Hey, everyone, I decided to do another review off of a show or whatever that I was interested in. This time however, I decided to go review an anime that is based on a video game. This anime in question is called Legend of the Mystical Ninja. Of course this game is based on the popular Japanese series of games known as Ganbare Goemon. I happen to be a big fan of the games and wish they would translate and release the other games either on PSN, Virtual Console, or in some form of a compilation disc. Sadly though, I am not a big fan of the anime that much. To be honest, I wish I was, but before I talk about the bad parts let’s talk about the good parts, or what good there is in this anime.
Basically, the anime sets us up with the evil overlord named Makuamuge voiced by Rick Pearsall, who sends his evil henchman named Seppukumaru voiced by David Born and his four egg-like henchmen to the real world to take it over and make sure it is ready to be ruled by the evil lord himself. In the human world however, lives a little kid named Tsukasa voiced by Tiffany Grant, who is playing a Goemon game ironically as his father works with the FBI who is trying to find out why all these weird incidents are happening. Somehow, because of some weird plot hole, Goemon and the gang find themselves in the real world and now must protect it from the evil villains and have some fun on the side. Normally, I wouldn’t mind the story for a Mystical Ninja game, but this makes no sense!
Anyways, in each episode the villains do something to make people upset so they can get the rage power to power up, some scroll that can turn into some monster. Yeah, I don’t know how that works either. There is usually some kind of side story, like the gang going to a mall area or something. The show itself is made for kids and I can understand that, but I will explain my hatred for this show in a second. One thing I do like is that everyone is basically the same as their video game counterparts. I’m glad since I think they could have easily done something like Final Fantasy Unlimited. I have seen other animes that are based on Goemon and his adventures, but from what I have seen, they are very limited so I can’t do a review of those animes. Another thing I do like is some of the downright horrible humor of the game. I mean, yeah, the Mystical Ninja humor has always been a little stupid, but it was funny most of the time. Some of the humor in the anime is also funny, but it’s rare you hear a stupid joke that is actually funny. The voice acting isn’t all bad. I mean all the main heroes sound like they should, in a way. One of the more surprising voice actors for the show is the guy who does Goemon’s Vic Mignogna who is known for his voice work as Ed from Fullmetal Alchemist. The main heroes and villains do act their parts, which is good in a way.
Now let’s get to the part that I have been waiting for, the bad parts. What isn’t wrong with this anime? First off, the animation looks really bad. It looks cheap and it’s like they didn’t care how it looked. Second of all, why does everyone look like pencil doodles while everyone from the Goemon games look acceptable?! It’s like they were at the studio saying, “ Hey everyone! Umm were really low on budget so only make the bad guys and good guys look amazing and everyone else like crap.” Who would do that? If I were in charge of the anime, I would make sure to have a good budget and make Madhouse Studios to do the animation. The rest of the voice cast is HORRENDOUS! It seems like they just took someone off the street, offered them 20 bucks, and told them to voice act. I don’t know how I would do, but I think I can do a lot better than half of the cast here on the show. The giant robot fights are just plain awful. I’m glad they still use the usual way to summon Goemon’s giant robot, but man, does the limited animation hurt the fights. It makes it look like the giant robot moves like a dead walrus. Well, all of the animation makes everyone move like a dead walrus, but still. The egg-like henchmen are just pointless. They do little to nothing from what I have watched.
Overall, this is just horrible. Let me go through my questions again. Why does everyone except the villains and good guys look like pencil doodles? Why does everyone move like a dead walrus? Why does the giant robot move like a dead walrus? Why is half the voice acting horrible? Why can’t they just make this show take place in Edo Japan like the games do? Why do they have to add actual humans? WHY? WHY? WHY? Just skip this anime and go watch G-Gundam instead! Heck, watch anything that’s better than this!
This gets a 3.3 out of 10.
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