I was really interested when I initially heard the pitch, but the trailer really dampened my enthusiasm. It doesn't look esspecially LotR-y. It looked very bog-standard-anime in both character and plot. Not really what I want out of an anime, nonetheless out of LotR. Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but my hopes are not high.
Same feeling with the trailer. I just can't see it working, LOTR and animation could work so well, but not with generic anime style. They needed to flesh their own style for this to work well, just like Fortiche did with Arcane.
I'm not big on anime at all, so I am not drawing on a broad range of experience here, but I can think of at least one that I think really matches the feel that you'd want for an LotR adaption: Sword of the Stranger
Wasn't aware of it until now. Big LotR fan from way back. Thought they did a great job with the LotR film trilogy, and The Hobbit films were abominable. Haven't seen any of Rings of Power, because I suspect I'd hate it.
I have fond memories of the '77 animated Hobbit movie, as well as the (admittedly uneven) '78 Ralph Bakshi LotR film.
Not a big anime fan in general; in my opinion, animated films and television depend even more on good writing than live action does, and most animated material (anime or otherwise) has terrible writing.
All that (unnecessary context nobody asked for) aside, this looks interesting to me, and I might watch it at some point. It probably helps that I haven't been overexposed to common anime tropes that might put off others.
Let us know how it goes. My partner is forcing me to go soon. I just wanna know if I should go sober or in state where I'll have a good time no matter what i see.
Personally I quite liked it. The story is accurate enough to Tolkien, and the main character that is not much mentioned by Tolkien was written to fit in nicely (I was a bit afraid about that beforehand). The sound is great! The anime done moderately in a serious way (not unfitting over the top or distracting). Though there was one scene quite early that I didn't enjoy much, but after that the rest was fine.
Let me know if you agree or not after seeing it :)