Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
ARITRA_68722
Seirei no Moribito was a really fulfilling experience so i embarked on a journey to look for more fantasy shows similar to it and came across Kemono no souja Erin and both are by Uehashi Nahoko. My expectations wee high, and it delivered masterfully though i do not hold the view like this is the greatest thing ever i must say Erin provided for a really fruitful experience.
STORY
Going into this one i did have a hunch on what type of story it may be and mostly i was right. Detailed world, deeply emotional storyline, political tussle, supernatural element etc. But Erin also has a predominantly calm atmosphere to most of its episodes. It has a slice of inclination where we see the main character Erin do what she loves, that is curiosity to learn and know more, and later on a special fixation…
Read at the sourceNisemonoDesu
I watched this show with absolutely no intent of writing a review on it. Those of you who know the meta of MAL reviews know that writing a review of a relatively unknown show from over 10 years ago is a great way to make sure nobody reads it. But as Kemono no Souja Erin unfolded over its 50-episode journey, my thoughts on it were too scattered and my feelings too complex to boil down into a simple number or even a short note under the entry on my list page. This is an anime that deserves attention and discussion; even if no one reads this review, I need to write it for my own sake.
First, some backstory on how I stumbled upon this show. A long time ago on 4chan there was a daring individual who decided to compile a list of the “best-written” anime from the /a/ board and then post it on /l…
Read at the sourceliteraturenerd
Yep...the time has come. I've been gradually watching this series for about 3 months and now it's finally time to give my thoughts on it. This isn't going to be easy. On the one hand, I really love this series. I added it to my extended favorites without hesitation. The first 20 episodes are absolutely amazing! It's still the best anime adaptation of a YA novel that I've seen. I think it's quite a bit better than Moribito or Shinsekai Yori.
However, Erin also has some issues. From roughly episodes 20-40, the anime just pulls the drag chute and becomes unbearably slow. The 2 god awful comic relief characters get a full episode. We get I believe 3 flashback episodes. There's a mini arc where this girl comes to Erin's school and is jealous of her, which feels like the most pointless of fille…
Read at the sourceSkittles
Fantasy anime have long been characterized by an abundance of wicked sorcerers and cute cat girls, but Kemono no Souja Erin features none of these tropes, instead drawing on elements from classic fairy tales. Its innocuous artstyle, which mimics the illustrations of Aesop’s picture books, exhibits an aura foreign to most contemporary anime fans. Coupled with its unremarkable first episode, the show is easy to dismiss as a childish folktale not worth the trouble.
This is a gross misconception. What begins as an everyday tale about a naive young girl and her mother gradually evolves into a profound saga of morality, politics, and self-discovery.
For all its deceivingly harmless visuals, Kemono no Souja Erin hides one of the most well-presented and mature stories. People die, political intr…
Read at the sourceItIsIDio
Kemono no Souja Erin is a good choice for you if you want to watch a series aimed for children that tries to build a fantasy world that has its own depth and use that to ingrain something into your moral fiber. However this immediately becomes a terrible choice if you can't handle its slow pace and its very poor choices in the sound department, which I'll get on later. And it's also an obviously terrible choice if you don't expect it to treat you like a dumb kid who needs flashbacks every few episodes to be remembered what happens and don't like being to be expected to sing along the songs just because there are lyrics on screen.
Let me get out of the way the things the series does right before I start complaining. The most impressive aspect I found in the series is the world building. Wh…
Read at the sourceFleure
Prologue:
Lands bound by Magic, Lore, and Myth brimming with fabled creatures and tall-tales are the life force of fantasy-based works. Works of Fantasy tend to be products of pure imagination; the bridge between “what is” and “what can never be” often makes these works innately tantalizing. They have the ability to transport the audience into the fantastic, the absurd, the unreal, but, magic and trickery of the imagination displayed in effective works can invert these “fairy-tales” into something that feels far more real.
The aforesaid effectiveness depends primarily on one element when it comes to Fantasy, and that is world-building. There is nothing that single-handedly matters more within this genre than its setting and the internal mechanics and laws that bind it. Consistency plays…
Read at the sourcep0ip0i
You know how you countlessly search and browse through anime selections and just hope or pray that you’d strike gold and find something great? This is how I first found Erin.
The anime was not as I had expected. As soon as I started the series I was immediately hooked and fell in love!
This is the first anime I have seen where both the main character and the plot are so well written and put together. From start until the final episode, you feel the substance of a complete storyline where nothing was left out or cut short. While most series nowadays indulge on the popular genres, they often hasten the ending and leave the audience with many questions unanswered.
For Erin, however, within the span of 50 episodes, the main character is first introduced as a child and grows until she become…
Read at the source313_Archer
Nahoko Uehashi’s Kemono no Souja Erin is a “hidden gem” anime. While more people have seen/heard of Uehashi’s Seirei no Moribito, not nearly enough people have seen this beautiful series. I could babble about how much I love this series for hours, but, instead, I’ll try to tell you why (and why it’s 9/10 instead of 10/10!).
This review is spoiler free! :D
Characters: 9/10
While it’s story made for children, Kemono no Souja Erin addresses adult topics at a mature level. The target audiences’ age is somewhat irrelevant, because the characters bloom, especially Erin. She’s a child character the viewer can admire and adore. Following her journey through childhood and into her teenage years, she comes to life as one of the most well developed characters I’ve come across.
But her light does…
Read at the sourcemultiplebears
This was an anime that stood out quite a lot to me once I started watching it. It's really good at immersing you into their fantastical world and it's great at showing the struggle between loving animals while recognizing that they are wild and dangerous. The story was very good(I even shed a few tears) and it had a perfect ending as well.
I will say that one thing that I disliked a lot about this anime is the amount of flashbacks that's in it. There's literally one in every episode and a montage of them every few episode. The good soundtrack did make them more bearable but i ended up skipping them later on. Also Nukku and Mokku's characterisation, especially compared to the other wonderful cast, is terrible and very surface level.
Read at the sourceBobulated
This anime is a hidden gem.
Unlike most anime based off manga written by professional mangaka or popular writers and their light novels,
Kemono no Sōja is a novel tetralogy written by Nahoko Uehashi, an Ethnologist, writer and a professor of ethnology.
And that really shows throughout this work.
She was also the latest recipient of the Hans Christian Andersen Award (aka the Nobel Prize for Children's literature).
And as such the story and the character development was downright phenomenal.
The studio also does a really great job giving the anime an unique, artistic fairytale-storybook-like feel to the show.
It does feel a bit slow at times but I wouldn't want it any other way.
The show can easily be put off as just another children's series, and it might very well be. But the dep…
Read at the sourceSorrow
I'm sure that most of you have heard of anime such as Naruto, Bleach, and Sword Art Online, but haven't heard of Beast Player Erin. Truly a shame which anime are becoming popular and which are becoming overlooked and forgotten these days. Beast Player Erin is a series that isn't nearly as popular as other modern shows, but it's one that once you know about it, you're going to want to watch it, then you're going to love it, then wish you had known about it before and then be overwhelmed by the urge to re-watch it; this was certainly the case for me. I've seen plenty of anime, and nearly none are as unique as Kemono no Souja Erin. Kemono no Souja Erin's anime "style" is one that is becoming more and more less common - becoming extinct which is very depressing to say. When I first heard that…
Read at the sourceTien
A girl and her extraordinary bond with wild beasts. An ancient secret hidden away by a mysterious clan that comes and goes with the mists. A growing conflict between the two great ruling regions of the land.
Together, these narrative threads form the intricate web that is Kemono no Souja Erin, a coming-of-age story that slowly unfolds against the backdrop of political tension. Through the course of 50 episodes, these story lines gradually intertwine and eventually come together to deliver a somewhat clumsy but mostly satisfying conclusion.
Kemono no Souja Erin is undoubtedly a slow-paced anime. It takes its time to set everything up, and some viewers may find this unappealing. But for those who love to absorb themselves in fantasy settings, this show will not disappoint. The amount of d…
Read at the sourcedxbladexd
Before I write anything about this anime, I would like to say that there are some animes which must be watched if you are a true anime fan, and I would like to add this anime to that list. This anime is somewhat has everything a anime might need to be a masterpiece and I consider it to be a masterpiece.
Though it is labeled as a "Kid's anime" I wonder will kids understand it fully and I believe this anime will attract older audience more after they watch some episodes. A anime which contains betrayal, politics, assassinations, tragedy and death is no way can only be labeled as a kid's anime. Though the potrayal of the love and warmth between a mother and her daughter is really heartwarming its good to see in this age where anime world is getting full of ecchi and animes with comedies and…
Read at the sourceAkusa
Now how good is Kemono no Souja Erin? So good in fact that I decided to create my first account on a anime-related site and write my first anime review (ever)...
[side note]
After I received a small hole in my heart after watching The Twelve Kingdoms, I was searching around for a nice fantasy anime with a certain scope and detail in a fantasy setting. I did not know that my small open wound would be ripped further and leaving me *gasp* in further pain; anime is my heroin.
[review begins]
We begin the story that would have had the typical children's story feel, yet as the memorable character Erin encounters her major lessons in life particularly of death and passing, she develops a strong trait of maturity and her resolutions after each trial is really admirable. Yes, Naruto might have a…
Read at the sourcerolandd07
The first word that comes to mind after watching Kemono no Souja Erin is LIFE. It is a story of a young girl growing up and finding her own pathway, as her mother asked her to do, to live and find happiness. It has a series of ups, downs and everywhere in between.
I was introduced to this anime after watching How to Train Your Dragon. The concept intrigued me, but I was hesitant because it looked more like a children's anime. I was completely wrong. While a child would enjoy this show, it has deeper meanings and ideas.
Story: The story in itself if amazing. As the anime progresses and Erin gets older, the story gets more and more complex. It takes its time to explain details and feelings Erin has for her friends and animals she cares for. At times, it can feel slow, but it can also be ve…
Read at the sourcezuziako
"Kemono no Souja Erin" is an anime with great plot potential, well build characters and pleasant design, but unfortunately - horrid storytelling and structure. It takes 50 episodes to tell the story (which is supposed to be understandable, since it's long one), but dragged scenes with badly animated conversations, and lots of flashbacks make you feel as if it should be done in 26 episodes instead - and maybe it should have.
As I mentioned, the story has great potential - we have our main heroine that we meet when she is still a little kid, we watch her grow, mature, and struggle, through all the hardships she has to overcome. In the same time the story gives us insight about what is going on in the country where the heroine lives, introduces us to the royal family, and some political int…
Read at the sourceRampant
While it may strike as inconsistent to rate a series a 3 when I "finished" 50 episodes of it, there is one essential reason, that is pacing of this series. Not only is the pacing typically slice-of-life slow from the very start, but it has the most self-indulgent use of flashback I have ever seen. By the midpoint of the anime, flashback starts taking up easily perhaps 1/10th of the total time. We already saw these events, and they are already in our heads. Bringing the same events up as much as five or ten times is a horrible abuse of our viewership. Maybe it was for the kids, but it was a horrible mismanagement of structure.
Also, this anime seems to exist in some bizarre world where, despite there being super skilled assassin type figures and two types of invincible beasts, poison ends…
Read at the sourceLewd_angel
Story:10
The story starts off slow but its still good enough to keep watching,about episode 6 the story really kick starts and you really get hooked into it,the story is very original and very exciting to watch,but its very simple and straight forward which is a good thing ^^ .
i found the narrator part in the start of the episodes kinda annoying cause it does this every episode but it still doesn't kill the episodes :)
ART:8
when i first saw the ART i thought its too childish but i reckon it suites this anime perfectly ,it feels like a children story book kinda art work but then again its only the background that feel like that , the characters look pretty decent.
SOUND:8
the sounds were AMAZING it suited every moment although their were some parts that had rock type of music :), i…
Read at the sourceanthell
I made this account only to review this anime. I thank you all the previous people who reviewed this prior to mind or I wouldn't have picked this series up.To start, id like to recommend watching at least the 1st 7 episodes. If you still feel like dropping it then never mind. mind you, the series gets better as we follow along, don't expect that they wouldn't pull of storer twists that that. Some people might not want to read long reviews but all i can say its one hell of a ride.
Gender: Fantasy, slice of life, romance, despair, war, politics, betrayal and many more.
As would have been told by others, this series is what i would consider a rare jewel. I found it hard to believe how good is good before actually watching it.
In my honest opinion,this story is like the work of Hans Christia…
Read at the sourceArchaeon
Kemono no Souja Erin (The Beast Player Erin), is a surprising anime. Not in the way it looks or sounds, or in any aspect of it's production. Not even because of it's story or characters (which are wonderfuly by the way). No, it's surprising for being the most recent example of a genre that is slowly disappearing in anime.
Many people will be confused by that statement, especially as the show is very clearly labelled and marketed as a children's series, and as everyone knows, kids shows are rife in anime. The problem, however, doesn't lie in the fact that this series was initially aimed at children, no, it lies in the fact that this is one of those rare anime where age boundaries are no longer relevant.
The majority of people may not consider that to be a problem, however one should remem…
Read at the source