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This series should have failed.
Rage of Bahamut: Genesis is based on a mobile social card game that has been a fairly sizable hit in Japan, but barely penetrated US shores and obtained mediocre-to-bad critical reviews. The success in its native country guaranteed an anime tie-in to further promote the property sooner or later, even though video game adaptations, particularly ones of mobile games, are not known on either side of the Pacific for their quality. Rage of Bahamut: Genesis also throws together various elements of fantasy, history, and legend together seemingly willy-nilly, and often with strange alterations. This is a series where the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel (the latter three gender-swapped into women) are serving the god Zeus. Beelzebub, Satan, and Lucifer are different entities. Jeanne D’Arc exists with magical powers that put Harry Potter to shame. Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog of the Greek underworld, has become a little girl with malicious puppy dog sock puppets yelling out their agreements and disagreements with her.
And yet, Rage of Bahamut: Genesis somehow works. Works wonderfully, actually.
What MAPPA, director Keiichi Sato and series compositor Keiichi Hasegawa did take the background information of the mobile game and bring it to the forefront to create an entirely new story, while throwing out the mechanics of the card game completely. The story kicks off with a bang as a human king witnesses a climactic battle between the titular malicious dragon facing down a reluctant alliance between Zeus and Satan for the fate of the world. It ends with Bahamut being sealed away before we warp two thousand years into the future, with a seemingly unrelated plot kicking off. Favaro Leone, a bounty hunter, is being chased by a pompous ex-knight named Kaisar Lidfald who blames Favaro for his fall of grace. However, during yet another day of being relentlessly pursued by Kaisar, Favaro encounters an odd girl named Amira, who demands to be taken to a city named Helheim. Favaro, being a shameless womanizer, pretends he knows where the city is, only to be locked into a contract with Amira, who is actually a renegade demon that has stolen half of the key that would unseal Bahamut. That contract takes the form of a demonic tail: something Favaro cannot get rid of until the contract is fulfilled.
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Now everyone in the whole world, whether gods, demons, and humans, are after them. And Kaisar. And Favaro has no idea where Helheim is. Unsurprisingly, chaos ensues.
Rage of Bahamut: Genesis doesn’t exactly do anything new. This is a classic-style adventure with action set pieces galore, but that is also what makes this series so good. It doesn’t re-invent the wheel, but polishes it with so much shine and gloss that it is simply a better wheel than most. It is big, dumb fun in the vein of a great Hollywood blockbuster. I found myself grinning like an idiot at certain scenes in a way I only do when something fantastic yet amusing happens in a new blockbuster film. For example, there’s a great scene where zombie pirates attack demonic fishmen, a ridiculous scenario that is somehow awesome. The way the action is framed feels more like a Western animation or even a live-action film than an anime, and that feel is enhanced by character designs that seem more inspired by more Western influences than by contemporary anime. Rich costuming and cultural touches (pulling from Spain, Portugal, Italy, and southern France) only enhance this sense that Rage of Bahamut: Genesis is more influenced by Western stories and culture than anything in Japan.
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The story is constantly twisting and turning. Even the only constant in the early episodes, Kaisar chasing after Favaro, is upended after episode 5, with the two of them forced into an uneasy alliance (joined by an undead young girl necromancer named Rita) to protect Amira from the fallen angel Azazel and his demonic army that wants her. Even this quickly changes, with Azazel being decimated by none other than Jeanne D’Arc and left without any power and influence, setting the stage for a bona-fide demon, Beelzebub, to take over the conspiracy to seize Amira.
Unfortunately, it is at this point in episode 8 that the show loses a lot of its momentum. This is an episode clearly designed to set the remaining episodes in motion, and so lacks the action and intrigue that had kept the show going at such a rapid pace. The show takes a couple of episodes to recover its lost momentum, but the final two episodes regain it and then some, with the last episode in particular unleashing a ludicrous but undeniably epic battle royale that lays waste to the world in a way that would do the End of Evangelion and Independence Day creators proud. Other than the missteps that weaken the show’s pacing from episodes 8-10, Rage of Bahamut: Genesis simply refuses to lose steam, although some characters like Jeanne and the demon Martinet badly needed more fleshing out. The ending, however, is nearly perfect, satisfying in a way most shows on either side of the Pacific don’t achieve, with a particularly karmic ending for Favaro.
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The game studio apparently gave MAPPA an enormous budget and it shows, because the sheer scale of Rage of Bahamut: Genesis feels almost theatrical in nature much of the time. I haven’t seen so much ambition or scale pulled off so well in a TV anime in years. Massive armies clash with each other with cataclysmic results, and this happens so often that I fear it will jade me on other action anime. The way MAPPA animates these battles makes it seem almost effortless, tempting you to take it for granted. This may be why the slower episodes 8-10 stand out negatively the way they do. They are not bad episodes at all, but after being on a roller-coaster ride of excitement and fun, these slower episodes feel like switching to bumper cars. It just doesn’t feel good enough after what came before. The only significant flaw I can find in in this production is that the early episodes set so high a bar that any slip-up feels more significant than it really does.
Those slower episodes do serve a purpose though, in that they set up the magnificent finale perfectly. Nothing is left to waste in Rage of Bahamut‘s narrative: everything serves a greater purpose, whether it is someone being transformed into a demon or a ruler being gradually unveiled to be a cowardly lion lost in the shadow of his mother. EVerything fits into the jigsaw puzzle perfectly, as if years have been spent forming this narrative. One can only wish the majority of anime were this well-constructed.
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Fittingly, this epic narrative also has an epic orchestral score by veteran composer Yoshihiko Ike, who is far better known in Japan as a live-action composer. I only know him by his industrial-influenced score for Ergo Proxy and his work here couldn’t be more different. This is a rich, thematic score, with full orchestra backing the many action scenes (as well as key emotional moments), and trumpet solos and flamenco guitar strums supporting the more playful moments. This score is a bit of an oddball in one aspect in that I don’t recall a single piece repeating itself like in most TV anime. Rather, the score feels edited to match the visuals film-style, and in a way that makes the score even more powerful because it feels tailored to every moment it’s running. Overall, it’s fantastic.
Just as fantastic is the opener, “Experience,” by metal band SiM. The visuals skillfully use footage from the show itself mixed with CGI and sketches to give the opening a surreal feel, but the song itself is a standout. Sung (and occasionally screamed) mostly in English with a couple of Japanese phrases, the defiant lyrics seem to be written from Favaro’s POV, with copious amount of metal guitar riffs that make the song an earworm and one of the best openers I have heard from anime in the last few years. The closer, “Promised Land” by Amira’s Japanese VA, Risa Shimizu, can’t match the uniqueness and power of “Experience”, and so comes off as a bit of a typical, generic J-pop ballad, though its lyrics encompass Amira’s feelings pretty well.
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Sonny Strait’s English dub seems to be going for the unorthodox approach in casting. The cast is peppered with lesser-known voice actors, and those with more name recognition are in roles you wouldn’t expect. Chris Rager, one of these lesser-known voice actors, does a superb job of getting Kaisar’s pompous, proud nature across, while Ian Sinclair embodies Favaro’s roguish characterization perfectly. Vic Mignogna of all people is tasked to do a deep, rumbling voice as Beelzebub, and the greater shocker is that it works, to the point you wouldn’t know it was him unless you watch the credits afterward. Other highlights include Christopher Sabat fabulously hamming it up as Martinet, Apphia Yu’s sarcastic Rita (perhaps the only casting choice that feels typecast), and Kent Williams’s scheming Azazel.
The only casting choice that doesn’t work, honestly, is Jad Saxton as Jeanne. This is a rare case where the dub uses a higher-pitched voice for a role than the Japanese version, and while Saxton tries her best, she just does not have the voice for a warrior, and her take doesn’t seem to fit this older, experienced Jeanne. It’s like Strait decided to cast Jeanne more on her historical self than on the Jeanne in the series, and then tried to merge these two disparate personas together. It’s a pretty mild misfire, and doesn’t take away from the fact that this is a strong dub.
The Japanese cast is impeccable, and has the advantage of Megumi Han’s superior, gruffer Jeanne. Risa Shimizu also acquaints herself well with her gentle, innocent take on Amira. If you don’t wish to watch in English, you will be well served with the Japanese version.
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Watching the show on an HDTV with the Blu-rays is definitely the recommended way to watch this show. While the SD version on the DVDs isn’t terrible, there is so much detail lost in the SD version that it’s almost like watching a different show entirely when comparing the two. The extras are fairly standard issue from FUNimation: textless opener and closer, commentaries (none of which are particular insightful), and trailers. There is a limited edition (not the version being reviewed) that contains an artbook and a chipboard case, and it is obviously the preferred way the purchase the show if you can.
If you have been jaded by anime, Rage of Bahamut: Genesis will remind you of the medium’s potential and scale. What Keiichi Sato and MAPPA did here is pure artistry: a love letter to fantasy and Hollywood adventure films, and quite possibly the best adaptation of a video game ever. It is not to be missed.
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