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Bubuki Buranki (2016, Sanzigen)

Anime Reviews

Bubuki Buranki (2016, Sanzigen)

ブブキ・ブランキ, BBK/BRNK, 舞武器舞乱伎

Worth A Watch

It's been 10 years since Kaoruko and Azuma were sent down to Earth on their mother, Migiwa Kazuki's Buranki "Oubu" to save them from the awakening Buranki that lingered the skies. However, eight of them had already descended to Earth. As a result she has been labelled as "the witch" that caused the chaos that followed on Earth.

Now Azuma has returned to Japan, seeking a way to return to the island hoping his mother is still there keeping watch over the Buranki from descending to Earth. Along the way he meets a number of Bubuki users who used weapons made from different parts of Oubu's body. As a result of possessing the only active heart, many other Buranki teams from other countries, including the current influencial Entei team of Japan, target them as replacement parts for their own Buranki.

As the team struggle to survive, they soon realise they must work as a team and agree to go to the floating Buranki nest "Treasure Island" together, hoping to seek out the truth behind Bubuki/Buranki.

So an original show by Sanzigen studio. Funnily enough the 10 year gap matches in the story also matches the studio's 10th anniversary the show was produced for. The story's kind of all over the place. Quarter of the way through and I still didn't really know what was going on other than what Bubuki were. A lot of shows keep the mystery going by slowly revealing parts of the full picture but this show is more like it reveals another part of a jigsaw puzzle before finishing the other. It's not until the end of season one before it's clearer and then the second season "Gentle Giants of the Galaxy" picks up pretty well, probably better than the first as you get into the second half and wraps up well too. Nice to see a bit of an epilogue after the epic battle.

It's one of those few shows where the characters are 3D cel-shaded models and they look pretty good. Even the studio is called "3D". Just the odd times they look stiff and look plain possibly to save rendering time. Backgrounds look good and so is the music (apart from S2's theme songs). It features a lot of Good Smile's logos, maybe because they're sponsors or something. Sound effects are top-notch and really make you feel the scale. Its pacing is fast with your cliche set of Anime characters and feels like of like your average action show featuring teenagers with powers. Well, at least they're lively. Plenty of stereotyping in here.

Show is filled with fan service as there's plenty of cleavage shots and there's more girls than males in the cast, steamy bath scenes etc. Dirty talk included of course. And I don't see why they decided to show character flashbacks in the middle of battles. It just breaks the pacing and mood.

If you're looking for a show where all the bad guy characters have those crazed psycho expressions, this is one for you. There's also a character named Episo who I thought was Steins;gate, Okabe's voice actor, Mamoru Miyano because they sounded quite alike it's actually Yoshimasa Hosoya who played Subaru from Robotics;notes, Reiner from Attack on Titan and Kunikuda from Bungo Stray Dogs. One of the Bubuki just reminds of Migi from Parasyte.

That said, it looks good and has silly moments to laugh at so it's still worth a watch. It kind of reminds of Gainax or Trigger's own shows except they had better direction with the story.

Don't miss the extra scenes after the ending although not all episodes have them.

Bubuki Buranki

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