YMMV / Basilisk

• Awesome Music:
  • Hime murasaki, the ED that is played in plot-critical episodes like the ending.
  • The opening Kouga Ninpocho by Japanese power metal band Onmyo-za.
• Complete Monster: Tenzen Yakushiji, the Number Two of the Iga Clan and the true Big Bad, absolutely leaps heads and shoulders over any of his fellow ninja for sadism, cruelty, greed and monstrosity. Secretly a centuries old former Koga himself, Tenzen has nothing but loathing for the Koga and little use for his own Clan. When Princess Oboro seals away her mystic eyes, Tenzen attempts to rape her before being stopped by a Koga attack. Engaging the Koga ninja, Gyobu Kasumi, Tenzen hears how Gyobu's father was murdered by Iga and in their duel, tricks Gyobu into striking at a child, forcing the boy's father to take a fatal blow, solely so the child's pain rattles Gyobu enough for Tenzen to win. Tenzen sadistically toys with other ninja and abandons his loyal student Koshiro because Koshiro had objected to his actions with Oboro. When Tenzen captures the beautiful Koga shinobi, Kagero, because her powers make raping her impossible, he brutally tortures her by impaling her with needles, before attempting to rape Oboro with intent of forcing her to dispel Kagero's powers to force himself on her as well. When he faces off with the young Koga leader Gennosuke, Tenzen reveals his intent to destroy all in his path, end the war victoriously and force Oboro to be his bride while he rules Japan from the shadows through the young shogun.
• Cult Classic: Partly due to the fact that the adaptation of this work was licensed during the anime boom in Western countries, in part because of the fact that it is a classic of a samurai action and a Japanese story about Star-Crossed Lovers.
• Epileptic Trees: What is the degree of kinship between the characters? While most of the main characters are similar to each other not only within the clan, but on their opponents (Oboro and Gennosooke look like each other like Half-Identical Twins), the series never answers this question, revealing the family ties of only a couple of characters.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Enough familiarity with the history of the Tokugawa Shogunate would tell the audience that the third shogun would be Tokugawa Iemitsu, who happens to be Takechiyo, whose side the Iga is assigned to. The trope comes into play when you remember that Ieyasu, twisted his motivations as it is, meant for this ninja proxy war to ensure that no one of his blood (or valued samurai retainers) die in this succession conflict. In Real Life however, the losing party (Kunichiyo, later Tokugawa Tadanaga), would get himself executed by Iemitsu anyway.
• Memetic Mutation: BASILISK TIME.
• Moe: Iga-no-Oboro.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: This is not surprising, considering how many in a series of cynical and insidious characters with gray morality, whose correctness depends only for which side you are rooting.
• The Woobie: While Oboro is tailor-made for this trope, she's not the only one. We have:
  • Iron Woobie: Gennosuke, Okoi, Koushirou.
  • Jerk Ass Woobie: Hotarubi is totally crazy and VERY violent while fighting, but her last scene was totally heartbreaking. So much that not even the guy who kills her can deny her a last flash of happiness before she kicks it. Kagero too; even if her powers don’t qualify her, being tortured by Tenzen does.
  • Stoic Woobie: Arguably, Hyouma and anime!Gyoubu.

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