Season aired: Winter 2022

Number of episodes: 24

Watched on: Funimation

Translated by: ?

Genres: History, Drama, Romance

Thoughts: Despite my eclectic taste in anime, some story types call out more to me than others, especially stories that adapt historical fiction with a twist. One such anime was Moriarty the Patriot based on the famous Sherlock Holmes series, but overall, these types of anime are rare to find. When Requiem of the Rose King was announced, I couldn’t have been more excited. A twist on a classic Shakespearean play about the famous War of Roses that shaped Great Britain’s entire history? Count me in! Unfortunately, as much as I appreciated some of the changes, Requiem of the Rose King did so many things wrong as an anime.

In the War of Roses, fought between the Lancasters and the Yorks, Richard stood out from his brothers. He looked different, he acted different, and he hid the shame he harboured towards his body. He was intersex, and his mother cursed him for his existence ever since he was born. On the other hand, his father loved him deeply, and because of his father’s love, he vowed to do whatever it took to get his father on the throne. However, when he accidentally meets the current king, Henry VI, the pathway of war no longer looks as easy.

Pacing and the lack of animation killed this anime. There are moments of the plot that hit hard, and despite its lackluster adaptation, the show still pulled through with emotions and shock. This is a convoluted story that spans many years and goes past the War of Roses into King Richard’s infamous rule as the King of England. There’s a huge cast of characters due to the constantly changing politics and family power, and this only grew bigger as the story covers Richard’s entire life. To have such a wide sweeping story with many different characters requires deliberate pacing even more so than other stories, and instead, the anime rushes through entire arcs in just three episodes.

Unfortunately, I liked a lot of the twists in the story. Changing Richard from a hunchback evil man to an intersex teenage boy made him more sympathetic and complex. He develops feelings for both guys and girls, adding something flavorful to just historical fiction. The historical tweaks to Richard and Anne Neville’s love story were well done, and Elizabeth Woodville’s vengeful actions made sense even in the context of history. All the pieces existed — the anime just couldn’t put them together properly.

The animation was almost nonexistent, which once again clashed with some of the good technical elements. The art style and background were particularly effective in storytelling. There’s a dusty filter over many of the inside scenic shots, reminding audience members of the past. The art often looks like paintings, a callback to the art style of that era. Soldiers appear as cloned figurines without faces, a direct metaphor to the expendability of common soldiers. The color scheme is dark and muted, often with shades of gray, while only moments of extreme emotional distress are splattered with bright colors.

All that hard work of showing the story and the world is quickly wasted when the characters move like PowerPoint slides. Fight sequences are just flashcards on screen. Sometimes, you don’t even see an action happen. Instead, you get to enjoy a nice shot of trees while the sounds of people murdering each other echo in your ears.

This extreme of good and bad is a summary of the entire show. The soundtrack is incredible with musicians slamming organ keys, layered in with static animation, a rushed plot, and characters that develop offscreen. Voice actors perform their hearts out on scenes framed like a theater stage with the characters’ hollow and unmoving expressions. Tomokazu Sugita surprised me the most in playing the Duke of Buckingham. His powerful voice acting led me to feel angsty after his penultimate episode, despite not even liking the character.

In the end, Requiem of the Rose King has become just another series to add to the “what if?” pile. I haven’t read the source material, so I can’t tell if I would’ve liked the anime with better pacing and animation closer to the original series. While there are certain problems in the story that came from the fundamental theme and storyline, the story equally had riveting parts that worked. Where its animation floundered, its art, music, and voice acting excelled. It is two halves of good and bad, in the same way that Richard is pulled between his desire for normalcy and his belief in power.

Rating

Plot: 5 (Multiplier 3.5)

Characters: 6 (Multiplier 3.5)

Voice acting: 7.5

Art/Animation: 6.5

Soundtrack: 8

FINAL SCORE: 60.5