Common Name: Drifters
Alternative Names: Drifters: Battle in a Brand-new World War
Score: 7/10, 4/5
Length: 12 Edpisodes
Genre: Action, Comedy, Isekai
Summary: Shimazu Toyohisa was a fool-hardy but passionate warrior of his clan, obsessed with claiming the heads of his foes. It's too bad he never got the opportunity to see what changes his efforts would bring to Japan after the battle of Sekigahara. It's not like he minds though. Instead of dying for his country, Toyohisa has found himself in a fantastical world where heroes and villains ripped from the annals of history struggle for power.
Review: As is the standard for anything by Kouta Hirano, known best as the creator of Hellsing, Drifters is an interesting mixture of awe-inspiring, bloody action and tone-deaf comedy, which I suppose is especially appropriate in this series. I say this because Drifters is a show that has no issue blending heroes and villains, samurai and gunslingers, and other such juxtapositions together and letting them run wild for the sake of a few short action sequences and humor that can't be seen anywhere else.
To be clear, this isn't the humor I'm referring to, but it is pretty funny in it's own right.
I have to admit though, I really enjoyed what Drifters was dishing out. With each new episode came a good number of laughs and some well-executed political intrigue, and every now and then a new character would be added to the rogues gallery of Drifters. You get to see famous and infamous characters alike from different eras and from all over the globe. More than that though, the show really shines as it tries to imagine how all these historical figures would change as time went on. For example, we see a version of Oda Nobunaga that is strangely sentimental and full of regrets, but is no less ambitious. We see a version of Nasu no Yoichi that is mentally scarred but still surviving after his career with Minamoto no Yoshitsune. We see how generations old grudges, years of technological development, and differences in philosophies play out as the Drifters and their "evil" counterparts, the Ends, come to blows. Well, that's not entirely true. It's true for every character, except for Toyohisa who can't be bothered to care about anything but beheading his foes.
That's more like it! There's that signature tone-deaf humor!
Putting aside all of the show's moments of shining glory, reveling in the what-ifs and the Hirano's strange brand of stilted humor, however, the show I'll admit is lacking in a few ways. Like many shows before it, Drifters is incomplete. What is likely meant to be she show's midpoint is the end of Season One meaning that there are a ton of loose ends and no closure to be found. While I'll admit this is more the fault of the studio and the industry at large, it certainly does the show no favors in the end, especially since there is no guarantee that we will ever see a Season 2. Aside from that nit-picker fault though, what little we see is well worth the watch. It's a fairly simple tale of good versus bad or perhaps greed versus hatred would be more accurate. What I love is how the roles of history are, on average, reversed in this struggle. The heroes of our world who were betrayed by their fellow humans are almost certainly Ends. Those who died before they achieved their goals, heroes and villains like, will almost certainly become Drifters. That doesn't mean that Drifters aren't still evil in their own right though. After all, the first antagonist of the show is the pro-human empire that oppresses the world's fantastical races and was founded by a Drifter.
Ah yes, another Kouta Hirano staple. NAZIS!
Yup. Hitler was one of the good guys...for the human faction at least. Moving past that kinda touchy subject though, the story thus far hasn't been bad. It's funny, action-packed, and strangely thoughtful despite all the blood and gore. The animation and art are unique to say the least but not all that different from what is seen in Hellsing Ultimate. The music is similarly fun and action-packed. The only thing that really holds it back is the show's awful pacing and obsession with tangents that go nowhere. In spite of that though, it is certainly a fun and intriguing addition to the often bland action genre.