Angolmois: Record of Mongol Invasion Series Review

This anime was one I thought I’d be interesting in – having watched Golden Kamuy no more that a few months ago and reading about Japanese war history, I was excited. Did Angomois deliver the goods? Keep reading.

Synopsis

Right – so in 1274 (holy shit, I just realized how old this is) the Mongols made their first attempt in Invading Japan. They sailed their boats all the way to the enchanting island of Tsushima, thus creating their first opening for the invasion. Tsushima, desperate and asking the government for help, was given a group of outcast exiles that were forcibly brought to the island to fight and protect Tsushima. One of them (actually, two of them) happened to be the skillful samurai Kuchi Jinzaburou. Kuchi has a great interest in warfare and is the type of guy who jumps into battle and beheading people he’s never met before with little to no motivation. He leads the Tsushima troupes under the very unimportant surveillance of the local princess who has feelings for him and molests him in his sleep. Kuchi plays it hard to get the whole time – he actually seems completely oblivious to what is going on and pretends to have no interest in Teruhi. Bo-ring. Long story short, they fight and they fight and they fight, until everyone dies. Except for these two. Damn.

Plot & Story

So the show is not exactly historical – I mean, it is, but it focuses a lot more on the micro-historical events that take place within the characters’ lives which are almost entirely fictional. The main characters – Kuchi and Teruhi – have never existed, and thank the lord for that, as they are more bland than a slice of white toast. The most interesting part of the show has been the research I did on the history of the time, as the show itself gives little to no explanation of what is going on to the viewer, and if you are clueless on 13th century Japanese history – which I believe most of us are – you are bound to lose a lot of information and references that are taking place while the show is running. There is little plot, they literally just fight all the time. The characters are very shallow; very little effort has been put into making these guys seem human. Kuchi is a perfect warrior, Teruhi is a tsundere hime, there’s the blank-stare monk, the annoying kid, hot white-haired guy, a bunch of Toibarai ladies with little clothing on, a traitor, a scoundrel, an oversized buffoon who can barely speak, and a lot, a LOT of cheap bad-assery.

Art & Music

Bad. No seriously, it’s just not good enough from contemporary animation standards. There is a strange paper-like filter on the whole time, which in the first few episodes I found really distracting. The animation is minimum effort, even during battles – the characters don’t really move around much. We just get stills of them raging about. There’s two decent animation scenes – Kuchi’s night battle in the first episodes and the kid’s death on the last one, and that is about it. Sad.

I am not gonna lie – I have not noticed any background music during the show. It was pretty hard with the constant war-crying, anyway. Voice acting is painfully basic. The OP and ED music is pretty decent – both are catchy tunes, and I found myself humming the OP a couple of times, which is good, I guess.

Themes & Trivia

There is a lot of historical background to the show if one’s interested in reading it (because as I said, little to none of it is narrated properly). To my understanding, it all starts with Battle of Tsushima Island – on 5 October 1272, about 1,000 soldiers of the Mongol Army landed on Komoda Beach, and Sukekuni So, the leader of Tsushima Island was killed in action. Mongolians slaughtered the locals. There are also references to lost emperors and various historical figures, but as I said, you need to look that stuff up.

Should I watch it?

Plus:

Ground for historical reading
Catchy OP and ED
Cute Toibarai leader I guess.

Minus:

Bland characters
Poor storyline
Trying too hard to impress with very little

So yeah, no, I don’t think Angolmois is worth your time, unless you enjoy badly drawn slaughter. It has very little to offer apart from that but hey, to each his own, I guess…

What did you think of Angomois: Record of a Mongol Invasion? Let us know in the comment section and don’t forget to check more anime reviews on MANGA.TOKYO!