DRIFTERS

DESCRIPTION

CAST

OVA ActionDrifters (OVA)
MANGA ActionDrifters
OVA ActionDRIFTERS OVA
OVA ActionDRIFTERS: Special edition
SPECIAL ActionHELLSING: THE DAWN

REVIEWS

• 

  PlatinuMan

  65/100
  Hirano's work Drifters is a solid show that might just excel over its predecessor.

  Drifters is a seinen title based on the manga by Kouta Hirano. The story is set in a medieval fantasy world where both humans and demi humans (such as elves and dwarves) live. This world is soon greeted by two sets of foreigners from the real world - “Drifters” and “Ends”. Both groups are comprised of historical figures tied to war or a fight of their time. They are taken before their death by one of two mysterious people. A man named Murasaki chooses fighters for his Drifters, while a girl named Easy picks candidates for her Ends. What sets them apart are their given roles in this story. The Ends seek out the destruction of humankind and the Drifters are assigned to stop the Ends from their slaughter.

  As the name implies, the show’s perspective is from the eyes of the Drifters. Though there is a fair amount of fighters with this title, the anime focuses on three in particular. Toyohisa Shimazu is the appointed leader of the group and is a classic warrior type, whose battle-minded ways make him great in the fights but a bit barbaric outside of them. Nobunaga Oda is a crafty middle-aged man, dubbed the “Devil King of the Sixth Heaven” who doesn’t fight as much as come up with strategy to make the Drifters team a fighting threat. Finally, there’s Yoichi Nasu, a bishonen archer whose aim is as good as his looks. The anime follows these three as they work their way up to be a formidable foe, from freeing demi humans from their serfdom and slavery to coming up with cunning plans in the midst of a fight.

  The concept of Drifters isn’t too far removed from one of Hirano’s previous works, Hellsing. Hellsing mainly attracted an audience by blending its dark supernatural characters with hyper violence, occasionally sprinkling in historical references. Drifters changes this mixture – it still has the violence and supernatural elements, but it grounds itself more so in the history. Despite being a fantasy world, it feels more down-to-earth than other shows with this title. The Octobrists are a magician organization that wishes for the Drifters support to defeat the Ends. Though they are magicians, they are only seen using basic spells called “charms”. Their communication, though much more advanced than the setting, relies on a magic sphere on two users’ ends, acting more like a phone than anything magical. Though what we see is limited, it shines due to how it’s used. Toyohisa and the gang use the Octobrists’ magic in interesting ways to serve their needs, showing how easily they adapt to foreign concepts. Spells the Octobrists thought of only for defense are used offensively to surprise and crush the enemy. Even the communication orb was used primarily as a “recording diary” before the Drifters came along! I prefer this creative use of magic over the typical mage/wizard roles seen in fantasy shows.

  That’s not to say this show is free from absurd magic. The Ends are characters that have “given up their humanity” for strong magical power. This is seen in Jeanne D’ Arc, who has incredible fire magic, and Toshizou, who uses ghost warriors to assist him in battle. Most interesting is the dreaded Black King, who has power over cellular replication that can heal/hurt single targets almost instantly. What makes these powers exciting is how they’ve been given to the villains, not the heroes. Wits dominate fights against the Ends and seeing how the Drifters turn the tide in battle is a lot of fun to watch. Fans of JoJo Part 2: Battle Tendency will adore these fights, as Toyohisa parallels Joseph Joestar. There’s nothing in Drifters that will make you rethink battles, but there are a few surprises that kept me wanting to watch the next episode.

  Drifters has an interesting lot of characters, which is its strength and one of its problems. I find there are too many of them for this short first season and they didn’t need to be here this early on. Characters like Butch Cassidy and Naoshi Kanno really had no reason being here. They may have turned the tide in the battle they were present in, minor as it was, but they’re never really seen beyond this. I’m sure all the Drifters will meet up eventually to take down the Black King’s army, but they didn’t need to be present at this time. This time could’ve been use for more focus on the main trio, in particular Yoichi. Despite being labeled as a main character, Yoichi doesn’t get a whole lot of time or emphasis compared to Oda or Toyohisa. I saw Toyohisa’s warrior life in action in and outside of fights and I saw the humor mixed with dark cunning of Oda. Save for a brief moment talking to his old leader, Yoshitsune, Yoichi felt more like a strong supporting character. I hope that more insight will be given to him.

  Humor is another thing Hirano and I generally disagree on. In Hellsing, ugly chibi-looking characters would break the ice at the wrong time and would be a lot cruder than what I like. This returns in Drifters, but I find it’s been toned down a bit. The toilet humor seems less prevalent in these scenes. Though one of Hannibal’s first “jokes” is that he can’t control his bladder, it’s a bit more understandable as he’s very old (though I still could’ve done without it). The humor mainly focuses on references to Japanese war history. This isn’t my strong suit, so moments like the Drifters’ first meetup in Episode 1 went over my head. That said, they normally are quick off-hand jokes, so they don’t fill up the show as much as they give a wink to a history loving audience.

  Drifters’ art is what you’d expect from Hirano. Characters have large ringed irises for eyes, thick jagged lines make their outlines, and shadows that cover their face (save for a single eye) are all present. It’s a style that’s distinctly his and works great for his action series. Of course, the series also includes Hirano’s “ugly faces” he uses for comedy but it’s not as bad here. Maybe because there’s less poop drawings or perhaps I’ve grown accustomed to it. The animation team at Hoods Drifters Studio did a fair job. They use CG models at times (such as the soldiers) and it’s not the most fluid, but it’s not bad by any means. Sometimes it’s even in their favor - I like the “rough sketch” animatic look in the opening, more so than the cheap animation tweens that accompany it. The music of the series is upbeat rock and fits the action well. One track I like in particular starts as a flute track played through an old radio before becoming a strange Middle Eastern sounding piece. I didn’t care for the “lazy cool” vocals (with the “aw yeahs” in the verses) and sound of the opening and I do not like Kurosaki’s vocals for the ED (the acoustic guitar in the final episode was a welcome change). The seiyuus all did a fine job, though none here stood out in particular for me.

  Overall, I give Drifters a 6.5/10. I didn’t care too much for Hellsing, so I was surprised as to how much I liked Drifters. If you liked Hellsing, or perhaps Hirano’s style in general, this is a must-watch. Those looking for a fun action series akin to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure will also appreciate this show. Drifters is a bit fantastic in concept and occasionally campy, but it was a fun watch and I certainly wouldn’t mind viewing a second season.

  Do you like or dislike this anime? If you haven't watched it, are you encouraged to watch it or not? Leave a comment on my profile telling me what you think of the anime and/or my review.

  Thanks for reading and have a blessed day!

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• 

  Pandoras

  89/100
  Epic as fuck bois?, i mean this shit is "Telita"

  Before starting this review, I would like to note that almost every character of Drifters is a historical figure, so I would highly recommend you to Google it (search Drifters characters in a real life historical figure Ej- Shogun Tokugawa.)Anyways lets start.

  Story : Toyohisa of the Shimazu clan is in the heat of the battle of Sekigahara in 1600 (prepare your anus).which signaled the start of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan; the only thing he thinks about is how to behead the enemy commander and he is ready to achieve this goal by all means. Having fatally injured the enemy commander, Toyohisa is also about to die. Suddenly he finds himself in a white corridor, facing a man that man is wearing in office clothes hes sitting at a desk a few moments later he is sent to a new land, where some historical figures in this world there's only 2 instances (Drifters and Villians) where they fight some actually strong villains, but even then there's no tension because you know they're gonna win for sure and i don't really care enough about the characters to give a damn about those fights. Now Shortly after that he finds out that he, as well as his new companions, are Drifters. Why were Drifters sent to this world? Find out the answer now!.

  Art and Music: The art and music are close similar to Hellsing, so if you have already seen Hellsing you will recognize it immediately and will not have any problems with it. If you have not seen Hellsing Ultimate yet, it will not be a problem, either. The art style is amazing, every single detail of all characters is just beautiful. And, yes, that Japanese themed Alucard is just badass. The music, however, did not leave a huge impression on me. Of course, the voice actors did one hell of a job, but I was hoping to see something close to what was in Hellsing Ultimate. Anyway, the music used in Drifters is a mix of traditional Japanese music, jazzy beats, and rock.

  Characters: Thank God they all look great, because they are way more of a mixed bag when it comes to their characterization. The main character, Toyohisa, is a cool intense badass samurai, but he is sort of boring in the way that Superman is boring because he is pretty much invulnerable. Of the other two mains Nobunaga is actually pretty great and my favorite character on the show; he is a great blend of funny critique of Nobunaga Oda as historical figure and wacky anime guy in crazy anime world. He is clearly having a great time, which makes him fun to watch. Yoichi, the other (semi)prominent lead, is kind of just an archer who kills things with archery. Cool but vanilla. Speaking about villain some of the villains are also pretty interesting in the context of the historical figures they represented. At one point I was like "yeah I guess Joan of Arc might be a little pissed about getting lit on fire." That was an entertaining tangent. The identity of the main villain will probably piss some people off a whole bunch, but I though it was a pretty neat examination of a controversial historical figure
  Overall:
  All in all, this show feels OLD. The jokes feel old, the story is about olden times, the main cast is markedly older than the majority of anime casts, and the target audience appears to be people who like Tolkien but also really enjoy reading world history textbooks in their spare time (which is, I guess, kinda me). If you catch all the references to history, you might think its pretty funny at times.

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• 

  CodeBlazeFate

  54/100
  This show is a tonal mess that's hard to care about on any level that isn't related to primal, epic bloodbaths.

  "FATALITY!" -Every Mortal Kombat game since 1992.

  SPOILERS FOR DRIFTERS

  War is hell. We know this to be true by now. This also applies to the fact about there being a lot of "sent to another world" anime adaptations. You really need to do something really unique to stand out if you're one of these shows, and while I'd like to say that SAO and Re:Zero conditioned me to think otherwise, its obvious that their additions to the concept alone (bloodthirsty video game world and reset after death respectively) were what made them stand out, even if the actual concept, for most part does the exact opposite. With this show, they decided to make it have a full-fledged war, with loads of carnage peppered throughout. The concept is very interesting, especially since the war consists of famous people from many different eras of different countries. It's sort of like the Fate/ series, except that this time, all of the combatants were based on real people instead of sprinkling mythological people into the mix. So, was this a true breath of fresh air for the genre? Did it manage to do that while being a genuinely great war story? Well, let's find out, shall we?

  So, there is some kind of conflict between Easy and Murasaki (which doesn't get explained or fleshed out) that caused them to start sending people to this unidentified new world in which there are two main factions at war: Drifters (deceased war heroes), and Ends (once noble beings who have gone bad for their own reasons tying into their demise, but not all of them have their backstory shown to us). There are also humans who enslave two kinds of demi-humans: elves, and dwarves. Drifters are fighting to bring down the human governments of this world via conquest, and destroy the Ends, while the Ends are fighting to destroy the world and all inhabitants (despite the fact that their leader just wants the demi-humans to be the main inhabitants). So, what the hell happened here?

  Ultimately, the first few episodes were rough. Not only were there some minor plot holes, but there is one gigantic issue that really damages this series: the tone shifts. You can have a moment in which villagers all horrifyingly stab a man to death in brutal fashion, and then seconds later, they show cracks a random joke. They do this so often, and sometimes, in the most inopportune of times, ruining some of the darker and heavier moments of the show. Sure, this means that, inevitably, a few of these end up being funny, but, for most part, they end up harming more than helping.

  The series does pick up, but a few new issues really hamper this show. Every time one of the Ends is about to die or be defeated, we suddenly get their backstory in order to make the story sad, and that just doesn't work. In order for that to work, we need the characters to be more than just one-dimensional baddies before-hand, and they pull this stunt three times! Also, the finale just...ends, without any major resolution. Just, a battle ends, and here is one image of where each Drifter is at the moment, in an obvious, and quite frankly, rushed sequel-hook, particularly because some of the characters, like Scipio and Butch Cassidy, have been left by the wayside, especially Scipio with the fact that he has been left in the jungle but suddenly he's in a navy ship with a character that has only been seen for one brief moment. Hell, there are other moments that required some time to explain, like how the Drifters suddenly got human armor when their last battle (which was two episodes prior) didn't have nearly as many people killed to remotely equal the amount of armor and weapons present. Shame too, since if this concept was explored more and the story were tightened up, this would've definitely been a good first season to what looks to be an otherworldly war epic.

  It's really hard to tolerate these "Drifters" early on. I mean, they were all a bunch of quarreling assholes without anything interesting about their character, and by the end of it, some of the more minor additions (like Hannibal and Scipio) were still like that. Luckily, our main trio grew. Toyo is a crazed warrior who loves decapitating enemy warriors, as long as they are male. His culture and all Japanese war cultures at the time do not like the thought of women engaged in combat. He ends up also being a bot more chivalrous towards females and children than his cohorts while understanding people more than he probably should (reminding me a lot of Ragna the Bloodedge, from the Blazblue game series) and I'll touch on that in a bit. Nobunaga is a much more brutal tactician as well as being a hardier individual than his allies. His violent streak, as a result of his culture and his multiple times being betrayed, makes for some of the best usages of military tactics I've seen in a war anime in quite some time. Yoichi ends up being more in between when it comes to his companions' traits, but with more of a tragic war past, which is shallowly explored via his commander, who ends up chatting with him once, and that's it. He's probably the least interesting of the trio, but at least, he ends up being the crux of some of the better comedy moments of the first 3 episodes.

  Butch Cassidy and the other Drifters are infinitely less interesting, but he is easily the most tolerable of them (along with The Sundance Kid for how little he shows up), with him actually doing some cool stuff. Sure, Naoshi takes down some dragons in a WWII plane, but he's just there to provide some refreshing amounts of swearing, which ends up becoming excessive. There is also Count Saint-Germi (the son of Hitler) with his coup d'etat scheme, and his annoying posse (Alester and Flemi), but they are mostly there to be annoying and provide bad comedy until the count himself starts that plan with the Drifters to overthrow the human government.

  The Octobrists are overall very uninteresting, except for Olmine, who is constantly made fun of for her voluptuous breasts, but has some genuinely great interactions with Toyo, as he shows her some good chivalry and allows her to use her spells to great effect in the latter half of the series. She is literally the only remotely interesting Octobrist. As for the Ends, with exception of The Black King, all of them are as plain as they come (with the slight exception of Anastasia, who is barely in this show). Then, they (except for Anestasia and Rasputin) get their backstories to explain why they are so evil and a bit about how that ties in with their powers (Only Joan of Arc does. Gilles de Rais and Hijikata doesn't get anything relating to his powers, and nobody gets their power origins outright explained) in a poor attempt at making these lame characters come off as tragic, which is really horrible given their real-life counterparts.

  The Black King is an interesting figure, wanting better civilization for the demi-humans, and being able to create food as well as grow cells (to regenerate, but also to harm, as shown with the Bronze Dragon in episode 10), but even with his somewhat interesting motivations and enigmatic figure, he can't really make up for how bland his subordinates are. Easy is the one who sends the bad guys in, is moody, and that's about it aside from having a cutesy and girly room to herself. Murasaki is even more bland, though. Overall, despite a few characters that grew to be legitimately interesting and compelling, the cast is stupidly bland at best, and irritating at worst.

  Hoods Drifters Studio (not to get confused with Hoods Entertainment, though they may or may not be affiliated) is brand new to this game, and they did a really good job with their first series, which is, of course, this. As if to make up for the writing quality, the action is refreshingly brutal, with loads of decapitation and blood, and no censorship anywhere. It's pretty fun seeing how much of a chaotic gore-fest the action scenes are, and they detail some of the bullet moments and impacts very well. The character models, while looking similar to Kouta Hirano's most popular work, Hellsing Ultimate, they also feel realistic and sorta unique. The only problem I have isn't with the art-stye change during most of the comedy moments, but rather with the usage of CGI for the dragons and some of the soldiers. They try to cover it up and make it work with everything, but it doesn't really help much, as it looks awkward. Luckily, that problem is barely present in the second half. Some moments in the earlier episodes are a bit off though. Still, I really hope to see this studio grow since they did such an impressive job with their first project.

  I don't have such high praises for the music, sadly. Gospel of the Throttle (by Minutes 'Til Midnight), the OP of the series, doesn't fit the show as well as I wish. On its own, it's a slick piece, but I don't feel it works here. Luckily, the ED, Vermillion (by Maon Kurosaki) is a very good song, with a more epic and buildup heavy feel to it that really fits with how gruesome and heavy the show can be. The rest of the OST isn't memorable or worthwhile at all, save for one ok piece. The dub is pretty alright. No major hiccups here, but nothing spectacular in terms of performances. It's a relatively solid dub so far.

  Honestly, despite how cool and refreshing the action scenes were, this show kinda left me feeling bored and annoyed every now and then, especially in the first half. I admit, the action is fun, and some moments were definitely bleak, the horrible tone-shifts really leave me dazed and confused, and completely taken out of the experience, which is horrible given that one of these moments take place immediately after the darkest moment of the show! If not for the cool action, this wouldn't have engaged me at all, especially since the first 3 episodes left me with the feeling of darkness-induced apathy. I nearly dropped it during those first 3 episodes and even then, outside of fight scenes, this show is still very boring at times. Plus, not a lot of the gags make me laugh, but at least some of them do.

  Unfortunately, while this is a very gruesome action show and some of the gags get a laugh here and there, this show is a tonal mess that's hard to care about on any level that isn't related to primal, epic bloodbaths. At the very least, I hope that this series ends up bringing some notoriety for Hoods Drifters Studio. Still, this show is a bit of a disappointment. With all that said, I bid you adieu.

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