Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings – Season Two (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

February 14, 2012 by Dennis Amith 

The second season of “Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings” surpasses the first season in story, action, better character integration and for fans of the video game series, a much more enjoyably experience.   So, for anyone who watched the first season of “Sengoku Basara” or for those just wanting a feudal Japan, action-packed, samurai fighting storyline that is “kick-ass” awesome! Definitely give “Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings – Season Two” a try!

Image courtesy of © CAPCOM/TEAM BASARA. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings – Season Two

DURATION: Episodes 1-13 (325 Minutes)

BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, English 5.1, Japanese 5.1, Subtitles: English

COMPANY: FUNimation Entertainment

RATED: NOT RATED 14+

Release Date: February 7, 2012

 

Directed by Kazuya Nomura

Screenplay by Yasuyuki Muto

Music by Hiroyuki Sawano

Original Character Design by Makoto Tsuchibayashi (CAPCOM)

Character Design by Tooru Ookubo

Art Director: Shunichiro Yoshihara

Chief Animation Director: Tooru Ookubo

Anime Production by Studio I.G.

Featuring the following voice talent:

Kazuya Nakai/Robert McCollum as Date Masamune

Norio Wakamoto/John Swasey as Oda Nobunaga

Souichiro Hoshi/Johnny Yong Bosch as Sanada Yukimura

Akiria Ishida/Chris Casn as Takenaka Hanbei

Keiji Fujiwara as Matsunaga Hisahide

Masakazu Morita/Eric Vale as Maeda Keiji

Ryotaro Okiayu/Christopher R. Sabat as Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Ryuuzou Ishino/Patrick Seitz as Chosokabe Motochika

Shigeru Nakahara/Sam Regal as Mori Motonari

Hiroki Shimowada/Maxey Whitehead as Ranmaru Mori

Kouji Tsujitani/Christopher Bevins as Nagamasa Asai

Mamiko Noto/Laura Bailey as Oichi

Natsuko Kuwatani/Stephanie Sheh as Kasuga

Romi Park/Greg Ayres as Uesugi Kenshin

Sho Hayami/Vic Mignogna as Akechi Mitsuhide

Takehito Koyasu/Michael Sinterniklaas as Sarutobi Sasauke

Tessho Genda/Chris Ayres as Takeda Shingen

Toshiyuki Morikawa/Travis Willingham as Katakura Kojuro

Japan’s toughest warlords are on the move, leading massive armies against their rivals in a thrilling quest for total domination. Wielding insane weaponry and unleashing the elements to boost their already awesome power, these warrior generals roar into the fray atop turbo-charged stallions, slicing through the enemy with six blades at once.

 

They brandish explosive shotguns and swing swords the size of men. They crush the opposition with rolling battle fortresses and incinerate their foes with solar death rays. Hordes of ninja assassins and samurai fight to vanquish every adversary in their sight. As loyalties crumble and new alliances are forged in the scorching heat of battle, heroes become conquerors and conquerors become legends. This is war!

 

When it comes to video games that feature samurai’s and a general taking on hoards of enemies, in the US, “Samurai Warriors” (similar to Dynasty Warriors) from KOEI is well-known. But in Japan, CAPCOM began their own series known as “Sengoku Basara” (Devil Kings) which takes place during the Sengoku period and a similar concept as their rivals and has also earned its strong fan following.

In 2005, the first game was released for the Sony Playstation 2 and was released in the U.S. (as “Devil Kings”) but unfortunately, CAPCOM tried to change the whole story of the Sengoku period by trying to connect it to their “Devil May Cry” series in order to attract players but because of the changes and the localization crew feeling they needed to make it more difficult in America, needless to say, it was a failure. People wanted the same game that was in Japan and within the last six years, there have been four video game releases and now CAPCOM has released “Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes” for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo Wii in the US in October 2010.

In Japan, two seasons of “Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings” aired. And in 2010, to coincide with this videogame release, FUNimation Entertainment released the first season of the anime series “Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings” on Blu-ray and DVD (including the first 12 TV episodes + Blu-ray/DVD only 13th episode).

On Feb. 2012, with the release of the second season on Blu-ray and DVD, FUNimation Entertainment will be re-releasing the first season of “Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings” via a Blu-ray+DVD Combo Pack.

The anime series is produced by Production I.G. and is directed by Itsuro Kawasaki (“Arc the Lad”, “Rental Magica”, “Yumedamaya Kidan”), screenplay by Yasuyuki Muto (“Afro Samurai: Resurrection”, “Basilisk”, “Mobil Suit Gundam UC”), character designs by Tooru Ookubo, art direction by Shunichiro Yoshihara (“Gurren Lagann”, “Cromartie High School”, “Slayers”) and music by Hiroyuki Sawano (“Soul Link”, “Mobil Suit Gundam UC”).

The anime series takes place during the Sengoku Period (several years before the video game storyline). Various generals and their warriors are fighting each other. For the Takeda clan led by Lord Takeda Shingen, his young hot-headed warrior Sanada Yukimura has a rivalry with the cocky one-eyed warlord Date Masamune. Both are hot-headed that they fight against each other but they also value their battles with one another because they are equally matched.

And as the two sides begin to fight again, they are interrupted by the soldiers of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.   Toyotomi wants to unite Japan and make the country stronger but as each warrior supports their own clan and leader, he warns everyone that if they oppose him, they will be face his wrath.

Quickly, clans who try to take on Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his soldiers are quickly met with defeat.  He is too powerful and for Masamune, Shingen and Kenshin, they stand no chance against him.

But as each clan tries to find a way to defeat Hideyoshi, Maeda Kanji who knows Toyotomi very well, tries to get his friends Maeda Toshiie and Matsu to stop Toyotomi’s tirade against the other clans, but he finds out that even his friends have aligned with Toyotomi.

Meanwhile, the other clans begin to visit others with the hope of rival clans joining forces to fight against Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his army.

VIDEO:

“Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings” is presented in 1080p High Definition and like most Production I.G. releases, they always provide excellent artistic backgrounds for their series. Mountains, rocks, trees, skies are very well painted and the animation is also nice and fluid. Colors are absolutely vibrant and bold. Also, very good lighting effects throughout the series.

Personally, I expected nothing less from Production I.G., the series definitely looks absolutely awesome on Blu-ray! Also, I detected no banding, artifacting or anything negative about the picture quality of this anime series.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings” is presented in lossless English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD and lossless Japanese 2.0 Dolby TrueHD.

Personally, I enjoyed the Japanese soundtrack because the generals sound much more menacing while I felt the English dub, as good as it is, sometimes I feel certain voice talent are overly used and they sound the same for no matter what characters they play. In the first season, I mentioned that although I enjoy Johnny Yong Bosch’s acting work when it comes to “Bleach”, but his Yukimura (Sengoku Basara) sounds like an annoying version of Ichigo (Bleach). But with that being said, the English dub has grown on me and felt the FUNimation English dub actors did a fine job.

And when it comes to channel utilization, the English dubbed soundtrack is much more livelier because of its lossless 5.1 soundtrack.  Personally, I felt that he Japanese soundtrack was my preference but it is all subjective to the listener and what language they typically prefer.  Regardless, you get a very well done English dub with a better losless soundtrack.  Japanese soundtrack is very good but it’s lossless 2.0 and is a bit low on the scale of dynamic range compared to its 5.1 counterpart.

Subtitles are in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings – Season Two” contains the following special features:

• Episode 6 Commentary – Featuring a fun commentary by voice director and writer Christopher Bevins and Patrick Seitz (co-writer and voice actor for Chosokabe Motchika).
• Episode 12 Commentary – Featuring Eric Vale (voice actor of Maeda Keiji), Robert McCallum (voice actor of Date Masamune) and Chris Cason (voice actor for Takenaka Hanbei).
• New Anime – Sengoku Basara II Katakura-Kun - (26:00) Featuring seven episodes of a mini Katakura.
• Textless Opening Song – Featuring the opening theme song “Sword Summit” by T.M. Revolution.
• Textless Closing Song – Featuring the ending themes “El Dorado” and “Ruisen”.
• Trailers - Trailers for upcoming FUNimation Entertainment releases.

EXTRAS:

“Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings – Season Two” comes with both the Blu-ray and DVD versions of the TV series.  Included is a slipcase that will hold both season two and also season one (sold separately).

Quite often, when it comes to anime series, there is always a fictional account of traditional Japanese history and its warlords.

For “Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings”, it’s a popular video game series that has tried to make these warring clans (that happen to live in the same time period) and generals with amazing abilities take on each other.

Obviously, watching the anime series is a treat for those who have played the video games and I personally enjoy the video game series and its chaotic gameplay.  But with the first season of the anime series, I have to admit that I was let down a little because I was expecting too much of the video game, but then again, having watched many anime adaptations of video games, may they be “Street Fighter V”, “Tekken”, “Virtua Fighter”, even the “Final Fantasy” anime series, they weren’t necessarily all great.

But by the end of season one, I started to appreciate the storyline a bit more, but still I felt it was lacking excitement.  Too much action, but a slightly weak storyline that probably I enjoyed a bit more because of Production I.G.’s production quality.

But here we are with season two and this time, there is a new threat with the arrival of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a powerful man who just craves even more power, despite abusing it and thinking he is doing the country of Japan any good.  And this is where, the series gets more exciting because the characters we watched in season 1, warring and rival clans now team up for the greater good in hopes of defeating Toyotomi and his army.

And of course, the first confrontation, everyone gets their butt kicked.  How will Yukimura Sanada, Date Masamune and others fight against this new evil warlord.

For those playing the “Sengoku Basara” video game will enjoy how the writers tried to include so many characters from the video game into this anime series.  So, Maeda Keiji, Maeda Toshiie, Matsu to pirate Chosokabe Motochika even Oichi have their part in this anime series.

But most importantly, the storyline doesn’t seem to banal, boring or overly-focused on the action.  There are deep moments as characters like Yukimura Sanada will need to learn how life is outside of his clan,  Katakura Kojuro (bodyguard of Date Masamune) being captured, Maeda Keiji having to deal with his beloved family (Toshiie and Matsu) joining forces with Toyotomi and knowing that he may need to fight them to the death.  There are a few plot twists, darker moments and of course, plenty of humor.  Yes, Yukimura and Oda Nobunaga punching each other out is still a big part of the series, including the screams of passion as Kasuga moans whenever Uesugi Kenshin compliments her.

But for those who watched season one on Blu-ray, I can easily say that this second season is much better when it comes to writing, even animation and art backgrounds look slightly better than the first season.   You also get the DVD versions of the series, so you can compare and see how much vibrant the series is on Blu-ray compared to DVD.

As for special features, you get the chibi comedy anime series “Sengoku Basara II Katakura-Kun”.  Also, it was great to see FUNimation Entertainment included two audio commentaries by those involved with the English dub.

Similar to the first season, picture quality of the Blu-ray is very good and vibrant.  Audio is very good but not as immersive as I would have hoped, but it’s still good.  The lossless 5.1 English dub is better when it comes to dynamic range compared to its 2.0 lossless Japanese counterpart as expected.  But both are well-acted and have to say that the English dub grew on me.

Overall, I felt that “Sengoku Basara: Samura Kings – Season Two” was a major improvement over the first season.  It utilized the characters much better than the first, integrating them into this deeper, action-packed storyline and I do believe that this series was created for those who love the video game, as they tried to include as many characters from the video game as possible.

Its important to note that while it does help to watch the first season or even play the “Sengoku Basara” video game series, it is not essential in order to enjoy this second season.  You can easily jump on aboard the second season and still enjoy the series.

So, for anyone who watched the first season of “Sengoku Basara” or for those just wanting a feudal Japan, action-packed, samurai fighting storyline that is “kick-ass” awesome! Definitely give “Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings – Season Two” a try!