Naoko Yamada adapting a fourteenth-century war epic, told from the perspective of a girl who can see the dead and who therefore knows from the beginning that everyone she is watching will lose.
What the story actually is
The Tale of the Heike is one of the foundational works of Japanese literature, chronicling the rise and destruction of the Taira clan during the Genpei War. This adaptation introduces Biwa, a young biwa player with an eye that sees the future, who is taken into the Taira household after her father is killed.
She watches the clan at its height and knows exactly how it ends. That framing turns a chronicle of political manoeuvring and battle into something closer to an elegy, because the show is not asking whether the Taira will fall but how the people inside it will meet it.
Yamada's direction
Naoko Yamada, who directed A Silent Voice and Liz and the Blue Bird, brings her characteristic attention to hands, feet, posture and small gestures. In a story about court ritual and inherited status, that focus does enormous work, because status here is expressed almost entirely through how people are permitted to move.
Science SARU gives it a distinctive flat, illustrative look with limited shading and strong colour, closer to classical Japanese painting than to conventional anime rendering. Kensuke Ushio's score uses period instrumentation without being merely decorative.
It is dense, and that is the trade
Eleven episodes covering decades of political history with a large cast of similarly-named nobles is a lot. The series does not slow down to help, and viewers without background frequently lose track of who is allied with whom.
This is a genuine barrier and worth knowing in advance. The emotional through-line remains legible even when the politics do not, but the show rewards viewers willing to look things up between episodes considerably more than those who are not.
Who should watch it
Watch it if you want serious historical drama, distinctive art direction, or a director working at the top of her craft. It is one of the most visually and thematically ambitious anime of its year.
Skip it if you want accessibility. This is the least beginner-friendly title in the catalogue and it makes no concessions to an audience unfamiliar with the source.
