Feel somewhat confused by how its world works? You’re not alone.
Summary:
Sengoku Youko has been pretty good so far, but it lacks detailed worldbuilding.
The origins and definition of katawara aren’t properly explored.
We don’t have much background information on the era and location of the series.
So far, Sengoku Youko has been a cool shounen action-adventure series with an interesting and fleshed-out cast. That said, it has been 6 episodes and we still don’t know much about the world — which, naturally, confuses some of the viewers.
Who are katawara anyway?
The anime follows a group of characters fighting monsters called katawara. The premise is relatively simple, however, we don’t really know much about them. It seems like this is just an umbrella term for demons/spirits/youkai — in short, supernatural creatures.
While this isn’t bad per se — the definitions are not always important — here not understanding the details behind katawara plays a huge role. A major theme of the series is the divide between the human world and the world of katawara.
The traveling duo of Jinka and Tama provide two radically different perspectives: Jinka hates selfish and evil humans (a former human himself), while Tama, a fox demon, wants to exterminate katawara who are dangerous to humans.
It might be hard to get into this dynamic if you don’t understand what katawara really are. After all, they are clearly not all evil — just how humans can be good and evil — and the few we have seen so far in the series were all very different from each other. Regardless, we just hope that the topic is explored more.
Set in an uncertain place and time
As far as the rest of the setting goes, it seems to be a generic medieval Japan with fantasy elements. We don’t have the exact date — while the anime does take place in the Eiroku period, that still covers years from 1558 to 1570. Moreover, we don’t have the map of the series, which might upset some adventure anime fans.
Great worldbuilding is required for adventure shounen series like Sengoku Youko to function properly. While the anime is still fun to follow, the world has felt somewhat dry so far. We just hope it will be elaborated more on as the anime goes on: after all, it’s going to have 37 episodes to do so.
The anime is still good
Does a lack of detailed worldbuilding make Sengoku Youko a bad series? No, not at all — it still does its action very well, and the main cast has very interesting dynamics which make them fun to watch.
It also deals with themes like good and evil in a surprisingly nuanced and mature way — it’s very solid overall, but more emphasis on its world will add the finishing touches to an already great work.
Feel somewhat confused by how its world works? You’re not alone.
Summary:
Sengoku Youko has been pretty good so far, but it lacks detailed worldbuilding.
The origins and definition of katawara aren’t properly explored.
We don’t have much background information on the era and location of the series.
So far, Sengoku Youko has been a cool shounen action-adventure series with an interesting and fleshed-out cast. That said, it has been 6 episodes and we still don’t know much about the world — which, naturally, confuses some of the viewers.
Who are katawara anyway?
The anime follows a group of characters fighting monsters called katawara. The premise is relatively simple, however, we don’t really know much about them. It seems like this is just an umbrella term for demons/spirits/youkai — in short, supernatural creatures.
While this isn’t bad per se — the definitions are not always important — here not understanding the details behind katawara plays a huge role. A major theme of the series is the divide between the human world and the world of katawara.
The traveling duo of Jinka and Tama provide two radically different perspectives: Jinka hates selfish and evil humans (a former human himself), while Tama, a fox demon, wants to exterminate katawara who are dangerous to humans.
It might be hard to get into this dynamic if you don’t understand what katawara really are. After all, they are clearly not all evil — just how humans can be good and evil — and the few we have seen so far in the series were all very different from each other. Regardless, we just hope that the topic is explored more.
Set in an uncertain place and time
As far as the rest of the setting goes, it seems to be a generic medieval Japan with fantasy elements. We don’t have the exact date — while the anime does take place in the Eiroku period, that still covers years from 1558 to 1570. Moreover, we don’t have the map of the series, which might upset some adventure anime fans.
Great worldbuilding is required for adventure shounen series like Sengoku Youko to function properly. While the anime is still fun to follow, the world has felt somewhat dry so far. We just hope it will be elaborated more on as the anime goes on: after all, it’s going to have 37 episodes to do so.
The anime is still good
Does a lack of detailed worldbuilding make Sengoku Youko a bad series? No, not at all — it still does its action very well, and the main cast has very interesting dynamics which make them fun to watch.
It also deals with themes like good and evil in a surprisingly nuanced and mature way — it’s very solid overall, but more emphasis on its world will add the finishing touches to an already great work.
