Two minds think alike.

By acknowledging my abnormally great and eminent appreciation towards anime that involve an extreme amount of bloodshed, bateszi recommended that I check out a violent series called Shigurui, and without really knowing what it was about besides sex and torture in the medieval times of the samurai, I decided to give the first episode a try. Within the first few moments, a man was slaughtered by the blade of a katana, and this very incident had me in tears of joy. Nowadays, I find myself immediately fixated on novels that contain a homicide during the prologue or the first few chapters, hence I held high expectations for what the remaining twenty minutes of this episode would deliver. It was only seconds later I witnessed a man wrenching his gut out, which was shortly followed by his collapse to death, his garments drenched in blood.

Probably the most engrossing aspect of this anime is the exquisite yet disturbing artwork, and according to bateszi’s compelling review based on the first six episodes, the ill-treated women are the ones who eventually become the true heroes, even though in the beginning of the series the main focus revolves around a notorious conflict between two warriors. These two strange and clearly unsympathetic men are known as Fujiki and Irako; Fujiki only has one arm while Irako is blind with an injured foot. Suffice to say, neither of them seem to represent the good or evil side, therefore it isn’t your typical samurai film, nor does it follow the general plot-line for a show. While Irako is conspicuously and frighteningly insane with those radiant red lips of his and his deranged fighting stance, Fujiki is a rather apathetic person towards others, believing that by afflicting pain upon a fellow soldier as a consequence for a blunder, in return he would learn to never repeat the same mistake.

I can still fight because I don’t need those two fcuked up fingers

Art-wise, the women in this series are extremely beautiful and attractive; their eyes and body language are quite expressive and alluring. However, they are apparently a very disrespected bunch, accused for being unfaithful and are constantly raped as a form of punishment. One of the two women introduced in this episode hopes to see Irako fall in his battle with Fujiki, and her hatred towards this blind man is evidently firm. Meanwhile, the other woman who walks beside Irako has the appearance of a devious and manipulative feline, but she also seems to be a silent one who has the looks to say it all. In contrast to the females of this series, the men are depicted realistically as muscular warriors who only seem to know about fighting and pay no consideration whatsoever to others’ feelings. Like in most samurai film, these men are either greedy, a think-they-know-it-all, a moron, or simply one whose life only seems to depend on overcoming opponents and challenges, and becoming the strongest.

Say hi to your mum for me

It’s definitely not a series targeted towards a young age, as psgels warns us, but I suppose if your mind is as violent-loving as mine, and if you delight in anime that explores the human body in every detail through a means of a character murdering another, you’ll be fascinated and intrigued by what Shigurui has to offer. Regardless, the plot seems to move at an extremely slow pace and the action scenes — while they are short-lived — are so disappointing that they’re probably not even worth mentioning. Nevertheless, this series concentrates more on how the body reacts to certain types of pain, and also on how characters endure this unbearable suffering. The men may be wounded physically, but it seems, judging from the numerous reviews I’ve read, that these pitiful women have it a lot worse; while physical injuries are time-consuming when it needs to heal, it’s a much longer and a more perilous journey to restore a harassed mind to its usual state.

I’m just here to watch my husband die since I got nothing better to do

Concluding my thoughts, I definitely found this episode enjoyable in a sense that most people might not be able to understand. There are several time-skips, so focusing on the subtitles is somewhat vital. In addition, there are a few gruesome scenes and brilliant yet disgusting sound-effects along with them, but nevertheless, it’s quite bearable. Since the fight between Fujiki and Irako didn’t even commence yet, and since there were so many “screen-swaps” from one person’s face to another, it became really irritating. I’m not going to say that this episode is definitely worth your time, but you should at least check it out when you’ve got no other anime to watch, or if you’re just bored stiff. In other words, it’s not the best first episode I’ve seen, but I was brainwashed into watching this thanks to bateszi and his lovely article on it (trust me, read it and you will be trapped as well!). I was surprised that I actually finished this episode, though, since there was a large amount of non-stop talking and the opening theme, while unique, was horrible. This series runs for 12-13 episodes, so I suppose it won’t kill me to finish it during the holidays.