A friend passed this anime on to me, and having both never heard of it, and being a lover of the obscure, I naturally gave it a go. It tells the story of two friends who are dragged from a world similar to our own, into a much more fantastic one, where people possess the ability to cast magic via "shards" and summon spirits to do their bidding in battle. The two friends end up as pawns in the machinations of several nations, and get caught up in conflict that may be a precursor to the end of the world. The plot of the series is in truth, overly meandering. The first twenty episodes or so have a very structureless feel to them, with several different plot lines jumping around, and characters spending several episodes in locations, only to leave, and immediately return the next episode, in a point which time often clearly passes between episodes, but the series is quite bad at telling that, and also quite a few features of the world. There are points in which certain characters pull abilities out of nowhere, which have never been mentioned before and are never seen again, and there's an implication that the people in the new world are born from eggs, but not one that is ever explored. However, the mediocre starting episodes primary job is to establish the world and the relations of the characters and back story, and whilst structureless, they do well, and provide an excellent foundation for the best two arcs of the story (Which are also consequently the longest). There is a major joust in the nation of Neotopia, which sees our two heroes brought head to head against each other, which serves as the precursor to the outright invasion of that nation by two others, which leads to a massive battle sequence that spans a dozen episodes, and is the show's highlight. Unfortunately, the last ten episodes feel unnecessary afterwards, having a smaller scale, and the absence of the great main villain. However, plot issues aside, the show at least has the sense to keep it's primary focus on the characters and the relationships between them, and this gives it a firm emotional anchor if nothing else. Characters wise, the show has a good variety. I personally found the lead Zed incredibly annoying, as he is extremely headstrong and capricious, and doesn't give us much to go on besides that, although he does have an arc... Just not a brilliant one (Although, I will admit this stems more from my personal frustration at people who behave like this in my own life, rather than the writing). His friend Roiah is great (Albeit with a slightly grating English voice actor, and his friend and rival, the power mad Noah is excellent, being virtually crippled and granted power by his presence in the other world. The star of the show however, In my opinion is the villain Hugh. He is perfect. Cold, calculating and manipulative, he is constantly planting daggers in everyone else's backs, And has a brilliant on-screen presence, and a very tangible aura of fear surrounds him at times. The point in the story where he goes insane is also a highlight, retaining his old abilities, but coupled with constant bursts of sporadic violence towards anyone around him, becoming just as dangerous to his allies as his foes. Robés is also good, although doesn't get enough screen time in my opinion. The others are alright, and only the character who looks identical to korrah (Who was so bland one can't recall her name, only the fact that she got three different identical death scenes where she falls to the floor and goes "Princess Rebecca" before dying, only to show up later and do it again). However, The replacement villains who replace Hugh for the finale are extremely weak, having little personality, and a complete lack of any presence, actions or high body count behind them to make us fear them. The animation and soundtrack, on a whole are decent. I would have appreciated a little more variety in the score at times, but on a whole It is competent, and has a few really lovely pieces. The animation is also adequate, having a very bright and colourful style, with only a few landscape shots being really jarringly recycled. For a final though in the review, I reflect on something that I found out after I had watched the series. Apparently, it was based off a card game, similar to Pokémon or yugioh. I would actually give a lot of respect for the creative team behind this, as without this knowledge, one would have had no idea that it actually was a trading card tie in, as it is not only quite surprisingly violent (The theme of genocide is played with several times, although there is usually little actual gore), there seems to be no attempt made to trick kids into buying cards (Looking at you yugioh!), instead using them more as inspiration than anything else. With a more focused storyline, and some better writing and voice acting, the show would have been absolutely amazing, but as it is, it is a flawed, but decent creation
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