Kemono No Souja Erin - #HowToWasteGoodBuildup

Lots of potentials that got nuked in just 2 episodes 😂. For an anime with 50 fucking episodes, they sure got no idea how to optimize this fantastic world-building with a sizable cast in hand. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it a lot, but at the same time it pissed me off almost equally.

That the entire conflict being resolved in less than 2 episodes ON TOP of a time skip after that is just downright an insult to what this show has built up in the previous events.

What’s more, they have time for a filler episode featuring pointless characters like the two brothers but none for Ial and Erin in the aftermath? Holy crap, I’m just simply at a loss for a word 😂.

But even if I ignore the horrid pacing at the endgame, some of the plot points didn’t sit well with me either. The worst part to me is how they kept baiting us into killing off some of the characters but they all lived in the end anyway except for the cringe villain whose death was also pretty badly handled in all honesty.

Can’t say I’m a fan of how the Touda not escaping the fate of being fodders either. Beast-Lords are cool but I wish the Touda had a bigger part to play. Given how both creatures are featured on the transitioning pictures of the anime (OP and 2nd half of each episode), I think the Touda were treated a bit unfairly.

Apart from that, I can’t say I enjoy Erin’s ideology either. I mean I understand and can appreciate her ‘breaking the wheel’ but the cost of heading toward that path is quite substantial as the story progressed.

But oh well not like it matters in a work of fiction and I just feel a bit annoyed by that but that’s about it, she’s still the most fleshed out and best character for sure if I ignore the whole final act kek, and it sure as hell is refreshing to see an anime that follows a character through childhood to being a fully grown person and having kid whew.

Technical-wise it’s pretty solid. Sound and music might not be top-tier (at least to me) but they know how to make full use of them to further highlight certain major turning points of the story (like at the flashback of the legend of Empress Je), which is a good thing. The style and character design, in general, are not too special but at least it is very consistent throughout the ride, especially the animation.

One minor complaint tho, the background art might look good as a standalone element but there were a few times it didn’t go well with the character on the screen. I think it fits the style of a flashback or narrating lore more than serving the progression of the story.

Directing is on-point for the most part, the last 2 episodes might be terrible but the rest were good to me. My personal highlight is probably when Ial and Erin were being (literally) sniped by Kirik and the whole sequence played out very smoothly and full of interesting revelation.

Overall this anime was a good watch. It’s a shame that it could have been even better if they had spent more effort on the whole final conflict.