Review by McKenna Blackshire, grade 8

Utawarerumono by Leaf

Utawarerumono, much like the classic anime Fruit Baskets, explores the nature of humans with animal characteristics and features. The anime introduces many characters to the audience, but manages to individualize them enough for you to recognize them and get a sense of their identity. It also manages to have a hilarious satirical character, the emperor of their country, later renamed Tusukuru. The characters are quite diverse in age and identity and even species showcasing a white tiger spirit animal, angelic characters, shy but powerful child characters and wise yet kind lords, while also exploring a variety of relationships, friendship, brotherhood and unrequited love. Utawarerumono is especially unique because there’s a strong sense of community within the anime; each person had formed bonds with another, which is why their country is so stable. 

This anime is especially suitable for teens interested in a mixture of fantasy and action. The anime showcases a lot of fighting scenes but another thing they managed to nail was having just enough fighting scenes to be captivating and give enough detail without being boring or tedious. Utawarerumono has a good mix of fantasy with realism, making it so the fantasy elements don’t control the entire plot of it. The anime as a whole shows a variety of themes to appeal to many different audiences. Utawarerumono is excellent for people new to the anime genre as well, it is quite easy to follow and has a catching plot, I would highly recommend it.