House of Five Leaves is an anime that will probably appeal to only a certain type of people.

It's a samurai anime, but a very unconventional one. There are no attention grabbing sword fights, no power struggle, no glitz, no glam. More than an action anime, it presents itself almost like a slice of life. A slice of life anime about a gang of kidnappers in Edo Japan.

The story starts with Masanosuke Akitsu (Masa in short), a skilled, but otherwise very shy and naive samurai, perpetually looking for employment. When opportunity presents itself in the shape of the mysterious Yaichi he takes it, but only to find out that his dealings are ones outside of the law. Despite this Masa finds himself unable to stay away and involves himself more and more with Yaichi and his partners in the gang 'Five Leaves'.

For some reason, when I went into this I expected a very plain anime. What I got was certainly not that, but a very different and unusual looking one that drew me in from the start. So yeah, check it out if.

This is kind of a bump back from oblivion, but maybe someone watched this show. It's really very nice. The art might be intimidating, but it shouldn't be. Here is how it actually looks.