The War Of The Rohirrim tells the story of the King of Rohan, Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox), his “wild” daughter Hera (Gaia Wise) and their war with a young lord named Wulf (Luca Pasqualino) who is desperate to avenge his father’s death.

This story is pulled from the appendices of J. R. R. Tolkien’s works, narrated by Eowyn (Miranda Otto) from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films and directed by Japanese anime legend Kenji Kamiyama. The result is an intriguing clash of cultures. 

The animation style is decidedly old fashioned and that is initially jarring. Sometimes the characters feel separate to the backdrops they are inhabiting. Whilst those backgrounds sometimes look almost photo realistic before feeling animated again. The characters look classically Japanese in style and I felt like I was watching the characters from a Square Enix RPG videogame. Anyone familiar with Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest would feel familiar with this style. Once you get used to this stylised look it works really well, especially in action sequences. An early horse chase was when it really started to make me realise its charms and the later battle sequences are rather gorgeous. 

As far as story and voice acting go the earnest Japanese anime stylings go hand in hand with Tolkien’s honourable characters eager to speak of their family lines and die for their kings. Every word uttered feels do or die and that fits well with the sweeping story set within the venerable history of Middle Earth. Speaking of which, the story takes on familiar locations such as Edoras, Helms Deep and Isengard. And whilst no elves or dwarves feature you will get to see Mumakils and a Watcher in the Water. 

Overall I enjoyed the story and particularly the fact that the villain constantly ignored his generals advice to be honourable. It is an entertaining if not exceptional piece of storytelling. I do also suspect that this is for a very niche audience. People who enjoy Japanese animation and styling merged with fans of obscure Tolkien works who are happy for it to be adapted for the film maker’s own purposes. If that’s you, go watch this!