Review will be broken down like so :
Story
Art
Animation
Characters
Sound
Overall Enjoyment
The world is set in a fantastical universe, like most isekai, where there are multiple different sentient species in the form of elves, dwarves, and hobbits (though they do not make an appearance). Drifters are people from the real world in the brink of death and are transported to this world. They are sent there by, what seems to be a deity, Murasaki to combat the “Ends”. Similar to Drifters they are people brought into this planet, however their primary mission is to destroy this planet. Like I mentioned before, a relatively simple premise with interesting characters.
What I feel like is the theme of the show is how humanity doesn’t really change despite which time period they may be from. The bare bones of humanity’s societal hierarchy, ideologies and morals are consistent throughout its history. The difference only being in the advancement of technology. In a way the anime showcases humanity’s lack of maturity throughout its history. Sure we may have been improving but throughout humanity’s recorded history, the most common occurrence is war. War never changes. We have only attained peace in the last 60 or so years. You have multiple drifters coming from different eras and one thing they always have in common is absolute destruction to wars. What really puts the nail in the coffin is the fact that all the drifters are real people we’ve seen in the past. And you know what they say, history always finds a way to repeat itself.
An issue some may face during the entirety of Drifters is that most characters are based on real historical figures. So having some historical knowledge on the characters will add to the overall experience, although it isn’t necessary. For some it may feel jarring, especially during moments of banter between characters. But the banter is still funny nonetheless.
Character Design, absolutely love it. The 3 protagonists all have clothes that look like feudal Japan, however, it looks modernized. Take Toyohisa Shimazu :
My only issue is the setting, I knew the inspirations for certain elements of the city. However, I felt that the castle's design looked too textbook. It didn’t feel unique and kinda reminded me of other stories and media . Not a bad thing but it just looked like I've seen it before.
What grinds my gears is the fact that they can do beautiful action sequences but they really love the protagonsist-pulls-out-his/her-katanna-and-cuts-to-protagonist-past-his-enemy-sheathing-his-katanna-back-and-exploding-in-blood this trope is so over-used i cringe seeing it. Yes it looks cool but is a cop-out because there’s a million ways to do that and still have it look epic.
All in all animation is a solid 8/10 nothing i would give 9 or 10 for. Does it’s job and is well executed.
Toyohisa Shimazu, put it bluntly, he’s as straightforward as it gets. He does things, his way and lives by a strict warriors code. For some they may find him boring, because he's quite strong, he’s straight to the point and his character does not really change by the end of the show. However, the way he deals with situations and applying his warrior’s code to situations make him an endearing and interesting character. Instead of seeing him change as things progress, we see him affect change in his surroundings. To me, that is also an engaging way for audiences to learn more about him as a person. I think he’s a solid protagonist.
Yoichi is the least developed character within the trio. He’s kind of a wild card, and feels like he’s mostly used for comedic effect. However, we do learn certain things about his past relationships but really that’s the furthest they went. Like Toyohisa, he doesn’t change as a person, rather he changes the surroundings around him. But my main issue with this, is the fact that he really doesn’t cause a lot of meaningful change besides teaching the elves how to shoot a bow. Even so, he’s not a bad character by any means, he’s the funniest out of the trio and for an effeminate character, he totally breaks the norm by not being stereotypically and cool with relation to his looks. He’s a generally funny character in the show. Genji Banzai!!
For the antagonists of this show, I felt they really lacked depth. Maybe the characters will be developed further in the next season but for the purposes of this review, they were severely underdeveloped. The interesting villains in this show only appear in the latter half of the anime. We also don’t know anything about them but they did bring me curiosity as to who they were. The leader of this band of antagonists, wasn’t too interesting; he's the run of the mill over-achieving world conquering villain with a likely sob story. Though like i mentioned earlier, i am still invested in what he’s going to turn out like and appreciate what he brings to the table
The OP, The Gospel of theThrottle Remix, specifically the AMV is absolutely well done. It really matches the mood and setting of the show. The ED however was quite forgettable for me except for the cool visuals I mentioned earlier. It definitely suits the show but it didn’t really interest me.
One thing that really enhanced my immersion was the OST. It was a beautiful mix of epic, classical and fantastical soundtracks. Each distinct soundtrack added depth to the scene that was playing. For example Saint-Germi, in most scenes with him or his compatriots you would hear classical music playing, accentuating that he’s from a classical period. You would have traditional Japanese music when the trio were fooling around. There was a very adventurous/fantastic track playing when the bird riders bombed ships. I just love how these different themes bring out different emotions to the show. It was well done and I thoroughly enjoyed them.
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