By Robert Ramos

It’s October and you know what that means: fall season of anime is upon us. With that comes something that I’ve read a couple chapters of and wanted to check out after hearing it was being animated. I’m talking about none other than Drifters. It’s from the creator of Hellsing so how bad could it possibly be? Well...

The story starts off in the middle of some war between two factions. I won’t get into names because after the first 10 minutes of the episode, you’ll understand why they’re not really necessary. The first 10 minutes, though: ultraviolent and bloody as fuck. Limbs flying everywhere; blood gushing all over the place. Great stuff. Anyway, Toyohisa is our protagonist and is the one laying down all the slaying. After his “failed” attempted at taking the head of an enemy, the enemies retreat and he makes his way back to his camp. On his journey back, he is, for lack of better words, transported into a white room with lots of doors and a man sitting at a desk. Toyohisa is about to attack the guy when he suddenly gravitates towards a room and transported to another land.

After Toyohisa is found and rescued by some elf looking people, he is taken to where some other drifters are. This isn’t the first time drifters have shown up and now they’re grouped together. It’s here where we meet our other two main characters. Their names slip me, but know that the one is a male and the other is a female. Apparently, each was on their way to die before they too were transported to the room with that man at the desk and are now there. They’re both from different times, as well. The female is from over 400 years ago and the other male was just from 18 years ago.

At the end of the episode, a female with a crystal ball is spying on the three and relaying information to someone else. He claims that they’re in deep shit because these drifters could cause the end of the world.

The animation was okay. The battles were nice and gritty and I really appreciated the use of the dark coloring. Character designs are highly reminiscent of Hellsing. Hell, Toyohisa is practically a spitting image of Alucard, minus the long hair and sunglasses. What was really upsetting was the need for the comedy and the ridiculous tropes used among the trio. They felt completely out of place and I question why they were even included. I get that they have to pluck feathers out of their meal, but was it really necessary to have to word “pluck” plastered all over the screen as they’re plucking? I did appreciate the “What the hell?” that followed because that’s exactly what came out of my mouth after seeing that.

I understand this is a first episode and I’m not supposed to get the entire premise of the story, but I’m not feeling drawn to watch any more. I was bored after Toyohisa was sent to this far away land and united with the other drifters. As for the characters, I didn’t care for them either. The only reason this isn’t going to be a 1 out of 5 is because of the animation and the beautifully drawn action scenes. Other than that, it’s a big turd and a hard pass for me.

Score: 2/5

Drifters E.01
Official Site