Shika no Ō: Yuna to Yakusoku no Tabi

Title:Shika no Ō: Yuna to Yakusoku no Tabi
The Deer King
鹿の王 ユナと約束の旅
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - Production I.G.
R1 License - GKIDS
Van is the head of a group of soldiers who expected to die fighting for their lands against a large empire looking to incorporate their home into its kingdom. Instead of dying, however, Van is taken as a slave and thrown into a salt mine. One night, a pack of strange dogs attacks the salt mine, and a mysterious illness breaks out. During the attack, Van takes the opportunity to escape, and he meets a young girl. Elsewhere, rumor is spreading that only immigrants are coming down with this mysterious illness. The medical scientist Hossal risks his life to search for a cure. Doctors also study a father and child who seem to have survived the illness.
(Summary Courtesy of Anime News Network)


113-minute film released on June 14, 2021.
Animated by Production IG.
Licensed by GKids.
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 10 9 9 7 6 Ggultra2764 [series:4630#1552]
Deer King was giving me some deja vu comparing elements of its story to Princess Mononoke in dabbling into a clash between man and nature and the lead character affected with a mysterious curse that gives him power to aid in the resulting conflict at hand. Still, it had potential at telling a story with a number of layers to its conflict involving multiple factions and exploring our lead character, Van, coming to terms with the loss of his family and establishing a new one with the orphaned girl, Yuna. However, a two-hour movie just isn't enough to explore all this and it felt like a good number of plot developments and character exploration either got rushed through or skipped in order to progress the story at a brisk pace. A shame too as Deer King is nicely animated having fluid movement depicted in character movements and action scenes, as well as having believable details with the human and animal characters seen throughout the film. As it is, Deer King likely would have been better off as a TV anime where more time could have been devoted to exploring its world and characters, and I feel kind of disappointed at the wasted potential that it had to offer up for its story.

Last updated Saturday, March 25 2023. Created Saturday, March 25 2023.

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