As I said last week, I would review the Magnificent Kotobuki which is one of my favorites of 2019 thus far, it’s short, but very enjoyable for what content we get for it. Without further ado let’s dive into this series, which aired officially from January 13th, 2019 to March 31st, 2019 on Crunchyroll and was produced by GEMBA Incorporated.
Story: Imagine a world without oceans, then imagine that the world was stuck in the 1930’s in terms of technology, this is the premise of the Magnificent Kotobuki, a 12 episode series licensed by Sentai Filmworks. The Magnificent Kotobuki stars Kylie, Emma, Chika, Zara, Reona and Chika as the 6 Kotobuki squadron pilots who pilot the very famous Hayabusa fighters into combat when needed.
Being employed by the lady Madam Loulou and with the crew of the Hagomoro, a giant airship with a Dodo as it’s Captain, they take all sorts of jobs across the lands while running into the likes of air pirates, trouble makers and even rival companies while trying to complete each job one at a time. Each of the 6 pilots have a very impressive backstory which is explored a bit during certain portions of the series, with Kylie’s being the most shown as she first learned to fly with a man named “Ol Sab” who taught her everything she knows.
The 12 episode story is a wonderful and fun experience with many dog fights, many encounters with famous planes of history and even cities being used as areas for fighting in the later annals of the series, the story of this series gets a very solid B from me, I was fond of the story from start to finish, but I wasn’t a fan of some of the rogue elements used in the story, you’ll see what I mean when you get around to it.
Audio: As of yet there is no English Dub of this series, but I suspect their will be, however with the restrictions of only a English Sub version it’s actually quite enjoyable as some of the VA’s used for the squadron are quite familiar. Sayumi Suzushiro plays the lead role of Kylie in this series and you may remember her from Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs last year as well as a few minor roles from other series including Kagyua Sama Love is War as Kei Shirogane.
The other cast is some newcomers but with a good solid cast, with Sayaka Nakaya as Kate, Asami Seto is not really a newcomer, however she is remembered as Mai Sakurajima from Bunny Girl Senpai last year, with Asami as the role of Leona. Hibiki Yamamura plays Zara in this series and she is actually familiar to me, since she played Eva Turbine in Iron Blooded Orphans and even got a role as Noriko in GATE.
The other two Eri Yukimura who plays Emma is super new to the VA scene and this is her first major break, while Chika is played by Miyu Tomita who we remember from Ms Vampire in my Neighbourhood as Sophie Twilight and currently plays Rizu Ogata in We Never Learn, so she is well versed and familiar with leading roles. the Audio department of this series is pretty solid even with only one source of audio, each character sounds unique and the respective VA gives them a style of their own.
Audio wise I actually am going to give a solid A+ here, I loved this series’s cast and the fact that each character was flushed out in their own way, providing that much more enjoyment when it came to the Magnificent Kotobuki as a series, really well done.
Visuals: With this series there is a lot more visually to cover since we see the ground from a very high aerial perspective here. Most of the time the animations are in the skies and the various battles that take place, with the characters being very well animated. Each character has their own quirks as well, such as Kylie and her love of Pancakes, Emma who often takes care of her brother, as well as a Orchard which turns out to be a set of Yoshino Cherry Trees. Reona is the tough, but fair captain who believes in a hard work ethic while Kate is a laid back woman who loves getting drunk.
The series has a who load of cool quirks and neat minor aspects which you will find enjoyable, all of which are very well animated for the most part, Visually the Magnificent Kotobuki is a fantastic addition to this year’s lineup as it gets a solid A– from me, a well deserved rating.
Overall: With this being the first really good anime of the year I checked out, the Magnificent Kotobuki does not disappoint, with it’s style and charm. You get loads of intense stories, wrapped in a sweet 12 episode package which provides a good load of entertainment. Overall the Magnificent Kotobuki gets a very solid A from me, a good start to 2019’s lineup and I hope to see more in the future.
Recap: Story: B, Audio: A+, Visuals: A-, Overall: A
Final Thoughts: For the beginning of the year to have content as good as this, shows the quality this year is going to bring. I look forward to reviewing even more of the amazing animes that come out in 2019.
Why are some character names bold and others not? Why are some anime series names bold and some aren’t? I personally don’t see why you’d bold any of them, but that’s a style choice. Since you choose to do it, for whatever reason, at the very least be consistent for fucks sake.
Also you should put more information into the story, your audio shouldn’t be the longest, you don’t need to fellate these women. People care about audio and visual but people care about story significantly more cause a cute person in a shite show is still a shite show.
The visuals is just as, if not longer than, story as well, and your audio is longer yet. Did you actually watch the anime? Do you know what happened in it? Or did you just look up the VA’s in it and post a bunch of stuff about them while looking up the most generic information you could find about the anime?