Basilisk

**Basilisk** is an action, adventure, drama, tragedy, dark fantasy, Japanese anime series.  It started witha  manga

    series, which was written by Masaki Segawa and published by Kodansha.  It originally ran from February 4, 2003 to June 15, 2004, and it lasted for 5 volumes in total.  After that came the first season of the anime.  It was directed by Fumitomi Kizaki, written by Yasuyuki Muto, musically composed by Kou Nakagawa, and produced by Studio Gonzo.  It originally aired from April 12, 2005 to September 20, 2005, and it lasted for 24 episodes in total.  After that came a sequel manga series, titled Basilisk:  The Oka Ninja Scrolls, which was written by Masaki Yamada, illustrated by Tatsuya Shihira, and published by Kondansha.  It originally ran from July 24, 2017 to Present, and it has 2 volumes in total so far.  And after that came the second season of the anime series, titled Basilisk:  The Oka Ninja Scrolls, which was directed by Junji Nishimura, written by Shinsuke Onishi, musically composed by Go Sakabe, and produced by Studio Seven Arcs.  It originally ran from January 8, 2018 to June 18, 2018, and it lasted for 24 episodes in total.

## Plot

At the dawn of Japan's Azuchi-Momoyama period (the late 16th century) two rival ninja clans, the Iga Tsubagakure and Kouga Manjidani, are engaged in a bitter blood feud that has spanned for centuries. The fighting finally ends when Hattori Hanzo the 1stsucceeds in forging a cease fire between the two clans by conscripting both into the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu (the man who seized power to become Shogun and form Japan's first truly stable form of centralized government). Regardless, hostilities and bad blood remain between Kouga and Iga, ensuring a tenuous co-existence at best.

Fast forward to the year 1614; Ieyasu has retired from power (although he still wields considerable influence within the government) and passed the torch to his son Hidetada. Unfortunately, a succession dispute has risen concerning which of Ieyasu's grandsons are destined to take up the reins of power when their father finally decides to step down. The various government retainers are beginning to take sides and the Tokugawa Shogunate is on the verge of tearing itself apart.

In order to solve the problem before it spirals out of control, Ieyasu orders the no hostilities pact between Kouga and Iga canceled and promptly commands each clan to send 10 of their best ninja to enter a ruthless and bloody competition of kill or be killed. Each clan will represent one of the two factions supporting Ieyasu's grandsons; the names of their selected fighters recorded on two identical scrolls to be marked out in blood upon their death. The clan that slays the chosen ten of the other will be given favor for a thousand years while the grandson they represent will be pronounced the undisputed heir to the Shogunate.

Prior to the conflicts renewal, Kouga and Iga's two young heirs (Gennosuke and Oboro respectively) were betrothed to each other in the hopes that their union would finally dispel their clan's long-seated animosity toward each other. Forced headlong onto separate sides of a conflict they want no part of, Gennosuke and Oboro must now choose whether to kill the person they love or lead their entire clan to annihilation.

## Why It Rocks

1. Incredible animation.
2. Excellent cast of characters.  They aren't all incredibly complex, but most of them are interesting, likable, relatable, and have a certain charm to them to keep them engaging.
3. Outstanding action scenes.
4. Basilisk does well with killing off important characters.  It gives us enough with the protagonists to like them, so when they kill them off we not only care a great deal, but it also shows us how dangerous that this world really is.
5. Very appealing art style and character designs.
6. Marvelously well-written and engaging drama which makes you feel for the characters weather they're happy, in combat, or suffering.
7. Good voice acting in both sub and dub.
8. The series is so well written that even if you are a person who doesn't necessarily agree with the morals that the series presents, you're still able to get sucked into the story and the character's struggle.
9. Great soundtrack.
10. Basilisk has slight supernatural overtones with the powers that the different characters possess which serve nice to spice things up, but somehow don't get in the way of most of the action being very grounded and realistic.
11. Amazing pacing.
12. Despite the villains themselves not being that interesting, the final battle between them at the heroes are still some of the best in the whole series.

## Bad Qualities

1. One of the weakest parts of the series is the villains.  In both seasons the main villains just came off as too cartooney, over the top, and shallow to be relatable.
2. Speaking of villains, the ending of season 2 was really disappointing.  Oda Nobunaga revived, which made it seem like they were leading into him being the main villain in a third season, or at the very least the characters having an epic battle with him, but that didn't happen, he was killed off kind of pathetically.