*Rock music can be heard playing in the background as Shizuku, Seras, Yin-Yang, and Neo burst through the door*
(Shiuzku): Ayooooo~! This review is brought to you by Knockout Inc. I’m the CKO Shizuku, here together with Mad Wolf Yin-Yang, Bad Girl Seras, and our newest member the Front Lady, Neo.
(Neo): If there’s one thing the four of us know a lot about it’s fighting and one of the first civilizations to profit from fights is the Roman Empire.
(Seras): Yep, these guys didn’t just profit from fighting they glorified it. Arenas and colosseums would be packed with people looking to see gladiators, slaves, or criminals fight to the death all in the name of entertainment.
(Yin-Yang): It was exciting, dark, brutal, and honestly what you would expect from a civilization that didn’t have access to a TV or internet. One series that focuses on this aspect is Cestvs The Roman Fighter.
(Shizuku): Cestvs is a unique manga. You may think it’s a young series but, nope, this is a series that’s been around for quite some time. It was written by Shizuya Wazarai from 1997-2009 only to get restarted again in 2010 and still ongoing to this day after switching multiple publishers/magazines.
(Neo): Like most mangas during the era of the Big 3 it got overlooked and even back then it wasn’t a must-read title. The story was decent, a young slave fighting for his freedom and the fights were good as well, but it wasn’t turning any heads or making big waves in forums or manga charts.
(Yin-Yang): Bandai Namco on the other hand begged to differ. After their anime studio Bandai Namco Pictures or BNP had success with Iruma-kun, they wanted to try their hand at making an action anime and in 2021 they turned the manga into an anime.
(Seras): A good idea. The only mistake they made was turning it into a CGI series instead of a regular 2D anime which was always seen as a bad sign and the trailers didn’t wash away any worries.
(Shizuku): So, despite this setback did the anime fair well with viewers? Well step into the arena as we give our consensus. This is Cestvs The Roman Fighter.
Opening and Ending Theme
(Yin-Yang): Our opening is “Endeavor” by Dragon Ash. Overall, it’s a good song that matches up perfectly with Cestvs’s character. Keep fighting, keep learning, keep pushing yourself to achieve the goals you want to achieve and don’t give up. Face what’s in front of you with everything you’ve got.
(Seras): The ending is “Kiri da” by Sarasa Kadowaki. I’m not usually a fan of these slow and peaceful songs, but I actually like this ending. It’s sung beautifully and feels like a person is reflecting on everything they’ve been through to reach this moment in their life where everything they want to achieve is either within their grasp or they’re making their way to it.
Episodes 1-4
(Neo): The anime opens by talking about the earliest weapon known to mankind, their fists (Shizuku: Amen). We then meet our main character Cestvs voiced by Hiromu Mineta, a young slave gladiator in the middle of a fight where he’s losing badly. We go to a flashback, where we find out we’re at the beginning of the reign of Nero (oh wow, sucks to be Rome right now) and Cestvs gets picked as one of the slaves to tryout for the arena. He unfortunately has to fight against his man-crush Rocco where he wins using some unusual movements at the time (Seras: By today’s standards his foot movements and attacks are the fundamentals of boxing). While Cestvs shows great skills his mental fortitude is weak as he hesitates to finish off his opponents. After the fight, Rocco gets killed (Yin-Yang: Death by arrows to the back. This was before the arrow to the knee meme) by order of their master, Julianus Valens, who promises to free any slave who wins 100 fights. A few days later, Cestvs has his first fight in the arena where he wins in front of Nero who was impressed with his fight and even gets to meet him. In the next fight, we see a kid named Ruska take the stage who is son of the captain of the guards. Unlike the other fighters we’ve seen so far he incorporates more a Catch style fighting (Seras: Which is essentially a combination of judo, MMA and capturing your opponent in submission moves) or if you want to get historically accurate, pankration (Yin-Yang: Which is pretty much the same thing as Catch style. In fact, one could say that Catch style is the son of pankration). Ruska easily wins the fight and sets the stage for a future match with Cestvs (Shizuku: I don’t know when, I don’t know how, but somewhere down the line these two are going to fight and it’s going to be epic).
So in episode 2, remember how they teased Cestvs and Ruska fighting each other? Well it looks like we’re getting that fight sooner than we expected. Cestvs and Ruska get invited to meet with Nero who has taken a liking to the both of them (Shizuku: Friends of the emperor. Lucky for them). We see him cancel his meetings just to chat with them which angers his mom, Dowager, who orders them to fight each other. We quickly see that Dowager controls Nero (Yin-Yang: There’s helicopter moms and then there’s Nero’s mom) and how Nero doesn’t really like being emperor as he’s surrounded by people who pretty much look down on him and give him false flattery (just like the history books said, Nero’s mom pretty much controlled the empire in the early days of Nero’s reign). The fight begins where Ruska easily shuts down Cestvs punches (Shizuku: The worst part about being a boxer. Take away their punches and you take away their ability to fight), does a suplex (Seras: Welcome to suplex city. Population you) and then locks in the rear-naked choke hold (give! Give!). Nero orders the fight to stop with tears in his eyes saying he doesn’t want to be emperor or the puppet of his mom. Dowager is so shocked and upset by this that she runs away crying. Ruska also has his parent issues as his dad strikes him for going easy on Cestvs and not snapping his knee (Yin-Yang: Who do you think you are? Creese from Karate Kid?). Cestvs takes his defeat hard, but vows to get stronger and defeat Ruska. Time soon passed and Julianus’s school went up in flames with Julianus inside (Shizuku: Well, so much for free tuition). Cestvs was still a slave and sold off to another master who took him and the others to Pompeii (before the volcano erupted and killed everyone. (Seras): Oh, that’s going to be a fun future). Cestvs and the others get taken to a new training facility (Shizuku: Big upgrade from where they were before) and Cestvs meets a woman named Sabina Poppaea whose family owns the facility he’s staying at (she would go on to be the second wife of Nero as well as the future wife of Otho. (Seras): Respect). The episode ends the next day when she takes Cestvs and a few others into the city to fight some drunks causing trouble.
Episode 3 starts with Cestvs and the other slaves fighting the drunks (Shizuku: I feel like I just walked into an Irish pub minus the music). They fight well, but one of them escapes and gets taken down by another slave named Emden, the strongest slave at their training facility and a man totally infatuated with Sabina. The two have a little promise between them which is Emden winning 50 matches in a row (something that was completely unprecedented back then. (Yin-Yang): Hell, winning 25 matches in a row was considered a miracle) and as his reward, Sabina would free him and make him her retainer (Seras: So that’s why he’s motivated. He’s like a dog having a bone waved in front of him). That night, Cestvs gets an audience with Sabina who wants to buy him and make him her chamberlain as she was impressed with his fighting earlier. Cestvs refuses the offer (Seras: Like an idiot) and says he wants to earn his freedom with own hands and even makes the suggestion that the reason she wants to free him is because she’s lonely. Sabina takes exception to this and throws him out (you’re only proving him right) calling him a fool for rejecting this offer. Holding onto a grudge, Sabina arranges for Emden to face Cestvs and orders him to crush Cestvs within an inch of his life. Once Cestvs hears the news, he gets to work training on a new technique to knock out his opponents quickly and with one punch.
(Yin-Yang): Episode 4 focuses on the fight between Cestvs and Emden (here’s hoping Cestvs doesn’t die). Right away the crowd turns on Emden for fighting a child and even he looks down on Cestvs in the opening moments of the fight. However, Cestvs overpowers him with his speed and manages to knock Emden down shocking everyone (Shizuku: Don’t underestimate the boy. He’s here to show everyone he’s a man). Emden rises back to his feet and quickly shows everyone that he’s the superior amongst the two. He manages to knock down Cestvs a few times, but Cestvs shows heart and keeps getting back up. There’s this one brutal blow Emden does to the back of Cestvs’s neck and head area (Neo: Oh~, that’s a brain scrambler) which actually gives the boy a concussion and the anime plays it out like someone who genuinely experienced a concussion. He has no recollection what happened and is shocked to find himself in a fight against Emden beaten and exhausted (Seras: It’s like the equivalent of getting drunk, passing out, and then being dropped into a tub of ice-cold water to wake you up). Ignoring the concussion, Cestvs continues to fight (Neo: Something that would be very frowned on today) ending the anime on a bad cliffhanger as he gets ready to unleash his secret attack.
Episodes 5-8
The fight between Cestvs and Emden continues in episode 5 where Cestvs tries to throw his secret punch, but his footing is off and he can’t do it. Luckily, he catches a break as it gets revealed that Emden has broken ribs. Thanks to Cestvs’s rapid punches earlier in the match, he managed to break a rib or two which slows Emden down and creates a window for Cestvs (Seras: He might just pull this off after all). Cestvs slowly starts to gain momentum and the crowd starts to rally behind him, but the experience of Emden comes into play when he cuts one of Cestvs’s eyes obstructing his vision (Shizuku: And for a kid like Cestvs who relies heavily on the accuracy of his punches, this is a death flag). On top of that he’s slowly losing consciousness as the blood won’t stop (Neo: It may be a small cut but, losing blood from the head is no laughing matter. This is why moves such as headbutts are so dangerous). Despite this cut, Cestvs hasn’t given up and the episode ends once again on a cliffhanger (this one slightly better than the previous one, but still bad).
Episode 6 sees the conclusion of the fight between Cestvs and Emden (thank God. No more bad cliffhangers) as Cestvs lands his secret punch, the hammerfist, to the back of Emden’s neck (Neo: Ohh~, he cut off his neural activity). The attack is as painful as it is surprising, and Emden goes down for the count. He desperately tries to get back up but he just can’t do it. Cestvs is declared the winner shocking everyone, none more than Sabina. Those who betted on Emden call out for his death, but Cestvs won’t do it enraging the crowd more. Sabina steps forward to quell their rage (Seras: She’s smiling now, but she’s mad as hell that nothing went as planned) and sends everyone home saying that the tournament has only just begun. After the fight, Cestvs collapses from exhaustion and we find out that Emden has been disowned by Sabina’s family (Shizuku: He lost the fight and brought shame upon the family. He’s lucky they didn’t kill him right there). Sometime later, Zafar, the master and trainer of Cestvs goes to talk to Emden. During the fight, Zafar noticed that the punches Cestvs and Emden used to the back of each other’s heads are similar and he wants to know where Emden learned this technique. Emden says he learned it from a mysterious man known as Democritus of Cadiz the former master of Zafar who taught him how to fight. He’s a man who goes around training fighters and using them as experiments to test out techniques that are dangerous all in an effort to pursue his ideals (Shizuku: He wants to create strong style). The next day, the tournament continues where it was far more successful than the organizers could have imagined. On the day when Cestvs and the other slaves are leaving, the people of Pompeii give Cestvs a hero’s goodbye praising him for his fight yesterday (Neo: They realized that they have witnessed the birth of a legend).
(Seras): We start episode 7 with Cestvs and the others working on building roads as part of their training (Neo: Ah yes, the Romans knew how to build a good road back in the days. No machines, just good hard-working men forced to dig ditches, level the streets, and paving the roads free of charge. (Seras): Every corporation’s dream come true). Cestvs and the others have been at this for two months now, Zafar has disappeared on them, and they’re starting to lose faith as they think Zafar abandoned them. Even Cestvs is having doubts (Shizuku: Wow, that serious?). Zafar does return to give them a temporary break and introduce Cestvs to some tournament commissioners. Nero is holding a fighting tournament and news of Cestvs’s victory in Pompeii has spread quickly (Yin-Yang: Just like the lava that destroyed Pompeii). The tournament will take place 3 months from now in Sicily and Cestvs has been selected to participate in the qualifying round via imperial order (Neo: Which means he can’t refuse or they’ll kill him. (Seras): Death by crucifixion) and if he wins the main event of the tournament he’ll receive a reward from Nero himself. He could even be set free. Another slave named Ruddock from Cestvs’s group has also been accepted as a qualifier and will be participating in the MMA division while Cestvs will focus on the boxing division. A month quickly passes where the qualifiers will be held in a wooden arena as opposed to a coliseum or stone arena we saw in the previous episodes (Yin-Yang: Makes sense. You want the spotlight, you’ve got to earn it. (Shizuku): Question, when did Rome have wooden arenas? (Neo): All the time. You just don’t hear about them because they were either destroyed or withered away with age. In fact, the famous Roman Coliseum started off as a wooden arena before it was upgraded to stone). These arenas were a lot smaller and the crowds were less forgiving as they made their voices and displeasure heard (Shizuku: Damn, they’re making a futbol crowd look friendly by comparison). Cestvs fights where he easily wins (well that was a squash) and is actually disappointed and frustrated because it didn’t feel like a fight at all to him (Yin-Yang: Looked like a lion picking on a mouse before eating it).
Nothing much happens in episode 8. We see Cestvs still frustrated not because of how easily he’s winning matches but because he hasn’t reached the full potential of his training yet. He knows he’s close to the answer, but just can’t reach it (Shizuku: I feel his pain. (Yin-Yang): Same here. The answer is right in front of him, but a brick wall is in the way). Thankfully, he finally gets the answer in a fight where he completely knocks out someone by getting in that perfect hit (Neo: You can be the weakest guy in the room, but if you land that perfect hit you can take out even the toughest guy and look like- (Seras): A badass. Sorry to cut you off Neo, but we can’t have the sweet member of the group using such foul language). Cestvs makes it to the final four where it seems like he’ll be facing against a fighter named Felix in the finals. A man who many say was blessed with incredible luck and can’t be beaten.
Episodes 9-11
(Shizuku): In episode 9 we get the fight between Cestvs and Felix. The fight starts off slow with both of them trying to get a feel for the other. After the feeling process is over, Felix changes his stance by lowering his guard and taking a wider stance and throwing long range strikes which hit Cestvs twice. Normally, these kinds of strikes would be easy to dodge, but in the cramped space of this arena they’re very hard to dodge (Seras: Throw in the fact that he’s adding a curve to his strikes and you’ve a recipe for trouble. (Neo): Not to mention his range is longer than his build suggests which is throwing off the visual estimation of Cestvs).
At the start of episode 10 it gets revealed that Cestvs sprained his ankle when Felix struck him the first time (Seras: Oh shit, he’s a one-legged man in a shoot fight. He’s screwed). Surprisingly, Cestvs manages to fight back after figuring out Felix’s opening and score of hit. However, Felix adjusts his fighting stance and backs Cestvs into a corner with no escape (Yin-Yang: Rush him! Rush him!). Cestvs responds by being tenacious (Neo: With a capital D. (Yin-Yang): Big stretch for that joke, but I respect the effort) and fighting back as he hasn’t given up the fight and Felix is scared. He’s never fought against someone this determined before (as long as he can throw a punch he has a chance to win) and the fact that Cestvs was able to land a hit on him despite being injured and taking two hard hits has Felix doubting himself. Felix continues the pressure but starts to see it’s not having any effect on Cestvs and his punches aren’t really doing much damage. He finally lets up and this opens the door for Cestvs to fight with all his strength. He lands a full hit on Felix in the solar plexus (thanks Mira), delivers a one-two hit to Felix’s jaw and then finishes with a strike to the lower back (Neo: Something that would be very illegal in today’s boxing). Felix goes down and tries to stand up back up, but can’t. The damage has been done and he can’t get back up (Yin-Yang: It’s like his lower back was pierced by a giant nail holding him to the ground. Any time he tries to move he just adds more pain to his body). Felix is counted out and Cestvs is declared the winner (he’s going to Rome~).
Nothing much happens in the final episode. Cestvs and the others arrive in Syracuse where we get the chance to meet a few of the fighters who will be fighting in the tournament. Cestvs and Ruska meet each other again (Neo: He got taller) where he says Cestvs doesn’t have a chance at winning (Seras: Well good luck to you too, motherfucker).
Final Thoughts
(Shizuku): And that was Cestvs: The Roman Fighter. Overall, I thought it was a decent anime.
(Neo): Same here. It started off slow but started to get exciting as the anime progressed with its story.
(Yin-Yang): I did enjoy the historical facts about boxing and the techniques they used. It was very insightful and shows that the author and animators know what they’re doing and gives insight into why this attack is devastating or why this is happening.
(Seras): While the anime is overall decent it does fall short in two areas. The first one is the characters. While Cestvs is good the rest of the characters we see really don’t leave much of an impact on the audience. We get the occasional interesting story with characters such as Emden and Sabina, but other than that no other characters really leave that much of an impact.
(Shizuku): The second part where this anime messes up is with the CGI animation. Thanks to Beastars who set the bar pretty high on these types of animes, I have to say the animation here is lacking. While the CGI looks good when the characters are fighting, it looks bad outside of fights as we see characters lack any sort of facial expressions when they talk and move rather awkwardly. I will give credit and say that there is some effort being put into getting it right but it definitely needed more polishing. I can only assume they didn’t have enough time and this was the final product.
(Yin-Yang): Like Shizuku said the fights are good. Each fighter has their own style of fighting and to see their styles clash with each other gives us a lot of good fight sequences that I enjoyed watching.
(Neo): The music was decent. It definitely has that ancient Rome feel to it and knows when to be used properly. It can be gentle and slow allowing us to take in the scene happening before us, rough and fast for intense situations, and there will be times where there’s no music at all and we can focus on the characters talking and taking in everything they have to say.
Final Score
(Seras): Well my final score for the anime is a 5/10. It’s decent overall, but has a lot of areas to improve on.
(Yin-Yang): I give it a 6/10. It’s okay for what it is, delivered some good fights and knowledge about boxing back then.
(Shizuku): I’m also giving it a 6/10.
(Neo): I have to go with a 5.5/10. That slow start took me out of the anime early on but brought me back. So if we combine our scores we get a score of 22.5 which averages out to 5.6. Going by our system the final score for Cestvs is a 5.5/10. Kind of a neutral score but that’s where this anime falls in at. It has good parts as well as its share of bad parts. It’s unsure if a second season is going to be made, but if it does I wouldn’t mind it.
(Yin-Yang): Same.
(Seras): Yeah, I do wanna see what happens next.
(Shizuku): Until then. Thanks for reading. This review was brought to you by Knockout Inc.
(Shizuku, Seras, Yin-Yang, and Neo): And we’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.