akk | 2010-12-10

I knew virtually nothing about Senkou no Night Raid when I started watching it today and what little I heard of it made me very wary at first. It's a short anime series (short as in 13 eps + 1 DVD feature of ep-length) and set in 1931/32 Shanghai and Manchuria, using historical events and locations I had to research repeatedly for Mori background details (and other) - among them the Manchurian incident and the various factions in China, Japan, and Asia in general - as a backdrop for a paranormal spy & detective story, including a female prophet contacting people, whose decisions will put events deciding the country's fate into gear one way or another. (Sounds familiar, yes? No, she's not white-haired, locked-up, and blind, but still...)

( more info (no character or plot spoilers) )

Overall, a firm thumbs-up for SnNR so far, which didn't seem to get much love from the international fandom so far. I don't know how the show did in Japan, but it's telling that there weren't any Chinese and Korean protests about this one. If you like historical context (and paranormal characters as in X), give Senkou no Night Raid a try. Just make sure you follow it long enough for the actual plot to begin! :-)

If you want to look into it some more: LJ's