Radical Dreamers 2002

Synopsis: "To the one I love…prepare to die." This is perhaps the best synopsis for this anime. Two ninja clans hidden from prying human eyes---the Iga and the Kouga---bound together by a centuries-old grudge had long established an unwilling truce. The truce was about to attain finality with the marriage of Iga's Oboro and Kouga's Gennosuke---a tragically fated match. However, the flames of old grudges do not snuff out easily and the lovers grandparents, lovers themselves from decades back, unceremoniously decided at the last moment to rekindle the old sparks of revenge and ill-will towards each other's clans. Thus, a ninja scroll bearing the names of ten of the greatest warriors from each clan was brought forth, Oboro and Gennosuke included, with a single, cruel purpose---wipe each other out and spill blood down to the last warrior standing. Which side will prevail? Or rather…will the cursed grudges of the past triumph or will unconditional love save the tainted souls?

Review: When I watched the first eppie of this series with Cloud^, my first reaction was ok, my stomach's gonna turn over after seeing a lot of blood and guts slathered around like strawberry jam so let's just watch something else. Of course, I just finished Prince of Tennis then so the abrupt genre change would totally throw my system off-balance. A month later, I asked Cloud^ to watch Basilisk with me again and lo and behold! I finished the series in less than a week's time. The graphics were top-notch, the sounds were nothing to wail about, and the plot was veeeery interesting.

On the whole, it was still Shinobi, an extended version nevertheless and the one question that anybody viewing the series would repeatedly ask is: so who's going to kick the bucket in the next episode? Sure it's kinda gory and definitely bloody (and we're talking Ruruoni Kenshin Trust and Betrayal-type bloody here) but the waves of nausea I felt firsthand were quickly replaced by a cheering charm---cheering who gets to wipe out whom next. Unfortunately, the fight scenes are so short it's a good thing the ninja warriors' powers are explained beforehand, otherwise you could hardly tell from the battles, that is, if you could call some of them battles. A lot of the ninjas died while being stabbed from the front or back, strangled or mangled to death in about five to ten seconds minimum. That doesn't give much room for fancy swordplay or recitation of techniques (imagine Naruto spending several long, drawn-out seconds whipping up a technique before actually using it---d'you think the opponent would really wait for you to finish doing your mantra before striking?) which is both a relief and a disappointment. Relief because it's a fresh change from the usual gobbledegook being mumbled before the combatants actually beat each other's brains out and disappointment because you don't get to see as much as action as you'd want considering the fine animation which leaves you longing for more.

In a nutshell, this series comes highly recommended, especially since the samurai-fantasy genre has long been neglected what with the domination of shoujo and bishoujo-type animes. Basilisk is reminiscent of the old Ruruoni Kenshin genres that got us all hooked into anime when anime was still a distant nation crying for independence and recognition in this very biased world of ours that has a typically distorted view on what anime really is.

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Ratings are based on a maximum of 5
Reviewed By: Yanagi