Bastard!! Ankoku no Hakaishin

Oh, what shall I say about Bastard!! It's the kind of anime you'd furtively get from your local video rental place's anime section back when it was the weirdest thing you could be into. Bastard!! is the kind of anime you'd find painted on the side of a van, next to Conan the Barbarian. In short, Bastard!! is violent, horny, and 90s as hell, and not once does it pull back or apologize for it. It leans so heavily into the trope that it almost borders on parody, with just enough sincerity to not quite cross the line. There's blood, ... there's titties, and there's Dark Schneider, the badmouthing overpowered badass that can never seem to just stay dead. It's also enveloped in an array of bizarre production decisions that lend the whole thing a sense of hallucinatory absurdity. For example, the intro sequence is given by an English-speaking narrator in both the sub and the dub, but the narrator for the sub positively sucks, while the narrator for the dub is legitimately professional, providing the perfect tone for the show. Furthermore, the English dub has Daran Norris as the voice of Dark Schneider, who is best known for his part as Cosmo in the Fairly Odd Parents, making the dub a surreal experience to say the least. But, my favorite part about all of this is, ironically, how damn funny the whole thing ended up being. I have no clue if this was intentional or unintentional, but Bastard!! ranks among the greats for comedy. With all this in mind I have to start somewhere, so I'll start with the story. Taking place in a dark fantasy post-apocalyptic future filled with magic and monsters, Dark Schneider is awakened by a desperate mankind to prevent evil sorcerers from awakening the god of destruction. Overall, the setup is pretty simple and fairly episodic, with Dark Schneider running into some powerful foe, making snarky quips and irreverent insults at them as the carnage ensues, peppered with nudity throughout. It's a fun, if simple formula. I wouldn't say it's groundbreaking, or even particularly notable, but the worldbuilding provides enough of a setting for the story to take place, however thin and unexplained, which is straightforward and avoids any confusion.

The art is very strong, with intricately detailed backgrounds characteristic of the time, making the world feel tangible and alive when paired with a strong visual style that embodies all the best things that 90s dark fantasy anime had to offer. This still stands even as it is wildly inconsistent in terms of its internal theming, filled to the brim with knights, ninjas, castles and slime all crowded in shoulder to shoulder within the world of Bastard!! The character designs especially bolster this anime, being each in their own right distinct and strikingly memorable, with a firm grasp on the human figure, as well as inhuman figures. The one failing of the art is the occasional choppiness of the animation itself, which doesn't flow as smoothly as it should every now and then. Given this, it must be said that the majority of the time, it does indeed flow, sometimes impressively, especially when it comes to many of the earlier fight scenes.

Next, the sound is the strongest aspect of the anime, not for the soaring, adventurous score, not for the sounds of life which meet all standards of quality for the time, but for this anime's English dub, which I consider legendary. The dub for Bastard!! makes this not only one of the few anime for which I prefer the dub, but one of the even fewer for which I consider the dub essential. The comedic timing is flawless, the banter is witty, and the dialogue as delivered by Norris as the voice of Dark Schneider is snarky, original, and utterly hilarious. Put simply, I must reiterate in the strongest possible terms that the English dub of Bastard!! takes the whole show to the next level, and is the entire reason I have rated it a 7 instead of a 6. Without the dub, I'd say this was a unique but ultimately forgettable 90s OVA, but it has the dub, and it is impossible to forget.

The characters are by and large just as developed as they need to be, no more no less, with the strongest of them being Dark Schneider and Gara. Dark Schneider is in the lead by a mile because he is the anchor of the show, and it is his dub that elevates the entire anime. Even besides that, he is simply a funny, irreverent main character who lives up to his namesake- Bastard. Gara is a pretty distant second, but still takes his spot as a notable character for his over-the-top warrior spirit and a glimmer of that same chaotic irreverence we see in our unshakable protagonist, especially in the final two episodes. Overall, Bastard!! is an over-the-top OVA with a strong sense of identity apart from other similar anime of the same era, harboring an unexpected payload of comedy gold that cements its place in anime history.

I read reviews for this show before watching it, finding the premise intriguing but still unsure about it. However, since it was only six episodes wrong, I thought why not give it a watch. And yeah there are definitely times this anime is bad. The ecchi type humor also doesn't do it many favors.

However, I still enjoyed it. Some of the humor made me chuckle because it was that ridiculous and the voicework wasn't that bad in those moments (I especially liked recognizing some familiar voices in the cast).

It was a genuinely interesting premise that I honestly think would benefit from a ... new, longer anime for it. But until then, I'm considering giving the manga a read since the anime as it is is incomplete.

Loud, outdated, and kind of embarrassing.

Yoko was annoying af. No real depth, no real growth.

Dark Schneider was so dumb. I mean, you're supposed to be the greatest sorcerer of all time, but you can't see Nei's problem? Very generic and laughable but a big plot hole. The writing makes him look like a parody, and not in a good way. It’s painfully generic.

And then… that creepy revelation.

Seriously, wtf was that?

... Was the mangaka on weed while planning that plot point?

Ugh... I wanted to watch the new adaptation. But after this experience? Yeah, no thanks. I’ve got better anime to spend my time on.