To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts (かつて神だった獣たちへ, Katsute Kami Datta Kemono-tachi e) is a 2019 television anime series based on Maybe’s manga series of the same name. The series was produced by studio MAPPA, and the staff credits include director Jun Shishido, screenplay writer Shigeru Murakoshi, character designer Daisuke Niinuma and music composer Yoshihiro Ike. The series first aired in Japan in July 2019.
Background:
“The democratic nation of Patria was created on the continent of Patria. Because of economical disputes, the country split north and south, creating the Northern Union of Patria and the Southern Confederation of Patria and they waged a long civil war. With their numbers dwindling, the North decides to use forbidden technology in order to defeat the South. This technology turns humans into monster-like soldiers, giving them almost godlike powers. And with those powers, the long war came to an end and peace was restored.”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, December 2023.
Fantasy series these days are often overcrowded by the Isekai genre, and as much I do like Isekai, it is nice to have a traditional fantasy story from time to time. Around the same time this manga was serialising in Japan, studio MAPPA started to gather more momentum with more projects receiving a following and their reputation growing to which they would eventually manage big shonen projects. Before they did though, they took on manga author’s Maybe’s fantasy series To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts. If you aren’t familiar with Maybe then you may recognise their artwork from Dusk Maiden of Amnesia or their recent fantasy isekai series Tales of Wedding Rings.
Because of the studio and hearing about the author’s prior work, I did watch To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts during simulcast on Crunchyroll and it’s a solid series with a duo of characters who simply want revenge but to get to that point they have to deal with a hurdle of people that one of the characters used to work with. It does end with a ‘read the manga’ approach but the manga is at least available to read in English.
Crunchyroll have the streaming and home video rights for To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts and it was one of those titles that was simply stuck in streaming for years, until Anime Limited was able to sub-license the home video rights (which was before Sony completed the merger between Crunchyroll and Funimation) for not only the United Kingdom & Ireland but also United States & Canada which is a surprise. Essentially Anime Limited is working on expanding their range towards the US market, so we have this series alongside A Place Further Than the Universe and Tonikawa Season 1 which were also sub-licensed from Crunchyroll.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
Anime Limited has decided to revisit their classic digipack model for To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts which is a surprise, since they had been going towards Amarays for cost reasons.
The collector’s edition package is presented as a rigid box with a special texture feel. Inside is a digipack housing the Blu-rays, plus you also have a 20-page booklet and 4 Art Cards. The booklet mainly features various artwork from the series.
The artwork is free of any information on all sides of the box and the info sheet covers the BBFC content, information and specification. The collector’s edition Blu-ray set is limited to 1000 units for SRP £69.99. A standard Blu-ray is expected to follow suit later.
I pre-ordered my copy through Anime Limited’s store during their early bird offer in October 2023 for £39.99 but with the Anime Unlimited membership offer at £35.99.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with Digipack packaging and clean artwork
- Info sheet with info, specification and BBFC description
- 20-page Booklet
- 4 Art Cards
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 4th December 2023 (AllTheAnime), 22nd January 2024 (Other Retailers)
The collector’s edition release for To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts contains all 12 episodes across two Blu-ray discs, with the encode and authoring produced by VDMS.
Audio options include Japanese audio with English subtitles and the Studiopolis English dub commissioned by Crunchyroll. The subtitles are using the same font setup as Crunchyroll’s streams which is good in terms of the on-screen translations). The white subtitles are locked during playback and the regions are compatible with Blu-ray players set to A & B.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Linear PCM 2.0 Japanese Linear PCM 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | A B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | 2 BD-50s |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 1:
- Clean Opening “Sacrifice”
- Clean Ending “HHOOWWLL”
- Key Animation Movie Collection 1
- Key Animation Movie Collection 2
- Key Animation Movie Collection 3
- Key Animation Movie Collection 4
- 30 second PV
- 90 second PV
Disc 2:
- Studio MAPPA ‘Making Of’ Part 1 (33:30)
- Studio MAPPA ‘Making Of’ Part 2 (33:04)
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Anime Limited in the UK & Ireland as well as US & Canada territories (via retailer Crunchyroll Store). The collector’s edition Blu-ray can be acquired through Amazon UK, Anime Limited’s store, and MVM’s Anime-on-Line.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
The Normanic Vault 
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