Arknights: Reimei Zensou

The discovery of a black crystalline mineral known as Originium has accelerated technological advancement in the world of Terra, with its high energy yield allowing people to demonstrate abilities akin to magic called Arts. Large veins of Originium can naturally be found at the sites of Catastrophes, various forms of natural disasters caused by the mineral itself.

However, the usage of Originium comes at a price, as there is a high risk of getting infected with Oripathy—an incurable and highly contagious disease. Because nations subject the infected to harsh discrimination, the oppressed begin a dissident movement. Calling themselves Reunion, the rebel faction mercilessly destroys cities, further contributing to the already calamitous nature of Catastrophes.

Rhodes Island, committed to treating the infected and uninfected as equals, is a paramilitary pharmaceutical organization believed to be the most advanced in its research for the Oripathy cure. Unfortunately, the person spearheading the project—an enigmatic figure known only as the Doctor—suffers from amnesia, effectively impeding what might be the only hope for the infected to break free from their chains of despair.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Amiya Main

Kurosawa, Tomoyo Japanese

Doctor Main

Kaida, Yuki Japanese

W ing

Taketatsu, Ayana Japanese

Texas ing

Tadokoro, Azusa Japanese

Exusiai ing

Iwami, Manaka Japanese

Kal'tsit ing

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Ch'en ing

Ishigami, Shizuka Japanese

FrostNova ing

Takagaki, Ayahi Japanese

Hoshiguma ing

Yasuno, Kiyono Japanese

Nearl ing

Sakura, Ayane Japanese

Hata, Takehiro Producer

Watanabe, Yuuki Director, Sound Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation, 2nd Key Animation, Animation Director

Nakamura, Masashi Episode Director

Yokouchi, Kazuki Episode Director

Reviews

May 6, 2025

Newname179

Recommended

Arknights : Prelude to dawn is an anime adaptation of a game with the same name.

1- The story of Arknights takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where a disease has infected some people causing them to slowly die and infect others after death. The infected people are discriminated against by the non-infected governments which causes a group of infected called reunion to become terrorists. The main characters are a group called rhodes island which are made up of infected people working for a world in which the infected and non-infected can coexist in peace. If we ignore the game and look at the anime as ... a separate project, the story is well written and developed. The world and characters were introduced properly and in overall the anime was interesting and amusing.

2- The animation style was (for me) interesting. The background was well drawn and the characters were ell designed, however the anime was lacking in fight scenes (probably due to limited budget). My score for animation will be 7/10.

3- Although i haven't been playing the game for a long time,I found that the anime has captured the feelings of the game creators. The characters were well developed and the world was built based on in-game designs. Many people have found that the anime was rushed and didn't give the characters the time and attention they needed that was probably due to the game length (8 episodes which took me a day to finish equals to 3 chapters in-game which took a month to finish). As a new player i cannot give a professional opinion however in my experience watching anime Arknights : Prelude to dawn was not rushed.

4- I haven't watched many anime game adaptations however Arknights anime was made to be enjoyed by game and non-game players alike. Creating an anime based on a game is harder than based on a manga however Arknights captured the game story and game play in a way that many other manga adaptations weren't able to. A non game player can watch the anime and understand the game and love the characters without playing the game.

My overall Rating for Arknights is 8/10. This is because the people who made this anime made it for all people not only the ones who played the game. It was made with love and dedication for the game world and characters.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 29, 2024

Dompa112

Mixed Feelings

A very visual pleasing anime. The animation quality and cinematic feeling is very pleasing to the eye. But looks can only get you so far. Its the content that really matters and thats where this falls very flat.

First of im not familiar with the game. So i feel i might not be the target audience herd so i dont want to be to hard on it why i give it a 6/10 despite being fairly bored by the show.

To me it seems you get thrown into the whole thing without much knowledge and they never go very deep explaining things about the world. ... The factions. Characters. Its just thrown straight at you. Hard to get invested in it all. Its only 8 episoded long so maybe its something that will come with time but i dont think the show doed a good job getting you interested enough to continue. Right after the final episode i didnt felt motivated to continue and i doubt i will.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 18, 2023

aurora_aeterna

Not Recommended

tl;dr rating if you play arknights: 8 or 9 /10. rating if you don't play arknights: 5/10 at best

Surely this show's ratings are inflated by the fans of the game. I mean let's be honest. I play the game and while yes, the game has great story and yes, the game has great voice lines, the anime was without a doubt very slow paced and at times boring. It is practically word-for-word from the source material though so points for staying true there.

Like I mentioned above, if you don't play the game you will fall asleep watching this. The gravity of the scenes, the explanation ... for the world of Terra, the way the characters interact with each other; all of it would not make sense to a non-fan and the anime does little to try to explain any of it to people who are unfamiliar with the source material already. The pacing is molasses. The character development is also molasses. Both of which are real shames because the Arknights main story is actually quite interesting and at times thought-provoking and challenging. All of that was latent in here in the show, sent to background in favor of what felt like character showcases. I should also mention that Yostar/HG make great PV's and music but we didn't get much of that here. Some cool action sequences, a smattering of music, but it didn't shine.

It really hurts me to say it but I do not recommend this to anyone who didn't play the game. I would recommend the game though. So I guess you could come back to watch this after playing the game some? It is a good game...

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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