Audience reviews
9 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
dio9_by
Master Keaton is one of the finest slice of life storytelling examples of the legendary studio madhouse. Every episode is kinda predictable yet uncommon in plot and narrative. The entire series is a combination of thriller and slice of life. Every episode is full of drama, interesting characters and suspense. All of them are strong and have their own charm as well.
Some of them have a heat warming background. The series offers a mix of historical, crime drama vibe as well. Almost like golden boy, Keaton's involvement with other characters drove storylines more exciting and enjoyable.
Refreshing experience in today's era where we are bound to consume totally unrelated futuristic action in periodical dramas. If you have loved Kino’s Journey, Golden Boy, Rurouni Kenshin, you will also enj…
Read at the sourceZanryu1337
Master Keaton is exceptional in the few things it does. But due to its episodic nature, it can't reach the apex of what it could've been.
Story: 7
Animation: 8
Sound: 10
Characters: 8
Enjoyment: 8
Total: 8
There isn't much to say about Master Keaton. The episodic nature hinders many aspects, mainly a coherent story. What we instead get are various scenarios Keaton finds himself in, mostly voluntarily. This ranges from hostage rescues, stakeouts, family drama, refugees and much more. The variety of the topics is certainly the best way to utilize the episodic format. What stuck the most was how timely everything still is, even if it played in the early 1990s. While it is commended for that, it only shows how stubborn humans can be in that regard that all these problems will probably never…
Read at the sourceShiro099
An absolutely great watch! Highly recommended for people who are searching for traveling series based in Europe with Slice of Life, Naoki Urasawa is a great writer. The exploration of the outside world in those 90s feels gives really good vibes.
Animation was not extraordinary, but everything was moving in sync; the background was the most detailed and beautifully done; it wasn't looking flat like how some of today's anime looks; it really breathed life to the anime; there were some sakuga moments as in character animation; and lastly, there were no CGI cars, and they were animated perfectly.
The thing I most loved was its sound design. It was good that you could hear more natural sounds compared to today's sounds, like glass being put down on a wooden countertop, which sounds more reali…
Read at the sourcerooster_
Master Keaton is an episodic, dramatic thriller based on a manga series co-written by Naoki Urasawa. The titular Keaton is a half-Japanese, half-British investigator for the real-life Lloyd's of London, an unorthodox insurance company that works more like a betting house. Each chapter, which is largely self-contained, takes Keaton to various places (mostly in Western Europe) where he becomes entangled in criminal operations, suspicious murders, scholarly matters, and--sometimes--more lighthearted family affairs. The show's pacing and subject matter somewhat bring to mind American detective shows like Columbo: Keaton is intelligent, resourceful, and combat-proficient, though it's his deep well of knowledge which typically provides a solution to the matter at hand.
Urasawa's charming charac…
Read at the sourceKusuriuri
This series is all about the characters.
It is episodic; and every episode has its own main characters aside from Master Keaton which are really well written and developed and so emotionally relatable in one way or another. This series accomplishes something that most of today's long running anime/tv series can't even accomplish, in only 20 minutes of screen-time i.e. making you care for the characters.
I didn't care much about the plot in Master Keaton. I was too busy feeling for the characters. Most of the stories in the episodes were based on some historical events, myths or some classical like poisoning in Shakespeare's Hamlet.The episodes are arbitrary like in one episode Keaton helps a German businessman to locate his long-lost daughter, in the next one we meet an old lady looking…
Read at the sourceeyerok
“The master of life always lives his destiny as he chooses...”
Ex-SAS, Archeologist, part time lecturer, traveler, historian, Insurance agent; Taichi Hiragi Keaton is a Jack of all trades and a “master of life”. He is simple, intelligent, humble, and a moralistic goody-two shoes infused with the love of life and the possibilities it brings.
The show itself is an exact mirror reflection of its main character; a “Jack-of-all-trades” in that it touches a wide variety of genres and themes, from slice-of-life, romance, mystery to historical, war drama, thriller. It dips into almost everything an anime of its premise possibly can. And the result is a flawed masterpiece packed with enough surprises to make it an easy recommend for old-school anime fans.
For people who are on a lookout for epi…
Read at the sourcePessoa
Master Keaton is a great episodic anime eager to offer something new in every episode. Due to its episodic nature, it lacks a great plotline and significant character growth. But this does not make Keaton a dull anime, because of the fact that the original creator pours his vast knowledge of European history into the work and creates something interesting in every episode.
The story feels like the creator really loved history and countries of Europe and wanted to make a story to share his knowledge. Because of that the story though not great is kind of encyclopedic. Some episodes can be easily incorporated into the great anime Monster. Main characters of both anime wander mainly in different parts of Europe (although for different reasons).
Characters are enjoyable. Majority of them app…
Read at the sourcezawa113
More people need to check this out, it’s great as an episodic show and at trying out many different genres and has a genius main, always a plus ;) Everything applies exactly the same to the OVA as well, be sure to check out one if you like the other.
Plot: ?
This varies from episode to episode to be honest, some are solid 10s, others are lower, but there’s no real bad ones to be fair, just ones that are more interesting than others. Plot episodes vary greatly, one episode Keaton might be disarming a bomb with chocolate, surviving in the desert, or making a windmill to bring water to local plants so he can finally have his perfect pudding. Therefore how much you’ll like the series depends almost entirely on....
Character: 9
Taichi Keaton is a great character, plain and simple. The only ot…
Read at the sourcebokenhiebing
If variety is the spice of life then Master Keaton delivers one hell of a spicy dish. It is hard to say what genre the shows is because it is almost everything. But is variety by itself enough?
Master Keaton's greatest asset is its variety. One episode it is a mystery, the next it is an action show, and the one after that it is a slice of life. The show really does end up getting it fingers in to almost every genre there is. To go along with the different genre, the show is in a different place every episode. In the rice patties of Japan and then in the hills of Scotland. Walking into the beginning of every episode and not knowing exactly what to expect is probably my favorite part.
Unfortunately as much as variety is the show's greatest strength it is also its greatest weakness. Any RP…
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