Utawarerumono: Futari no Hakuoro

To begin this review, I have to say that I played the Utawarerumono games first and that it's my favorite VN of all times. When it comes to Mask of Truth specifically, I think that the game is an easy 10/10, and that other than some slight issues with the endgame (although not the ending itself; I think that the ending is glorious) I really don't have anything bad to say about it. I'm largely evaluating with the criteria of how much it does justice to the source material.

To be frank, I think that as far as VN adaptations go this is about as good ... as it gets. It's very faithful to the source. It does cut content of course, as cramming 70 hours of story into 28 20-minute episodes just isn't possible unless you compress and/or cut a bunch of stuff. However, it's clear to me that the directors of the anime were very careful in selecting what stayed and what had to go. All of the most important moments are still in the anime and manage to be just as emotional as they were in the game. The slice-of-life bits were cut down, but they still managed to keep some of the charming moments (like Shinonon climbing "Mt. Osh"). Most of the less important battles are gone and some of the ones that stayed were simplified to save time, which was a smart decision. The one thing that I don't agree with them cutting is Oshtor's rematch against a certain warmonger because it was an important moment in Oshtor's an Nekone's character development; I feel like they could have gone 1 episode longer and included it. All in all though, everything important is there and almost completely unaltered.

The voice acting is as good as it is in the game, but Kentaro Tone deserves a special mention. With the unfortunate ing of Fujiwara Keiji I feared that Haku just wouldn't be the same no matter who they put on the role. However, just how in the story Haku took Oshtor's mantle, in real life Oshtor's VA took over the role of Haku's VA. I was really impressed to see how good Tone's Haku was, and I was not in the least bit disappointed.

If it depended on this third part of the anime series alone, I would absolutely recommend people to just watch the anime even if they haven't played the games. Even though there's plenty of content that enriches the story in the details that were cut in the anime, it's strong enough to stand on its own and people who haven't played the game can get more than less the same experience. The problem is that I sadly can't say the same for the adaptations of Prelude to the Fallen and Mask of Deception. Without going into too many details (since I'm reviewing this season), I feel like those adaptations change too many things in directions that don't make much sense to me. For example, I feel like Haku's character was dumbed down too much in the Mask of Deception anime.

What this means is that while I can recommend watching Mask of Truth even if you haven't played the games, I can't fully recommend watching the first and second seasons of the Utawarerumono anime unless you've played the game first. And if you already played Prelude to the Fallen + Mask of Deception, you might as well play Mask of Truth before watching the anime version.

With all of that said... if you really can't be assed to play the VN for some reason (be it that you don't like VNs, don't like SRPGs, or if 150+ hours of combined time is too much for you), then I absolutely recommend that you watch the anime for all 3 parts. Utawarerumono is a wonderful story and I think that everyone should experience it in some form. I think that the first two parts are serviceable enough and you can expect the story to end strong with Mask of Truth, which is splendidly done.

Disclaimer: I have played the visual novel (VN) of the games so my review is based on how the anime compares to the VN. I still recommend watching the anime (for sure if you have watched the previous Utawarerumono seasons) but take this as something to keep in mind when watching the anime.

Overall: The anime adapted the VN quite well! Not in the sense of accuracy, but in the sense of storytelling. The VN has a playtime of (about) 60 hours (or more) and the anime did a very good job of telling the same story with the changes that were made. As such I ... think 6/10 is fine since it (effectively) told the same story with a similar impact that the VN told the story.

Major differences between the anime and the VN:

1) The anime has cut out a majority of the slice-of-life portions from the VN. Now this makes sense, but keep in mind that it does hasten the pacing a little bit as such major events come to you back-to-back with little to no build-up of some of the events. This also has the effect of quick character development, for example in a span of one episode, the character will quickly figure out their own feelings or problems and will portray those changes when it is supposed to be a more gradual change. However, there are some advantages to this, which follows up to point 2).

2) The anime takes advantage of its own medium and makes sure you are up to speed in the first couple of episodes. Normally, the VN would gradually inform you of the current situation each character is facing at the present time, with concerns of the future being ambiguous. This makes sense since, in the VN, you are looking through the lens of the main character (Haku) and so you will be seeing each character one-by-one getting to know them at a more personal level with their thoughts and feelings in the current situation they are in. However, the anime takes advantage of the fact that you are an outsider looking into the scene so they can instantly make you see multiple characters at once talking and thinking about what they should be doing in this situation. This immediately informs the viewer what all the characters are thinking and how each character is going to participate and achieve their part in the scenario that they are in.

3) The adaptation from the last season (Mask of Deception) does trickle down to the Mask of Truth anime in which some quotes said by certain characters do not add up when referring back to the Mask of Deception. Some examples are Atuy and Nekone - I will not spoil what about them does not add up, but it is quite apparent, especially on Nekone's part.

4) The anime tends to prioritise the core characters instead of the side characters - more specifically Maroro, Mikazuchi, and Raiko. This is quite subtle, but those who have read the VN might have noticed the difference in screen time these characters have compared to the VN since they are not portrayed the same way (in my opinion).

Conclusion: The anime is nicely done! Although, I can pinpoint many of the changes that were present between the VN and the anime I can still say confidently that the anime still hits the important scenes with the same/similar feeling as it was in the VN. However, if there are times when you wonder if there was more to it or if there was some backstory you believe had to be there (such as Jachdwalt's backstory with Shinonon) then those were cut out from the anime for the simple reason being; it does not affect the overall story. I would definitely recommend reading the VN if you want more from this franchise, but as for the anime I recommend watching it - ONLY if you have already watched Mask of Deception first. (It is preferable to watch the Utawarerumono 2006 anime as well, but it only provides the backstory for all the characters from Tuskur that is all).

There's a lot of shows I've thought about reviewing and i didn't think my first one would be this, it is not my favorite series but when i looked at reviews or comments in some places it made me think and i feel like i need to share my thoughts on this. THIS SHOW IS NOT AS GOOD AS THE GAME!

BUT!

That is ok, this series will be dragged down by how it isnt as good as the game was and i dont disagree but i think more fans should look at the bigger picture, this series was pretty well animated, the voice acting was ... (at least as far as i could tell) good, the cgi was bad but when isnt it bad? the story covered things in the game in a way that if you did not play the game you could get the majority of the information and a good amount of the impact it was meant to have.

The fact that so much effort was put into this series is a blessing, it wasnt chopped apart into a 6 episode OVA, it was not rushed through into some 12 episode slop, it got as much of an adaptation as any series could ask for and honestly i loved every second of it, fans of the game should every last bit of this series for what it represents, closure, we got a great series of games that meant a lot to us and an honest, well funded adaptation that brought that same series not only to fans like us but to so many people who may have never seen it and best of all it was a more in depth retelling then most series like this can ever dream of getting. I really enjoyed this series for what it is but even more so for what it represents, a chance for so many games like it to be given an anime series that shows ion for its source.