Utawarerumono: The False Faces
 Based off a visual novel for the Playstation platforms, Utawarerumono is the biggest disappointment for me this season. Sure, I dropped a few others (Comet Lucifer, Attack on Titan: Junior High, and Mr Osomatsu) due to a lack of interest, but for some reason I had higher hopes for Utawarerumono.

I think I had placed my expectations higher for mostly 2 reasons. One, I thought (based off the first couple of episodes) that the world it was set in looked interesting. It has a kind of mixing of Chinese and Japanese aesthetic in a fantasy setting which I found appealing. Two, the animation was really pretty good. Some beautiful scenes are featured, especially in the OP.

And the show keeps good animation throughout. The story however is another matter.

The pacing of the story is slow. It starts with potential and kind of fizzles out. You get an idea that something interesting may be happening in the background, but this doesn’t get fleshed out. Instead we get:

 

Fan service. Animal-eared and tailed girls acting pointlessly “cutesy” and multiple bathing scenes. You also have the main character ending each sentence she utters with: “I think”. It is annoying. I can forgive some fan service here and there if the story is good and going somewhere, but this just feels like it is exploiting it for it’s own sake.

Now maybe if I had watched the other associated anime or played the visual novel I would appreciate this show more, but I didn’t and I don’t.

Attention Parents: Overall the show doesn’t have a lot wrong with it, but there is nudity and some ecchi situations that may not be appropriate for younger viewers.

Go ahead and give it a try. Just because it wasn’t my thing doesn’t mean it won’t be yours.

Until next time. Happy viewing!