I've just watched this movie which has been widely advertised as the first Russian anime. Why there should be a Russian anime if we already have a great animation legacy of our own is another question. There're just too many things wrong with this movie apart from being a "Russian anime".

And first and foremost, it's an insult to Russian history and the Sacred War. I bet people would be speaking about it a lot... What makes it worse are the occasional comments from the "experts": historians, psychiatrists and war veterans, only the latter being the real people, everyone else being portrayed by the actors. They try their best to make the movie's story seem based on real events. Some people would take it as fiction and some, mainly the young audience, may take it as truth, which is quite worrying. And I really pity people of the war generation, our grandfathers and grandmothers who has seen the Great War with their own eyes and who might watch Firs Squad one day.

Even if the Russians are behind the movie, the Soviet Union of the 40th is portrayed like in an average Hollywood movie. Excluding probably such clichés as drinking vodka...

The story of is quite linear, simplistic and full of plot holes and plot devices. In a nutshell, a Russian girl Nadya who possesses supernatural psychic powers must team up with her dead friends to stop the undead Teutonic knights from changing the course of history. This is all there is, nothing more, nothing less. This movie has an unbelievable amount of deus ex machina and other devices, including:

SPOILER ALERT!!!

-during Nazi bombing Nadya is saved by a monk who for some reason happens to hang around the battlefield. This monk never introduces himself, but is so well aware of girl's quest that he gives her further instructions and even a horse which takes her directly to Moscow. The monk pointlessly sacrifices himself to protect escaping Nadya.

-in order to resurrect the evil knights Ahnenerbe needs a powerful artefact which just happens to be in one of the member's possession.

-Soviets, in return, need to somehow send Nadya to the world of the dead. An appropriate machine just happens to be waiting in the basement of the Kremlin. (Why they need a machine of such kind apart from using it in Nadya's mission is another question).

-when in the other world Nadya is captured by the evil knights. Their leader recognizes her as a simple "mortal"(using his Predator-like vision mode) and sends her to the butcher. What? A random monk knows that this girl is so special and a mighty undead knight doesn't even question how she's got to the world of the dead in the first place?

-of course, Nadya is saved by her dead friends who arrive just at the right time to a well-guarded knights'castle.

-upon her return to our world Nadya sees that the monk who presumably died is alive and well. He's there only to share a couple more words of wisdom. Pffff...

-during the final battle as the dark knights erupt from under the ice of the frozen lake Nadya's friends find a way to get into our world and save the day(of course!).(By the way, one of the veterans says that they were facing Nazis on the ice of the lake and were fighting for every trench. Is it possible to make trenches in the lake?)

SPOILER END

The characters are as uninteresting as the story. The main heroine seems quite apathetic in what she's doing. It's not that she's passionately fighting for the Motherland, no, she just follows other people's orders, that's all. They tried to give her some depth trough a series of flashbacks, but they are not touching at all. I think that I didn't care at all for this character or her mission. Her friends have below zero personality. There is: love interest, funny guy... and two other kids, but it's hard to determine their roles, probably a tough guy and a tough gal. I don't even know why they're needed in this movie(except for deus-ex-machina-saving-the-day purpose). Their relationship with the main character is quite blank. They were good friends... So? Secondary characters and villains are even worse.

I'm not into anime at all and to my eye animation and visuals were quite average. Nothing stylish, stunning or breathtaking.

In conclusion, First Squad is a quite tasteless mix of Japanese sword fights, undead Pioneers, demonic knights with the Great Patriotic War on the background, with simplistic story and one-dimensional characters. I probably would have said, "Hey, if you're not gonna take it seriously and if you have a good sense of humor, go see First Squad!", if it wasn't such a painful topic involved. Our Scared War, the Great Patriotic War, is no laughing matter. And if people who has made this anime don't understand this... well, I pity them.

I'll give First Squad two stars just for the animators' effort.

Set during the opening days of World War II on the Eastern Front. Its main cast are a group of Soviet teenagers with extraordinary abilities; the teenagers have been drafted to form a special unit to fight the invading German army. They are opposed by a Schutzstaffel (SS) officer who is attempting to raise from the dead a supernatural army of crusaders from the 12th-century Order of the Sacred Cross and enlist them in the Nazi cause.

I have no comment on the actual movie itself other then it was a decent watch.

"First Squad" (2009) is a pretty interesting anime, and if you want to get as much out of it as possible, there are a few things you need to keep in mind before watching:

First Squad doesn't try to be an accurate representation of the battles between the Soviet Union and Germany during World War II. It incorporates a lot of supernatural elements like travels to the afterlife, clairvoyance and... necromancy? Sufficiently to say, this movie takes some wild turns in order to provide an interesting spin-off on the previously named conflict.

This movie is also very graphic. There is a lot of shootings, explosions and stabbings, all including a generous amount of blood. On top of that, some imagery can be quite frightening and shocking, in particular a scene in the beginning where the protagonist sees the future of a group assembled soldiers. Sensitive watchers beware.

What makes this anime dive in terms of reviews and ratings, however, is mostly its inconsistencies. There are some loopholes that never receives a satisfying explanation or resolution, maybe partly but certainly not only because of the short run-time. Indeed, this movie never (get the time to) develop enough momentum nor emotion to hook its viewers beyond its initial 15 minutes (which are surprisingly clever and well done),and another half hour to the final runtime could have been beneficial for this purpose.

To summarize: for easy entertainment, this does fine, but don't expect much more.

My overall grade: an unsatisfied 6/10.