Cestvs: The Roman Fighter

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54 AD. Cestus, a young boy orphaned by the Roman empire and made a slave, is placed into a training school for pugilists. It is here that he begins his journey to defy fate and fight for his own freedom.

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Episode 1:

Yeah, the animation is bad. Not Berserk-bad, but only little better. Is it made by the same studio? Wouldn't surprise me.

Despite that, I like the setting. Latin was my favorite subject back in school, so seeing a Roman setting is very nice. Although I must admit: I've never heard much about boxing during these times. Looked it up on wikipedia and apparently it's not called boxing but "fist fighting" to diifferentiate it from the former, which makes sense, considerung Ruska was allowed to use an entirely different fighting style. The only rule here seems to be "use your fists".

What's a bit dumb is how the makers are obviously trying to sanitize this whole thing, but reach certain points where they simply can't. The very idea of Cestus being such a timid, polite nice boy makes no sense, considering he's gone through weeks/months of training already.

But anyway, I'll keep watching. Curious to find out where this goes.

Watched it too.
You missed and important bit about Ruska's art: it's Pankration. You can compare it to MMA. Basically any efficient technique from any combat sport at the time was used.
So chokes, arm or limblock, throws... anything goes if you can win and even better win without injuries.

As for the historical bits, I don't know how truthful they are. Let's think of it as a fiction in antique Rome fighting arenas.

Edit: by historical bits I meant the reality of the fights, the rules, how owners killed their slaves and so on. The Gallery: Neron and the rest is far below average crappy anime writing.

After the rancid CG in the opening scene, the meagerly drawn remainder grew on me quite a bit. Very entertaining underdog story that sort of reminds me of Ippo (Takamura voicing the wolf mentor helps). Will be watching more.

Episode 2:

Yeah, my one big complaint remains: This is such a "nice" version of ancient Rome, lol. With the exception of the queen and the chief guard, nobody seems to acknowledge that all the fighting is about life of death. Makes it all rather weird.

Buuut it's fun to watch, nonetheless. The CG animation is okay, I'm not even thinking about it anymore. Should be a fun anime going forward. Nothing too spectacular, though.

Episode 3:

WTF, that was so dumb. Blabla, honor and all, but he was offered freedom and declined to continue risking his life in every single battle. This is some serious anime-fication of ancient Rome, lol. There was no reason to stay a slave, he could have done honorable things afterwards, too. Oh boy ...

Until the last scene I kinda wanted Emden to succeed with his 50 victory streak, but that last scene made him look so spiteful that I'm ok with Cestus punching him thorughly.

Still going strong. Hell hath no fury like a (rich) lady scorned. I feel bad that the other fighter from Cestus's group got cheated out of getting whooped by this dude (he was looking forward to the fight). CG is still off putting, but the choreography and quick cuts, along with the still plentiful cell animation makes it more bearable.

I like that the opponent also has come up with a super move.

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Originally Posted by MFauli

WTF, that was so dumb. Blabla, honor and all, but he was offered freedom and declined to continue risking his life in every single battle. This is some serious anime-fication of ancient Rome, lol. There was no reason to stay a slave, he could have done honorable things afterwards, too. Oh boy ...

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I think he would still be a slave in that arrangement, and no longer have the promise of his owner to set him free after so many victories. He also said he doesn't want to rely on another's whims to improve his status. Silly or not, his reasons are consistent with what we've been shown so far.

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Originally Posted by MFauli

Episode 3:

WTF, that was so dumb. Blabla, honor and all, but he was offered freedom and declined to continue risking his life in every single battle. This is some serious anime-fication of ancient Rome, lol. There was no reason to stay a slave, he could have done honorable things afterwards, too. Oh boy ...

Until the last scene I kinda wanted Emden to succeed with his 50 victory streak, but that last scene made him look so spiteful that I'm ok with Cestus punching him thorughly.

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I definitely see both sides of this. If you were confident in your abilities to win your freedom, a path like Emden's is a much better choice but becoming the body guard of a rich socialite is objectively an easier life. You may not be free but you your path forward would be much easier. Emden has had a rough life as a slave. Saving 15 years hard labor is not a bad option.

4

Enjoying the fight. All of the parts are working- tactics, commentary, stakes, tension. Great entertainment, and the CG is put to good use with the action animation. Don't sleep on this if you like shounen battle series.

The special attacks were a bit of a let down (both were just 'hit him in the back of the head'), but the fight was still great. Now we move into another 'training' arc and await the introduction of the next obstacle fighter Cestus will face.

Interesting that there were apparently different divisions of fighting? MMA and boxing separately? I figured it was no holds barred in the arena.

10

The budget for this must be shoestring, because even with the (supposedly) cheaper CG, an entire third of this episode's runtime was recap filler.

Decent fight, though. I like the 'click' sounds their studded gloves make when hitting and being blocked.

Any word on if this is 1 or 2 cour? This seems like a poor place to end (mid tournament), but we've seen it happen before.

Tbh I don't need more of this. It had potential and that kept me watching, but ... eh. CG-animation is pretty bad and the plot is so thin, basic, there's really not much exciting going on.