Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Donten ni Warau

Donten ni Warau

Name: Donten ni Warau 曇天に笑う Laughing Under the Clouds

Status: Completed
Episode: 12
Released Date (for eng subs): Every Saturday

Summary:
When swords were outlawed in the eleventh year of the Meiji Era, the mighty samurai population began to dwindle. Those who rejected the ban on blades rebelled, causing violent unrest to erupt throughout the countryside. To combat the rise in criminal activity, an inescapable lake prison was constructed. Three young men, born of the Kumoh line, were given the duty of delivering criminals to their place of confinement—but could there be more to their mission than meets the eye?

Summary Source: FUNimation


Personal Ratings: 3
Idea: 3 / 5
Setting in an olden world, with mythical believes, isn't all that rare. There are many others out there which I've come across. Though, this story line concentrates more on the mythical believe than those war animes that specializes in strategical war patterns. Where a strong ayakashi or youkai is being kept inside a human, it is quite a common idea to have.

Execution
Development: 3 / 5
I felt that the story line and the execution itself was quite good, however, I did think that there were a lack of developments in some areas of the story, and 12 episode is just too little for the anime to have that proper development.
The anime can be divided into 2 parts;


Emotions: 2.5 / 5
Honestly I only found the first part the most emotional, the rest of the scenes just lack that impact.

Planning: 3 / 5
I thought that the planning was quite good, especially with that plot twist about Tenka.
Rather than the planning, I think there was an issue with the organizing. I thought that the timing where they put in the whole episode of the first generation's fight for sealing the Orochi was out of place, and really appeared out of no where. Thought that maybe putting that episode in either before the Soramaru started finding out his true identity, or after introducing Botan to us would have been better.

Main Character Development: 3 / 5
Main character here would be Soramaru. I did think that to a certain extent there was somewhat a development, especially in the first half of the anime, but it the development in the 2nd half seemed really rushed.
I just felt that they spent way to much time in the first half of the anime, when there wasn't much development.

Side Character Development: 2 / 5
The anime can be divided into 4 main parties: The main family (which are the main characters), Yamainu Squad, Fuuma Clan, and others (which basically consist of all the ancestors and all the other side characters). Honestly, the only one which was very well developed was probably the main characters, but all the other parties really lacked that development, even though I feel that they play an important part of the story.

Seiyuu: 4 / 4
Awesome seiyuu, but I do realize that I might be biased here, because many of the seiyuus cast here are popular seiyuus. 
But yes, I did think that Nakamura (Tenka), Yuki (Soramaru), Sakurai (Shirasu), Tsubasa (Chuutaro), Shimono (Takeda Rakuchou) and Miki (Naoto Kagami) did a very good job in their roles.

Yuki definitely did a good job in expressing many emotions for Soramaru, especially when using his deeper and more serious voice, yet still being able to maintain that soft side of Soramaru (instead of using that huskier voice when voice acting Eren from Shingeki no Kyojin).

For Sakurai, I did think that he was the perfect fit for Shirasu, especially when looking at how his character was going to change from being a "good-two-shoes" to a person that betrayed the Kumo clan. Sakurai's did manage to maintain that consistent character and aura that Shirasu have despite being on either side. When Shirasu betrayed the clan, you could hear that there was much sadness, darkness and also loneliness in his voice, which really brings out Shirasu's character, despite only being shown for a few minutes.


Art Ratings: 4
I felt that the animation itself was really smooth and constant throughout the whole anime, especially the fighting scenes.
They had this trademark art style going on, making it easily recognizably. And I really really loved the character design (ok, might be a little biased here cause of Shirasu). Though I didn't really like how Tenka's hair was drawn (random hair sticking out here and there). 


Similar Animes:
-Work in progress-

Recommended for:
Gender: Both
Age: 13 and above
My Ratings: PG-13


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