Opening Songs
OP 1 - Insecure God (Suara)
OP 2 - Star Hanging In The Heavens (Suara)
Ending Songs
ED 1 - Feeling As If In A Dream (Suara)
ED 2 - Looking Up At A Sky Full Of Stars (Suara)
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Episodes: 25
Ah, "Utawarerumono". A long forgotten franchise of ages long past, who would have known that they would decide to actually do a follow up to that show. The original was one of the earlier generation harems that was actually pretty damned good, it told a story of war and battle, alongside throwing us the convenient typical harem affairs with its abundant cast of lovely ladies. I watched it a long time ago, but it somehow faded away deep into the fragments of my memory...since it was such a long ass time ago. Now, fast forward to late 2015-2016, we have supposedly another season that's not exactly a direct sequel. It features very few of our cast from the original, and instead puts us in the shoes of brand new characters. How does this new entry compare to the previous powerhouse that was released a good 10 years ago?
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| Kuon is love, Kuon is life. |
We have Suara as a one woman army here taking on all the theme songs in the show. The opening songs are "Insecure God" and "Star Hanging In The Heaven". The ending songs are "Feeling As If In A Dream" and "Looking Up At A Sky Full Of Stars". Honestly, Suara's not exactly a singer who does high energy tension type songs, so these aren't all that amazing to me, especially the ending themes. "Insecure God" is pretty slow, so the song that takes the cake here is most definitely the second opening theme "Star Hanging In The Heaven". Its slightly fast and sounds a little bit catchy, especially with the badass opening animations.
Rating: 7.5/10
If I were to review the older "Utawarerumono", I would have very easily given it an 8 or 8.5 back in the day because of the serious tone that it provides despite being a harem. Now, "False Faces" is very much a different kind of show than the original was, mind you, go into it expecting that. Even if you are a hardcore fan of the original, know that this is NOT the same show, and its really not close. The premise of both shows are kind of different, and in more ways than one, "False Faces" is mostly a light-hearted and easy-going show until towards the final 5-6 episodes, and only in those episodes does the show really pick up the pace for its climax arc. Before that, its really very easy-going for our main cast (minus the origin episodes, which are pretty good), and there's not much at stake to worry about. Still, even as that, the show does work quite well, with its new cast of quirky and funny characters. Also, Haku is a damned good protagonist in my opinion. Not some wimpy high school kid who gets nervous around girls and clumsily gropes them, this man is a boss. The show would definitely suffer without him IMO. Instead of having a man plan out mission after mission in a warring era, we now have a lazy errand boy who's too smart for the tasks he has been given.
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| Haku really doesn't care all that much about his tailed girls. |
Having a similar start to the original, "False Faces" follows the fate of an unknown, amnesiac man who wakes up in a snow forest with no recollection of anything. He is chased down by a spirit and almost killed, but he is saved by a travelling young woman called Kuon. Seeing as how she's pretty much his savior and he has nothing to live for a the moment, she decides to "adopt" him, and gives him the name Haku. Haku is given certain jobs around a nearby town, though he is extremely unfit for physical labor unlike the rest of the tailed citizens, he makes up for it with wit and intellect. He is able to solve problems nobody can, and before he knew it, he was noticed by Sakon, a leader for a wandering mercenary band. Together with Haku, Sakon takes the both of them to the city, where he finds himself in a complicated situation of having to live off odd jobs just to sustain himself. Here, he meets a ton of other individuals who help brighten up, or in some cases, worsen his daily, simply life that he wishes to enjoy.
"False Faces" actually ends on a rather sour note, pretty much sequel-baiting itself. There's most definitely gotta be a second season so this to resolve the situation left hanging between Kuon and Haku, or else I'm gonna be one sad panda. Well, for the eventual impending second season, I can only hope they bring back more of the older characters, and probably even Hakuoro and Eruru. Well, one can only hope.
