It’s been a long time since the US anime market has gotten a good, realistic samurai drama. Sure, there’s Samurai Champloo, Samurai 7, and Rurouni Kenshin, but those shows aren’t all that realistic. Basilisk isn’t all that realistic either, but it’s still more in tune with the samurai drama archetype than most other samurai titles out there today. Okay, so technically the characters in Basilisk are ninja, not samurai, but it follows the general “samurai drama” formula, so it still works.
The Kouga and Iga ninja clans have been at war for almost 400 years. They’ve grown up hating each other, but a recent peace pact has stopped them from attacking each other. Thanks to that tenuous peace, the clans’ young leaders, Gennosuke Kouga and Oboro Iga, have been able to meet and fall in love with each other. However, that all changes when the shogun, Lord Ieyasu, decides that his successor will come from one of the clans and nullifies the anti-war pact: The clans will have ten of their best fighters compete, and whichever clan slaughters the other wins. Tenzen, the best fighter of the Iga, steals the roster and jump-starts the war by killing several Kouga before they even know the war has begun. When Gennosuke finds out, all hell breaks loose.
Now, if you’ve watched a lot of samurai dramas, you know that few of them pull punches, and Basilisk definitely earns its TV-MA rating by slicing, dicing, skewering and strangling its characters in various ways. Some are beheaded; others have their faces blown off; some have their limbs chopped off; and one is pierced through by over a hundred needles. If you’re one of those people who love blood and gore, this series is perfect for you. It also features sexual violence, with one female character trying to rape two of her enemies to death, and a male character forcing himself onto two women multiple times while none of the victims’ friends and comrades do anything to help. Usually, when you have warring clans, one side is mostly good and other mostly bad with a few truly evil characters. In this series, though, everyone is ruthless. Gyobu and Kagero joyfully kill the Iga, even if there are innocent bystanders in the way; the gentle and kindly Nenki and Rousai lose themselves in their lust for battle against the Kouga. Even Gennosuke doesn’t hesitate to kill; after Tenzen’s ambush, he gathers together what’s left of his comrades and vows to kill off the Iga, even his love Oboro, should they attack again.
Basilisk differs from other samurai dramas in the various ninja powers members of the clans possess. Gyobu’s ability to hide in the earth itself proves useful many times, while Saemon’s ability to perfectly disguise himself as other characters lets him kill or torment various Iga ninja. Nenki’s hair powers would make Bobobo cry as he swings like Tarzan and even creates body armor from his hair, resulting in some really cool action sequences. Gennosuke doesn’t use his power of “dojutsu”—the ability to mentally control somebody by looking in their eyes—very often, but every scene in which he does is utterly badass.
Not all of these powers are well used, though. In Volume 1 Akeginu uses her ability to manipulate her blood to kill several enemies, but in later volumes she is interrupted before she can fully utilize her power. Koshiro can suck objects into his black hole-like mouth (think Miroku’s Wind Tunnel from InuYasha), but he pretty much relies on his sickle. It’s a shame that the writers created a crappy plot device to prevent Gennosuke from using his powers to own everyone. Even when characters use their powers, the scenes aren’t always effective. Tenzen overuses his power so that it becomes old hat very quickly; Oki can suck the blood out of a person through skin-to-skin contact, but I’m a bit vampired out recently thanks to Trinity Blood and Moon Phase. At least the various ninjas can still fight hand to hand.
(Well, except for Oboro, who is the most pathetic ninja ever. I may not be the greatest sharpshooter or all that agile, but when I throw a shuriken at a wall from ten feet away, it will at least hit the wall. Oboro’s shurikens fall to the ground no matter how close she is to the target. With such craptacular skills, it’s no wonder she just wants to live in peace.)
The story, as you might guess, is kind of a downer with very little comedy, and the dreary atmosphere is only reinforced by setting most of the action at night or in the rain. The pacing is also quite slow, with a lot of pan shots and slow scenes that do nothing but kill time. But Gonzo is known for its skilled animation, and Basilisk doesn’t disappoint. When there’s a good, old fashioned brawl, the action becomes fast and furious as the various ninja weave in and out. The regular animation is also very good, and while there are places where it seems like Gonzo skipped frames, so everything has that stilted feeling, those scenes aren’t as prevalent as in other series. Thankfully, Gonzo’s animators didn’t get lazy and use a lot of digitally manipulated stills, digital pans, or off-model animation, so the series is a very polished work overall. While I still like the visuals in Samurai 7 and Solty Rei better, Basilisk is no slouch, and it’s a great series to use when showing off your nice HD television.
For this series FUNimation has put together a better-than-usual dub. Troy Baker is known to most fans for his role as Abel Nightroad in Trinity Blood, but he brings a completely new persona to Gennosuke. Laura Bailey also puts in a solid effort as Oboro, even though the character sucks, and the rest of the FUNimation crew go all out too. The Japanese track is just as excellent, though some of the women sound a bit older than they should, and the men’s voices don’t get quite as deep as the FUNi voices. The opening theme is pretty catchy, while both ending themes are not really all that memorable and feel like most anime ending songs. Music is based on drum beatings like in Naruto and Samurai 7, but it’s used much less effectively here and can get annoying after a while. It’s certainly not as memorable as the music in certain other dramas.
The major extra on each volume in the series are the two Behind the Scenes featurettes, which cover two episodes apiece. In these half-hour specials, Kosuke Toriumi (Japanese voice of Gennosuke) and Risa Hayamizu (Kagero) are joined by two other Vas to comment on specific episodes. The group will start off with some introductory statements, then comment on four key scenes, read some fan mail, comment on the overriding theme of the episodes, interview Onmyo-Za (the duo that sing the theme song), write some haikus, have a funeral for any named characters that die in the episodes, and then sign off. There’s some background information sprinkled in here and there, but most of the featurettes are purely fluff pieces. One interesting trend is that Yashamaru got tons of fan mail, yet Oboro barely got any, which irritated Hayamizu after a while since the fanmail section at one point had nothing but Yashamaru praise. The rest of the extras are minimal: textless songs and trailers.
Should you decide to pay the extra cash, you can buy the Limited Editions. In terms of packaging, it’s set-up similar to the Trinity Blood Limited Edition sets, with the glossy digipak packaging and art everywhere. Inside the front cover is a pamphlet featuring interviews with various members of the production staff as well as production drawings of the various characters. While I understand that FUNimation made it as a fold-out in order to mimic a scroll, I would gladly sacrifice that little nod to turn the fold-out into a booklet like the Trinity Blood sets, as the fold-out is rather clumsy to read. Also available are a set of Basilisk character cards, though unlike the tarot cards in Trinity Blood, these Basilisk cards don’t really have any use, and they don’t even look exciting.
Basilisk is the perfect series if you’re looking for a heavy drama set in feudal Japan and you’re tired of some of the more “out-there” series like Samurai Champloo. Highly recommended.
Episode distribution for Basilisk:
Volume 2: The Spoils of War
Episode #5: “The Surprise Attack”
Episode #6: “Longing in the Rain”
Episode #7: “Blood-Sucking Seductress”
Episode #8: “Cage of Blood”
Volume 3: The Parting of Ways
Episode #9: “Farewell”
Episode #10: “Divine Mandate”
Episode #11: “On Their Own”
Episode #12: “Remembrance”
Volume 4: Tokaido Road
Episode #13: “A Swarm of Butterflies”
Episode #14: “Fallen Flower”
Episode #15: “Reckoning”
Episode #16: “First Impressions”
Volume 5: The Shades of Night
Episode #17: “Wandering Hearts”
Episode #18: “A Dawn Without Light”
Episode #19: “Conspiracy”
Episode #20: “River of Mercy”
Volume 6: Fate’s Finest Hour: “
Episode #21: “With All Her Heart”
Episode #22: “The Haunted”
Episode #23: “Emancipation”
Episode #24: “Requiem”
