Rage of Bahamut GENESIS is the first anime series produced by MAPPA that is based on the Rage of the Bahamut game which is a digital collectible card game developed by Cygames and published by DeNA. The anime Rage of the Bahamut is one of 3 games based on said card game and GENESIS being considered the first season of the three.
The plot revolves around the revival of the silver winged Bahamut using two mystical keys from its two thousand year old prison. With her memory lost a mysterious girl Amira unknowingly holding one half of the key. Two bounty hunters Favaro and Kaiser joins her on her journey to find her lost mother as groups of demons, god and humans hunts the trio down for their own personal reasons. Also for this review minor spoilers flag is up.
Rage of Bahamut GENESIS plot feels like a fantasy version of Samurai Shamploo as you got these two unlikely bounty hunters Favaro and Kaiser who for personal reasons wants to kill each other must now put aside their differences to help a seemingly mysterious girl Amira. But that’s pretty much how all similarities ends as the series does its own thing. Sure it borrows greatly from religious and mythological aspects like the tale of Joanne of Ark or Bahamut for that matter but still managed to tell an engaging tale to boot. It has enough comedy and light fan service to keep the story from being boring too.
As characters go I like the fish out of water concept with Amira. Having lost her memory and she has to learn a lot of normal things. Sure it is done before in other series or movies but I like how it is well paced and doing it sparingly as the story progresses. I also like the twist between Favaro and Kaiser how it intertwines to the whole plot of the series in unexpected ways that even both the character could imagine. The ending was well done too although I could probably wanted a better closure to the entire story but that would probably made Rage of Bahamut a cliché show. It is a very realistic ending regardless if folks agree to it or not. Although I still can’t shake the comparison that Favaro looked like a character that walked out of a Cowboy Bebop audition.
I do like that the characterization of Rage of Bahamut GENESIS as the MC isn’t really what you call heroes. Favaro for one isn’t the knight in shining armor and would have quit many times as the right opportunity presented itself. He is flawed and yet tries to do the right thing eventually. This kind of character is sprinkled to Amira and Kaiser as the series gives enough back story on them to understand their character motivation. Sure it does gets tedious at times when the series does this but I’m still glad they did it as it makes the characters more flesh out. Favaro and Kaiser don’t like each other in the series and it shows you why. I also like how they handled Amiras story giving it the proper arc it deserve. I kind of wished the series was longer as 12 episode feels rushed. Also the series feels like it’s a Three Musketeers anime due to the character design rather than a knights and magic.
The animation for Rage of the Bahamut GENESIS is incredible with much attention to detail, camera angle and fluidity. What you would expect for an animation studio like MAPPA. I am not a fan of the 3d animation aspect in the series however as it feels blocky at times but it does it sparingly that it just works. If there is any real complain is that a lot of the scenes are too dark to see what is going on. Sure I know the series is supposed to be darker but it doesn’t mean that most of the scene should be dark too. I mean the animated series of batman has probably brighter looking than some of the scenes in this series. Then there is the scenes involving angel looking gods scene where it is way too bright.
Scaling mountain size colossal monsters, OP blonde spear using knights taking down giant enemies with a holy beam of light, gods that look like angels, zombies, mermen, turning defeated enemies into cards, even a giant living floating castle. There is really not much originality to the series if you are being critical. And it does takes time for me to like the three main characters as I find both Kaiser and Favaro too over the top to be likable with the exception of Amira. Still the show just works despite all of it due to carefully woven plot and character development. I had very low expectations when I started this series and nearly quit watching it halfway. But it got really good and Im glad I stick around with it in the end.
Sure
rage of Bahamut GENESIS really does takes it time but gets interesting halfway
through and the ending really pays off the lengthy build up. The plot can be
slow and other issues but the story and character development is solid if you
give it enough time. For a fantasy theme anime based on a card game this show
has a lot to offer if you have the patience to give it time. If you want
something different that is fantasy based then Id highly recommend you watch
this one.
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