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TALES OF PHANTASIA THE ANIMATION |
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Wednesday, 14 March 2007 |
 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | GENEON ENTERTAINMENT | | | ▪ | ASPECT RATIO: | | 16:9 ANAMORPIC WIDESCREEN | | | ▪ | AUDIO: | | ENGLISH DD 5.1 AND JAPANESE DD 2.0 | | | ▪ | RUNNING TIME: | | 120 MIN | | | ▪ | RATING: | | 13UP | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 01/16/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 03/14/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | HOLLY ELLINGWOOD |
In the land of Midgard the Demon King Dhaos has been revived to once again attempt to end all of mankind. The last descendants of the Guardians of the Seal must now travel back in time to seek the aid of two legendary warriors. However, they must go back right in the middle of the Battle of Valhalla, when Dhaos was free in the past with an army of monsters. Can this group made up of a young knight, a devout and beautiful cleric, a mischievous witch, a stoic archer, a summoner and a ninja, be enough to stop the demonic army and put an end to the powerful Demon King?
This is pure fantasy, the good sword and sorcery kind. Like the Namco Bandai console game it’s based on, there are an array of diverse fighters who must defeat the armies and eventually the Demon King. In the anime, the story has them crossing time to group together as a band of heroes traveling across eternity to save their realm and all of humanity. They are heroic characters each with their own weapon and power. This formulaic style of RPG characters and fantasy story will hit true for fans of Dungeons and Dragons, World of Warcraft and other RPG games. The animation is stellar and this disc contains all four OVA episodes of the series.
The anime plays out like Lodoss War meets Lord of the Rings extra-lite. That’s not necessarily a bad thing considering this is a four episode OVA series and therefore it lacks the time to go as in depth as the aforementioned titles. The animation itself is very, very pretty. It holds attractive character designs and some very nice glossy animation appropriate for this type of fantasy genre. It incorporates the CG elements very well for some eye-catching action scenes. The story doesn’t live up to the promise of the animation sadly. It comes across very disjointed. This fragmentation could perhaps have been expected with the time jumping occurring in the story, but it is actually an overall flaw with the series. There is some build up to the characters and their relationships, but in the end, there is very little follow through. Even the ultimate reason revealed at the last moments for Dhaos’ plans don’t quite make sense with his reason to wipe out all of humanity. I want to forgive the weak story telling since there is precious few pure fantasy anime releases in current releases. So if you can know that going in and focus on the beautiful animation itself, let alone the lovely opening theme song, you should be fine to enjoy this for what it is – an ultra-lite fantasy with exceptional animation.
EXTRAS:
Bonus features include reverse cover art, a foldout mini-poster insert, Geneon previews, clean opening and closing animation, and art gallery.
IN SUMMARY:
Tales of Phantasia is a fantasy in the purest sense with elves, humans, demons, spirits, and sword and sorcery in a fantastical land in peril. This disc contains the entire four episode OVA series. It has some exceptionally attractive animation and great RPG stereotype characters, but the story is disjointed in its pacing and the end is rather weak. It is the type of anime RPG, D&D and World of Warcraft fans might want to check out along with fans of Lodoss War. |
