Senkou no Night Raid Review.
...Senkou no Night Raid Review... Where do I begin with this?
I have a lot to say about this show, because it captured my heart and then held onto it for a good while. First, I'd like to thank my good friend for letting me borrow his BD copy of the show. No illegal viewing here. This is a spoiler free review, since, I do recommend giving the show a look if you haven't.
To start off, the show had a lot of heart. I could tell by watching that the people behind the production truly thought they were making something fantastic, and they were probably really attached to it. In that sense, I really enjoyed getting immersed in the characters, even if they didn't always get treated the best.
Night Raid had a lot of ideas, and yet, it seems very few of them landed the way I feel the writers intended them too.
Kazura was best boy, and probably the best part of the show. You're going to hear me saying that a lot, very unprofessionally, because I genuinely can't stress enough how much it is the case.
The show focuses on a group of supernaturally powered misfits who work for a secret intelligence agency run by a man named Sakurai. The four of them spend the duration of the fourteen episode series in China, investigating shady goings-on and, eventually, running after a rival group of people with supernatural abilities. The story takes place in the years leading up to World War II, and a specific focus is placed on Mukdan Incident, which I HIGHLY recommend reading up on if you're going to take a look at this series. Episode 7-13 are the Manchurian arc, which focuses on this. In contrast, the first six episodes are more light-hearted episodic shows building on the characters and their backstories, which do eventually add up to something which is pretty neat.
Kazura, despite getting the least backstory bullshit, ends up being this show's saving grace. He reminded me of the Fred Jones of the group, at least how I remembered Fred Jones. He's your tertiary group member who has a stick up his rear about rigid planning and straight-forward thinking. Actually, maybe Fred Jones isn't such a good analogy, but they just seem to occupy the same gang space in my eyes. Over the series, we see how his personality compliments situations and the other characters, especially Aoi, your loosey-goosey 'no rules!!!' free-spirit character, and it's actually pretty enjoyable. He also has a pretty satisfying arc resolution.
The finale was a clusterfuck. It sort of made me realize that the show's plot is essentially a cheesy 90s action movie. There's a good amount to love here. The OST is a bop, and the fight scenes are pretty good. I felt that none of the deaths felt earned or necessary. Multiple times in the finale I went "fuck off." Still, a nice casual watch if you're looking for that, and take my word for it that Kazura is the best character.
6.3/10
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