Samurai Deeper Kyo (2002) User Reviews

Sekigahara... not exactly...

[SoulfulFX · 8/10 · 13 November 2006]

This series is quite an entertaining Samurai story. It has elements reminiscent of 'Rurouni Kenshin', 'Samurai Champloo', 'InuYasha', and even 'Naruto.' Some of the history and techniques are even shared with these series...and the split between the cold-hearted Kyo and kind-hearted Kyoshiro is certainly a common theme in Kenshin, InuYasha, and Naruto.

Granted, the history element is just a light part of the plot...quite exaggerated with the monster elements, but it's an entertaining way to project the ideals of swordsmanship, warrior spirits, and who is to inherit the coming of the new era.

The base story is Kyoshiro Mibu, the strongest swordsman of his generation, tried to split his pure fighting spirit away and into the created body of 'Demon Eyes' Kyo. A freak accident during the battle of Sekighara split Kyo back into Kyoshiro's body where he has been searching for his created body ever since. Once confronted with this though, he's forced to come to terms with having a pure fighting spirit or regaining the emotions of his former self.

But the real heart of the story is how Yuya and Kyo manage to give each other reasons to live and salvage some humanity for Kyo despite the fact he is merely a creation.

In any case, this is definitely worth getting into! Great fights, complicated histories, and some cute girls!

An anime that actually ends?! :)

[siderite · 7/10 · 24 February 2007]

The characters are a bit of a stretch, the cuddly feelings and everything seem to be taken from the fantasies of a 13 year girl who is in love, the fights are not that fighty and the story is weird and meaningless. But hey, I watched all episodes, so it must have something right... right?

The story is that of a samurai, split between his love for fighting and being the strongest fighter ever and his love for a woman. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? :) I can't reveal more, since it will spoil the ending. Yes! This anime series actually has an ending. Unfortunately, 5 minutes before the ending of the last episode I was quite sure the story will end, only to see a "after 11 years" bit right at the end. I discounted it just like the last scene of a horror movie.

The bottom line here is that this anime is really for children, with very little violence, great ideals and morals and a happy ending. Nobody really dies and the fights are almost bloodless. And the scenes with "you heard it too, the voice of the wind" really crack me up. So if you want it for your kid, it's fine; if you feel you want to relive your childhood, try it on, otherwise... it might be nothing but a meaningless cute anime.

Poor man's Inuyasha

[ace-150 · 6/10 · 11 April 2008]

Although reasonably entertaining, Samurai Deeper Kyo bears more than a passing resemblance to the much better Inuyasha. The (anti)hero has a violent history but is conflicted and ambiguous about being nice to people. He has a posse of sidekicks who wander around using their special skills to kill half-demons. There's a girl who moons over the hero even when he acts like a tool. Unfortunately, it isn't nearly as well written as Inuyasha. The plot is convoluted and confusing. There are way, way, way too many characters and too many of them look alike. Yuya-san, despite carrying a pistol, is a much bigger doormat than Inuyasha's Kagome. On the plus side, the story includes many real people, including Tokugawa Ieyasu, Tokugawa Hidetada and Hattori Hanzo. And in SDK, one of the main characters is a gender-bender, so there's a bit more homo-erotic subtext.

Truly underrated anime

[fazeelb · 10/10 · 20 December 2019]

Story is quiet splendid , and the character demon eyes kyo is seriouly character to love

Decent stand-alone anime (at best), but cannot even give the brilliant manga a run for its money.

[alukakaiserin · 5/10 · 1 March 2010]

Samurai Deeper Kyo revolves mainly around the character of Onime no Kyo (Demon Eyes Kyo, named for his red eyes), a man who is legendary for killing a thousand men. He was sealed inside the body of the medicine-seller Kyoshiro Mibu after the battle of Sekigahara. Throughout the anime series, he and his companions must fight creatures called "Kenyou", humans who became like demons after the battle. Both manga and anime incorporate real historical figures, though they have a much greater role in the manga. The anime follows the vague plot of the manga until volume sixteen, though it then dissolves into a completely ridiculous ending. It also ignores most of the character development of some of the most interesting people, and cuts out others completely. The manga is 38 volumes long, there are no Kenyou, it's much more amusing and it has infinitely better fight scenes. My suggestion: READ Samurai Deeper Kyo. You will find yourself much happier than if you only watch the anime.

Horrible has a new name

[Tadisfat · 1/10 · 21 September 2011]

WARNING! This review will spoil most of the story! (if that's what you call it)

I can't begin to tell you how bad this is in such a short amount of space but I will try my hardest. The story starts off with some happy go lucky medicine man who shall be dubbed "good Kyo". He transforms into the bad ass super Samurai "bad Kyo", who is "da best samurai to evar live" who kills things dead. This is where the one interesting merit of the show takes place. Unlike most Dr. Jekyll/ Mr. Hyde clones, the second (or third) time "good Kyo" transforms into "bad Kyo", he stays that way.

After that the show goes downhill fast. There is a girl with the ridiculous 3 barrel revolver that's sole purpose is to make guns look weak against swords, there is the prince in disguise who has a spear and nothing else worth mentioning, and a European gent with a canon on his arm. Did I mention this was feudal Japan? No? Oh well there's that.

The whole story seems to revolve around getting the 5 legendary Muramasa blades, which are not limited to being blades for some ungodly reason. One is "bad Kyo"'s sword, another is a sword with electricity, another is a spear (see prince), another is a staff....that turns into some energy bow...and finally...the canon. Yes, through the power of European alchemy, a sword was made into a canon that fires souls! Thank goodness for Europeans. They eventually gather these weapons only to find out that the most bad ass Samurai in the land ("bad Kyo"), is a chump who only knows 1 out of 4 of the fighting styles of his swordsmanship. So he is taught by none other than Muramasa himself another one of the fighting styles. The sword technique actually breaks the boundaries of most other sword techniques by forgoing the sword all together, and just turning "bad Kyo" into a f***ing phoenix.

By the end of the series, a fight ensues between "bad Kyo" who is now redeemable by transforming his image into a respectable murder machine, and Japan's favorite evil scapegoat, Nobunaga Oda, who can also turn into a phoenix. There battle is so intense that they travel to the present time, impale Oda with Tokyo Tower, then travel back to the past where Oda dies....INTO A GIANT WORMHOLE/EXPLOSION THING!!! So the day is then saved by the bad ass quiet ninja with a cloak, who turns out has a black hole under his cloak. And then they try to end the show without telling you in Kyo ended up with the good or the bad personality...but in the end, who cares?

This may seem less like a review, and more like a rant, because that is what this really is. The only reason I would recommend this to any brave soul is if they wanted an anime that is extremely, unintentionally, hilarious. If you really want to know my pain, drink heavily before inducing Samurai Deeper: Kyo. Do it for you.