Asura

Title:Asura
Ashura
アシュラ
Overall:Buy
Keywords: , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - Toei
HAYASHIBARA Megumi
In a mid-15th century Kyoto ravaged by successive waves of floods, drought, and famine, Asura was left to fend for himself in the wilderness as an infant and grew up into an axe-wielding child surviving on both animal and human flesh. Asura's life took a turn when he became acquainted with Wakasa, a young village girl who taught Asura words and drew out semblances of empathy from within him. Yet Asura's peaceful moments with Wakasa would not last long, as famine began to take its toll on Wakasa's village.


75-minute movie released on September 29, 2012.
Animated by Toei Animation
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Buy 7 9 6 7 8 Ggultra2764 [series:2985#1552]
Asura is a type of morality tale brought up in its focus on our young titular character surviving for himself in an impoverished feudal era Japan as he learns lessons on aspects of humanity such as love, empathy, jealousy and prejudice through his interactions with a Buddhist monk, a village girl named Wakasa and the villagers who later seek to kill our hero. The movie portrays Japan's feudal era as a brutal place to survive in as famine and natural disasters affect the population at large, with Asura being one of its victims as he was abandoned as an infant by his mother and left to survive for himself as he grows up to be a savage killing both animals and humans alike to ensure his survival until he slowly regains his humanity through the interactions he has with the mentioned people. His character convincingly changes throughout the movie's length where he changes from a savage having no regard for those he kills for as long as he survives to a boy regaining the ability to speak with others considering the well-being and survival of those he cares for. Do be warned that Asura is a rather dark and violent title as it can get rather disturbing at points with scenes such as Asura biting the necks of his victims to kill them and falling into a pit full of corpses, thus this is something I would recommend showing to younger or more sensitive viewers.

The animation to Asura milks use of 3D-style cel-shaded animation in the rendering of its settings and characters. The animation for it is fluid throughout its run with natural movement shown off during intense moments in the movie, though the character designs and scenery do look a bit rough in their rendering as it makes the characters and scenery look more like plastic figurines than anything lifelike.

Overall, Asura made for a rather gripping moralistic tale delving into a savage boy learning lessons about humanity as he comes to grips with the savagery he grew up on in order to fend for himself before gaining acceptance from others. If you enjoy feudal era anime such as this, you are more than likely to enjoy this title.

Last updated Saturday, November 08 2014. Created Friday, November 07 2014.

Community Anime Reviews

anime mikomi org