Bastard!!

The great thing about anime is there is something for everyone. You name it; it exists. Now that can be good or bad depending on the anime and the genre. A Slice of Life anime that is well done might garner praise, while a Shounen anime loaded with violence and an excessive amount of ecchi might have a few detractors. Despite the negative opinions, there is a market for fan service, and in Japan, there is a market for voluptuous 2-D girls. If there weren’t, fans wouldn’t flock to it—different strokes for different folks.

One of my favorite anime is the anime “Bastard!!” The original “Bastard” (Basutādo!! Ankoku no Hakaishin) was released in 1992, and I was first introduced to it by a manga fan buddy. The anime was an OVA that ran for six episodes. It was animated by AIC and ran from 1992 to 1993. The manga was written and illustrated by Kazushi Hagiwara, and without diving off course, I'll just say that with 30 million issues, it is one of Japan’s most popular series.

Now when an anime is remade, there's always that fear that it's not going to be as good as the original, somehow they’ll mess it up, it's going to have trash animation, etc., etc. Fortunately, studios have remade anime like “Hunter x Hunter,” “Fruits Basket,” and Fullmetal Alchemist, to name a few, and the remakes have become classics. In fact, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood remains the number one anime on MAL.

Now, to be honest, as I said earlier, I am a fan of the anime and the manga; however, I won't front as if I knew that Bastard was being remade or released on Netflix. I don't associate Netflix with anime; it is a streaming service for movies and tv shows. So it was only through a stroke of conversation that I discovered it had been remade, and I needed to give it a spin. Now to Netflix’s credit, I associate them with comedy. I watch a lot of comedy series on the platform, but I digress. But regarding the anime in question, did Netflix deliver the goods? Keep reading.

So the premise of the Bastard!! The remake, as well as the original OVA, is the same. The remake follows the first four or five episodes of the OVA. Four centuries ago, the demon god Anthrasax was defeated by the Dragon Knight, plunging the world into a new Dark Age. During this dark period, the legendary Dark Schneider reigned supreme. He spent his time building the greatest rock band (Riders of Havoc) and amassing a harem greater than the most extraordinary isekai OP protagonist. This also includes reverse harem protagonists as well.

Like many groups, bands break up and lose the limelight for many reasons. In Dark Sneider's case, his ego got the best of him, and because this is a sorcery anime, he finds himself reincarnated inside the body of Lucien Renren, a boy of about fourteen. Lucien is nothing like Dark Schneider. Lucien has a penchant for doing domestic duties, going as far as doing laundry and cooking. If Lucien were in a band, he’d just be a roadie.

Lucien is in the care of Tia Noto Yoko, the headstrong daughter of Geo Noto Soto, who is responsible for imprisoning Dark Schneider inside the boy. Dark Sneider can only be awakened via a virgin's kiss, so insert Shota here as a point of reference. If Koko Hekmatyar were real, she would be smiling right now. Tia Noto Yoko, sometimes called Yoko or Tia, is our resident virgin and cleric. As the show progresses, she becomes the primary love interest of Dark Schnieder, and you can insert a love polygon here.

Before his time in Lucien, Dark Schneider was the most assertive wizard and resident badass. His band consisted of the Four Divine Kings of the Dark Rebel Armies, Gara, leader of the ninjas, Kall-Su, Abigail, and Arshes Nei, the Thunder Empress. Without their band leader, who has been off the scene for fifteen years, the foursome decides to do something dumb like resurrecting a demon god to be the new frontman. A Demon that they probably can't control. In the 2022 remake, Kall-Su and Abigail are the main antagonists though they generally appear behind the scenes.

To awaken the God of Destruction, Anthrasax, they must obtain the Four Seals, which is how they happen upon Meta-llicana. The seals are what bind Anthrasax.

The first 13 episodes of Bastard are a Summer 2022 release, and the second half consists of 11 episodes are a Fall 2022 release. With that being said, the first 13 episodes focus on two of the four Divine Kings, Gara and Arshes Nei. Bastard can be broken down into several parts. The first is the attack on Meta-llicana, where Dark is awakened by Yoko and defeats the demon hoard led by Osborn. After this, we meet sexy love interest Sheila Tuel Meta-llicana, the princess of Metallicana. Sheila is our filler girl for the series, moving the viewer to how Dark Schneider wins Gara's loyalty, who is Guts spitting image from the 2016 Berserk anime (Liden Films). Insert more shota here.

Since this is a dark fantasy comedy ecchi anime, it lacks deep character development. Well, not quite. The original 1992 anime did not take itself seriously, nor did its remake. It pokes fun at itself and other anime and, on numerous occasions, breaks the fourth wall. The filler drags at times, and some of the ecchi become cyclical; however, it is quickly overshadowed by the Arshes Nei, the Thunder Empress. When Gara succumbs to the changed person of Dark Schneider, Arshes Nei takes center stage. Her backstory is intertwined with Dark Schneider, and she, along with Yoko, rounds out the love polygon.

Arshes Nei is the commander of Sean Hari, Kai Harn, and the Vampire Dai Amon. When Gara joins Dark, she endows Sean and Kai with powers and abilities that they might stand a chance of defeating Dark Schneider. Unfortunately, she fails to give them the ability to withstand his seduction as each lady falls to his whims. However, that may soon be challenged credit to Lucien for being a part of Dark, as he only has eyes for Yoko. As the only male, he, like the rest, was persuaded to swear loyalty to our protagonist. The third of the trio goes down as well.

This sets up the climactic battle between Gara, the Thunder Empress, Dark Schneider, and his former lover ending on a cliffhanger.

Liden Films is less well-known than MAPPA, Unfotable, or Toei Animation, but they list a few anime bangers. Liden Films is known for 2016’s Berserk, Tokyo Revengers, and Cells at Work! Code Black and Call of the Night. Under the direction of Kazuhiro Inoue, Liden was joined by multiple studios such as Gainax, Shaft, Bones, and Silver Link, each working in secondary animation duties.

The animation remains consistent throughout the series though there seem to be some quality issues near the latter episodes. The character designs are nothing worth doting upon, though. It's the attention to detail that makes them stand out. The half human half elf Thunder Empress is one of the anime's best-drawn, Illustrated, and animated characters. She may very well be a waifu among waifus.

The focus was not the ecchi alone, but the fight scenes and the overall atmosphere work to immerse the viewer into this world. Much effort is placed into the ecchi scenes, with some shots being commendable, showing the various stages of emotion from love to arousal. In other words, “I came for the chest but stayed for the rest.”

That couldn’t be accomplished without the excellent voice acting and music enveloping this anime. Characters meshed well, and over-the-top comedy kept me entertained. Both the intro and outro themes "Bloody Power Fame" by coldrain and "Blessless" by Tielle were enjoyable though skipped due to Netflix’s binge-watching features.

I look forward to the second half of this series and seeing how it concludes. As the first half of the anime does not pull in much information from the manga, I hope the second half provides more depth, focuses more on the story, and less on the ecchi. This is not to say that the ecchi is a deal breaker; the manga provides many more stories that I would like added. Now one thing I eluded to but should have mentioned is the numerous references to the great hair bands of the eighties.

Kazushi Hagiwara was a huge fan of Metallica, Antraxx, Judas Priest, and the Dungeons and Dragons game, just to name a few. The character Dai Amon who I initially thought was an homage to rock legends Kiss, is a reference to King Diamond, a Danish rocker who I will undoubtedly check out soon. With these references, Boomers and Generation Xers may find Bastard!! Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy to more of an enjoyment and a throwback to the Golden Age of anime. I found thirteen episodes of straightforward enjoyment with no strings attached, and I recommend it.