Legend of Basara: Don't Change the Channel, Don't Touch That Dial, We Got It All on UHF!

Television, much like radio, is broadcast "over the air" by way of radio frequencies that are otherwise invisible & inaudible to human eyes & ears. As early as 1938 TV "channels" are really nothing more than different frequencies that something like an antenna would be able pick up & attune itself to, depending on the current setting of the TV, i.e. "changing the dial" on a set or "changing the channel" on a remote. Initially TV broadcasts were assigned to "VHF/very high frequency" channels, with the North American standard of Channels 2 to 13 being established in 1948. Right around the start of World War II, though, advancements in technology (namely better vacuum tubes & color TV) led to early experiments in utilizing the next category up from VHF, "UHF/ultra high frequency", & by the early 50s all TVs sold on the consumer level had the ability to pick up UHF signals. However, UHF had the draw back of having less clear signals than VHF, which meant that they didn't really reach as far out as VHF signals would, so over time UHF often became known as the signal for more regional broadcasts from networks that were much smaller than the big name networks that could pay for the more prized, cherished, & longer-reaching VHF signals.

So buckle up & allow me to explain how UHF created today's modern anime hellscape!

Over in Japan the major networks (TV Tokyo, TV Asahi, Fuji TV, TBS, NHK, NTV, etc.) are all based either out of Tokyo or Osaka and are essentially the entirety of VHF broadcasting over there. Because of that the smaller independent networks all broadcast using UHF, and for the longest time they more or less relied on the major networks for programming, and that was especially true for anime. For decades the UHF networks simply acted as regional broadcasters for TV anime that was first aired on one of the major networks, and this was also true when it came to the early days of the "modern day late-night anime infomercial". However, that would all change on "April 2, 1998 at 24:30", i.e. April 3, 1998 at 12:30 am, when the first episode of Legend of Basara debuted not on any of the major networks, but rather on UHF network Chiba TV, with Hyogo prefecture's Sun TV airing it five minutes after Chiba TV that same night, while TV Hokkaido did so 30 minutes after Chiba TV's broadcast ended. This 13-episode anime produced by the now-defunct KSS was an adaptation of the 1990-1998 shojo manga epic Basara by Yumi Tamura that was mere months from ending in Shogakukan's Bessatsu Shojo Comic (now known as Betsucomi) when the anime debuted & had already won the Shogakukan Manga Award for shojo in 1993. Basara turned Tamura into a manga legend in Japan, and she'd continue her celebrated status by winning another two Shogakukan Manga Awards, first in 2007 for 7Seeds & then in 2021 for Don't Call it Mystery; she even won a Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award for Fine Arts in 2024.

However, today the Legend of Basara anime is known best as being the very first "UHF anime" ever produced, the first time an anime in general (let alone one made for late-night) ever debuted on a smaller, regional network instead of one of the major ones. The broadcast looked to be a notable success, as UHF stations would immediately follow up Legend of Basara's final episode with TV airings of the Dokyusei 2 & élf Version Kakyusei: Anatadake wo Mitsumete... OVAs, with Dokyusei 2 in particular becoming the first anime adaptation of an "adult" game to ever air on terrestrial TV (with some censorship, obviously); clearly, UHF stations were hungry for new content that they could be the first-run networks of. Now, to be fair, the next two years would be really slow for UHF anime, as 1999 only saw two titles & 2000 saw nothing, but the year 2001 would change everything. While only five shows debuted via UHF that year, the anime adaptation of Comic Party is often considered to be the first UHF anime that truly "broke containment", so to speak. Though 2002 only saw four new UHF anime (out of a total 22 new late-night anime that year), 2003 saw 19 (out of a total 49), followed by 2004 seeing 25 (out of a total 65), 2005 seeing 27 (out of a total 70)... & 2006 saw 46 (out of a total 110) brand new late-night anime debuting via UHF, or ~42%! Ever since the advent of the "modern day late-night anime infomercial" there had been worries that the concept could potentially result in there simply being too much TV anime being put into production on a yearly basis (remember, this isn't even including the TV anime that's debuting in more "traditional" time slots!), but at least when it was left contained to just the major networks the number could potentially be kept in check. However, once the idea of regional UHF networks getting first dibs really caught on in the early 00s the dam had well & truly burst, unable to ever be repaired & closed back up, and while the major networks certainly didn't help things by opening up more late-night time slots for new anime over time I think it's fair to say that it was done (in some part) to combat the rise of UHF anime; you really think the major networks were going to let the regional networks take over?

Yes, today's utter deluge of new seasonal anime, where a single season/cour today will have just as many new late-night anime as an entire year did in the early 00s (if not more!), is the direct result of the creation of UHF anime back in 1998. While Legend of Basara itself isn't necessarily the direct cause of UHF anime's proliferation, it is the first anime of that kind & therefore should shoulder some of the blame. Therefore, my year-long celebration(?) of the 30th Anniversary of the modern-day late-night anime infomercial continues with a review of the very first UHF anime ever produced, Legend of Basara!

Early into the 21st Century humankind is hit with a massive catastrophe, one that leaves much of the Earth devastated, and Japan in particular is turned into a massive desert. Still, humanity continues to live with what they have, though Japan winds up under tyrannical rule for the next 300 years. In a small Japanese village a pair of twins are born, the male Tatara & the female Sasara, and upon their birth the village's blind seer Nagi proclaims that "this child" is the destined savior who will end the tyrannical rule of the land, currently under the Golden Emperor & his four sons. The village has determined that Tatara is their savior & therefore treats him with reverence & respect, all while Sarasa winds up feeling uncared for by nearly everyone, a seeming hanger on from her brother's birth.  Shortly after both turn 15 the Red King, youngest son of the Golden Emperor who rules the West & South, leads an attack on Sarasa & Tatara's village, resulting in Tatara being executed in front of everyone. As the village burns Sarasa remembers the last thing her brother asked of her, to protect the village & their family when he's gone, & cuts her hair so that she can claim to be Tatara, stating that it was Sarasa that was just killed. In reality it was Sarasa who has the savior of the land the whole time, and now she has to figure out how to lead a rebellion against the Red King. In private, though, Sarasa can still take opportunities to be her true self, like at a hot spring, and it's during one of these private moments that she meets a young man named Shuri, with the two hitting it off whenever they can find time to see each other. The sad truth, however, is that the two don't realize that though they are slowly falling in love they are actually each other's greatest foe, because Shuri is the Red King himself.

Legend of Basara adapts roughly the first five volumes of Yumi Tamura's manga, out of a total 27 (though the main story itself finishes halfway into Volume 25), so there's no doubt that this anime is anywhere near a complete adaptation. Therefore it's best to simply look at this anime based on what story is given here, and to best judge that we should go over the main cast first. Leading everything is Sasara, who is established in the first episode as initially a bit of a jealous & impetuous little girl, but at the same time it's fully within reason. After all, her village venerates Tatara to no end, due to them deciding that he's the destined savior, and in turn she's seemingly treated as nothing more than an unwanted extra by everyone outside of a small handful of people, including her family. However, when her friend Makoto willingly sacrifices himself by claiming to be Tatara during an initial raid by the Red King & his forces, Sarasa more or less relegates her sense of identity for the next three years, until a second raid results in the death of Tatara. At that point Sarasa decides to carry on the name of her brother, & what it means to everyone in the land, since Tatara's identity as the savior was spread around as a rumor, hence why the Red King wanted him dead. However, at the same time it does bring up an interesting question of identity when it comes to Sarasa, especially when she realizes in Episode 3 that, despite her shorter stature & different voice, what remains of the village continues to see her as Tatara, seemingly by their own choice; Makoto's mother even decides to erect a grave for "Sarasa", despite more than likely knowing that Sarasa is right there next to her. There's a great feeling of "Where does 'Tatara' end, & where does 'Sarasa' begin?" with this anime's lead, and it's executed extremely well.

That's what makes the budding relationship between Sarasa & Shuri work, because it's in those moments that Sarasa can actually be herself, and the same is sort of true of Shuri, too. While Shuri clearly has no problems with being the Red King, he also obviously loves the moments where he can be by himself & his horse at a local hot spring, which is where he first meets Sarasa, and Sarasa's willingness to push (& punch) back at Shuri when he tries some more direct advances only makes her more appealing to him, since he admires her ability to stand for herself. The story also makes sure that Shuri, as the Red King, isn't a mere villain & instead establishes that he has done good & plans to do more good. His region is the only one to have abolished slavery, for example, & he has plans for an underground waterway to help things like crops grow, despite the environment they all live in. However, much like with Sarasa, a good portion of Legend of Basara's cast have dual identities. Shuri does good for the land he rules over, but he also has ambitions to eventually overthrow his siblings & even his father, and he has no qualms about being called a "dictator" in doing so. His cousin Shido, who rules over Kyushu under Shuri, is nicknamed "Shido the Saint" because of how magnanimous he is to his citizenry, but at the same time is ruthless & manipulative when dealing with his foes. For example, when a young man named Hayato goes to Shido to ask for medicine for his ill mother, Shido asks Hayato to call himself Tatara & to gather people together, under the guise of wishing to negotiate peace, with Hayato not realizing that it's all just a ploy to kill people who'd be willing to join "Tatara" as potential rebels; Sarasa saves Hayato from his own fate, resulting in her gaining a new ally.

Meanwhile, Sarasa does have allies from her village, but she winds up leaving them behind after Episode 3 (when an attempted rescue plan goes south quickly, and she blames herself for the loss of life), but they are still worth bringing up. Easily the most notable (& recurring) is Ageha, a "Blue Noble" & former slave of Shido's family who now roams the land looking to assist those who want to fight back against the Red King, like Sarasa. He willingly sacrificed his left eye to protect Sarasa from harm when she was a child, and during the main part of the plot does similar to allow her to escape capture & head to Kyushu, taking whip-based torture with aplomb. Amusingly, Ageha is also more than a bit dense, as while he initially first identified Sarasa as the true savior back when she was a child, she told him she wasn't. So when he meets Sarasa again years later while she's acting as Tatara he 100% thinks that she's a man, and even remarks at how well "he" can disguised "himself" as a girl; Legend of Basara isn't beyond tossing in comedic moments like this to help keep the tone just balanced enough. There's also "Old Man Kaku", one of the few people who truly thought the world of Sarasa ever since she was a child & who helps keep the truth behind "Tatara" a secret, but after a fake out death following the aforementioned failed rescue attempt (& it's such an obvious fake out that I don't mind spoiling it) he's gone from the show for a good portion. Finally, from Sarasa's village, there's the blind seer Nagi, the man who declared that "Tatara" would be the savior & taught Sarasa more or less everything she knows, mainly when it comes to dealing with difficult situations; not so much how to fight, though Sarasa is kind of naturally gifted due to her being the savior & all.

The rest of the major cast in Legend of Basara tie into the plot as it continues, so I should return to what exactly this anime covers, because there's admittedly a lot that happens in just 13 episodes. In short, the anime covers the first four "tales" from the manga, i.e. story arcs, in this case the Scarlet (Eps 1-3), Indigo (Eps 3-5), Chartreuse (Eps 6-11), & Emerald Tales (Eps 12 & 13); there are 13 tales in the main plot of the manga. This more or less can be split up between Sarasa's introduction & her initial attempts at leading the survivors of her village, Sarasa going solo & her trip to Kyushu, everything regarding Sarasa meeting Hayato, her encounter with pirates led by the tough pair of Chacha & Zaki, getting the pirates' trust, & fighting off the Red King's naval forces, Sarasa's climactic encounter with Shido, & finally Sarasa & Shuri heading together to Kanto as both (unbeknownst to each other) have reasons to deal with the Blue King, one of Shuri's half-brothers. From what I can tell the anime does excise a couple of plot beats, but overall it does a great job at telling the story it does have in just 13 episodes. There were some parts excised for this adaptation, most notably "The Deadly Race of Suzuka" from Volume 5, but watching this there was almost no way to really tell. The only real indicator I could notice was Nagi suddenly reuniting with the gang in Episode 12 without any explanation, but that's really it. As for how the anime ends, while I will say that Episode 11, which ends Shido's part of the story, really feels like the best stopping point I can fully understand why the stuff with the Blue King was included for the last two episodes. Essentially, that's the first time Sarasa actually gets to be the heroine as herself, rather than acting as the hero "Tatara", so it does act as a nice little coda for the show; a little weird to stop there in terms of plot, but it works thematically.

In terms of the staff, Legend of Basara was directed by Yoshihiro Takamoto (Tenchi in Tokyo, A Girl & Her Guard Dog), and while it's certainly a product of its time visually it's still a good looking show overall, and I honestly like how some shots will utilize partial cut-in bars or split the shot into different parts to emphasize certain moments or character reactions; some might find this kind of stuff a bit cheesy, but it definitely give the anime a uniqueness. The writing staff was led by the venerable Takao Koyama (Dragon Ball Z, Saint Seiya), with Koyama himself even writing the first eight episodes (Yoshimichi Hosoi & Masashi Kubota alternated for the remainder), and Koyama's talent really shines here. As I said before, this anime adapts the first five volumes of Basara across only 13 episodes, and you can definitely feel the accelerated pace at points, even if you've never read the manga before watching the anime. However, the actual storytelling itself never really falters with the faster pace, resulting in Yumi Tamura's celebrated story still working very well in this fashion. The only thing that might feel a bit off is Sarasa's repeated success at what seem like impossible gambits, which can potentially get a bit tiring (& likely feel better paced out in the manga), but the anime only being 13 episodes means that the show stops before it truly becomes repetitive.

One thing that would feel almost impossible to truly transition over to anime would be Yumi Tamura's art style, which is honestly exquisite & beautiful, so I do feel a bit for Keizo Shimizu (Legend of the Galactic Heroes, They Were 11!), but the end result here is probably about the best one could expect. Yes, it doesn't fully carry over Tamura's exact style (made all the more obvious via the ED sequence, which is nothing but original, colored Tamura art), but the characters are still readily identifiable & manage to covey Tamura's general aesthetic just enough. Some art styles just aren't directly conducive to anime, and Yumi Tamura's is one of those, but I think Shimizu did about as good as could be done & the characters still look really good here. As for the music we have the duo of Fumitaka Anzai (B't X Neo, Urusei Yatsura [1981]) & Toshiyuki Omori (Platinumhugen Ordian, Shaman King [2001]), and I think I might be able to guess how the score was split up. For the most part the music in Legend of Basara tends to be a bit subtle, going more for mood & atmosphere than memorability, and my guess is that those tracks were done by Omori. However, there are also moments where the score gets more dramatic & bombastic, sounding like they aim more for memorability & accentuating scenes, rather than simply carrying the atmosphere, and I think those might be Anzai's contributions; those tracks at least remind me of B't X Neo's score, in that sense. When put together it creates a solid score, though one that can seem more than a bit dichotomous. Meanwhile, the OP theme is "Endless Loop" by Rouage & is an absolute banger of a visual kei rock song, one that matches the post-apocalyptic world of Basara very well, as well as the secret conflict between Sarasa/Tatara & Shuri/The Red King. As for ED theme "Plumeria no Saku Basho he" by Kanako Nakayama, it's a slightly more upbeat rock song, though one that sounds almost purposefully rough in its execution, with Nakayama's singing almost sounding offkey at points, but I think it actually works in favor of the song, overall.

The voice cast for Legend of Basara is interesting to think about, as despite there honestly being a large amount of characters at points there are only a handful that really get a lot of focus, and therefore truly make an impact. Sarasa is voiced by Akiko Kimura (Rockman in Rockman.EXE, Hitomi Hokuto in Keijo!!!!!!!!), who gets to show her range well in this show as she does a great job at making her "Sarasa" voice & "Tatara" voice sound notably different in terms of tone, bass, & manner of speaking; in a modern world I think a trans actor could have a lot of fun with Sarasa, but Kimura really nails her here. Shuri is played by the venerable Kazuhiko Inoue, so it's no surprise that Shuri sounds completely likable (if a tiny bit of a playboy) when around Sarasa, while as the Red King Inoue gets to sound more serious & only rarely shows weakness; just an overall great performance here. Another easily identifiable voice would be the legendary Hiro Yuki as Hayato, as Yuki pretty much doesn't bother to mask his trademark voice in any way as Sarasa's plucky & well meaning "first lackey", though Yuki's voice does really fit the character perfectly. Meanwhile, we have the equally prolific Jurouta Kosugi as Shido, and while I initially thought that Kosugi's voice comes off a tad too deep for Shido it didn't take long for it to actually match well, especially in the latter half of the show. Finally, for the "major" cast we have the late, great Kaneto Shiozawa as Ageha, and this was simply pitch-perfect casting for the character, a wise but sarcastic wanderer who many know & respect, to one extent or another.

The remaining notable cast include Akio Ohtsuka & Kenichi Ogata (Khazan & Ashov, Shuri's right-hand men), Tessho Genda (Kaku), Kaori Yamagata (Chacha), Akira Ishida (the real Tatara), Koji Ishii (Zaki), & Sho Hayami (Nagi), among others.

Basara is often cited as one of the greatest shojo epics of its time (if not ever), and is sometimes seen as an excellent example of the kind of shojo manga that used to be more common but has since become much more rarely seen, i.e. a grand adventure/war story where a (potentially tragic) love story is also the major focus. I've only ever read the first volume of Basara long ago, but even that first book has continued to remain a strong enough memory for me that when I started watching Legend of Basara for this review the first two episodes were very much a "Yeah, I remember this!" moment. Thankfully, the remaining 11 episodes of Legend of Basara show just why Yumi Tamura's manga remains a beloved classic, and it's a perfect example of an anime that makes you want to continue via the manga right away. For those interested, Viz does offer all of Basara digitally by subscribing to the Viz Manga app, which at only $1.99/month is an excellent deal for a ton of non-Shonen Jump manga (especially if you're a shojo manga fan), but I'll continue to hold out hope that Viz eventually re-releases Basara physically via omnibuses, like they're currently doing for Red River. But, make no mistake, Legend of Basara is no slouch of an adaptation, as while it can sometimes feel like it's moving by a brisk pace it never truly feels like it's rushing from one moment to the other, and while the animation certainly can't match Yumi Tamura's excellent artwork it's still distinctively Basara, which is really what counts in the end.

As for Legend of Basara being the first UHF anime, while one can point to this slightly as the title that introduced the concept that would (over time) allow the proliferation of the modern day late-night anime infomercial to become the current hellscape we now have, that's really more in retrospect. Again, it's Comic Party that's generally agreed to be the first massively successful UHF anime, which in turn led to the overindulgence that we've been having for the past 20 years or so, so Legend of Basara is really more "guilty" by association of the concept. Back in 1998 this was simply a case where the smaller regional networks wanted to have something "new" to themselves, and KSS happened to be the production company that was willing to give them what they wanted. Ironically, KSS itself wouldn't fully be able to take advantage of the UHF anime that Legend of Basara first introduced, as it would close shop in 2004, just as UHF anime really started to truly begin its boom, and currently all of KSS' catalog of anime, including Legend of Basara, are with Softgarage. Personally, after now watching Legend of Basara I'm honestly shocked that it's never been licensed for official English release, it's not like Softgarage doesn't license its anime out or anything (they currently have a strong working relationship with streaming service OceanVeil, in fact), and while the heyday of "titles once skipped over" being given English releases has mostly died down I'll still hold out hope that one day this anime will be given its chance, as this is proof that there are great anime out there that still haven't been given a shot in English, officially.

Anime © Yumi Tamura/Shogakukan・Softgarage [previously KSS] 1998