Senkou no Night Raid

Episode Reviewed In: Episode 46

Alternate Titles: Night Raid 1931

Original Japanese Release Date: 2010

Episode Length/Run-time: 12 episode

Summary:

Set in a pre-war Shanghai, 1931, a team of elite Japanese spies is dispatched to the city.  But unlike your “normal” spikes this group the “Sakurai Kikan” is full of people with special super powers, making their jobs the “impossible” to the average soldier.  This group’s place in history and how they affected events unknowing to the modern population unfolds.

Review:

This anime is exceptional at seeming important.  It deals with a time shortly after the First Sino-Japanese war when Japanese soldiers were stationed in Japan.  Throughout the course of the anime it covers important events in history, notably the Manchurian Incident, as well as other important figures and places.  Throughout this the anime is almost an alternate retelling of history of how this super secret group really affected the course of human events which we never knew about as a general history.

Sounds cool right?

Too bad it’s not.

The unfortunate thing with this series is they do literally nothing for the first six episodes, they have a recap episode five episodes in for a 12 episode series!  They don’t even touch on the plot until after that. So while there were some things that were cool to see it ended up not really flushing things out because they wasted time upfront with what could be said was “character building” but what I really think is that’s a nice way to say “wasting time.”

I wish this anime had more to offer but it ended up being boring and confusing at best.  Making it not an enjoyable watch.

[starrater]