This show definitely ranks as my favorite of the season. There are probably better shows out there, but this is really the only one that has me hooked. There's nothing particularly new and innovative about it; the most creative thing about it is that it's a throwback to old school anime, which is more and more rare these days - at least among the stuff I watch, anyway.

Basilisk could have been Ninja Scroll TV. It's basically about badass ninjas with crazy abilities killing other badass ninjas with crazy abilities. There's a whole lot of blood and violence, and a large helping of near-nudity as well. It also manages to avoid the pitfall of most shonen ninja shows: it's about the farthest thing from drawn out imaginable. People are dying left and right. I'm actually concerned that they won't have enough characters to make it to 24 or 26 episodes, or however long they're going.

This is a Gonzo show, which means that it looks damn good. Production values are quite high, which is always a plus. However, the normal Gonzo way of sucking or being extremely mediocre seems to be absent here. Don't get me wrong, this isn't teh best anime evar or anything, but it's definitely good. I just hope it stays that way. We'll see, I guess.

I only really have two complaints:

1) Basilisk has the darkest color palette since Otogizoushi, which was the worst since Berserk. I turn the brightness on my TV to max, and I still feel like I can barely see what's going on half the time.

2) One of my biggest pet peeves in the history of action anything is the fucking bad guy who will not fucking die. It the stupidest, most pathetic, cliched shit ever, and I fucking cannot stand it. It cheapens the whole fucking piece of work, shows the writer to be a fucking hack, and otherwise ruins everything. And unfortunately, as far as I can tell, the special ability of one of the characters in Basilisk is to not fucking die. They haven't explained it, or anything, he just doesn't fucking die.


Regardless, if you're into good old ninja-based badasses & action anime, give this one a look.