first impression: Tales of the Abyss (anime)

Another RPG turned anime is born with Tales of the Abyss. This is purportedly a part of the "Tales of..." franchise which would include such titles as Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Eternia... and then some. All of these are taken from role-playing games, and accordingly, the Tales of franchise is really not too bad as both of the above mentioned have gotten praise and Tales of the Abyss is causing lots of hype among fans.

The story starts out with the introduciton of Luke, a red-haired, hot-headed young spoiled prince who hates that he's being locked away in his own mansion. When he was a child he'd been kidnapped and returned with memories lost of his previous years before the kidnapping. He is friends with a servant named Guy, engaged to Princess Natalia, and is being trained in the art of the sword by his Van Sensei.

While practicing out in the court, Tear, a sorceress type girl enters the mansion and proclaims vengeance against Vandesdelca, Luke's Van Sensei, as she puts the rest of the people of the court into a sleep with her powers. Upon attacking Van, Luke intervenes and somehow a 7th Fonon reacts and the two are transported away from the mansion. From then, though having tried to take his Van Sensei's life, Tear turns out to be quite a generous and kind young girl who makes herself responsible for making sure Luke returns to his home safely.

The episode actually starts off with some form of prophecy which more than likely involves Luke and his being a 7th Fonon. The storyline sounds kind of complicated what with Yulia the creator who had learned the 7th Fonon arts, the planet called Outerlands which was made from the 7 Fonons which ended up divided, and the two factions divided Kimlasca and Malkuth. There is also the Lorelei religion which protects the Fonons and Yulia the creator.

The central theme of this series, I can surmise, is about the score created by Yulia and how our heroes will adventure in relation to it.

The first episode was a very mashed up debacle of events occuring one right after another. While I understand that sometimes jumping right into the point is good, I don't like it when too many things are narrated within five minutes and expected of the viewer to know what is going on. Of course, for others, maybe you already know what's happening in the storyline since your a fan of the Tales of franchise and have played every single game to death.

Me, I'm not too certain I can grasp the storyline since I haven't played the game. After all, it took me quite some time to understand what was going on with Final Fantasy VII's storyline. And I'm a proud squealing fangirl who worships Cloud-sama. Advent Children is thus far my favorite RPG turned animation adaptation. Even World Destruction has lost it's appeal for me, but I will devote myself to finishing it.

Back to Tales of the Abyss, I think I'll give it a shot. After all, I like action, adventure, and fantasy, and the Tales of franchise often boasts good adventure and fantasy with a slice of romance. We'll just see how this works out.

Except I know for a fact that I already don't like Luke, the spoiled brat from the Kingdom of Kimlasca who's supposedly part of the prophecy at the beginning and is the main protagonist of the series. He sounds like a spoiled brat and acts like one too. I don't know it that's to do with the character or the seiyuu of which I'm unfamiliar. I look foward to seeing more of Tear who seems like the cool and collected woman warrior-- she almost reminds me Morute except a lot nicer and a lot more competent, less hot-headed; she would make quite the nice foil for Luke as his counter personality.

If at all possible, I've come to like Yukana, the seiyuu of Tear who has also done the likes of Meiling Li from Cardcaptor Sakura, and Tenko-sama from Wagaya no Oinari-sama.

All-in-all, there is always the possibility that I will drop this series before it's over. It is scheduled for 26 episodes, much longer than any of the other Tales of series out in animation. This may be a long and bumpy ride.

first impression: World Destruction (anime)

The idea behind World Destruction: Sekai Bokumetsu no Rokunin is a Final Fantasy-like RPG turned anime series. What drew me to consider this series in the first place was actually a very superficial reason: Maaya Sakamoto. I'm a fan of hers and I'm the type of person who will check out a specific series because of certain people. As the voice for the main protagonist of World Destruction, I couldn't help watching the trailers and then anticipating the series' release.

The gist of World Destruction seems pretty straight forward.

This is a world where there are humans and then there are beastmen. Humans are enslaved by beastmen at this time and have learned to fear them. Because of this, our protagonist, Morute comes into play as the heroine with a mission to "destroy the world." Due to this, Morute is continuously chased by the beastmen of the "World Savior Committie" who have conveniently dubbed Morute as the "World Destruction Committie." And she likes this name.

In her possession, after all, is an orb known as "Destruct Code" which Morute claims is an old human secret weapon that has the power to destroy the world.

Along comes Kirie in the first five minutes of the first episode, disguised as a beastman for the sake of survival, and then is abruptly revealed to be human when Morute tries to take him hostage. The two make their escape from the "World Savior Committie" and find themselves in yet another debacle when they take refuge in a small human village. Here, because the beastmen Boundary God has been angered, a human must be sacrificed, but the village doesn't want to give up one of their own and so attempt to replace their little girl with Morute. At this time, Morute has already left the village and so the humans have no choice but to use Kirie who is already drugged and very unconscious. Morute learns of this and returns to save her fellow human.

Enter Toppi, a beastman in the form of a teddy bear who claims to be a hero from a hero's guild. He had been hired at the behest of a boy from the village to save his big sister who had been the original human sacrifice. The "World Savior Committie" joins the scene and a whole big fight sequence takes its toll. Morute threatens to use "Destruct Code", trips and loses the orb which in turn rolls its way over to Kirie who picks it up innocently, thus somehow activating it bringing on a massive quake to the area.

By the end of the first episode, the official "World Destruction Committie" has been reluctantly established. Of the three, Morute seems to be the only one passionate about destroying the world with her power and Kirie wonders why they don't just try to be heroes and save people. Poor Toppi is stuck being mistaken as part of the "World Destruction Committie" and thus has nowhere else to go. And it seems that Kirie just might have something to do with being able to trigger "Destruct Code's" power.

My impression of this first episode is rather weak, to be honest. Maaya Sakamoto can prove to be a strong voice actor... or sometimes the wrong one. For some reason, I'm not feeling her as a hero -- not quite yet. Of course, I'm also not quite sure what Morute's whole business with destroying the world is yet either. Sakamoto holds her own very well, however because she has one of those versatile voices. She can either be extremely monotonous and manly, be cool and calm... and manly, or she can be really girly and cute. In here, it seems that she's going for a semi-manly and half-girlish tone. It's sort of working.

In contrast, her co-seiyu Miyano Mamoru -- who voiced Suou Tamaki of Ouran High School Host Club fame alongside Sakamoto -- did very well in conveying the almost ditzy, carefree, eccentric attitude of Kirie. He brings out the shine that is Kirie and tops it off nicely with his boyish attractive voice. He's almost like Tamaki without the princely smugness.

The characters are in the progress of being developed through the story and will probably continue to develop more as the adventure moves along. Morute holds a deeper, hidden mystery of her past; there are reasons why she feel so strongly about destroying the world and why she carries with her the one item that can do such a thing.

Kirie is kind of flighty and spastic; I assume he's alone and surviving alone. Right now he's a bit of a pansy and I hope he'll toughen up as the journey continues and doesn't end up hiding behind a rock everytime Morute fights, as the opening sequence suggests.

There he goes.
There he is.
Toppi is supposedly a hero even though he's tiny; I've seen very little of his abilities as of this first episode, but he'll probably grow on me. He's also really preachy.

Overall, the first episode is quite good. Imagery is good, graphics are good, the artwork is worthy of any RPG turned anime, and the storyline feels a little wacky what with the cats worshipping the Boundary God, and some of the funny looking beastmen. The character design is beautiful and sharp and the clothing is a good fit with each character. The theme music is catchy and I really enjoy the ending theme.

I will continue to give World Destruction a good viewing as it comes out, because I have a feeling it'll live up to my expectations.