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The Winter 2023 Anime Preview Guide
Revenger

How would you rate episode 1 of
Revenger ?
Community score: 3.7



What is this?

Raizo Kurima is a man who was betrayed by someone he trusted, and now he has no place to return. He is currently a hitman working for the organization Revenger, which takes revenge on behalf of those with no power. He works at the "Ribenjiya" store that acts as a general store on the outside while hiding the Revenger organization beneath the surface. His coworkers include a physician with destructive impulses, a beautiful and androgynous young man who is both cruel and innocent, a gambler who loves money and alcohol, and an intelligent lacquer craftsman. The five men start to build a strange friendship by working together.

Revenger is an original anime and streams on Crunchyroll on Thursdays.


How was the first episode?

Richard Eisenbeis
Rating:

This is a solid premiere. It serves as both the origin story for our viewpoint character and the introduction to our greater cast and the work they do. Kurima's story is a classic samurai tale of honor, romance, and misplaced loyalty. He kills his soon-to-be father-in-law as a traitor at the behest of his lord only to discover that it was his master who was the true traitor—one importing opium into Japan, catering to foreign interests.

However, the real tragedy is that Kurima is concerned with his own duty and honor that he neglects his fiancé's feelings—not realizing that the shame of having her fiancé murder her father would be too much for her to live with. Thus, he is unable to offer his own life to her in penance for his sins after taking his revenge as she has taken her own life before he can. It's a well-built emotional tale, and one that's easy to empathize with.

The other side of the story sets up everything else that is to come. With Usui and his band, we have a group of assassins working seemingly on the side of justice. While they appear to be makers of toys and gold-lacquered items, they are actually skilled killers—though not skilled enough to see how Kurima has played them for his own revenge until it is too late.

What's most interesting for me, however, is the historical setting. Judging by the references to the opium trade, it seems Revenger takes place in the early-to-mid 1800s, a time when Japan is effectively isolated from the rest of the world, save for the Nagasaki port of Dejima (which we see a stylized version of). That means this is also the era when Christianity was banned in Japan—which makes Usui's tattoo a literal death sentence were anyone to mention it to the authorities. And as someone who's always down for some good historical fiction, I look forward to seeing how this is explored as the story continues on.


Caitlin Moore
Rating:

So apparently, even though it's just now getting produced, Gen Urobuchi wrote the script for Revenger fairly early in his career. If that's true, I take back all the times I commented during the episode that Urobuchi might be in a rut, because this is the most Urobuchi script that ever Urobuchi'd. What do I mean by that? Well, let's make a bulleted list!

  • A protagonist who tried to live by his ideals…: Kurima was a samurai who obeyed his master without question, including assassinating his fiancee's father for allegedly dealing heroin. Did he like the idea of killing his future father-in-law? No! Of course not! But his master ordered it and as a samurai, it's not his job to ask questions.
  • …until he was deceived by the people he served…: Uh, turns out maybe he should have asked questions, because then his own men try to kill him. Turns out his master was the actual opium dealer. Oopsie!
  • …and now he has regrets. Yeah, turns out being manipulated into murdering your fiancee's dad feels pretty bad. Plus, it messes things up for her in a patriarchal society (more on that later). One of the things that Urobuchi is most (in)famous for is how his characters tend to start with principles and ideals, which subsequently get crushed into dust. The stronger those principles, the crueler their punishment a la the entire cast of Madoka Magica.
  • Disillusioned, he gets involved with a subversive organization that involves committing violence in the name of justice. In this case, it's the Revengers, an organization that takes revenge on behalf of people powerless in society. At least, that's what's sold to him by the man who approaches him, Yuen Usui, but it's entirely possible that a shady character like that has a double-cross in store.
  • There are lots of oblique hints that there's much more to the situation than meets the eye. To be honest, this was the hardest part of the premiere for me to get through. There were so many men sitting in shadowy rooms with the same old-fashioned haircut that my eyes glazed over no matter how many times I tried to rewatch the scene. That's not a death knell, since the tone and pacing reminded me especially of Fate/Zero, another Urobuchi series with a famously sluggish premiere.
  • A woman suffers horribly in a way that serves little narrative purpose. Seriously, Urobuchi? I'm going to send someone to squirt him from a spray bottle every time he does this.

I'm not saying this is going to be a bad show. Yeah, it's kind of dull and talky but so was Fate/Zero's first episode and that show was great. Plus, it's a good-looking show, with smooth, well-choreographed action and attractive character designs that I thought were by Tite Kubo (who has always been a better designer than storyteller) for a hot minute until I looked it up.

But, uh, shame about the misogyny, that.


Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Are you ready to watch a guy get suffocated with gold leaf, a different guy get killed by a kite, and still another dude take a small knife through the eyeball? Or how about a woman stab herself through the throat? If the answer is no, you may want to give Revenger a pass. Otherwise, this may be the historical action piece you've been waiting for. Something about it reminds me strongly of Onihei, a series that I don't imagine many people remember, though I couldn't quite put my finger on what that is apart from the historical setting. This particular story is set during the 19th century, which we can guess from the mention of the British having plans to use opium to take down the Qing dynasty. The presence of a large Catholic cathedral in Nagasaki may also be a reference to the fact that it was the sole port where Portuguese and Dutch traders were allowed from the 16th to 19th centuries, which would certainly give time to build such an edifice, historical accuracy of such a thing existing notwithstanding. In any event, my favorite part of this episode is that we're given all the clues we need to tell what the time period is without it being said on screen. This feels like a story that trusts its viewers to figure things out without having anything spoon-fed to us.

Not that there aren't some moments that made me roll my eyes, such as when the leader of our presumed Revengers drops his kimono top to reveal a gigantic back tattoo of the Virgin Mary seconds after shoving a piece of gold leaf paper over a man's face. I'm not Christian, but I'm pretty sure that it is not meant to endorse murder as an institution (history and human nature aside), and the juxtaposition of having the guy pray to the Virgin Mary while his victim suffocated struck me as a bit of dark humor. However, I'm reasonably certain it was not intended to be so. But Yui, the fiancée of point of view character Raizo, commits suicide before he can reach her side feels like a twist of the knife too many in an overall violent episode, an unsubtle way of forcing Raizo to join the Revengers gang because he has nothing left to live for otherwise. I have also largely lost my taste for violence since my mother's injury two years ago, so I did find the whole episode a bit much on that level.

All of that said, there's really something engaging here. The kite death is definitely creative, and I love the little details in things like creating lacquerware and the removal of the hilt from a sword while running. It generally looks good too, so even though I don't personally feel like I'm likely going to watch more of it, this seems like a very promising start if you're looking for a little historical action in your week.


Nicholas Dupree
Rating:

“Functional” is how I'd describe this show. It's a perfectly competent product. The visuals are fine. The story is told succinctly and without any confusion or rough edges. Personal taste notwithstanding, there's nothing that this first episode does that is objectively wrong. It's like a well-assembled chair or desk – it has an express function and serves that purpose in a wholly unremarkable way. I'd dare even to call it generic if this were the mid-2000s because the only thing that stands out about it in 2023 is that we don't get these grimly serious, straightforward samurai revenge stories in anime very often these days.

The problem is, I don't need the anime equivalent of a well-constructed desk lamp. If the most positive thing I can say about a show is that it doesn't do anything monumentally stupid or clumsy, then there's probably not much else to grab onto, and that's certainly the case here. Revenger is as unmemorable as its generic title, going through the motions of its samurai revenge story with passionless efficiency. It has no time for fancy accouterments like interesting characters, meaningful themes, or a distinct identity. It's here to deliver perfectly serviceable sword-fighting action for precisely 22 minutes before clocking out and heading home to eat untoasted white bread and watch the news.

About the only memorable moments of this premiere – and indeed, the only moments that couldn't be found in any number of samurai shows that came before it – are a couple of the kills from the central assassins. The little kid character using a kite string covered in glass shards to garrote a guy was fun in a ridiculous way. Same for the leader suffocating a guy by sticking quick-drying gold leaf over his face. Those were the only times it felt like anything was interesting or distinct about this premiere, but then we ended things with our main character crying over his wife's dead body, and we were right back to the most generic plot points of 2006.

If literally all you want is some decently animated action stitched together with a believable plot, well, here you go. Revenger will suit you just fine. But if you want anything else, like characters to care about or engaging dialogue? Look elsewhere. I certainly will be.


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