So I tried my best not to judge this anime off of the cover. Based on the cover alone, I felt like this would be a pervy anime, but because I'll never truly know unless I give it a chance, I tried it out.
And even though I try not to judge a book by its cover, I'd like to say I was right on the money.
Before we get in too deep, let me start by saying that this is a Netflix anime series and it's basically about a 400-year-old wizard named Dark Schneider and his adventures. Now Dark Schneider was actually sealed away for 15 years, but then you have this High Priest by the name of Geo that was pretty desperate to save his people, so he got his daughter to unleash the very thing he helped seal. Who might I add was the founding leader of the Dark Rebel Army. Apparently, he was sealed into a baby, known as Lucien, and the only way to break the seal was the kiss of a virgin and incantation.
So the part where he was sealed into a baby?
That part definitely reminds me of Naruto Uzumaki from Naruto. Except Naruto had something sealed into him instead.
Plot
So let's start simple. As far as the plot, I don't think the plot is bad. I think the plot is actually okay. I don't know about anyone else, but one of the things that determine if I watch an anime or not has to do with the plot. If the plot is bad or doesn't really do a good job of generally describing what's going on, it can be harder to pull in attention or viewers.
Especially for me.
I know I usually won't invest further than that at times.
This is also where the trailer comes in - as sometimes the trailer can bring more life to things when words cannot. However, the trailer didn't really do much justice for it either.
But I don't mind the adventure aspect, I personally think that makes things exciting and I really enjoyed that in this case.
Animation
Animation is also pretty important to me and will usually make or break an anime for me. Now it's great here and I have no problems with it, but Seven Deadly Sins for example kinda lost me when the animation started going south and I haven't returned to it since. I mean I can deal with animation lacking a little bit, like how it was during the Naruto vs Pain fight, that's pretty tolerable. But if it's more consistent and not so far and few in between, that's where I begin to draw the line.
With Bastard, the animation is consistently good and I don't really have any complaints about the animation at all.
Characters & Fanservice
So our main character is Dark Schneider and he is a pretty powerful wizard. Not too much is known about his origin, but it is said that his earliest known appearance was 400 years before the beginning of the series. This was when the destruction god of darkness and its army destroyed the old world. Now Dark Schneider has quite the personality and he has a pretty big ego to boot.
More importantly, he's a massive perv.
Like a massive perv.
He makes Jirayia look like a saint.
And honestly, I can deal with fanservice here and there. I get that it's a part of anime and it doesn't really doesn't bother me as long as it's not in my face every 5 seconds or feels overbearing. But the fanservice here was ridiculous and kind of ruined things from time to time. For example, any fight scene that had Dark Schneider pit against a woman immediately had me rolling my eyes.
Like this man was worse than Sanji from One Piece and I actually enjoy Sanji as a character. Granted, Sanji will not fight a woman by any means necessary and that's fine. His teammates know this and we all know this, it's part of what makes Sanji him. This is nothing new and while it is a weakness of his that gets exploited from time to time, luckily there are others like Luffy that could care less about gender.
As we saw with Vivi, Luffy holds back for no one.
But moving on, it was really hard to enjoy the fights between Dark Schneider and any woman because it became predictable pretty quickly. A woman would show up, talking big and claiming that she was going to take him down, only to be groped by him and smooth-talked.
Effortlessly.
And then the best part of course is that they would end up falling in love with Dark Schneider. We've seen this happen at least three times.
With Sean Ari, Kai Harn, and with Arshes Nei.
Now I will say that Kai Harn did a whole lot better than Sean Ari because Sean Ari went out pretty quick. Dark Schneider turned her so quickly, I couldn't believe it and I was a bit disappointed. She was supposed to be of the Three Sorcerer General under the Thunder Empress, Arshes Nei, and she did not live up to her name at all. She did away with her loyalty to Arshes like it was nothing. You would think a General could be trusted a lot more.
Kai Harn did a lot better than Sean Ari because we had no idea that she was a woman at first because of her armor. Plus the fight was actually good at first. However, as soon as she lost her armor, all logic went out the window and she too fell at Dark Schneider's feet.
Later on, as the series continues, we learn more about Arshes Nei and the relationship that they had which was kinda weird. For starters, they refer to each other as father and daughter, but their very handsy and even had a whole relationship at one point. But due to being such a massive perv, he basically stepped out and kept getting involved with multiple women.
Now I don't know about y'all, but that's not behavior I participate in. I'm not romantically involved with anyone I call family. That's just weird. It baffled me that Dark Schneider could sit there and boast about how he raised her and how he's basically her father, yet constantly gropes her and was involved with her at one point.
It'd be less cringe if they left that out and didn't go that route.
Anyway, the man is a huge player and is completely arrogant and full of himself. He clearly let his looks go to his head.
Secondly, if Arshes Nei knew of Dark Schneider's problem with women, why did she send her female Generals after him? Surely, she should've seen their betrayal coming a mile away.
And we can't forget about Princess Shelia.
Dark Schneider really had a blast with her and she ate it up. In her defense, he did come on pretty strong with his antics and I could kinda see why she would have feelings for Dark Schneider. I can even see why Arshes Nei has feelings for him as well as Yoko. But Sean Ari's and Kai Harn's feelings for him are ridiculous; they're supposed to be loyal warriors and they have no sort of history or past with him at all.
Unlike Yoko and unlike Arshes Nei.
Now Yoko has a past with Lucien. Yoko practically cared for him and looked out for him.
And as we all know, Arshes was taken in by Dark Schneider when she was very young and they spent 100 years together.
And in case anyone is wondering, what Dark Schneider did and his antics with women will not work in real life. It'll earn you a slap and possibly a charge. But this man basically thinks he can do what he wants because he's handsome. That's a dangerous man in more ways than one.
Romance
Now another aspect I look for in anime is romance and how it's written. I mean it's not unusual for the main character to have someone he is into or someone that is into him. In this case, Tia Yoko is supposed to be his main love interest, but he's such a womanizer and a whore, it's like he'll throw himself onto anything and anyone with boobs and a pretty face.
I'm surprised he even has a love interest.
I imagine a love interest wouldn’t be something that’s on the table for someone as disloyal as Dark Schneider. I’m not sure if I can see him giving up his womanizing ways for her. I feel like since he’s been doing what he's wanted for like 400 years, his womanizing ways will be a hard habit to break. Nevertheless, I am curious to see how this will work out because I don't believe it's possible, tbh.
Conclusion
The plot is okay, the animation is great, and the fanservice gets in the way of fights. At least when it comes to women and thus makes it slightly annoying at times. I will admit that I like the concept of magic and wizards, I've always enjoyed that for some reason. Besides being a little predictable as far as his antics go with women, it's actually not a bad anime. He's pretty fun and a bold protagonist and I haven't seen a protagonist like him in a while, so that made him a bit interesting to watch. I mean he certainly stands out. I don't think I'd watch it again or recommend it to anyone, but it was definitely entertaining.
Maybe I'll feel differently about the second season or maybe the manga puts it in a different league altogether. Leave a comment down below and let me know what you thought!