Gore, magic and a little bit of x-rated. Bastard!! will seduce your elevated testosterone and glue you horny ladies to the screen as you get to witness the alluring essence of Dark Schneider. This anime is animated by studio Liden Films. One of their most recent noteworthy works is Tokyo Revengers.

Premise

Laying dormant for 15 years inside a 14 year old boy named Lucien, a 400+ year old supreme wizard becomes resurrected when the Kingdom of Metallicana becomes threatened by a world conquering army named the “Dark Rebel Army.” By the means of a virgin’s kiss or by Lucien being asleep, the most powerful wizard breaks the seal to regain his old form in response to this greater threat. The Dark Rebel Army led by Dark Schneider’s old disciples, the Four Divine Kings, are looking to take over the world in his place. They are trying to break one of the seals that the Kingdom of Metallicana is holding the God, Antrasax, from reawakening.

A Worthy Protagonist?

What makes Dark Schneider a great character to watch is not knowing what he is capable of. Spells, curses and other unknown abilities continually come as a surprise. With his charisma and seduction skills, he easily sways over many of the voluptuous female characters in this series. Being a womanizer wizard whose hubris has no bounds, expect a lot of self-absorbed dialogue where the humor derives from. Using his seduction prowess, he is a character for the not-so-easily offended. If you accept the lewd acts, find magical explosions entertaining and find his personality amusing, then there’s a strong likelihood of you enjoying this anime.

Starting Off Mixed

I’d say the first 6 episodes, the anime really blows by many fights and character development in order to set up the first real big battle of the series. You get to see a lot of lewd Dark Schneider scenes with the ladies. It’s like if all your favorite anime waifus actually took “one step further.” The first half of the episodes showcases Dark Schneider’s plethora of different abilities, personality, charm of the show and salaciousness. With a mixture of different plot scenarios and continually introducing new characters, there is always something fresh to see from episode to episode. Even though there are constantly new challenges, enemies and new ladies Dark Schneider encounters, a lot of the character development aspects seem slightly too rushed. Once the characters do get integrated into the show, it becomes something “lewd and crass” into becoming a worthy plot you’ll be emotionally invested in.

Since Netflix released 13 episodes at once, it makes a ton of more sense to judge it in it’s entirety, rather than episode by episode. If it was 1 episode released per week, I’d have a negative leaning outlook on this series until midway. Again, once all the characters get introduced and “fall into place,” then the viewer gets a strong contextual sense of what each character represents. Thus, fully realizing a good cast of characters that provides their own intriguing entertainment value.

Will You Like Dark Schneider?

It’s honestly really hard to tell what a majority of the audience will think of Dark Schneider. I for one am a fan of the old OVAs in the early 90s and this Netflix version of Dark Schneider comes off with a little bit of a stronger personality. Sometimes the humor do seem to be kind of forced. Some of the animated fights fall short of my personal expectations. Although, there ARE a lot of fights, so there are many action scenes that will win you over with time. There ARE many “action scenes” in the crass lewd sense that people might find too overbearing. That may or may not be the line that you’re willing to cross. For me personally, bring it on! Tip-toeing the line of being cancelled is a welcomed counter-culture presence in this day and age.

I guess the simple answer for the “likable-ness” of Dark Schneider is that he’ll grow on you. The lewdness and hubris that comes off pretty strong at the beginning, starts to become balanced as the viewer gets to see other relatable and interesting sides to him. Overtime, the characters will gravitate to him and I think the same will happen to the audience.

It Gets Good!

Once you get through a lot of the story, new characters and new “waifu” characters, it gets pretty good when Dark Schneider ends up fighting a character with a significant backstory—it’ll draw you in deeper into both Dark Schneider and that character he ends up fighting. You can tell how significant the event is as the narration style, animation and fighting seems to be more well put together. By the 13th episode, you’ll become charmed by all the interesting characters—indulging yourself deeper into the plot. The progression of the plot ends in a worthy cliffhanger on episode 13, giving the audience that itch for the next release of episodes.

Enjoyable Characters

Every character you’ll come across that doesn’t get blown to smithereens are welcomed editions to get screen time. There are some fun wacky characters on the show that are quite hilarious. Some characters are just boobs & butts and that’s okay with the balance the show presents. All the characters are crafted in a way that holds their own worth beyond the boobs and butts. In the end, I think a general audience would find most of these characters to be entertaining in their own way.

The Verdict

At first, this anime series looked to be a whimper or downer. In the first handful of episodes, there are a lot of inconsistencies and directions that the show doesn’t really set it’s focus on. Are there too many unnaturally lewd scenes? Are jokes too forced? Are the fight scenes underwhelming? The answer to these questions is that it gets better and becomes a cohesive show by the end of the 13th episode. If you decide to give this anime a shot, then I suggest you binge it. If you stop at 3, 4 or even episode 5, you’re 100% missing out on the payoff of the best episodes.

I’m a pretty harsh grader, but I’d give episodes 1-13 a 6.8/10. There’s just too many episodes as a whole I thought was just okay. By the end of the 13th episode it had fully redeemed itself by ending in the most iconic way possible. If the show continues this cohesive balance between, booty, story, action and humor in the 2nd half of season 1, I think we have a show we can honestly feel good recommending to people (adults of course). Give this anime a shot and let me know what you guys think!