When guitars are forbidden, rock is the greatest weapon of them all.
What They Say:
Marvelous’ Samurai Jam -Bakumatsu Rock- game gets an anime adaptation! The story is set in the Bakumatsu Era, at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate’s rule over Japan. The government has been using “Heaven’s Song” played by the top idols in the Shinsengumi to brainwash its citizens. Writing or singing any other song is considered a crime. Ryoma Sakamoto and the other rockers, want to start a revolution against the shogunate using their rock’n’roll for freedom and justice.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The series is based off of a franchise of PSP games designed around a female audience. Unfortunately, this combination often means the animation quality suffers, and sadly Bakumatsu Rock does not escape this fate. Studio DEEN does give it the old college try, but it looks cheap more often than it doesn’t. CGI appears randomly and jarringly, and characters are not as expressive as it appears the animators intended. That being said, the character designs themselves are solid, which one would hope to be the case as it’s one of the main draws of the series.
The series begins in an alternate Bakumatsu-era. Instead of warriors dueling with swords, their voice and their music are their weapons. In Edo, guitars are forbidden and the only way to perform music is to become a government sponsored Heaven’s Song idol musician. The Heaven’s Song musical style has a hypnotising effect, and the selling of lottery tickets to attend concerts are the government’s way of taxing and subjugating the common masses. Heaven’s Song idol groups also act as the shogun’s Shinsengumi, acting as his eyes, hands and ears to crush rival musicians underfoot.
Our protagonist is Ryoma Sakamoto. He’s a down-on-his-luck musician who came to Edo in order to make it big as a singer. He does odd jobs at a restaurant run by a transvestite while roaming the streets at night to croon his directionless songs to a mostly unenthusiastic (and quite often hostile) audience.
One day, a companion comes to him with news of the government holding auditions for Heaven’s Song performers. While Ryoma is at first is at first hesitant because he wants to sing from his heart, he relents and attempts to audition, only to be told he needs to have an invitation from a Heaven’s Song master. He attempts to seek out Shoin Yoshida, the bespeckled man with crazy hair who granted Ryoma the gift of a guitar to aid him with his songs years ago.
This guitar sends Kogoro Katsura and Shinsaku Takasugi, two former apprentices of Shoin after him under the false pretense he was a petty thief. And when that situation is finally resolved, the trio find themselves ambushed by the Shinsengumi’s 8th Division. Ryoma refuses to flee, and when he finally feels the music in his soul, he manifests a magic power that overcomes his aggressors. This “Peace Sign” calls Shinsaku (called Cindy by Ryoma) and Kogoro (Sensei) to Ryoma’s aid, and the trio sets out to find their shaggy teacher.
Ryoma is loud and brash, Shinsaku is calm and reserved and Kogoro is the brains of the group. The “red oni, blue oni” dynamic between Ryoma and Shinsaku is about as complex as the relationships between the main characters get, and the quick glimpses of what appear to be the two primary villainous organizations came and went too quickly.
In Summary:
This being said, the show gets two major things right. The first is the music. Ryoma’s singing is humorously bad until his “Peace Sign” activates and he becomes a badass rocker. Perhaps this is due to Ryoma’s seiyuu being a member of GRANRODEO, but the music just works. The second is the fact that the show, despite its many flaws, is just plain fun. The kind of fun that has you chuckling to yourself when the show gets ridiculous and laughing from your belly when it tops itself. The premise is as silly as it gets, and it’s great to see it doesn’t take its concepts seriously. If you’re looking for an intense character drama, look elsewhere. If you want something goofy to pass the time while you wait for other shows to come on, you could do much worse.
Grade: C+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
27” 720p LCD Vizio VW-26L, Xbox 360