English Dub Season Review: Bastard!! Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy Season One Part One

Based on the Japanese manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Kazushi Hagiwara. The world of Bastard takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where the result of modern civilization and the world being destroyed is due to the God of Destruction, Anthrasax, in 7 days, and then was sealed. Hundreds of years later, the Godlike sorcerer Dark Schneider leads a group in an attempt to control the world. Dark Schneider, in the end, is sealed in the body of a young baby, Lucien Renlen. 15 years later, his group, minus Schneider, attempts to continue the same mission by unsealing Anthrasax so they can redo the world in a twisted attempt to make it free of violence, war, and discrimination. To save the Kingdom of Metallicana, a girl named Yoko releases Dark Schneider from her friend Lucien. Now, Dark Schneider is in an unusual situation where he must fight his former comrades, not for altruistic reasons, but mostly fights to protect Yoko, and to have some destructive fun.

On the technical side, this Netflix adaptation was done by Liden Films (Terra Formars, Tokyo Revengers, Tribe Nine, and the 2016 Berserk remake) and is directed by Takaharu Ozaki (Who previously worked on Goblin Slayer, Persona 5, Girls’ Last Tour, and Takt Op. Destiny). 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 “Bloody Power Fame” which was done by Coldrain, while the ending theme is “Blessless” by Tielle which was entertaining, and heart-pounding, and appropriately set the tone with the crazy visuals for this thrill-ride of an anime.

Before watching Bastard!! you should probably understand what it is. It’s not Berserk, it’s not Goblin Slayer and it’s not some deep dramatic Dark Fantasy story and never tries to be any of those. It’s a D&D-inspired Dark Fantasy story that doesn’t take itself too seriously. At its core, it’s a throwback to classic 80’s & 90’s anime that was unapologetically adult with a touch of “Sword & Sorcery” such as the 1982 Conan the Barbarian film’s brutality and atmosphere thrown in for good measure. Much like its Manga source material, it’s self-aware with its subtle and not-so-subtle sex jokes and references to 80’s Metal bands similar to how Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure references music in most of its stories and characters. However, unlike Jojo, Bastard’s references are primarily relegated to certain character names, spell incantations, and specific locations which some were understandably changed for copyright reasons, while other times within the script were shockingly left untouched upon watching the English Dub.

The animation is excellently handled capturing the essence of the dark dystopian setting it’s going for. And while I give points for keeping many of the Manga’s sex jokes & innuendo’s intact, I find it strange that they would feel the need to make nipples nonexistent the same way Dorohedoro did with its female characters, or the way the shadows carefully obscure Dark Schneider’s genitals in certain scenes where he’s nude (and trust me, there’s a lot of them). I mean if you’re going to stay true to what you’re adapting, why not show everything without going full Hentai?

As the title implies, Dark Schneider is a morally ambiguous protagonist who, to put it mildly, is a Hedonistic and violent force of nature and most of the show’s conflict comes from either Schneider himself or the people who used to be part of his circle in the past. Yet still, if you can accept that you may find it as enjoyable as I did. What keeps Schneider in check from being a completely despicable, murderous, and barbaric, bastard (see what I did there?) who has no qualms about murdering the people he’s forced to protect is possibly Yoko who after breaking the magical seal that imprisoned him inside a dopey teenager with a simple “virgin’s kiss”, Yoko, later on, starts to develop mixed feelings about her new predicament that both herself and Lucien are forced into. Progressively and consequently in later episodes, the personalities of Schneider and Lucien sometimes blur together, much like that of Amon and Akira Fudo do in Devilman Crybaby or how Bruce Banner’s consciousness would sometimes take the proverbial wheel behind Hulk’s physical form depending on the writers in certain Marvel storylines.

Considering that this is an adaptation of a long out-of-print anime/manga franchise that’s been around since 1988, the manga has been on long hiatus since 2010 and outside of this had a short-lived OVA adaptation in 1992. The show, for the most part, stays surprisingly true to its source material and follows similar tropes to classic Shonen anime/manga where certain enemies from Schneider’s past end up siding with the protagonists or helping them to some capacity after being defeated, and despite certain female antagonists & characters being every bit as sexualized in their design’s from the manga it’s based on, all of them have their own desires and are all interesting free-thinking individuals in their own right who are more than just bland eye-candy. And while it’s sometimes played for laughs, they occasionally call out Schneider’s hedonistic behavior if the situation calls for it. Also, while certain episodes had a post-credits scene here and there, it knew how to leave me hooked with one hell of a cliffhanger by episode 13.

Overall, while it’s not perfect, I loved the shit out of this anime! In some ways, it slightly gave off Inuyasha vibes while simultaneously managing to be less annoying and set itself apart in a plethora of ways. Much in the same way Netflix is splitting Jojo: Stone Ocean and Tiger & Bunny Season Two, this 25-episode ONA (Original Net Anime), is split into two halves with part one having the first 13 episodes released worldwide, while the remaining 12 episodes are scheduled for a yet to be revealed release date. While it’s unclear at the time of this review when the 2nd half will be out, you can be damn sure I’ll come back to see how they could possibly continue after this.