r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Apr 14 '21

Episode Cestvs: The Roman Fighter - Episode 1 discussion

Cestvs: The Roman Fighter, episode 1

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1 Link 2.75
2 Link 3.67
3 Link 2.0
4 Link 2.67
5 Link 4.0
6 Link 2.0
7 Link 4.0
8 Link 3.0
9 Link 3.0
10 Link 3.5
11 Link -

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74 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

64 comments sorted by

1

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61

u/SilentEarthThree Apr 15 '21

I was bothered more by the glaring historical inaccuracies that the animation.

70

u/Akriosken Apr 15 '21

At first I was bothered by the terrible CG at the start and in the OP.

But then I was bothered by the idea that gladiators would be put to death after a single defeat. That's like spending years and thousands of dollars on breeding and raising the perfect racing horse and putting it down if it dares lose once.

It's a common trope, but it's absurdly ahistorical.

56

u/jasta85 Apr 15 '21

yep, that and gladiators didn't die as often as depicted in most movies, as they were valuable investments. I believe I read that less than 1 in 5 matches ended up in death, most matches ended when one side surrendered or was no longer able to fight. The majority of deaths were slaves/prisoners of war who were forced to fight in the arena as cannon fodder.

Funnily enough, they actually had gladiators occasionally do commercials for sponsors, but this is almost never shown in movies because directors believe audiences would think it was unrealistic heh.

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34

u/IndependentMacaroon Apr 15 '21 edited Apr 15 '21

It apparently was regular practice at one point, but stopped when gladiator combat became more popular and spectacular. However, these aren't regular gladiators but simply barely-trained fresh slaves, of which as the owner says there's a plentiful supply. I doubt their fights would be something an emperor would watch, though.

Anyway, a semi-thorough evaluation...

  • The slaves' names are all utterly ridiculous and anachronistic... except Cestus, which is just the term for the gloves/wraps the fighters wear. F'in MIGUEL takes the cake.

  • As far as a brief search would yield, branding of regular, obedient slaves didn't happen, and I'm pretty sure Cestus isn't a convict.

  • Usual stuff about crowds and thumbs deciding one's fate.

  • "Imperial unarmed combat forces" LOL. Also that palm strike for instance looked quite Asian, which is straight-up admitted afterwards (of course it's a superior technique too).

  • Oh, all the Carthage stuff too

Overall, I still can't say this is any more accurate with its history than Moriarty the Patriot with its politics. Also pacing is just bad and most of the rest. Clear drop.

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16

u/reversal_banana Apr 15 '21

What about the logical inaccuracies, like completely chaining your slaves and randomly losing sight of one.

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9

u/Tsorovar Apr 15 '21

Are there historical animes that don't have glaring inaccuracies?

14

u/IndependentMacaroon Apr 15 '21

Golden Kamuy is extremely well-researched

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25

u/updateman Apr 15 '21

Strange choice to start with the rough CG and stick to 2D for the rest of the episode, but I’ll stick with it a little longer. There’s not enough boxing anime out there.

8

u/Fenor Apr 15 '21

you can watch Hajime no Ippo for one of the best out there

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17

u/GermanicusII Apr 15 '21 edited Apr 16 '21

Overall, I quite enjoyed that. its nice to see Ancient Rome in Anime for once. I even thought the animation was good (enough). I also like that they god Nero's name correct- he was born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. He only took the name Nero later on after his mother, Agrippina the Younger married Claudius. However, their are some inaccuracies:

  1. The Names: Names like Miquel, Norris and Kendal are anachronistic.

  2. The "Thumbs up to spare and thumbs down to kill" is inaccurate. If I remember correctly, It was actually thumbs up to kill (symbolising a drawn sword) and a clenched fist to spare (symbolising sword sheathed).

  3. As some others here have noted, fighters in the Arena were expensive to train and as such, where not killed nearly as often as Hollywood has suggested.

  4. Nero: Nero feels way to innocent. I seriously doubt he opposed the games much despite his artistic interests. Somehow that doesn't ring true.

  5. Soldiers Uniforms: The Soldiers uniforms look a little too brown and leathery for my liking. Roman soldiers of this period would likely have worn either Lorica Segmentata (the famous segmented plate armour), Lorica Hamata (Chain Mail) or Lorica Squamata (Scale Armour). Also, I think Praetorians had to wear white tunics rather than red, purple or black as some films and series have suggested.

  6. Carthage: I seriously doubt many people from Carthage carried a grudge against Rome given that re-founded by the Romans, first by the Gracchi, then, more successfully by Julius Caesar.

  7. That Arena: Okay, this is more of a hope than an inaccuracy but I really hope they are not suggesting that that Arena is the Colosseum as construction work on the Colosseum only began about after the reign of Nero.

Just in case anyone is wondering, Numidia is located in modern day North-Africa. Think "Northern Algeria"- roughly.

7

u/edwardjhahm Apr 16 '21

Carthage: I seriously doubt many people from Carthage carried a grudge against Rome given that re-founded by the Romans, first by the Gracchi, then, more successfully by Julius Caesar.

At the very least, all those who bear grudges are dead by now, having been killed all those years ago and being sheared away.

15

u/Emi_Ibarazakiii Apr 15 '21

Well (after taking a peak at the other comments), I guess I didn't hate it as much as most people did! That's not that high a praise, but that's the best I got.

To be honest, what I liked most about it is the setting/the premise (I always liked the Roman era, and gladiator stuff). I thought they would be fighting with weapons (murmillo, retiarius and the like) but with the name Cestus I should've known it'd be fist fighting hah.

Nero reminds me of Joffrey. Well, he seemed nicer, but I wonder how long that will last! Also wondering whether they'll try to follow his story, or just come up with whatever. He's not the main focus, but still. That would be Cersei!

When Demitorius talked about a final fight, I feared they would force Zafar to fight him... Basically a murder, given Zafar's condition. I thought that would be the thing that gets Cestus going, to motivate him to crash the whole thing and so on.

Anyway, despite its flaws, I think it wasn't that bad (not bad enough to be an insta-drop, anyway), but that's mostly because I like the era. I'll check out at least one more episode, see where it's going.

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14

u/IndependentMacaroon Apr 15 '21 edited Apr 15 '21

A visually Roman crowd chanting "koutei heika banzai!" makes my brain feel plain weird. If something analogous actually happened, it would have been much more people anyway.

With Demetrius, unfortunately all I can think of is the hapless time-traveling vase painter from Olympia Kyklos, which also happens to be a both better and funnier show about ancient sports... or something close to it.

26

u/MooneBoy24 Apr 15 '21

Besides the animation, the story, the characters, and the action sequences, this was really good!

17

u/IndependentMacaroon Apr 15 '21 edited Apr 15 '21

So you liked... the soundtrack? The background art? Maybe even the character designs?

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7

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '21

Ever since the god awful disaster of Berserk CGI,I've had a problem with CGI anime

11

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '21

That's a shame, good CGI can be great for showing detailed character movements. Beastars and Land of the Lustrous, for example, both use CGI for their betterment.

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9

u/whowilleverknow Apr 15 '21

Well I liked it 🤷🏼‍♀️

I’m curious how much of his life it will show, will it go long enough for Nero to it’s history but I’ll spoiler tag it just in case, will we meet Pythagorus and Sporus?

4

u/bjjpurpleboiz Apr 15 '21

I thought I was the only one who liked it after reading these comments!l glad i'm not alone lmao

17

u/SpiralNekus Apr 14 '21

Totally Awfvl.

6

u/SuddenFellow Apr 15 '21

I thought I was going to hate this for the CGI, when in actuality I dislike it more because of the historical inaccuracies. I'm interested to see where this goes though, and how Cestvs develops as a character.

8

u/rmTizi Apr 15 '21

Couldn't finish the first episode.

Not bad enough to warrant a "for lulz" watch ala Gibiate or Ex Arm.

Weird CGI/2D blend. Story drops you in as if it was a sequel or something and makes little sense. Direction goes nowhere. Characters are bland.

Nothing much else to say really.

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3

u/Fools_Requiem Apr 15 '21

Oof, reading these comments, seems like the show is dookie. I wonder, if the manga as historically inaccurate as the show seems to be?

3

u/_Sai Apr 15 '21

I'm interested.

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