Angolmois: Genkou Kassenki

Representing a historical fiction of war and cruelty, I decided to watch Angolmois with one goal in mind: to embrace a war story and accept exactly for what this show is. To my pleasant surprise, Angolmois not only succeeded in bringing a war story to life but also reminds me that we need more creative shows like this in our generation.

I’m not going to lie, shows with a historical genre tag isn’t really my cup of tea. I’m more used to the traditional live action style of historical storytelling than those made into anime medium. Still, there’s something exceptionally intriguing about this series. Angolmois: Genkou ... Kassenki (also known as Angolmois: Record of Mongol Invasion) sounds about as straightforward as it gets. Taking place during the 13th century, it deals with a war drama as the Mongolian Empire makes their presence in the world. Japan became a target of this almighty empire and thus begins the Mongolian Invasion.

Angolmois has confidence to be its own story. It takes a realistic approach at historical fiction with the war themes as the first episode introduces us to a variety of characters, the setting, and the plot. The show reveals a group of exiles on their way to Tsushima Island. We are introduced to Kuchii Jinzaburou, a swordsman and former trainer of the Kamakura Shogunate. As a former prisoner of Hakozaki, he also saves Chou Minpuku, another exile. My impression of just the first 10 minutes of the series made me realize that Jinzaburou is not ordinary man. He’s more of a daredevil hero who isn’t afraid of taking action or holding back. After arriving on the island, the exiles are given the task of defending it from Mongols. Joining them also include a former pirate named Onitakemaru, former noble Shirashi Kazuhisa, among others. Due to such a pilot episode, it felt like Angolmois may be taking the risk of jumping the gun too fast. However, I would also mention that by doing so, it had me intrigued at just how far these characters will be able to carry their roles.

At the centerpiece of the cast is Jinzaburou. I already mentioned that he isn’t a traditional protagonist but more of a thriller seeker. He enjoys the sheer thrill of the fight even though he’s not a malevolent person. Thanks to his samurai experience and swordsman skills, he is able to hold his own against powerful foes. What’s important is to realize that Jinzaburou also possesses leadership skills. This is a man that plays with calculated strategies, tricks, and gambling circumstances into his plans. While he’s not a master strategist, I came to realize that the show gave him a balance of brain and brawn. He has a somewhat creative mind and isn’t afraid to express his feelings. Thanks to some help with his allies, he is able to accomplish some near impossible feats including being able to defend against the Mongols. Other characters in the series vary a bit more such as Onitakemaru who acts more as the pure muscle with his large size and strength. The princess of Sou Clan, Teruhi also shows talent in archery as part of the group. At first glance, I wasn’t too impressed by her character as she played the role of a generic princess. However, my stance changed once I saw her courage. In one particular episode, she takes a bullet for the team and protects someone from an assassination. Not only did this impress me but it also established her as genuine heroine who puts others before herself. Still, the show puts her in an awkward position at times. It became obvious that she has a girly crush on Jinzaburou and the show doesn’t do a clever job at exploring their relationship. Needless to say but I’ll say it anyways, this anime does not work well with relationship building.

This is because war is essentially death. It’s simple as that really. People are going to die and there are even foreshadowing of this (for instance, the ED theme song). The anime doesn’t fool around with character deaths either and some are rather violent. This came to me as a positive in the show as it continues to demonstrate the reality of war. Blood is spilled, body parts are scattered, and even heads comes off from necks. If you’re not prepared, then be ready to turn back. I should also mention to not get overly attached to certain characters in the series because not everyone will make it. Or even, there are betrayals in this show. That’s right. The character cast are humans so everyone has their own will to commit sins. On the other hand, I wish the series committed more time to develop the antagonists. There’s much more emphasis on the main characters than the antagonists. While this makes sense, I would’ve appreciated if the anime made me care about the Mongols more than just their reputation. It seems at times, they look like fools who falls under obvious traps. On the other hand, I am satisfied by how this series makes me hate them as the villains. Some of their roles includes abducting families and committing atrocities just to prove their reputation. As such, I often rooted for Jinzaburou and his comrades. There are also some moments in the series where characters go down fighting to the last breath. And that really paints how far characters are motivated to defend their honor.

A show like Angolmois really has a distinctive style from its visual and production. The action scenes is bloody with realistic body movements. There’s an abundance of violence that convinced me this as a war story. Speaking of war, the character designs looked cruel but also dynamic. Most of the main cast are dressed like warriors while characters such as Teruhi gave me a strong action heroine impression. The one person that stands out most would still be Jinzaburou. His expressions during fighting is exceptionally real and some of his body features represents his character. (more evident being a visible scar on his face) The setting also gives a vivid look of these old times with the historical buildings and landscapes. Even during some static scenes, it paints the show like a work of art.

If you want a show like this to be realistic, you’d need a talented voice cast. Thankfully, characters like Jinzaburou represents a warrior with his masculinity when he speaks. The exiles in the series prove themselves as independent characters striving to be free. Their voice expresses their feelings when fighting and it’s definitely not an understatement. The theme songs in the series are also refreshingly beautiful. I don’t see people talking about it often but “Braver” by Starightener sounds so smoothing to the ears. It’s one of those theme songs that fits perfectly for this historical fiction. Likewise, I’m also more than impressed by the soundtrack being able to keep up with the fighting action at all times.

I said it before but I’ll say it again. I decided to watch Angolmois for exactly what it is and thankfully, that’s what I got. It’s a story that meets expectations of being realistic and showing the cruelty of war. Even as predictable as the plot gets at times, I felt that the anime was able to keep me at the edge of my seat. War has consequences and we got Angolmois to prove that. Against all odds, this is an anime that knew what it was doing and what the audience wanted.

Angolmois is based off of a historical fiction manga by Takagi Nanahiko. It's based off of the events of the first Mongolian invasion of Japan from 1274. So, this was back when Kublai Khan was running things. But enough history, the anime adaptation was handled by NAZ. One of those rare anime studios that I haven't seen anything from. Let's see how strong of an introduction this is. 

Story:

Our narrative is set on Tsushima Island. We follow a group of Japanese exiles who are being sent for the sole purpose of serving as troops against the incoming Mongolians. They soon find themselves as a small unit trying ... to stay in hiding and avoid the larger, more powerful Mongolian force. 

Now, it makes sense from a narrative perspective to follow a small, guerilla force since it's pretty well known that Tsushima fell very quickly during the first Mongolian invasion. The problem this has, as a narrative, is that there are literally a million characters and none of them are memorable. The tension in the story hinges on us, as the audience, caring about our small group of plucky survivors but even with a relatively small number, there are just too many characters and there's never time taken to flesh them out. It doesn't help that the climax of the story involves a huge ass pull with a certain character being underwater for a good twenty minutes and somehow surviving.

Characters:

Herein lies the big flaw to the series. The huge cast of characters. We've got big, shark teeth guy, bullseye head, the short merchant, the barely adolescent scout, the doctor, the grizzled dude, the sleazy one and the main samurai. That's just the exiles who play major roles too. That's not even going into the named native islanders, the Toi Barai or the Mongolians. 

A more important character in this series might get close to being two dimensional, but the vast majority of these characters are just stock tropes. Which makes it really difficult if not impossible to give a shit when things start going badly and characters start dying. 

Even our two major characters, Jinzaburou & Teruhi, aren't all that interesting. He's got a vague honourable warrior shtick going and she's pretty much a highly emotional action girl who's attracted to him for no adequately explored reason. Will they get together? I really could not care less. 

Art:

The art is a bit unusual. Everything has a weird texture to it. It's like they want to visually marry the idea of an old sepia toned samurai drama to modern animation techniques. So, the colours are a bit muted and the whole series just looks a bit off, visually. And I'm not sure it's for the best. I'd hesitate to say it looks bad, since there are some nice details and the action scenes generally flow pretty smoothly. I also could not say it looks good. 

Sound:

The acting is decent enough. You won't get highly skilled, emotionally deep performances. Even though there are some amazing actors like Ishida Akira & Koyasu Takehito. There are also plenty of good actors we've heard give strong performances before. But this is one of those cases where the lack of character complexity really hampers the actors' abilities to give strong performances. The music is fine. It's not Katayama Shuji's best, for certain. But it's okay. 

Ho-yay:

There is not any. 

Areas of Improvement:

Flesh out your characters. This is probably the biggest thing. This premise needed strong characterisation for the tension and investment. And we simply don't get it. 
Humans can not breathe underwater. I get what they were going for with this. They were trying to build the tension by showing a character tossed underwater and then cutting to other stuff while occasionally going back to that character. The problem is that they leave him down there so long his survival comes across as absurd. 
Lose the filter. Again, I get what they were going for with this. They wanted the call back to old period dramas. But the series would, quite honestly, look a lot better without it.

Final Thoughts:

Angolmois: Genkou Kassenki isn't a bad series. It has a premise that could easily work, some of the action sequences are nicely handled and it just doesn't have anything it does all that badly. Unfortunately, the characters are dull and stock. The muted artwork does not do the series any favours and it's just not compelling. So, I'm going to give it a 5/10. If you really love historic samurai dramas, you might be able to forgive the nothing characters but I can't recommend it for most. 

As if the story and characters were written by a bunch of kindergarten students before their afternoon nap, considering it's nothing but a mish-mash of a bunch of nonsensical but "cool" ideas.

Some island at the end of Japan is in the way of a Mongolian invasion, thus the Mongols want to take control of it; locals think otherwise. That is the gist of the story.
Sounds good enough, right?
So I expected a bit more serious war-story, with reason I'd like to think.
You know, plans, tactics, mind-games, stealth, trickery, sabotage, top 10 anime betrayals, grim reality of war and death...serious things.

Yeah, you get none of that, really.

The ... conflict is between two teams of most unique characters, one on the side of the Mongs, one on the side of the Japs.
I say "unique" but they're really the typical "special" kind of anime characters, sticking out like a sore thumb in every way possible.
Wearing ridiculous outfits, being the only blonde/white haired character, being 120cm short anorexic midget
or being 250 tall bull on a steady steroid diet, or being the beautiful, compassionate and determined flower of a princess whom everyone wants to shag at first glance...no, not even kidding, it's a thing here.

If they stick out, they're important.

Their abilities are similarly anime-esque. Night vision, inhuman swordsmanship, casually hopping a hundred meters, wearing plot armor and defying logic like some godline beings.

Now, let me just quickly remind you all it's a ~~historical~~ show with no "magic" involved. They're perfectly average human beings who break world records with ease. FYI the record of distance jumping is just shy of 9 meters, so doing ~200m in armor is about 22 times that.
If that's historical, then so is The Lord of The Rings.

Anyway, they'll all massacre countless faceless, no-name troops who are really only there to be killed and let these Uniques stick out even more, and their actions will be justified.

Speaking of actions, at some point I thought there will be a couple of characters, the "heroes" who'll play the role of the genius tactician and save the day in the face of overwhelming opposition, and well, I was kind of right.
Just kind of, because the show does try to portray them genius even though their actions are anything but.
In fact they are just as idiotic as the actions of their polar opposites, the first antagonists the "heroes" had to face: the arrogant, possibly retarded figureheads who think they know literally everything better because reasons, like being "royalty", or not being on death row. Except Patrick Star levels of retardedness.

However, lucky for them all, no matter how stupid they might be or how much they screw it up,
as long as they really believe in their actions,
as long as it comes from their hearts,
as long as they give it their best shot,
their actions will be justified, forgiven, described as bravery, they will be hailed (or remembered) as heroes.
Even if they kinda just pointlessly lose, say, half an army in like 10 minutes in an obviously suicidal and wholly unnecessary engagement.
*HE BE A HERO WOHOOO*

Visuals...
Someone decided to try and make the visuals look more "authentic" by adding a crumpled, brown paper-like static overlay.
Someone should be out of a job. It's a headache inducing eyesore, really, nothing else.
Otherwise the animation's okay-ish, art style is just meh, but it shouldn't make-or-break the series.

Sounds are OK-ish at best, too much shouting when not necessary in a fairly unbelievable tone but otherwise VAs did fine. Music was utterly forgettable.

In the end, I feel like I've wasted my time spending 4 episodes on it when one would've been plenty enough. Unlike Sponge Bob which is obviously meant to be a stupid joke, this show tries to be serious, without giving up on the stupid nonsense, so it fails spectacularly.

But make no mistake, I do not hate this show.
That's not because I'm willing to forgive its atrocious stupidity, it's inconsistency, its generic nature, or any other of its many flaws.
It's because it made no attempt to make me like, care, or be curious about any of the characters, or the story. At the end of the day, I walked away simply not caring about any of it.

I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone over 13 or so.