Suikoden: The Anime ‒ Episodes 1-3
Episodes 1-3 of Suikoden establish a strong baseline for a classic fantasy adventure tale of a kind rarely seen these days.
This is such a funny show for me to review, personally speaking. Suikoden is something I have both minor nostalgia for and no connection with at all. I never played the games back in the 90s, but I had close friends who loved them, and I watched them play small sections. In recent years, with the announcement of the release of the remasters for the first two games, I resolved to play them finally. I also told myself I was going to try and do this the “right” way and actually engage with the source material before playing the games. As such, I set out to read The Water Margin before playing these classic games - as one does.
Well, fast forward a few years and I've read The Water Margin, but the Suikoden games are still sitting in my backlog! Oh, the hilarious twisting paths we take. In a way, I hope this does bring back fond memories of anime and gaming from an earlier time in my life, as well as give me a new view of the novel I've already read - but I have zero true experience with the games, so there's no actual nostalgia going in.
Thankfully, the Suikoden anime cuts straight through my conundrum by being a rock-solid series. These first three episodes are very well done. Riliu, Jowy, and Nanami are wonderful leads that are easy to root for with clear motivations (at least in the short term). The plight of the people is evident, and the macro-level political machinations are enough to add a grander sense of stakes without becoming too bogged down in the details. The supporting cast feel well thought out and distinctive, even if they are only around for a short while during each episode. There's a rapid rhythm to the pacing that nevertheless doesn't exhaust or confuse the audience, leading to a sense that something is always happening. The action sequences are pretty well-choreographed even if they are a bit on the shorter side, giving enough screen time for detailed hand-to-hand as well as army-scale movements.
The only real qualms I have at this stage are that the animation is serviceable if not exactly exceptional. I think I've been a bit spoiled by the super high-quality series I've been watching over the past few years, and this is not in that upper echelon of visual fidelity or outrageous special effects. That doesn't mean it is bad by any stretch; far from it, I appreciate that the lower power level and general ground-level combat are clearly displayed without a lot of excessive hit flashes, screen shaking, and the like. It is likely a budgetary concern as much as a stylistic one, but here I think the dual purposes work together to produce a good harmony.
Most critical of all is that the Suikoden anime manages to remind me of anime and gaming from the days of yore. This is not an isekai story; this is an honest-to-goodness full secondary world. The stakes are real, the drama is human, and the world is believable. What a breath of fresh air this is after all the shovelware I've seen in recent times.
Episode 1 Rating:
Episode 2 Rating:
Episode 3 Rating:
Suikoden: The Anime is currently streaming on YouTube.
discuss this in the forum |
back to Suikoden: The Anime
Episode Review homepage / archives
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.