English Dub Season Review: SWORDGAI: The Animation Season 1

SWORDGAI. An all caps title so you know its cool.

Netflix has decided to really sink its teeth into the world of anime, picking up property after property to add to its ever-growing roster of animated adaptations. It feels like Netflix has become something of an “island of lost toys”, with all the discarded or on-hiatus properties it’s been picking up and adding to its belt. Its newest orphaned anime is called SWORDGAI: The Animation, an adaptation of the 2012 manga of the same name, which has been in development for some time, and probably wouldn’t see the light of day if it wasn’t for Netflix swooping in to pick it up.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that extra time for development has served it well.

The world of SWORDGAI is very much like our own. Its set in the modern day, and is decidedly low-fantasy, with one major exception: the world is populated with a staggering amount of magical cursed swords, which have gained sentience from their many years of taking in the blood and emotions of humanity. If a human takes possession of one of these weapons, the cursed blade will possess them and force them to murder people as it fills their mind with the urge to kill. Furthermore, if a cursed blade takes complete possession of its host, it will turn that host (Also known as a Chrysalis) into a Busoma, a monstrous entity which embodies the sword completely and is enormously powerful. Tasked with finding these cursed blades is an organization known as Shoshidai, which employs those who have become Chrysalises to capture the blades and keep them safe from an unsuspecting world. Unfortunately, Shoshidai drops the ball at the beginning of the series and accidentally lets Zsoltgewinn, the most powerful of these swords, possess their head chairman. Now the bastard sword is loose and gathering more and more Busoma to its side so it can terrorize humanity like never before.

Caught up in all this is a young boy named Gai, who is orphaned from his mother after she gets possessed by a cursed sword named “Shiryu”, and kills herself after going on a murderous rampage. Gai is adopted by a master swordsmith, and raised as his apprentice, though the boy carries an unmistakable connection with the demonic sword. After some of the early events in the series, Gai loses his arm in an accident, and his master fashions him a new one forged from the metal of Shiryu. With this advent, Gai finds himself in the employ of Shoshidai, and fights to protect the world from these cursed weapons.

Its a complicated setup, I know, but it yields to a pretty simple show premise: a worldwide treasure hunt to find magical swords before catastrophe strikes and their hapless owners end up hurting themselves and others. Along the way, we get plenty of opportunities to meet different Chrysalises, explore the Shoshidai organization, and see the development of Gai, whose connection to Shiryu gives him a troubled upbringing, to say the least.

For an anime, I’d say this kind of premise is fairly typical, and reminds me somewhat of the 2010 masterpiece epic, “Katanagatari”, with a little bit of noir flair added. Unfortunately, while “Katanagatari” wields a simple premise executed with stylish writing and well-developed characters, SWORDGAI can’t seem to get its act together, and ultimately falls flat on its face.

There are a few prominent troubles plaguing this anime, but I’d have to say the most stand-out one is its lack of a strong story structure. The anime claims that its about Gai, but takes almost half of the series to really bring him into the main plot. Instead, the show finds itself scatterbrained, divulging inordinate amounts of precious time to the many, many supporting characters in SWORDGAI. This hurts the show’s pacing, its flow, and its characters, who don’t really get enough individual time or focus to develop properly. Though I do enjoy an ensemble cast, that’s not really what this is; its more like the showrunners had the main character but forgot to make him the center of the show until halfway through. I think this is a side-effect of the seasonal release format which Netflix uses. In the right hands, it can be used for exceptional long-form storytelling. But without knowledge of how to do it properly, you can end up with a show like this, that can’t seem to find its groove or tension.

Furthermore, whatever thrill of discovery I might have had of SWORDGAI’s world and mysteries is mitigated by its endless amounts of expositional dialogue, a cardinal sin of bad anime in my book. Furthermore, the show is weighed down by copious amounts of filler; lots of uninteresting, budget-saving scenes that are more for episode padding than anything else. Combine that with the show’s plain animation, weak CGI, and…questionable voice acting, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for a bad anime cocktail.

All that being said, its not like the show is a horrible garbage fire. It’s decent enough; functional and coherent. But it’s boring. It has glimmers of excitement every now and again and does offer some genuinely enjoyable character moments, but these things are few and far between. It’s sad because I can sense that there’s potentially a good show in SWORDGAI, but it never really develops into its own. For now, this is just another milquetoast entry into Netflix’s ever-disappointing selection of anime derivatives. But that seems to be par for the course with Netflix these days; its about quantity over quality, and I’m sure there will be many shows like this to come as the Netflix empire grows ever stronger. Let’s let SWORDGAI fade into obscurity.

Score
5/10