Disclaimer: I have yet to read the sequel manga, Sword Gai: Evolve, but for reasons that will become obvious in this review, that is not needed when reviewing this series.
There will also be spoilers for both Sword Gai: The Animation and the manga version of Sword Gai, if that matters to you. The manga version of Sword Gai is currently untranslated and can be read via buying the series on Bookwalker or sailing the seven seas if you know what I mean. Please keep this in mind before reading this review because I will be doing an intensive comparison of the manga to the anime.
In addition, I would also like to warn you that this series contains a depiction of suicide that is too significant to the plot of the series to go unmentioned, so if you are sensitive to this, you might want to either skip it or at least mentally prepare yourself beforehand.
I would start this review by saying good things about the anime version of Sword Gai, but honestly, all of it could simply be attributed to the manga as well, so I'll start with a basic summary of the premise.
Sword Gai is a dark tokusatsu series originally written by Toshiki Inoue, the writer behind Kamen Rider Agito, Kamen Rider 555, and Kamen Rider Kiva with character designs by Keita Amemiya and art by Wosamu Kine. It's about a boy named Gai Ogata who had been found in the mountains as a baby after his mother took her own life. Across him laid the cursed sword Shiryu. He is found by a blacksmith named Amon Ogata, who takes him in, and becomes his apprentice. Later, during a ritual to suppress Shiryu, Gai gets his arm cut off. Amon takes the sword and crushes it down, turning it into a new arm for Gai. Because of this, Gai is now able to fuse with the sword to fight his enemies, specifically the Busouma, armored beings created from cursed weapons.
Now, this is the premise of both the manga and the anime, but the difference is that the manga is more laser focused on this plot compared to the anime, and that becomes obvious from just the first episode. The first chapter of the manga begins with Gai being found on the mountain surrounded by snakes. In the anime, this scene does not happen until the end of the first episode because... well, I'm just going to mention it here, the anime has multiple characters that were not in the manga and were specifically added to the anime. The snakes surrounding baby Gai were also not present in the anime, but I feel like that is the lesser of the problems with this anime, but it does provide a nice segway into one of the biggest problems with the anime: the pacing suffers because the anime added filler.
Now I know what you might be thinking: "but Taukyrie, isn't it normal for anime to add filler if it's going on for a while?". Yes, it is, but this is a 12-episode adaption of a manga that had been completed for THREE YEARS at the time the anime was released. I would also like to emphasize that this isn't filler as in "no action is happening so it's filler", it's filler as in "this did not happen in the manga at all" and the anime suffers greatly because of it.
For reference, this is a list of everything that the anime had that was not in the manga:
That's right, the entire second half of this series was NOT IN THE MANGA. Not only that, but these characters took up enough time in the anime to make it even more obvious that these characters were shoehorned into the original plot. If this was perhaps a longer anime series, maybe it would have been fine because they could better integrate a few of the characters into the story that was in the manga to make it feel more natural, but the current result is that the anime is an unfocused mess for no other reason than... honestly, I'm not sure why they added these characters. If it was an attempt to flesh out the world, it shot itself in the foot because it sacrificed what was a fast-paced dark tokusatsu drama for an unfocused slog that occasionally has moments of good writing that specifically comes from the parts that were originally in the manga.
If you want an example of how bad this pacing is, let's compare the placement of an event that was in both the manga and the anime. So, after the first time Gai uses the powers of the Shiryu, he attempts to strangle himself and Shiryu was forcibly repressed by Amon. The result is that Gai's mentality regressed to that of an infant, something that allows Amon's daughter, Sayaka, to further bond with him. In the manga, this happens at the end of Chapter 2. In the anime, this is episode 5. Now you might be wondering what was going on in the previous episodes for this to happen. Well, the second episode was busy trying to adapt the first chapter of the manga while 3 and 4 were more concerned with adapting the drama between Marcus, Naoki, and Erika, which I again mention, WAS NOT IN THE MANGA.
However, I do want to mention that the scenes specifically related to Ichijo meeting up with his now elderly girlfriend, while not in the manga, were genuinely good and I didn't mind it compared to other things that were inserted into the anime, but that was likely because it was incorporated naturally into the manga's story, being situated as Ichijo making a side stop while taking Gai to the Shoshidai. I wanted to note this, but it didn't feel like it fit in any of my earlier paragraphs.
So, earlier I mentioned that the entire plotline of Kyouka, the admin of the Shoshidai, trying to save her father, Takuma Miura, is only in the anime. Now you might be wondering what she does in the manga if her whole plotline about her father is anime only. Well, that will be covered in the following section about how the anime straight up cuts or changes events from the manga for... what I honestly think is no reason.
The entire backstory of Shiryu's creation.
While yes, the beats of the story are similar to that in the anime, I feel like Shiryu's backstory is a lot darker in the manga. However, I personally don't think it's dark enough for it to be changed, especially since Sword Gai is a seinen series. Also, because it was on a streaming service, it shouldn't be affected by the usual problems where anime airing at certain times cannot show characters missing limbs.
The main villain, Grims, is introduced a lot earlier and has more presence in the manga.
Anyone who watched the anime would be fair to assume that the designated villain, Grims, is an afterthought to the plot when that isn't the case in the manga. Grims is more like a traditional tokusatsu villain, always in the background even if the viewer can't see him. In fact, he was specifically the one who caused Ichijou to become a Busouma in the manga, giving him more leverage as a major villain.
Rin Tsukikage Does Not Exist in the Anime
The manga has a character named Rin Tsukikage, another Chrysalis (the term for cursed weapon-welding combatants) of the Shoshidai, who carries deep admiration for Seiya Ichijou to the point of addressing him as oniisama and develops a sort of one-sided rivalry with Gai in the manga with the belief that she has to avenge Ichijou. Honestly, her absence is one of the most puzzling in the series to me.
Aran Sasagane also Does Not Exist
Another Chrysalis allied with Shoshidai who uses spider thread-like weapons in combat. He's the one who gave Gai the mission to defeat Ichijou in the manga, but I don't think he's as important as Rin seems to be. I do think his absence should still be noted since it follows the pattern this anime has of adding characters that weren't in the manga while cutting others that were in the manga.
Kyouka Kagami's Entire Plot Line and Her Fate
Like in the anime, Kyouka is the commander of the Shoshidai, and still is a bit of a hardass when it comes to commending the Chrysali. However, in the manga, she has feelings for Ichijou in the manga because he saved her when she was a child and because of this loses all calm when he's involved. Repeated operation failures lead to her being demoted, with the enigmatic and cruel secretary Nakiri taking her place. It gets so much worse for her, though.
The Significance of the blade Gai forges for Sayaka
In both the manga and the anime, Gai forges a sword for Sayaka to protect herself with, which she names Hanaryu. While this is meant to be a heartwarming action in both mediums, what comes of this will change depending on which one you are experiencing. If you are watching the anime, nothing will come of it.
In the manga,
The Entire Final Act of the original Manga
Getting into major spoiler territory here, the final act of the original manga for Sword Gai is definitely meant to set up for the sequel manga, Sword Gai Evolve. As for specifics...
I am probably missing a few things in this section, but I feel like this is enough to give you an idea of what I am talking about when I say the anime massacred the original manga.
So, to conclude, Sword Gai: The Animation is an anime that seems average on the surface, but as you dig into the original manga it's based on and find out how bad this series is as an adaption, you begin to hate it more and more. Honestly, the only reason why I didn't give it any lower of a rating than I did is because the concepts were interesting enough to make me interested in reading the original manga.
It's a series that should be studied for what NOT to do when adapting a manga into an anime.
It's a series that deserves to be on the list of the worst manga-to-anime adaptions, because it is and I will stand by that.
For the love of whatever deity you believe in or don't, just read the manga.
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