Introduction
In a time of great famine and suffering, a boy is born. Unloved and discarded by his mother, he learns to do whatever it takes to survive, eating whatever he can—even human meat. When it seems that he may live his entire life completely feral, a wandering monk shows him kindness, names him Asura, and teaches him the nembutsu, a Buddhist chant, in the hopes that he can one day live like a human. While Asura continues to struggle to stay alive, a few fateful encounters make him question the life he has known.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Audience reviews
12 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
MoonSpider
I didn't expect to like the anime movie as much as the manga for the simple reason that so much was changed or omitted... and normally, I'm usually a stickler for not changing things and letting things stick with the themes and tone they were meant to represent. For context, I recently read through the entirety of what I could find for Asura, which is what was covered in the movie, just not the apparent epilogue that came later. So as well as a movie, I'm reviewing this as an adaptation.
That being said, everything felt like it really popped to life in this movie... We are missing entire plotlines from the manga like Asura finding out about the lives of his parents and learning forgiveness, his relationship with the local group of boys, and Wakasa's love triangle, but at the same time I k…
Read at the sourcetasukilove
Asura is not the typical kind of anime in that it's more grotesque in delivering a philosophical idea: what does it mean to be human? Are we a product of our environment? These types of themes can be seen in other anime, but this film uses the subject of cannibalism to drive this thought process, which is something I haven't seen done in anime before. During the entire movie, Asura has to face three powerful influences on his character: a monk, who stirs up Asura's fight against his beastly nature; Wakasa, who shows him love that he hadn't known since his mother abandoned him, and a lord, who villainizes Asura and confuses his chances on becoming accepted as a human being. All three play a very large role with Asura, but you won't connect with any of these characters. I feel as though you'…
Read at the sourceKyotoKycco
Asura claims to take us within the depths of human nature, but does it really? Asura tries to explore multiple concepts about human nature such as nature vs. nurture, human greed, despair, what people do backed in a corner, but unfortunatley falls VERY short of delivering a moral lesson. There's too much ambiguity involved to ever create a meaningful message, as everyone Asura kills is NOT justified. Even in the end it is very hard to sympathize or forgive Asura for his candid killing since I could relate to the opposing characters and the actions. There's no real life message to this story, which you kind of expect for shows/movies with this type of dark theme.
There are many plot holes that are present in Asura such as why did the monk leave Asura to himself when he was clearly not reha…
Read at the sourceHakaseMachine
The film addresses a theme hunger, drought and scene of devastation
In times of conflict and war always think in the conditions of life. What happened to get us the right situation? What could happen to a child in a horror scenario? .
With a well tied script and a production well made, it is in this scenario of pain, hunger and misery that we are surprised by the plot which holds us from beginning to end. The graphic quality of the film is also excellent and can create some exciting, dramatic and fun times. Despite being a film with a strong theme and using a child as a primary weapon for the deaths, Asura is a great option for something different than we are accustomed. No superpowers, giant robots and magic, just a kid, an ax and a civil war. Focusing intensely on the protagonist's soul…
Read at the sourceyankeedoodle
"what is a human? A miserable pile of little secrets!"
-quote not relevant
haha, that was just a gag, now here's my review for this movie:
when i watched the trailer, I knew I was going to be hooked in to this movie, and after I watched it, I was never disappointed and quickly became one of my most favorite anime movie of all time.
Asura takes us to a medieval era in japan where famine is widespread and everyone struggles to eat and survive, and among those people, there was a child who was human in appearance but has primal instincts like that of a wild animal. Through his journey, however, he was able to witness how human beings interact and began to waver from his animalistic path towards the path of being a human.
After finishing the movie itself, I was dumbstruck at how well writt…
Read at the sourceplaymakerzam
Asura is a dark and twisted anime movie based on a controversial 1970 Japanese film of the same title. At first glance, it would look like a movie full of mindless violence catering for people who enjoy watching those horrific stuff. It would put off some people because of the gore and violence (these scenes would appear immediately right off the start of the movie). I managed though because these kinds of movie are right up my alley and I consider the scenes in this movie as somewhat "mild violence". Anyway, behind the killings and the blood fountains portrayed in this movie lies a message that was strongly delivered.
The setting is 15th century Kyoto. Kyoto at that time was almost like a wasteland due to floods, drought and famine. Enter Asura. Yep, you guessed it, Asura is the main cha…
Read at the sourceFaylicia
Story:
Asura tells the story of a boy who lives in Japan during a period of famine, around the 15th century. It’s a movie with many philosophical morals and strong character development. Why makes humans different from animals? Why do humans need love? Many questions about our existence are explained through an indirect way in this show.
In the beginning we are presented with a horrific situation where people go insane due to their hunger. I such circumstances a boy is born. Years pass and the boy doesn’t behave any different from a wild predator, literally. It isn’t until his meeting with a Buddhist monk that he experiences feelings of kindness. The monk names him Asura and from that day his whole life changes. However, the one that plays the most important role is not the priest but a y…
Read at the sourcetsubagakure
can you find the light in such a darkened dying world?
can you keep that light shining?
i never thought that 'asura' would bring me down to my knees.. in a brief winking moment my eyes witnessed all the blood and gore, the crescent carnage and madness surrounding. but in a subtle and suspended animation you can feel the beauty embracing you. a big round of applause for this timeless masterpiece..
and in the end if you can't feel any kind of compassion towards asura, i say you're the beast!
Read at the sourceSyus
I don't usually write reviews so please bare with me here about the lack of... well anything that u might expect of a proper review.
To start, the story was about child who was abandoned as an infant. Struggling to survive, it did what it could and what it needed to and hence became something like a wild beast child if you will. The child, Asura, goes through a series of events which then leads him to learn about humans and slowly regain some of his humanity. But then again, happiness never lasts long and well the rest you'll have to watch for. :)
Mind you, beware of spoilers o.o, I'll try to refrain from them though.
In terms of story, personally I loved the plot. Some may dislike the drama and the darkness of the story, but thing is, life back in the day for poor people could really b…
Read at the sourceFintan
Asura starts off with a very graphic backstory as to how the main character came to be, showing his gruesome birth and exactly what he had to go through pretty much immediately after being born. Lets just say Asura didn't have a great start in life, and because of that he basically became a wild animal who can't speak. The movie is fairly short so I'm going to do my best not to spoil anything, that is why I'm not going to go into too much detail about specific events.
Story(6): While this is probably the movies saving grace, it doesn't exactly "save" it. The story is about a boy who is left for dead by his mother in medieval Japan where starvation is the norm, and people often have to resort to cannibalism to survive. Having to survive on his own, he basically becomes a wild beast. Who w…
Read at the sourceSquirrelLuvsPnut
What makes a monster? Are some men born monstrous or are they simply a product of their time? This film forces the viewer to struggle with these kinds of questions. What would we be willing to do in order to survive? Can we even fathom what people had to do so long ago and how can we possibly judge them? Asura has shocked and touched me in a way an anime film has not since Grave of the Fireflies. The title character is designed to look very much like an oni of folklore, but the viewer is reminded very quickly first and foremost he is just a child. This makes witnessing his gruesome and primal attempts at survival all the more disturbing.
Perhaps what struck me most about this film was a clever sequence in which Asura struggles to crawl out from a pit of corpses. His clawed gnarled hands…
Read at the source5camp
Asura kicks off with a pregnant woman giving a quite graphic birth to a boy, before she beats a wild dog to death with a nearby axe. As we can see, things are looking pretty grim in this world. Everyone is dying and the only way to survive sometimes is to resort to cannibalism. This baby eventually leaves his mother (after she throws him onto a fire with the intent of eating him) and becomes a wild child who runs across the countryside, eating other dying people.
To be fair to the producers of Asura, there probably was a time in history when the outlook for society really was this grim. There probably was a time when a child would stumble while pushing a log and a guard would order his father to throw his feeble son into the ravine. There indeed probably was a time when haggard housewives…
Read at the source