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Rail Wars


Rail Wars is an anime adaptation of the currently ongoing light novel series of the same name. Its set in an alternative world where all of the railway lines in the world are controlled by Japan as one set system which is stable and highly profitable. The show is really just a random slice of life show and focuses on the day to day events of the Japan National Railway trainees Aoi Sakurai, Kouimi Haruka, Naoto Takyama and Iwazami Shou. I was hoping for some exploration of some economic concepts like private vs public ownership and some insights into the intricacies of running a global railway system. Sadly, all this was sacrificed for daily tedium of the railway trainees.

The trainees are tasked with protecting the railway from petty criminals and keeping the system safe. There is mostly hand to hand combat and some gunplay with the four trainees emerging predictably victorious.

All of the characters are bland, and one-dimensional cookie cutter cutouts you see everywhere. There isn’t any character development and there is no form of story progression either. Relationships are just one sided everyone is friends they all get along.

The goal of the main character Naoto is to become a railway conductor because of the comfortable life he will get and also because he’s been a train otaku since he was little. Aoi Sakurai was just a wannabe action heroine who hates men and is really nothing more than the stereotypical tsundere. All of the female characters are designed only to please the fanservice crowd.

There were mentions about a radical privatization group known as “RJ” but were nowhere to be seen in the show. The voice acting was subpar but given the lame dialogue, it is not surprising. The jokes fell flat and musical score was just serviceable.

The animation was boring and the plain art style was unappealing. The cg effects were serviceable at best and the background design of the world average. The animation had some very glaring errors with characters wearing gloves in one scene but not in the next. Even the breast size of the ladies was inconsistent appearing average in one scene but balloon sized in the next. The best thing about this show is that it's really short with about 12 episodes and you could finish it in a day. I could not find anything to like about Rail Wars.

It gets 1 out of 5 stars.

I would not recommend watching this anime even if you are a fan of the novels.

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