Utawarerumono Vol.1 [2006] [DVD]

The same people who brought us Guyver: Bioboosted Armor, Godannar and Berserk now bring us the amazing, Utawarerumono.
Utawarerumono's story follows a man trying to discover his memories and past while trying to maintain almost impossible peace apon his land. It sounds so simple, but theres much more to it than that. Much more. I could actually sit here for hours explaining it, but it's so detailed and unique, I don't want to end up spoiling even one little thing.
Utawarerumono is animated by Oriental Light and Magic. Who are fairly unknown, well, they were to me, but they have been around since 1994 and have worked on animes such as Berserk, Pokemon, Makai Senki Disgaea, Godannar, ToHeart and Guyver. I'd say Utawarerumono has to be their most beautifully animated work. It all looks amazing.
The characters in Utawarerumono range from extremely lovable to fierce looking killers. They all fit very well within the anime and it's story. Each character also gets a decent amount of screen time, so don't worry, you'll be able to see your favourite character again and again. The main character; Hakuoro, is one of the best heroes in an anime I have ever seen and the main child in the anime; Aruruu, is one of the least annoying child characters of all time. While watching Utawarerumono you'll also encounter various villains, all of which portray their roles perfectly.
The music within the anime fits very well with the atmosphere and overall feel. The opening and ending themes are also very nice to listen to.
Utawarerumono is one of two animes I'd describe as perfect (the other being Death Note). I've seen many animes that have blended action and drama extremly well, and Utawarerumono is no exception. There are plently of exciting and dramatic moments to keep you glued to the screen.
Utawarerumono also boasts a lot of blood and gore within it's fight scenes, which are some of the best I've seen. There are moments in the anime where people get body parts chopped off, sliced in half and such. It's not so graphic to deserve an 18, but it is definitely gory.
Each volume also comes with a booklet and mini poster on the back of the cover. I wouldn't take the cover out, turn it around and use it as a poster as I'll be left with a coverless DVD, but it is still a nice feature and nice to look at when opening your DVD. The booklets contain interviews with the Japanese voice actors and various staff, such as character design, animation, planning and more. The booklet in the first volume contains an interivew with the series planner and voice actors for the characters Oboro and Yuzuha, which are very interesting to read.
As you probably already know, the first volume of Utawarerumono contains the first five episodes. These are probably the slowest moving of all 26 episodes, but don't let that keep you from watching the entire series. Give Utawarerumono a chance, I'm sure you'll love it!

While certainly not the best anime ever made it is also no where near the worst.
The animation is consistently good and the voice dubbing is never bad.
The plot can hardly be called a masterpiece but it does the job (albeit quite cheesily at times) and it does get more exiting after the first 2 episodes.
Considering its cheap price I would certainly recommend this.

Tricky one this; I still can't decide if it's any good or total pants; I guess 'Not the worst & Not the best', best describes this story. Cliche it is; and some damned annoying dialogue to boot; one episode, I'm sure they just spent apologising to each-other. But; it's easy watching and the plot deepens as you progress; and it does improve a bit. There's a classic moment involving a hungry tiger; which is just not right; but it shows true charm.Unfortunately the laughs are to few and the characters are beyond shallow. So just like the guy in the mask, you'll have forgotten this in a week.