ENGLISH DUB SEASON REVIEW: BASTARD!! HEAVY METAL, DARK FANTASY SEASON TWO PART ONE

Based on the Japanese manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Kazushi Hagiwara. The story continues two years later as Another of the Four Divine Kings, the formidable Kall-Su, reigns as High King. He has raised a large army led by the 12 Sorcerer Shoguns and searches for Princess Sheila, who holds the final key to resurrecting Anthrasax. The survivors of the Kingdom of A-Ian-Maiden band together around the samurai and form a resistance, clashing with the Sorcerer Shoguns across the land. Among the samurai corps is someone who survived the great war two years prior: Tia Noto Yoko…

On the technical side, a lot of the positives from Season One are thankfully carried over to Season 2 Part One, and continue to be carried over with the animation being handled by Liden Films (Terra Formars, Tokyo Revengers, Tribe Nine, and the 2016 Berserk remake) and is directed by Takaharu Ozaki. With scripts written by Yōsuke Kuroda, character designs by Sayaka Ono and music composed by Yasuharu Takanashi of Fairy Tail fame. The opening theme is “New Dawn” by Coldrain, while the ending theme is “La Muse perdue” by Tielle.

After less than a year in hiatus and a long-ass Season that was split into two parts. Bastard Returns with a new Season with 15 episodes for it’s first half that mostly continue the wacky debaucherous antics of Dark Schneider who doesn’t appear until the 3rd episode, but at least it makes sense to the plot as the entire Season is a time-skip taking place two years after the shit that went down at the “Metalicana” castle with certain characters either presumed or possibly Dead, or somehow half-way across the world. But once Dark Schneider reawakens, the story begins to pick up with newer character dynamics this time around that make the proceedings certainly fun to watch with the occasional sex joke or a 4th wall breaking joke here and there, and the newer battles between the Samurai whom Yoko and Schneider have sided with against the “Shogun Sorcerer’s” who are followers of the newest antagonist they’re now up against, The Ice Wizard Kall-Su.

In terms of character growth, Yoko to a certain degree has taken a more active role and has grown into a formidable priestess. While the new antagonist they’re currently up against who was briefly touched upon in Parts “One” and Two” of Season 1 is now fully expanded upon as it further explores Kall-su’s origins as a character. The flashbacks of his past are properly fleshed out giving him surprisingly more depth and pathos and helps further recontextualize his relationships with Schneider and even the half-elf Arshes Nei.

The other supporting characters are almost hard to follow when it comes to the Samurai and Showgun Sorcerers and will occasionally get an episode or two dedicated to them. But unless they have a unique weapon or ability that sets them apart, they sometimes feel interchangeable with how many warriors they are on both sides, especially since most of them in their introduction scenes when they show their names at the bottom aren’t even translated even when the English subtitle setting is on.

Thankfully, when some of the characters’ names, incantations, or locations are spoken out loud, they continue to provide fun Easter eggs for fans of rock bands since it still continues to sprinkle these references to various rock bands, singers, or musicians. (For example, a glasses-wearing warrior named “Hammet” after Kirk Hammet of Metallica fame.) And as par for the course, the show also continues its traditional tropes to classic Shonen anime/manga where certain enemies from Schneider’s past or newer enemies that are later introduced end up siding with the protagonists or helping them to some capacity after being their asses whooped, Sometimes it’ll even catch you off guard who ends up siding with them.

Of course, the show isn’t that perfect. One of the major downsides being Netflix’s hypocritical desire to keep censoring the casual nudity of their own anime with well-placed shadows and nonexistent nipples, while casually flaunting it on their live-action shows like “Orange is the New Black”. It’s not impossible to show nudity without going full Hentai, and it makes me wonder if they’ll ever insert what was edited out if a physical release of any kind ever becomes a reality since Japan’s nudity laws are very different out in the West as they mostly censor genitals with mosaics, but never nipples.

The animation continues to be a spectacle to behold. With gory effects galore, and finding a balance of comedic moments and big action setpieces involving giant monsters or elemental battles. Especially with the battles between the Samurai and Shogun Sorcerers. Occasionally the battles elevate to further emphasize how powerful a character is with a noteworthy scene involving a Shogun Sorcerer named Campine whose ability to manipulate razor/steel threads like he’s Walter from Hellsing results in some very gory dismemberments of a few characters that also leads a ridiculously implausible moment of a character surviving and running on the stumps of his severed arms and legs without somehow dying of blood loss. Or scenes where characters regenerate lost limbs or body parts using their magic in battles, or a Shogun Sorcerer whose grotesque body gives off similar creepy vibes to John Carpenter’s “The Thing”.

Overall, Bastard continues what makes this show great with its newer additions such as proper character development, the introduction of newer characters who are sometimes compelling, and expanded world-building, while occasionally glaring the downsides to being part of Netflix’s library when it comes to the backwards thinking nature of their censorship by a streaming service that was once famous for breaking boundaries that normal TV & movies wouldn’t dare explore at the time but now are showing how lacking in whatever confidence they once had. And unless you’ve followed their Twitter or Netflix’s YouTube pages, there’s no way you could’ve known that a new season was released or how many video trailers were made. While it’s unclear when part two of season 2 gets released at the time of this review, you can be damn sure I’ll be coming back for more of Dark Schneider’s continent-sized Ego and entertainingly wacky rockstar-like antics.