As much as I’d like to appreciate the historical genre in AM, it is unfortunately not my cup of tea due to many many reasons. But instead of going through all of the bad points, I’ll just point out the largest one: It’s just too inaccurate. A crazy yet perfect example of an inaccurate historical anime (and ironically, the last historical anime I’ve viewed) is Nobunaga the Fool which had giant robots, space travel, and historical figures acting very different from their real counterparts (Looking at you, Jeanne Kaguya d’Arc).
Thankfully, Donten ni Warau does not include giant robots or space-ships. And while there were a few elements I didn’t completely agree with, they didn’t bother me to the point where I need to write it down and be all grumpy about it.
Donten ni Warau takes place eleven years after the beginning of the Meiji era, a well-known period when Japan began its westernization due to the large influx of westerners coming in the country and the Japanese leaving it to discover the world. With this large culture shock also came consequences from inside the country, such as the removal of privileges from the unneeded samurai class which led to a rather notable increase in criminality.
This is where the main characters of Donten ni Warau comes in, feared and known by many as the Kumo brothers. We have the eldest, Tenka, the second one, Soramaru, and the third one, Chutaro, who specialize in capturing criminals and delivering them to some scary giant prison built in the middle of Kyoto’s Lake Biwa.
So the story’s not exactly the most fascinating and it seems like a mash-up of elements reminding you of X or Y manga. And the first episode, while very solid, wasn’t impressive enough to convince most viewers to try out the series. I’m not sure about you guys, but seeing the second brother being continuously in angst mode made me want to rapidly skip-forward and ignore all of his scenes. But unfortunately for me, he is voiced by Kaji Yuuki – you don’t just say no to Kaji Yuuki.
Apart from Soramaru feeling inferior, I find it annoying how the brothers literally have the same face. For a work with a more-than-decent artwork, I expected more unique traits between the Kumo brothers, and not simply differences such as hair, clothes, or size.
There’s also an interesting element I’d like point out which I’m really looking forward to see how it develops: Orochi’s corpse (For those who don’t know, Orochi’s a giant snake from Japanese mythology) I believe it was only mentioned once in the first episode, but I seriously hope that it’ll be worth watching the anime…me being I’m a mythology geek and all.
Donten ni Warau had a solid first episode and did a good job of guiding the viewer by answering any relevant question that would come to mind like the time, place, and the precise roles of the characters. While the story doesn’t seem as interesting or even original at a first glance and judging by its first episode, it does hold a lot of promise due to the large cast and the particularity of its characters.
