunch of chumps who are sad because they’re saaaaaad. Give me a goddamned break already. Someone break some skulls.

Preview:

A fight? In my angsty drama?