Hoshi no Samidare 惑星のさみだれ Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer
Synopsis
Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer is about college student Yuuhi Amamiya’s monotonous life is turned upside down with the appearance of Sir Noi Crezant, a talking lizard claiming to be a knight of justice. Crezant elaborates that the world is in peril—threatened by the mage Animus who wishes to annihilate it with his Biscuit Hammer, an enormous structure suspended in Earth’s orbit. As the newly appointed Lizard Knight, Yuuhi must fight alongside other Beast Knights to protect the princess and save the planet from destruction.
Unimpressed by the prospect of risking his life, Yuuhi continues his day as usual—until a golem created by Animus suddenly confronts him. Yuuhi is instantly overpowered, but his neighbor, Princess Samidare Asahina, luckily rescues him. To his surprise, Samidare’s intention starkly differs from Crezant’s; instead of saving the world, she aims to destroy it with her own hands. Captivated by her firm ambition, Yuuhi resolves to become stronger and help Samidare realize her goal.
As the pair continues to fight against Animus’ golems, Yuuhi finds himself gradually gaining an interest in life—but the chains of his past trauma may restrain him from progressing further.
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Review
This review is written by someone who read the source material.
The premise of the show Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer is that the world is about to be destroyed by a giant hammer. To stop the hammer, 12 people called the knights are picked by Princess Anima who fights the Mage. Each knight has a talking animal accompanying them that only the people involved are can see. Basically this set up is similar to a game, but not like in an isekai with video game mechanics.
Basically it is a rule of cool show with cool one liners and badass moments. There is a lot we learn about the lore of the mage and the princess but also about the main leads and characters. It is not very deep on all ends but for the series it works.
If you read the manga, the artstyle would remind you of cool shows like Kill la Kill, Gurren Lagann and Needless. The manga is so full of energy, it kept me hooked chapter by chapter.
Sadly that didn’t translate to the anime.
Bad artstyle can be looked past if the animation wasn’t stiff. Many of the most iconic moments from the series feel lifeless and lack energy you would see in the source material. Watching characters attack looks worse than some 90th sprite fighting games where the characters punch from screen to screen with a drill like attack.
However the biggest problem is pacing. A lot of things happen in an episodes and you barely get a breathing room. For instance there is a beach episode where all of them get together to have fun. In the same episode they fight the badguy. And a lot of other things happen which suppose to be important and is forgotten immediately. Nothing feels important since nothing is treated as important.
As for the characters, there will be one you will like definitively.
Samidare is a strong character because she has a goal beyond saving the world and why she does it. There is also the mystery about her relationship with Yuuhi and that she knows more than she admits.
Yuuhi is the main lead who hates the world finding a new purpose by serving Samidare the one possessed by the Princess. And how his view changes as the series goes on.
Hangetsu Shinonome is a goofy adult who also shows the other theme of the story which is the importance of growing up and the role of an adult. One of the best male characters when it comes to writing since he serves as a mentor for Samidare and Yuuhi.
Mizasuki Shinonome is the younger brother and also a knight who’s goal is to surpass his brother. He appears on the surface as an annoying character but there are situations where his character shines when taking the role of a guide for the young knights.
There are a lot more including the talking animals that have their own personality and mindset. The Mage and what his real goal is. Princess Anima who wants to protect the world but can appear as someone who is just tired from all the bullshit to the point she appears incapable of socializing with her knights leading to some really good comedic moments. Even the adults who aren’t knights like Samidare’s elder sister, Samidare’s father and Yuuhi’s grandfather are characters that help out fleshing the characters involved out and providing either wisdom or go through character development.
However, the pacing is so inconsistent and the lack of taking advantage of the strength of the show properly, it fails despite having the characters and story that normally are enough to make it even great.
With all this I can’t recommend watching the anime Adaptation of Hoshi no Samidare. However, if you still are interested in the premise and are intruiged by the things mentioned in the show, the best I can suggest is reading the manga. The anime cut out a lot of things that could be considered filler which they probably did in order to compromise it into 24 episodes. Without these “irrelevant” moments, there wouldn’t be breathing room which a story like that still needs.
