User Reviews

I can see why a lot of people may not like this, As a women I love it, I love the violence, the humor, the new style animation but still has that 80s look, which is unique, I definitely like...um the sexual themes in this show too, it's kind of refreshing to have a masculine MC.. anyways not for everyone but I enjoyed it a lot! Definitely don't watch it for it's story, I love the music, the action the gore, it's just a good sit back and watch Anime!

Put it on after getting home from the boozer as something to just watch till i fell asleep and found it enjoyable enough after 13 pints of Stella and some jägers bombs. Dumb cartoon that you don't have to take to serious to enjoy.

I don't know if I should even like this, I'm certainly not target audience for this kind of production (or maybe I am) but I bloody love this. The writing is masterfully stupid with humor that hits you unexpectedly and frequently, accompanied with animation that's mostly top notch.

Nobody who's thirsty will protest the sexually themed animation, it all adds up to brilliantly mock male ideals and Hollywood tropes in my view, and yet, my primal brain does enjoy "Bastard!!"s great renditions of the female form - albeit idealized. Anyone who's tired of conforming to sensibilities of contemporary society, or everything else in our downspiraling world, may find some much needed stupid escapism here and I can't think of anything better than these perfect bite sizes of well animated debauchery to forget my day and bask in the glorious light of Dark Schneider - who, in my heart of hearts, I confess I wish to be.

Don't think this is a spoilers since you can see it in the trailer, so I think I'm just giving a heads up.

You learn pretty quickly (episode 1 if you've got a better trained eye than me lol, but for me episode 2 really). So as long as you know that it's basically a p*rno/h*ntai but on Netflix so major ecchi lol, you can make fun of it and just relax as it is dumb in ways, but it's entertaining enough for the time to pass. Honestly, the people making this must've had a lot of fun cause he acts so dumb, but the moments he causes, while equally so, have hilarious moments.

The production values are only ok but hell has finally frozen over. LIDEN FILMS produced a presentable adaptation that doesn´t skip any plot beats on top of that! Many viewers will be confused why the promised "boundary-pushing" edge fest lacks gore, nudity or sex and has this much levity. Nudity and gore are rare until Vol 18 in the manga. That volume introduced Porno Dianno -she looks just like one would think- and throws the already splintering plot in the trash. The manga then fully gave up, moved over into a Seinen magazine and unwounded into a hard-to-follow comedy porno without real continuity. There is even a time jump to fully weed out the previous audience. Aka. Me. The first 60% of the manga pushed Shounen Jump boundaries but not Shounen demographic boundaries. The Devilman was published 12 years earlier and went waaay further. So did Jump´s very own Fist of the North Star 4 years before Bastard. The Netanime on the other hand skipped gnarly executions that would have been in ep 1&2, ep 6 didn´t feature the pornographic sex scene the fully redrawn Kanzenban version of Vol 2 has, ep 8 lacks a head explosion and so on. Even the 90s OVAs added nudity and settled on a grittier tone but the 2022 version remains committed to staying presentable to 13-year-old-boys. That was the manga´s demographic for a decade so fresh viewers can only stay for the plot. The bonkers later stages of the manga will simply never be reached due to the faithful and thus slow pacing. I prefer the 6 much faster-moving OVAs from the 90s due to better designs, animation, colors and all the skipped fluff but those only reached 2/3rd into Vol 5. S1E13 ends 1/5th into Vol 5. I wouldn´t mind an adaptation till Vol 12 and then transition into an original ending leading to a 3 season show. The manga starts ripping of Evangelion a few volumes after Vol 12 and one thing is not like the other...

In summary: Don´t expect a Hard-R Dark Fantasy near-hentai and set your expectation for a horny yet flaccid 80s-themed teen action/comedy/fantasy hybrid instead. For that the anime works fine and it´s not an isekai! 6.5/10.

I found this anime awesome! Unbelievable ! Gigantic! Everyone talks about nudity, maybe for minors it's disturbing. But I know that for my boyfriend and I, as an adult, we really liked this anime! We are impatiently waiting for the sequel, can't wait for it to come out! Congratulations anyway.

I enjoyed this anime can't wait for season two. Love how the woman are just as strong as the men. I know some would say it's a lot of sexual misconduct, but I still enjoy the show. All the emotions that comes with it too.

I 1st saw this when I was an elementary kid, got a peek from my brother collection. After that i was into magic and myth. Too bad they didn't have detail descriptions of the monsters and spells in the animate. That would be so awesome. Thx Netflix for bringing back Spriggan too. The story is very original to the comic, except the nudity. If it is 18+, I think they should have it. The fight scene wasn't the best nowsaday, still very behind from demon slayer and Sword Art Online is better. For me i can't stop watching it after the 3rd episode. If they can finish it till the end, it certainly make my bucket list. The last episode is as good as the comic. Again, thx Netflix.

As a summary of the plot, society as we know it was erased from the Earth after some people uncovered dark powers and the show follows a future in which humans live in a medieval style and magic and monsters are a common thing. In that new world there was a war against a dark army led by the infamous sorcerer Dark Schneider, who being impossible to be killed was captured in a baby and the army was defeated.

But the dark army has come back with its old commanders and the baby has become a teen. One day, in a danger situation, Dark Schneider manages to manifest in the real world, but he is no longer so evil, as his soul has been affected by the pure soul of the body in which he was captured all those years. Now, he protects humans against the dark army with his dark power and exhibiting some of his prior personality traits, like lust and egocentrism.

Regarding the manga, I started reading it when it came out in the 90's to my country and that's the reason why I watch this show, so I don't know anything about how it was advertised.

I can say that it is very loyal to the story and style of the manga, and much better than the old anime. However, I will try to remove false expectations and create a clear view after reading some reviews here.

First, it's a show about fights with magic, sometimes so long that takes 2 or 3 episodes. They continuously throw attacks to each other saying "it is impossible that you escape" and start laughing satisfyingly and the other appears without a scratch after the smoke disappears and everybody watching the fight freaks out, including who launched the attack. The fight goes on incrementing the level of the attacks and also each new enemy is more powerful than the prior one. After an attack there is at least 5 minutes of listening the multiple observers saying how strong is a character and they did something never seen before. False defeatings, fake deaths and resurrections are also common. So you need to be into that.

Then there is the lust part. To be clear, it is not an erotic show -may be spicy, yes-, and in my case it makes me laugh or smile when female characters get clothes torn apart or the main character starts touching some of them under the clothes while they were having a serious conversation. Hair, shadows and other things cover strategically some parts of the anatomy and there is no sex, but anatomy exhibition and some touching and these scenes are usually exposed in a funny way, as they can be in the middle of a battle, for example. There is more sex in most HBO shows.

The metal or rock theme is only an excuse for some names, it is not a metal animation show. I mean, there is the opening with some nice hard rock piece, but the score of the show is normal with some electric guitar pieces when action arise, completed with some choirs in some dark moments and always the same. Metal is used to make fun, as for example with the names of the 4 kingdoms: Metallicana, Judas, White Snake and Iron Maiden. Some other metal names are used during the show, but without any real connection with the music bands, like the Helloween spell or the character Bon Jovina.

Characters are very exagerated, almost like a parody. They overexpose on how they managed to get something done, and they laugh and are over-confident and proud of themselves.

But if you like this kind of thing, if you can feel some complicity and fun with the bad not-so-bad main character, his enemies that turn into allies, his self-admiration and admiration of others for his power, despite the repetitive formula of each episode, this will be your guilty pleasure.

Once you get past names like Dark Schneider and Princess Sheila, then the pedophilia, grooming, raping and incest, then the fact all women are smoking hot, emotionally stunted virgins who fold at the mere touch of the main character like a russian spy to James Bond, then the fact that there's a ton of sexually suggestive content but everyone looks like a barbie or ken doll when actually naked...you're left with a magic anime in which the characters yell out things like "Dave Mustain", "Def Leppard" and "Guns n Roses" before casting a spell.

Did I mention Dark Schneider looks like InuYasha, and there's no actual metal music in the series? I wish someone had told me to avoid this like covid. Enjoy!

Poor story focused on values we don't want to cultivate anymore.

The drawing doesn't seem very elaborated as main characters are very simple.

I didn't see the original work.

Is this an Oscar worthy film? No. I grew up in the 80"s and loved this anime when I watched it in my 20's. I watched this and was very entertained. Netflix hit it out of the park with me with this and other shows like Castlevainia and Spriggan. Is this the best show I have watched this year , no but it was well worth it for me.

Girl might be cute, but can't carry the show, couple episodes in and you notice how laughably bad this thing is.

Even if fan service is something you are looking for in anime, this show is so terribly put together that its hard to get through. The action is not good at all.

Episode 1 and 2: One-half dimensional villains attack the kingdom, girl agonizes over kissing some dude to awaken a spell (whilst people are dying) then summons the guy (after monsters kill like everyone). Awakened Main Character (MC) talks about how he hates the world and how he won't help, then helps. Some creepy stuff between main girl and him, then she kisses him away again.

Usually, an entire kingdom in the anime world has a bunch of heavy hitting fantasy heros. Here, some old priest controls a wizard through his virgin daughter, like... bruh.

The art for the MC is terrible, what kind of steroid induced comatose makeup dream did the artist have when coming up with that?

This show reminds me of late 90s Manga that can't decide if its porn or not, then they clean it up by scrubbing all the things the porn audience wants, and your left with like a quarter of a story.

For dudes... And women secure in their femininity. Women from the United States probably won't find this entertaining in the slightest. But it's a big world, and not everybody shares their views. They were heavy nods to many of the heavy metal bands from the 80s. One of the antagonist is named after a singer from a successful niche band, two of their sorcerer moves are named after two other heavy metal bands. And the main place the story takes; is a kingdom named after another band that made it into the millennium. I found it extremely entertaining. But I'm a dude.

Violence and nudity is not an issue. The way it's written is what I hate. Dark fantasy is supposed to be dark like Berserk, Claymore or close to Attack in Titan. This was just weird. To me it seemed tonally deaf with nudity and violence aimed at a more mature audience while the dialogue is on par with Dragon Ball Z or Samurai Pizza Cats.

Edgy good guy "I'm going to kill you for I am a mighty wizard and handsome to boot!"

Badguy: "No you won't and I will lick your virgins from head to toe, because I'm evil you see?! Muahahahaha!"

Edgy Good Guy: "Now you've done it, I'll..."

Then the minions squirt mud in awe of their master and then the protagonist when he beats their master.

The women in the harem are worried but also insecure about the other girl within aforementioned harem. Every fight that could be cool gets overly explained and becomes ridiculous, because of the overly present sidecharacters fawning.

^This doesn't happen to this extent in good Dark Fantasy Anime. There was an attempt. It failed. Better luck next time Netflix. Maybe get Ghost in the Shell 1995, the Berserk series 1997 in your library or fix Helsing's subtitles not being in French on Dutch Netflix...

This is just one of the best animes this season, I am in love with Netflix again for providing us such a thrill ride after a long time. I would recommend this to anyone 18 and older who loves to chill sm watch something nostalgic while experiencing the 80's and 90's designs.

Childish dialogue written by someone who's never actually spoken to a human. Kid is bawling fearing the horde of demons, then suddenly laughing cos he used a hanky?

The entire rambling monologue at the start has nothing to do with the show and is frankly far more interesting.

Tasteless boob, panty etc shots, child grooming of both sexes and plenty of other messed up immoral sexual stuff without any context, plot or character building relevance.

Girl is told a "magic spell" can be activated with a virgins kiss and as such she is forbidden from marriage. Some old guy forcing a teenage girl to remain chaste and charging her with having to kiss a young boy to activate his demon form. Wtf kind of magic system is this? Does luring kids using candy activate the fireball spell?

The plot is nonsensical blurting countless mcguffins at the viewer in the first minutes. From the contextless aforementioned spell, to the 2 battling gods, to the darkness etc ...

Just watch the first 10 mins if U must, the issues are glaring.

"Bastard!!" Is a rare sight to see on Netflix, yet it's a breath of fresh air at the same time. In a move against their painfully "woke" content as of late, "Bastard!!" Takes the edgy harem anime and mixes it with the dark fantasy genre, which sometimes comes off as a little confused. Still, it's a pleasant mix of gore, humor, and intriguing "ecchi" (or sexiness) that can feel contrived at times. All in all, it's a fun anime that panders to a crowd not hung up on strange ideologies who just want to enjoy some anime without it being censored into oblivion. That said, the show is strangely frightened of nipples, as the occasional bare breasts look like the female equivalent of a mannequin, while the main male character has at least some semblance of nipples. If the creators could have found a solid through line, Bastard could've easily been a 10/10.

This anime is decent to watch but not much substance overall. It has the typical OP hero who is a perv but very little growing story throughout. Episode after episode of pointless enemies one slightly more powerful than the last and our hero struggling at first only to throw out a brand new OP attack he been holding onto out of nowhere followed by a ton of explanation on each attack. A very failed attempt to try and create suspense and draw out battle scenes.

I normally don't mind anime with a little narrating from the characters but this anime uses narration as a filler and it's far to much. On top of that they piece some type of backstory in almost every episode to fit the scenario at the time and it feels cheesy.

I do like the main character Dark Schneider personality. He does not follow your typical hero persona. He is a bad guy hero type, womanizer and very egotistical which makes him quite interesting and funny to watch. Other major characters in this anime seem to be well made as well with each having a unique personality.

This was one of my favorite anime's growing up. I have been very eagerly awaiting this release since it's announcement. I am not disappointed and i am really looking for part 2 and hopefully much more!

This is truly a relic of the 90's, as if written by the juvenile mind of a teenage boy who thinks gore, submissive women with boobs like inflated balloons and hilariously awful character names sound cool.

I know that to some that's exactly the charm of it, but to me it's a huge turn-off. It's often been the hallmark of Japanese anime to make silly fantasy names and languages but this one is almost like a parody of that and I found myself laughing at it even though it's not even meant to be funny.

The parts meant to be funny are awkward and pathetic. The sexy stuff is tasteless, sexist and offputting with all the anime stereotypes that I've come to loathe over the decades of watching anime.

I enjoy gore, sexy characters and over the top even silly fantasy settings, but this one is farcical in its execution, characters and story. It hurts when these shows thinks that what makes something "mature" is childish, simplistic and cringe worthy.