I don't think anyone was expecting much from the anime adaption on "Rage of Bahamut" when it was broadcast in 2014. The original media was a card game for mobile devices. But somehow, the creators must have had just enough freedom to make "Rage of Bahamut - Genesis," an exciting Western-stylized adventure in a medival fantasy setting. From an American perspective, it may seem a bit generic compared to the exotic imagination one would see in Japanese anime. But I cannot think of another anime that so effectively capitalizes on the style of a Hollywood blockbuster spectacle.If one had to compare "Rage of Bahamut - Genesis" to any particular Hollywood film, the obvious influence is the "Pirates of the Caribbean" film franchise. Within the first few minutes, our first character introduction of the two main characters (a red-haired lovable rogue and a dead serious sherrif out to hang his neck) shows them swashbuckling on top of a large wooden wheel (see "Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest" for reference). This is a land where angels and demons reign but mostly stay in their domain at a time of piece, but a deity escapes with "The God Key," and angelic and devil guards each set out to find her. The girl disguises as a human and finds help from the rogue (against his will) to safety, as she tries to find a way to use the key to awaken Bahamut, the monster of destruction from generations past. So we get fun chase sequences across the country side, witty banter, the occasional sword fight on boats, characters with ulterior motives, that sort of thing. There's a reason these are common cliches: because they work really well. And how often do you seen any, let alone all, of these elements in a Japanese anime, with the cool character designs and animation their best artists are known for? And the story pays off with a grand sense of scale, complete with epic developments near the end for the fate of the world that perfectly ends the story (see "Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End" for similarly over-the-top but satisfying conclusion). Well, it's a mostly perfect ending... it ends rather abruptly and gets out of explaining a couple quick details to how certain characters survive. But it was a great adventure nontheless.I was initially worried about the character designs. From Studio MAPPA, a studio not known for keeping with industry norms, the characters tend to have large lips and silly hairstyles (who has ever seen a white man with a red afro in medival Europe?). But it comes together well thanks to more appropriate and sexy devil and angel designs (both male and female), and the consistency with characters as the story progressed made me appluad the design for looking distinct, rather than weird. The settings look detailed, but still generic perhaps. The animation is about as solid as you can get for this type of action-adventure with plenty of expressive movement and varied camera angles, I only wonder if it would have improved at all if given a feature-film budget: if it did, this would be a flawless knockout. The music is appropriate and there is a fun rock opening to listen to. I strongly appreciated the English dub, if only to help ground the character designs into an American-sounding production. Yes, the dialogue can be a little cheesy in a handful of moments, but it works.
No doubt about it, if someone told me they could never get into anime but enjoy American movies, I would show them "Rage of Bahamut - Genesis" as a fun gateway. It doesn't set out to redefine anything or show us something new, but it does what it wants to REALLY well, and I don't think anyone would believe it came from Japan.