The Fall 2024 Anime Preview Guide

Haigakura

So, let me get this straight. The gods have left for other worlds. Because of this, this world is dying, turning into nothing but a barren rocky mass. Thus, it is up to these specially trained “kashikan” to go out, capture gods, and force them into a servant/master contract. They're then made to work to either heal the broken world or go out and help capture more of their kind. Have I got that right? Because if so, I have a question. In what universe are all these characters we meet not the villains?

Now, don't get me wrong. I get they are trying to save their world but I think it's telling that no one bothers to mention why the gods left for other worlds in the first place. Also, I can't help but wonder what happens to the worlds the gods are now living in when they are captured and taken away. Does it kill all life in that area as it has in the world our protagonist is from?

And, of course, there is the slavery issue. We see how Gyuki is treated. He's a magically compelled slave, unable to go against his master's orders even when they are immoral and wrong. It's commented on again and again that this type of control is the norm for captured gods. Ichiyo is seen as a rarity for how he treats Tenko and Kaka like people.

This plays into the action climax. When Kaka's contract is dissolved, she doesn't go wild as most gods would. Instead, with her full power and freedom, the first thing she wants to do is avenge Ichiyo and herself by attacking the man who both bouthed Ichiyo and broke their contract. Likewise, she can't understand why Ichiyo is trying to protect the bad man, and her only “attack” on Ichiyo is her crying out of confusion and frustration.

In the end, they clearly have a special bond. While Ichiyo may still be a villain for his of the system that enslaves the gods, it's safe to say he is the best person operating within it.

…Still doesn't make me want to watch a fantasy anime about slavers and slave traders though.

Haigakura's premiere was one of those episodes that forced me to rewind and recap what I had just missed so often that I essentially ended up watching it twice in one sitting, which may have left me just a tiny bit resentful towards it. This wasn't on of anything about the premiere being especially confusing; I figured out the basic premise of the Kashikan and their magic spirit-bead Sai easily enough. And this episode is basically just about introducing Ichiyo and his pals as they go about solving mystical conundrums and monstrous shenanigans. No, rather, the episode just so fundamentally failed to engage me with any aspect of its storytelling or visual production that the whole thing just kept sliding off the ridges of my brain and failing to leave even the slightest hint of a permanent impression.

The issue with the story isn't so much that it is bad. It is such an aimless mishmash of vague proper nouns and barely remixed fantasy tropes that the only hope of saving it lies in a compelling cast of likeable characters—and Haigakura fails stumbles badly in that department, too. Ichiyo's defining trait as a Kashikan is that he sucks at the singing part that is kind of integral to the whole job, which works well enough as a silly quirk, but he doesn't offer anything else by way of a protagonist's usual charm, relatability, or intriguing character flaws. The rest of his pals don't even have a single notable skill (or lack thereof) to help distinguish them, and their blandly banter-fueled dynamic reminded me of a lesser boy-band idol anime that is trying to kill time in between the song-and-dance numbers that everyone actually cares about. Some of the mythical monster-gods are slightly more interesting, insofar as they at least look different and can cause some conflicts for the characters to solve, but they're hardly enough to keep this waterlogged story afloat.

Worse, though, is that the show's visuals really are just outright bad at times. Excessive and awkwardly placed wide-shots combine a plethora of cheap looking back-of-the-head and extreme-closeup shots to create an overall cheap feeling that isn't helped by the stiff character animation and muddy color-palette. The backgrounds look off to me, too, as if enough time wasn't put into blending them properly with the character models and props in the foreground. It just isn't a pleasant show to look at, despite the occasional attempt to frame backgrounds and action frames in a somewhat artistic manner.

All of these flaws come together to form a show that I could not be less interested in watching more of. There might be some individual pieces here or there that prove to be worthwhile, but I've been doing this job long enough to be able to tell when a production is putting it's best worst foot forward, and Haigakura is just chock-a-block with red flags. I'll happily on this one.

This is one of those stories with a surfeit of proper nouns. Not only do all the characters have names (as they ought), but a lot of specialized terminology needs explaining. In Haigakura's defense, it does do this, both at the very start of the episode and later, where a preview would be. It's also not too difficult to figure things out from the context, but it's also a fair amount to keep track of, especially given how many named characters show up. This is where it's worth mentioning that on neither stream – Amazon Prime nor YouTube – is the on-screen text translated when characters are introduced. This means that the two who come in at the very end, one of whom looks like he got lost on his way to a Korean period drama, have had their names revealed…but not to us. “Annoying” would be a kind way to put it. (The English subs also vanished for me entirely at around the 19-minute mark on Prime.)

The plot revolves around special god-wrangling performers called Kashikan, who form contracts with gods that are recorded in their sai, special bead necklaces that they're supposed to keep on them at all times, or so the events imply. Ichiyo is purportedly the worst Kashikan ever, although he does have two gods under contract and seems to be getting work regularly. The reveal of why he's so bad is the most entertaining part of the episode: he's an epically lousy singer, as tone-deaf as they come. This means that rather than gently wooing the gods, he's using his song as a cudgel, smashing them over the head with his horrendous voice. Between that and the sharp hissing noise goddess Kaka makes in her child form, this isn't without its moments of redeeming humor.

It also has some decent imagery, particularly at the end, when Ichiyo converses with the two shouldn't-be-nameless characters. It's very classical, giving the impression that I've read or seen this before under a different name. This does come down to simple tropes being reused, but that feeling of familiarity does work in Haigakura's favor, I think, if only because I kept trying to figure out if maybe I read the manga in French or Italian. (As of this writing, it is not available in English.)

With all of that said, this isn't a great introduction to the story. It's meant to guide us into the world and its associated concepts, but it might have been better to start with the main plot: Ichiyo going to Japan to find four specific gods. It's mentioned that he was there before and is now headed back, and that sounds more interesting than what we get here, which is Ichiyo demonstrating his powers when a corrupt Kashikan shows up. This probably deserves a second episode, but I'm not sure I'm willing to give it that – this is a bit of a mess, and the screechy qualities of some of the voices sent me running for the volume control.