When you first watch the trailer of Requiem of the Rose King, you know from the very beginning that it’s based on Shakespeare’s Richard III. The art and animation are in tandem with the times that it portrays: the Renaissance age with its dark history of wars. Moreover, it’s impossible to not compare Baraou no Sourestu to the recent hit, Moriarty the Patriot which is also based on a literary classic and does incredible justice to the original in its execution. While both the stories are definitely set in different times, we inevitably expected the same level of enjoyment from Baraou no Sourestu in its execution. However, it failed us completely from the very first episode. Transgender characters are not a first in anime but there was something new with the way Requiem of the Rose King handled it that got us excited to find out what happens. After all, history tells us that the Renaissance period wasn’t exactly accepting of transgender people. This sets up the tension between the protagonist and the time that this anime is set in the midst of a war between the House of the Roses. However, even after three episodes, the anime simply continued to disappoint us with its shoddy animation and terrible narration.

The main issue with Requiem of the Rose King is not in its content but in its execution of the source material. If you look up the manga on MyAnimeList or other sources, it has a rather high score of 8.13. While the scores are subjective and not always true, they are a guideline that one might actually enjoy this manga. That was our expectation when we saw the manga adapted into an anime. However, the problem with Requiem of the Rose King is that it hastily assumes that we’ve read the source material and simply rushes through the plotline. When you read the manga, the pacing is definitely slower and more relaxed, taking its time to establish the important characters and the themes of the show while also making the plot progress. Instead, in the anime, we see almost a volume worth of content being crammed into a single episode. Suffice to say, anyone who watches this anime will be lost if they are not aware of the source material. While the art in the first episode was brilliant, it did not keep up its consistency in the later episodes. This could be because we were lost trying to catch up to the plot but we found ourselves more confused than ever with each passing episode.