Lord of Vermilion: Guren no Ou

Set in Tokyo, it's January 29, 2030. High-frequency resonance is observed in the vicinity of Tokyo, and the red fog rolls into the city. Those who hear the sound, humans and animals alike, out, losing consciousness. Everything shuts down in Tokyo, believing that the fog is carrying an unknown virus that causes an epidemic. However, six days later, after the incident, people wake up as if nothing happened. After that, Tokyo's sealed-off city sections gradually return to normal. However, since the high-frequency resonance, some "bizarre events" start to happen, and people find themselves being pulled deeper into more mysteries. Meanwhile, young people start to become aware of themselves and release their power hidden in their blood, discovering themselves as "vessel of wisdom blood." Together, being led by something unknown, they meet, communicate, and face the unavoidable circle of fate, sacrificing their own lives.

(Source: MAL News)

Kamina, Chihiro Main

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Shiraki, Yuuri ing

Fukuen, Misato Japanese

Ichijou, Julia ing

Horie, Yui Japanese

Sakiyama, Koume ing

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Aoi, Jun ing

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Doumyouji, Kotetsu ing

Hino, Satoshi Japanese

Jumonji, Suruga ing

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Kurokami, Marie ing

Kobayashi, Yuu Japanese

Manazaru, Tsubaki ing

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Owari, Ikuro ing

Toki, Shunichi Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Chiba, Makoto Producer

Herek, Samantha Assistant Producer

Suganuma, Eiji Director

Reviews

Dec 12, 2018

ReyvinHill

Mixed Feelings

This is a review of the anime only. I have not read the manga.

I marathoned this in almost one sitting. It had a lot of potential that it never lived up to, and in the end, was extremely disappointing. As other reviewers have mentioned, this should have been done in more than twelve episodes. I have not read the manga so this review is of the anime only having no other information than what was presented in the anime.

What I liked about it:

1. It had an all-star cast of seiyuus.
2. The character art was well done.
3. The story had a ... ton of potential.
4. There was a lot of action.

What I disliked about it:

1. It moved too quickly from the mid-point on. It was clear that a lot of important information was being left out for the sake of saving time.
2. There were too many cast to go into depth with any of them in such a short amount of time. I didn’t get attached to anyone and it’s rare for me to not get attached to at least one character.
3. The ending didn’t resolve anything. All the questions were left unanswered and there’s no promise of a sequel. It made it feel like a giant waste of time.

STORY: The story had great potential but was never fully developed. Motives were never explained. People became attached to one another with no explanation as to why. Characters made choices that were never fully explained. Every episode brought new questions but never answered any and the ending didn’t either. (It could be argued that some of the questions were answered but since those “answers” were just insuations and speculation, I don’t feel that they were answered. I want evidence.)

CHARACTERS: The characters could have been amazing, but they weren’t. There were too many in too short of a time span with nowhere near enough development for me to grow to care about any of them. The most interesting character to me was the tattooed hoodie guy and I never found out a thing about him! That drove me crazy and not in a good way.

ART: I liked the character designs. They were nothing special but they were pretty. Some of the blood armor, or whatever it was supposed to be, looked pretty awesome, Kark’s in particular, but most were just abstract and odd. I felt that could have been done better. Some of the monsters had really great detail but some were just awful. The female detective's gun holster looking like a bra was so stupid it was distracting.

MUSIC: I didn’t like either the OP or ED and skipped through them every time. The music during the anime itself didn’t strike me either good or bad. I don’t it all.

Overall, I don’t recommend this anime. It’s really great for the first several episodes but then it gets confusing and the ending not answering any questions at all just made it feel like a waste of time. I'm honestly surprised at how poor this was given the caliber of the seiyuus and the high-end production companies. I'm not sure what went wrong but it sure went wrong.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Nov 24, 2018

BloodyRoseKrsnik

Mixed Feelings

Story: 4/10
The story started out very promising. You start off with an action packed fight scene, showing a previous "play," where you then go to the current play. You start to look out for the important characters, but from there it really just goes down hill. The story felt like it was all over the place, where you would end one episode and suddenly you were at a totally different scene.

*Spoiler*
One of the episodes ended with a fight scene at the school, and then the next episode it started up with the team, with you "technically" didn't know were part of the ... church, destroying these historical sites.
*End Spoiler*

Scenes like this really created a disted scene making it overly confusing as to what had happened in between scene jumps. The story itself also seemed lacking in substance. It kept talking about how the past was the end all be all. Your fate can't be changed, but we never understood what the previous fate really was. We saw one whole scene, and all other previous fates weren't even mentioned until the last 2 episodes.

The only interesting thing about this anime was the morally ambiguous sides. This anime, unlike others, didn't present a good or bad side. They presented teams that had their own reasoning behind their actions. This allowed you to choose a side where as most anime predetermine your "favorite" team.

Art: 5/10
There is nothing really spectacular or notable about the artwork. Very average, but not terrible.

Sound: 5/10
Similarly to art, there was nothing truly awesome or notable about the sound. I did find that in the dub, the characters voices didn't really suit some of their characters. I felt like there could have been better choices.

Character: 4/10
There is very little character development. Chihiro got the most development and even that, for almost 10 episodes straight, they hinted at the same thing over and over. If they hadn't kicked the poor dead horse so many times, it would have been an earned reveal. It even lead Kakihara, to being a babbling nuisance. He kept harping on Chihiro, blaming him for everything and it was to the point that this interesting character, became annoying and you kind of wanted him to die. As for the others, they got little or no growth. We don't get to explore their powers, we only explored Chihiro. Most of the characters just appeared with no explanation as to who they were or what they could do. We just knew that they were 10xs weaker than Chihiro and would probably just be killed out.

Enjoyment: 4/10
I did enjoy exploring this anime. I kept looking forward to new episodes to see if there was anything really redeeming about it, but there wasn't. I honestly thought this anime would turn out to just reset time and un-screw everything up. I did truly enjoy figuring out who to side for since both sides had their faults, but other than that, nothing really stood out.

Overall: 5/10
It was just a poor anime. The story could have had so much potential, but assuming do to little budget, there anime's run was short. It felt like to fit the entire plot in 12 measly episodes, they had to rush the plot along. Leaving a lot of things disted and not enough to time to explain anything or even provide character development. There was just so much to digest in this anime, that this series is not suited for a 12 episode season.

Recommendation: I still recommend watching this anime, see what you think. It was still a fun few hours of my life, but I definitely would not go back and re-watch this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Sep 28, 2018

KANLen09

Not Recommended

The immediate look at my incredible judging score SHOULD immediately tell you everything that happens within the series, it is a laughably non-embarrassing total misfire, a miscalculation and perfect wreck of a fairly popular TCG that's left in Japan (and I don't care).

Before I start getting the hate, let me give you the context of what the original Lord of Vermilion TCG is about: *Goes to Wikipedia to check out*

Now, the anime adaptation by Asread: *Read the entire MAL synopsis*

Hmm...seems a bit different eh? Whatever it is, the story doesn't make the series more interesting, and while it is true for most card game adapted ... anime out there (Yugioh at least tried and it as an amazing childhood show for me), this show just made the story exposition throw out the window almost apparently and went in its own incomprehensible direction. That is not the vexing part, not just yet.

The characters, be it of the faction they are part of the series, aren't very appealing at all, and that has been the constant ever since the opening of this show. Let's take the MC Kamina Chihiro for example. Voiced by the ever popular KajiKaji, this is another wasted talent of his part here, because this is one of the times of which his voice-acting doesn't really match well to the unimpressive cast of characters, whom are always at his throats. The list of character VAs are again impressive, but similar with KajiKaji's situation, they absolutely trolled this show to bits.

Speaking of the MC, his goal of alliance between good vs. evil becomes a stepping stone for him to transform to the Lord of Vermilion (which ends up killing people anyways). If you need a show that kills its characters faster than it should, this is the perfect trash for you.

The production quality is absolutely perfectly horrendous to the point of being watchable until your eyes close and burn at the insanely boredom-filled execution it does. I have never trusted in Asread to perform another quality show, and 2016's Big Order just is an experience that while similar to this, I'd much rather you watch Mirai Nikki (made by the same studio, only leaps and bounds better). Not to say that I'm a fan in the first place, but I'd question you: "Why the hell are you watching this?"

If there was anything to go by for this series, it's the music, and it's hopelessly the EXACT same circumstance to sell the show. The OST from May'n and JUNNA are good, but I'd question the same intent as the rest of the show. I thought that with Mahoutsukai no Yome's OP lineup, it was yet again another 100% perfect replication where May'n's songs are lost-substance average-sounding and JUNNA's the better of the two.

I'm glad that many of you heeded my advice, and right now I'm telling you: This is another bestest shovelware from the worst season of the year, and I'm officially done with this shitshow. Thank the Heavens this abomination is over...

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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