Winter 2022 First Impressions – Orient

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: The land of Hinomoto was a peaceful one, until the Oni arrived and began to rule over the human population. Certain humans – warriors called Bushi – fought back, but eventually lost to the greater power of the demons. Now over a century later, the Oni have become central religious and authority figures in the lives of humans, and the Bushi have been all but forgotten. However, Musashi and his friend Kojiro, having been told about the Bushi in secret as children, have resolved to revive the battle against the oppression put upon them by the Oni.

As Musashi is processed through the school system, however, he appears to lose sight of his goals in the face of the relentless propaganda machine. He can’t find it within himself to outwardly make waves by professing his goal to become a Bushi, and he eventually graduates with the rest of his class and takes up his post as a miner. When Musashi meets Kojiro in secret, Kojiro refuses to believe in his resolve, partly to help ensure his friend doesn’t suffer the difficult life of a Bushi. But when Musashi and his classmates learn the truth about the Oni, it’s Musashi’s secret weapons practice and unwavering goal to fight against their oppressors that ultimately saves them. He and Kojiro make amends and once again set their sights on sharpening their swords and eliminating the Oni.

Impressions: A couple of years ago I’m not sure that I would have believed in the capacity of human beings to normalize utterly garbage, traumatic circumstances, but here we are. To some folks, I’ve noticed, the pandemic is a distant memory, perhaps even something conjured up out of thin air. Though the state of the (U.S.) medical system is once again in completely dire straits, this reality is just a low hum in the background of many people’s lives. I’m not necessarily trying to make a political statement here, I’m mostly trying to make clear that I understand how a society, in a relatively short amount of time, could invent for itself an entirely new history – one which makes the best of a bad situation and mythologizes it in a way that those who worked to keep it from happening have become the enemy.

Orient seems to be a shounen adventure anime through-and-through, one which finds the idea of people trying hard to restore justice through the use of cool weaponry and the power of the human spirit to be extremely laudable. And yet, despite its simple premise and characters, its perception of people is both keen and frustrating. There are citizens who live their lives in ignorance, never suspecting that their lives are oppressed. There are those who work within the machine to further the deception, likely for some sort of meager amount of power or personal gain. And there are those who know the secrets of their world’s reality, working to improve the living situation for the rest of the people who don’t know to know better. It’s an interesting interplay of character motivations, one which lacks the nuance of, say, certain parts of The Promised Neverland or the distinct tragedy of From the New World, but it’s more than I might have expected from what’s otherwise a fairly straightforward story.

Beyond this bit of social commentary, this episode was really just kind of fun. It’s not my normal fare, but there’s admittedly a certain sort of appeal to a story that isn’t completely riddled with social baggage, leering fanservice, or other various complicating factors. It’s not the best looking show on the block – the animation is functional although there are some very nice still frames (at least the series makes for some pretty decent screen caps) – but it gets the job done. There’s not a ton to discuss, but there’s also not a ton to pick at, either. And that in itself is kind of a pleasant feeling.

Pros: I’m not sure if it was clear from the screen capture I’ve used as the primary image for this post, but there’s a point during the episode where Kojiro arrives in the nick of time, sitting astride some kind of crystalline motorbike. While this series appears to be set in some premodern time period, it clearly plays a little bit fast and loose with its technology, especially as it applies to the Bushi characters (who obviously need some cool shounen-y abilities to show off). As a fan of things like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, I do truly appreciate those moments where series choose to lean into their more batty elements and just accept how silly they are. When done right it definitely adds to the experience.

Cons: There’s a lot of very big anger on display here, to the point where it becomes a bit cartoonish and comical. While silly plot elements have their place, I have a much lower tolerance for characters who yell out their angry emotions a la Eren Yeager.

Also, you’re not going to make me believe that Musashi literally just forgot that he was no longer carrying his scythe when he chose to pick a fight with the Oni in the rock quarry.

Content Warnings: Violence, including blood/bleeding and humans being consumed by demons. Depictions of slavery, including characters being whipped and harassed.

Would I Watch More? – Surprising as it is for me to say, I actually might. A lot of this episode was pretty silly or corny, but my philosophy is that depth and complexity is not the be-all, end-all of entertainment media. That said, I assume that this will eventually have more than 12 episodes, and I tend to experience diminished returns with many series that run much beyond 2 cours, so I suspect in the long term I may not feel obligated to keep up with it.