When I first saw the new anime from Netflix Bastard!!: Heavy metal, dark fantasyI was expecting a melodramatic anime series along the lines of Record of the Lodoss War. What I got was an uncompromisingly awesome show about a wizard and his ever-growing harem of big-haired anime waifus. I loved every second of it.
Bastard!!: Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy, made by LIDEN FILMS, is a remake of the 1992 anime bastard!! Ankoku no Hakaishin. Bastard!!!elevator pitch in my box Summer anime guide you should watch as a side note is that a wizard named Dark Schneider has risen to save the kingdom of Meta-Licana (pronounced Metalicana) from evildoers. However, that description is just the tip of the iceberg for what this woke anime has in store.
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You see, Dark Schneider used to be the villain of the series. In fact, prior to the events of the anime, he was the boss of the series’ antagonists, the Four Lords of Havoc. While Schneider advertises that he’s the hero of this Shonen anime – a groundbreaking fact he doesn’t shy away from viewers and other characters alike – Schneider is actually the embodiment of the OVA anime tropes of the lustful almighty early ’90s wizards . I mean the guy had sense8-level orgies with his harem between his conquests to world domination. But like all overpowered beings, his hubris overcame him and he was imprisoned in the body of a mild-mannered boy named Lucien.
The kingdom of Meta-Licana is forever on the losing side of a war against the Four Lords of Havoc. The kingdom’s only trump card is the resurrection of Dark Schneider from Lucien’s body. They aim to do this by having Lucien kiss the lips of a virgin woman. Wait, don’t close this tab just yet. I know that’s a pretty eye-rolling premise. However, this show works because it’s self-aware of its ridiculous premise. The spell-breaking virgin kiss to save the doomed kingdom is one of the many times the show pokes fun at its absurdities at every opportunity. For example, after summoning Schneider in the first episode of the series, the kingdom asks that he be summoned again at the beginning of the second episode as it would be easier than going through the trouble of assembling his armies.
As Tia Noto Yoko overcomes the kingdom’s demands to make out the tall, dark, and handsome tailor, Lucien’s caretaker – and arguably the second funniest character on the show, she develops feelings for the dark wizard despite his aggressive personality. She’s not the only one either. No doubt Schneider’s potential adversaries develop a desire in every episode to join his harem and sabotage the Lords of Havoc’s plans.
Say what you want, but listen to me: Bastard!!‘s portrayal of strong women who defy orders and know what they want, whether it’s a power grab or a sexy time with a handsome wizard, is the genre’s attribution of women who are interchangeable cardboard cutouts who move into the Insert characters miles ahead background.
Unlike most harem anime where the protagonist drools creepily at his cast of women, the women are in Bastard!! Don’t take a shit from him. Whenever Schneider crosses a line, they call him a bastard with the tenacity of AEW ring announcer Justin Roberts and give him a well deserved ass kick.
Schneider and the show itself often tease the female characters that they are understandably horny for him since he is the show’s de facto attractive male character. But Schneider has class in himself. Beneath his self-absorbed, horny teenage goodness is a lunatic who occasionally has thoughtful things to say and throws himself into danger for those he loves. Instead of treating the women as his property, the show subverts the trope by having Schneider have an actual relationship with the women in his life.
Schneider and Lucien’s personalities are blurred, similar to those of Amon and Akira Fudo in the manga Devil Man Grimoire. This amalgamation of personas transforms the former POS tailor into some sort of offbeat magician Inuyasha-type character; He craves praise whenever he does something cool, like saving his janitor from a clothes-melting slime monster. That’s not to say the show lacks “spice.”
Although the existence of dirty anime is that Normalize sex and attraction are few and far between Bastard!! somehow manages to have his scruffy cake and eat it too. It’s one of those anime where you have to turn the volume down to avoid getting noise complaints from neighbors over high-pitched moans intertwined with heavy metal music. The show occasionally dips into Dragon’s Breath Chile Pepper Scoville levels of spice, but they’re more hilarious in context than the trailers tease, and there’s no real sex on the show, just hilarious innuendos. For example, characters on the show are poisoned more often than not and have to let other characters “suck out the poison”.
While the fan-service-y situation isn’t surprising in an ecchi anime, the English voice cast clearly had a blast dubbing this show, cranking their ridiculousness to 11. than you puritanical princess, that she must suck the poison harder. Bastard!! is crazy as hell but doesn’t take itself too seriously, similar to the comedy isekai konosuba if the main character has had copious sex.
While Schneider has yet to hit a home run with any of the Four Lords of Havoc’s defected subordinates that he brings to his side through his Dio-like power of charisma, the show’s opening and closing themes clearly fuck. Coldrain and Tielle knocked it out of the park with the show High octane port and closing topics. No notes or jumps, just straight beats.
Bastard!!, shouldn’t work as an anime in any case 2022 but at the other end it kinda comes out as one of the funniest and hottest anime of the season and I want more of it.
