This review might contain some spoilers.
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#Setting
Requiem of the Rose King is an adaptation of the real War of the Roses in the 15th century that were later adapted into plays by William Shakespeare into a fictional format. The anime adapts the manga that was adapted from the Shakespearean plays - Henry VI and Richard III. The story follows Richard the Third, of the House of York (symbolized by white roses) in his conquest to reign England against the House of Leicester (symbolized by red roses).
Fiction being fiction, the events have been dramaticized and altered to make it a more engaging experience for the viewer. For example a lot of the story in Requiem of the Rose King is closer to a dark gothic romance than historical play. It is somewhat accurate to the events of the actual War but overall, still has a lot of fictional parts added to it.
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#Story
The story of the anime is a bit of a hit and miss. The anime is very strictly meant to be a retelling of the core plot of the manga that is related to Richard III himself, and nothing about the side characters that are fully fleshed out characters in the manga. This creates a disconnect between the viewer and how much they care about these characters.
BUT the core retelling is engaging, the earlier episodes are definitely a little jarring with the pacing and how quickly the story progresses but it gains its footing in about the first 5 episodes and does a decent job from there. That's not to say it's good, just that it's engaging. It skips over a lot of arcs that are essential to the overall plot and sets the characters' tones, which without them a lot of the characters come across as psychopaths with blood thirst than actual people fighting for a cause.
I highly encourage everyone to read the manga over the anime as that tells the full story as it was meant to be.
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#Visuals
The visuals by themselves as still images are decent or even beautiful on occasion. However, the animation itself leaves a lot to be desired. Or should I say the lack of animation. Now I don't blame JC Staff for skipping out on animation since you have to animate literal armies so you don't give the grunts proper faces but the animation itself is usually just powerpoint slideshows which again as still images is fine but this is an anime not a slideshow.
That said, the watercolor style does have its own charm that I grew to like over my time of watching this show week over week.
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#Sound
The soundtrack is probably the most impressive aspect of this anime (not the series as a whole). The soundtrack by Kou Ootani is very well thought-out and fitting to the majestic yet dark gothic experience that the show leads you through. And the OP/ED for both cours of the show were great. Some of the best episodes in the series were definitely where the ED would start playing while the scene was still going, which added just a little bit more depth and emotional weight to the scene. I would even go as far as to say that the soundtrack definitely carried the show and its lack of animation by adding soundtrack that complimented all of the parts that the animation lacked.
The voice acting for the show was amazing as well. At this point you might think to yourself "But Judevin, voice acting is always good in anime" and you would be right but the soundtrack and the dark gothic tone which is already unique adding to the voice acting is what makes this one stand out so much. I feel like if you could understand Japanese and decided to just close your eyes and listen, you would still be able to imagine and feel every emotion that was felt by the characters in the story, that is how impressive the voice acting for this show is.
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#Characters
While the main characters were definitely given proper character arcs, the side characters were done a huge disservice.
There are a lot of moving parts and characters to the story and as it takes place over multiple years, characters grow older, motivations change, allegiances change, and so on and so forth. However, since the anime skips over a lot of these side arcs, a lot of these characters fail to leave a deep impression. But also at the same time, since Richard III's character is written somewhat decently as he is the main character, the weight of every other character's actions and how they affect Richard are portrayed well. In fact, the most character development that a lot of the side characters get is because of their interactions with Richard in the anime (this is not true for the manga as they have their own arcs there).
This is a fundamental problem with the series as the characters are described in detail for their actions, what they want to do, etc. None of which is explored in the anime, while I understand that JC Staff wanted to make this as an advertisement so people would buy the manga, I also feel like it works the other way - if you don't make a compelling advertisement then the product has a high chance of failing, which given the forums and how there hasn't been a single discussion post created in a while is the indication of the advertisement for this show was pretty bad. People fail to get attached to the cast of the series which is important and if you end up disliking Richard as well which you will because of the rushed writing of the anime then there is nothing to like here which ruins the series' marketability.
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#Overall
The anime is the bare minimum of an advertisement if it can even be called that. However, there are certainly things to like here - soundtrack, sound design, voice acting, even the plot, and watercolor art style. But yet I find it hard to rate this anime high or recommend it to other people simply because it just lacks so much of what makes the manga so good. Again, I will reiterate - please read the manga instead of watching the anime, it is a very well written story that goes into some LGBTQ themes, tragic romance, and historical events adapted from Shakespeare plays.
>Now, just for a short while, let me sleep in a beautiful dream.
~Richard the Third
Thanks for reading.