After millions of years of disappointment, the deities of
the Earth gather to condemn the Human Race and plot its extinction. Not all are in agreement, however. The Valkyrie Brünnhilde opts to give Humanity
a fighting chance by invoking Ragnarok: a tournament where 14 of the greatest
warriors of Mankind must face the Gods themselves. If they win, Humanity will be spared for
another 1000 years. If they lose, the
Gods will have their wish and eradicate Humanity from the face of the
Earth. It should be a one sided fight
for the most powerful entities in existence…right?
Ragnarok of Norse Mythology has definitely gotten a bit
of a pop culture boost in the last few years thanks to its central inclusion in
films and video games like Thor: Ragnarok and God of War: Ragnarok.
It’s nothing new for Anime though, world
ending events happen all the time in various titles.
Record of Ragnarok hops on the Ragnarok hype
train with its own rather unique take on the apocalyptic event.
Were I to break it down into simpler terms:
this is Mortal Kombat meets Fate/Stay Night.
Should be a win for me, yeah?
Well, chances are I wont delve into it too deeply and to put it kind of
selfishly, it’s all because of some artistic and aesthetic choices.
Let me be clear: the premise is great and combines
elements from two of the best franchise with epic fights.
From the Mortal Kombat end, you have the
tournament setup where Humans must win a certain amount of matches to keep the
planet safe for another Milennia, only the Gods are more directly involved in
things.
From the Fate/Stay Night end,
Brunnhilde seems to have been given permission to call upon heroes from across
Human history to partake in these bouts with Gods, not unlike summoning a
Heroic Spirit to fight for the Holy Grail.
Seeing the Gods toy with this unnecessary diversion that they fully
believe they can win is fascinating and I love the back and forth between the
frail looking Zeus and the hot as heck Brunnhilde over why the Gods would
entertain even giving a crap about Ragnarok.
However, it’s once the tournament gets going that things kind of start
to lose me.
The first episode is mostly building hype, most of that
courtesy of Heimdall the overenergetic announcer.
And when the first two combatants square
off…yeah.
I’ll be honest, Anime with
overly muscular behemoths punching each other doesn’t really do it for me.
That’s not to say I haven’t seen Anime where
they pop up here and there but there’s a difference between how fighters are
presented in Dragon Ball compared to Record of Ragnarok.
Lu Bu and Thor are virtually
indistinguishable from one another with how bulked up both are.
It wouldn’t shock me if every single
participant has a form like this, even if they don’t start off this way.
Like I said, it’s an artistic choice that I’m
not big on so its kind of an instant turn off for me.
Nevermind we spend more time listening to
everyone hype each others own sides that we don’t even see much action in the
first episode anyway.
And honestly, I’m
not to eager to see more.
Record of Ragnarok has a fun premise and the first half
of the first episode was where I was most entertained.
If you’re a fan of muscles, this show is
undoubtedly for you.
For me, I’ll be
passing on this one.
If I want anything
this show has to offer, I have Mortal Kombat and Fate/Stay Night to take care
of me on that end.
Like I said, Anime
sees dozens of these kinds of conflicts all the time, so there are far more of
these Ragnarok esque fish in the sea for me.
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