Movies of War

“This story is the story of one rooster and how he saved humanity.” In a time when programming and industry trends feel increasingly driven by algorithms and the resuscitation of intellectual property, it’s a real rarity to be truly surprised by a television series or movie. Anime and horror thrive on limitless storytelling opportunities where anything feels possible, but even these succumb to overused stereotypes and genre fatigue. There are only so many anime that feature burly warriors who massacre monsters until they start to bleed together. That’s why it’s so important when a title fully leans into the absurdity of its genre and riffs on its staples through an extremely exaggerated lens. In the case of Rooster Fighter, this means a furious fowl who defends Japan from kaiju-sized demons. Rooster Fighter, based on Shū Sakuratani’s manga, is a passionate pastiche of tortured lone wolf martial artist stories. It’s basically like if Rocky from Chicken Run were to sincerely fight against Godzilla and most of the Monsterverse. It’s goddamn glorious. This is an anime that could fall flat in so many ways, yet the series works as well as it does because it thoroughly commits to the bit. It treats this aggressively gonzo premise with stark sincerity and plays it straight. The lunacy of this adventure and the “Hero’s Rooster’s Journey” that Keiji, the titular Rooster Fighter, goes on speaks for itself. Keiji travels from town to town as he rids the world of physical demons while he simultaneously tries to conquer the psychological demons that haunt his past. Rooster Fighter achieves a successful balance between its humble slice-of-life human moments and the radical action set pieces that follow. These smaller digressions help establish the eccentric tone and what drives the combat forward. The series naturally blends these extremes together when amplified personal trauma becomes the trigger from these Demonic transformations and attacks. It wasn’t produced by Adult Swim, but it’s exactly the type of series that they’d develop during the height of their glory years. It’s not hard to imagine Rooster Fighter airing alongside NTSF: SD: SUV:: or 12 oz. Mouse, especially once the chicken-on-chicken sex scenes begin. There’s an internal logic to this odd universe that quickly clicks together. Even Patrick Seitz’s casting as Keiji is particularly sublime. Seitz channels the same intensity in this role that he did for some of anime’s greatest antagonists and misunderstood juggernauts, such as DIO, Endeavor, and Jiren. On the topic of Keiji, Rooster Fighter showcases a wide range of fowl that taps into the same energy as a Pixar film on bath salts. This also carries over to each chicken’s distinct fighting style, whether it’s Dragon Ball-coded theatrics where Keiji might as well be yelling out Kamehameha or Kaio-Ken, or electric attacks that are more akin to magical girl theatrics. This versatility among chickens, where each fierce fowl ostensibly represents a different anime genre, is a brilliant way to broaden both the series’ scope and power system. There’s immediately a sense of scale, stakes, and world-building that are conveyed through certain tropes without needing to get lost in exposition dumps that demystify this weird, wonderful world. There’s comfortable chemistry between the core chicken trio, but the series also manages to provide surprising physics lessons that espouse seemingly random chicken facts that become pivotal plot points. Rooster Fighter’s chickens receive a lot of love. However, not enough can be said for the genuinely disturbing designs for these colossal demons that run amok. These gruesome golems feel like throwbacks to the horrifying creatures from Go Nagai’s oeuvre or Japan’s exaggerated tokusatsu and kaiju genres. They’re ghastly monsters that really take body horror to surprising places. These demons highlight some of Rooster Fighter’s most visually stimulating sequences. The anime turns to stylized visuals that feature heavy line work that emphasizes the dark, mature nature of this hyperbolic storytelling. The animation sometimes struggles to rise to the occasion, but it punches above its weight and puffs its chest out, much like Keiji’s unbridled confidence. There are also moments where the animation’s CG details awkwardly stand out. That being said, it’s hard to let these benign design elements ruffle one’s feathers when the series promotes such unabashed madness. Rooster Fighter isn’t one of 2026’s prettiest anime, but it’s one of the most memorable and entertaining. It’s easily one of Studio Sanzigen’s most impressive and interesting anime. Rooster Fighter’s deadly demon duels are the anime’s bread and butter. It’s careful to bring more to the table than just out-of-control combat. A grander mystery reveals itself regarding the nature of these demons and why these troubling changes have started to plague the world. There’s a slightly formulaic structure to the season, at least when it comes to most episodes’ final act. This isn’t necessarily an issue when this means that each episode concludes with chaotic chicken carnage. These battles may grow repetitive for some, and it’s part of the reason that Rooster Fighter works better on a weekly viewing schedule than a batch drop binge-watch. It still finds ways to creatively subvert its patterns. This is an anime that’s too wild to be ignored and something that’s so purely original that it deserves to be given a shot by everyone, if only for a single episode. It’s a glorious experiment in satire and style that adores anime’s exaggerated trappings and also pecks holes through these expectations in order to do something deeply original. Rooster Fighter doesn’t hold a mirror up to society or try to engage in rich philosophical musings and themes. It’s fluff, but fluff that’s incredibly fun, all the same. It’s not always wise to count one’s chickens before they hatch, but Rooster Fighter has what it takes to be one of the 2020s’ weirdest and most wonderful anime and a modern classic within Adult Swim’s programming. Rooster Fighter premieres on Adult Swim on Saturday, March 14 at midnight, with next-day streaming on Hulu and Disney+. Related Topics:anime Adult SwimPatrick SeitzRooster FighterShū Sakuratani Daniel Kurland Daniel Kurland is a freelance writer, comedian, and critic, whose work can be read on Splitsider, Bloody Disgusting, Den of Geek, ScreenRant, and across the Internet. Daniel knows that "Psycho II" is better than the original and that the last season of "The X-Files" doesn't deserve the bile that it conjures. If you want a drink thrown in your face, talk to him about "Silent Night, Deadly Night Part II," but he'll always happily talk about the "Puppet Master" franchise. The owls are not what they seem. Advertisement You may like Click to comment