Anime Review: Reincarnation no Kaben

Petals of Reincarnation (Reincarnation no Kaben) became a meme in the anime community because in it, they had a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler as a loli-looking character. Of course, that was enough for me to check it out and see just what all the commotion was about. I had hoped to enjoy an action series with an interesting plot in addition to the meme, but did Petals of Reincarnation deliver that?

Let’s Jam

The Story

Touya wishes that he had more talent because, just like in your typical Asian household, his brother Seiya excelled at everything, and his parents were severely disappointed that he couldn’t be like him. He learns about a blade known as a Branch of Reincarnation, and when he uses it, he has a 50/50 chance of dying or inheriting the power from someone great from the past. The latter happens, and he gains the power to steal other powers.

He meets Haito, a girl who wishes to gain strength and become the ultimate swordsman. Together, they are brought to meet Neumann, the leader of the Forest of Greats. Here, they swore to protect the world from sinners who use their branches for evil. Once Touya joins them, they immediately host a raid against a group of powerful sinners, and this is where the story takes several hard turns and ends up in disarray.

Touya bounces from defecting from the Forest, to possibly joining the sinners, to becoming imprisoned (or, much rather, put under surveillance) by a military-like group looking to discover the secret of the branches, only to learn that Neumann was evil all along, but not actually because she was being controlled like a puppet.

And we got all of that in the span of just TWO episodes.

And to make matters worse, the show ends on a non-confirmed “to be continued.”

Needless to say, this show needed a lot of work from a storytelling perspective, but I’ll touch upon all of that in my Final Thoughts. For now, on to some of the characters because there are way too many here to touch upon.

The Characters

Touya Senji

He has sibling issues… most notably, he hates that his brother gets all the recognition in the world, and he doesn’t, so he craves power to surpass him. So, when he gets the branch of reincarnation, he portrays himself to be one of those protagonists turned antagonists by claiming he is only using the Forest of Greats to obtain as many skills as possible. Then, he just drops that goal out of nowhere when he gets attached to Hiroshi Funasaka, one of the Forest members who has the power of immortality. Apparently, his duel with Hans U. Rudel made him change his outlook. Then, when he discovers that the Forest are actually the bad guys, he develops a sense of justice and wants to put a stop to everything, which morphs into committing Returner genocide by destroying their source, killing all of them (and himself) off in the process.

Yeah… if that sounds like convolution and something that can’t be packed into 13 episodes without feeling rushed, then you’re right because that’s exactly what we received here. The fact that the story bent and twisted around his character development so rapidly made him a very weak main character. Not only that, but he doesn’t even truly feel as if he’s grown enough to take on the responsibility of carrying out his genocidal plan. He doesn’t look the part of a hero, doesn’t truly act like the part, and doesn’t seem strong enough to fit the part either. This character was just a mess from beginning to end.

Haito Le Buffett

So, this character goes from hinting at having a crush on Touya, to becoming his rival, then practically acts like she wants to have his children when they reunite, so becoming overcome with blind rage when she hears his plan, turns into a centipede-like creature, and suddenly gets beaten by the power of words… shallow words that somehow make her agree to Touya’s plan of Returner Genocide… the very same plan that caused her to lose the plot, to begin with… all because he was able to “see her.” That sounds like a cheap hook-up plot from a SpicyChat bot.

I just couldn’t buy it. She literally went off the deep end and nearly lost her true self over the anger she felt from Touya’s plan… to accepting it because he sees the real her? That’s nonsensical and shoddy writing right there, and the sweetness that was their developing relationship was washed away and made a moot point because of it. Now, you’re trying to tell me that she’s happy to die as long as it’s by his side? Another mess of a character right here that I couldn’t take seriously.

John V. Neumann

She is the wheelchair-bound girl who acts as the leader of the Forest of Greats, but is being controlled by F. Nightingale. But she’s apparently a genius, and because of that, she can partially resist Nightingale’s mind control. This leads to one of the most nonsensical plots in the series where Nightingale has every returning in the Forest under her control… and yet… because Neumann broadcast on worldwide television that they were delaying the destruction of the world for a few months, Nightingale just goes along with it? Again… Nightingale literally has EVERY OTHER RETURNER UNDER HER CONTROL. There was literally NOTHING stopping her from just ordering them to carry out the plan and ignoring Neumann. Yet… she just went along with Neumann’s delay?

Well, at least the character gets to save some face by having part of her conscience stored in Touya’s phone as an A.I. called Neumann Mk. II to act as a guide and help him out, right?

Itsuki Kitazuka

He’s one of the commanders of the military-like faction that’s trying to understand the power of the branches of reincarnation. He and Touya go way back, so he’s like a big brother… a big brother that absolutely throws all of that friendship away when he learns Touya became a returner, but then has a self-inflicted coming-to-Jesus moment with himself by realizing that even though he hates returners, he needs Touya’s help to find the seed in which all branches are made of… so he asks Touya for help… by locking him away in a cell, which he is free to leave at any time.

Also, he apparently has superhuman strength just from doing a One-Punch Man style of training, so he can go toe-to-toe with any Returner while barehanded. I’m starting to think a child wrote these characters, and when fleshing them out, they’re like. “NO! He’s a military man, but he’s like really strong and can beat up the people with these super cool powers because he’s even super cooler and doesn’t need powers! He’s so cool, man!” What’s even funnier is he goes to these lengths to keep Touya under surveillance and in custody, and then when he breaks out, he’s just like “meh, whatever.” Then, when Touya returns, he even admits that he couldn’t have cared less… but he cared enough to keep him under lock and key when he finally had the chance to haul him in… but it was all in the name of tough love because he couldn’t just say “Touya… I need your help, but you need to get your priorities straight before you can be of any assistance.” Right?

Alan Smithee

This guy literally dropped in and was like “Hi… I made the branches… enjoy this acid trip. See ya.” No follow-up whatsoever.

I’d cover more, but a lot of them were for around a cup of coffee and then died faster than a character from Akame ga Kill.

Art, Animation, and Sound

For all of the shortcomings with the story and character development, if there was anything that this show did right, it was the animation and the soundtrack, so I will give credit where credit is due, and that goes to BENTEN Film for producing a pretty show with a moderate budget. The fights were dramatic and action-packed; however, some were kind of a PNG-fest, or the story took breaks in the middle of one to go tell another part of the story, only to come back to see that the fight was over, but the fights that did stick with served up enough action to entertain you.

On the subject of animation… even if it were done by CGI… keeping the petals flowing around everyone’s necks must have been an absolute nuisance, so hats off to the 3D team for having to endure that for thirteen episodes straight. When one of the characters gommage’d and unalived themselves, I’m sure they were happy that they had one less neck petal effect to render.

The soundtrack was quite good. The orchestral music hit nicely during battles, and there were enough epic pieces for me to want to go out and grab it. Plus, some of the more atmospheric pieces helped set the mood of each scene perfectly. On top of that, we got the catching opening Glitch*. I didn’t skip a single one because I just liked the song that much.

The only thing I didn’t like was Touya’s design. I don’t know what it is with shows like these where they create these badass character designs for the cast, then make the main character look like the most non-threatening dork you’ve ever seen. His design made him seem like a background character who couldn’t shut up and stop stealing the spotlight. I hate it when designs like that are used. At least give him a cool suit to go with his power, or literally ANYTHING to make him seem like a threat. His design just didn’t do it for me when you had designs like Haito, Juubei, Kouu, and hell… even Newton… that looked way better than Touya.

Overall Thoughts

As you could tell, I wasn’t highly impressed with this show. The story was rushed because I wouldn’t have had an issue with any of these plot points if they were spread out more and had time to breathe. It literally felt as if we received 50 episodes’ worth of story in the span of 13 episodes, and the fact that it ended on a “to be continued” moment without there being confirmation of a second season leaves a sour taste in my mouth. When I looked up the information on the source, the manga is still ongoing and was compiled into 20 volumes so far, meaning there should have been PLENTY of content to warrant this being a 25 or 26-episode series. Why 13 episodes were chosen, and why it was super rushed, is beyond staggering to me.

I know manga fans have complained about this show, but if I, an anime-only watcher, can tell it was obviously rushed without even reading the source, then that’s a massive problem. In shows like this, I feel like a broken record when I keep saying that it had tremendous potential to be something special. If handled correctly, this show could have been in talks for one of the big action hits of the year, but instead, this is what we got… a rushed, convoluted mess that made any shocking moments just feel cheap and unimpactful. Plus, some of the character development plots (see Haito’s sudden forgiveness and agreement to Touya’s plan to kill all Returners) just made no sense whatsoever.

Disappointed is all I can say, but hey… not every anime is going to be a massive success. Once in a while, you’ll go into a cool concept expecting something great, and when you get it, you’re filled with regret. This is one of those times. The show wasn’t atrocious or even bad… but it wasn’t good either. That’s why I’m going middle of the road on the rating.

Overall Score: 2.5 / 5