Category: Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu

You know what? If this wasn’t the final episode, it would really have been a great halfway climax. And in fact, I still consider this to be an excellent episode. And as an ending: things could have been much, much worse.

This episode was in no way rushed: it really knew what it wanted to do. The main problem with this ending is that expectedly, it leaves a ton of plot threads unresolved. At the end of this episode, the war is still going on, people are still fighting and people still have plenty of things to do that unfortunately will probably never be animated due to the low DVD sales.

And yet, for a show that just cuts off in the middle, it actually had a very good ending: the things that it wanted to close off were closed off well, and this final episode really feels like a conclusion: it both wraps up Ryner, Shion and Ferris, AND it actually develops them some more. With this episode, it feels like we’ve gotten the final pieces of the development in these three.

Compare that to Koukaku no Regios: that one was put under similar conditions, and what did it do? It pulled a huge amount of desperate plot twists that made no sense whatsoever and didn’t really resolve anything. I’m really impressed at how the creators (both the director and Zexcs as well (because yes, this episode looked really good)).

Oh, and yes. Ferris finally being genuine was awesome as well. Kiefer’s appearance on the other hand was a bit coincidental, but I guess it was a necessary evil to also close off her story a bit.

Overall, Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu had its downs, most notably after episode four followed a huge stream of uninteresting episodes. But here’s the thing: Ferris, Ryner and Shion are both well rounded and excellent characters in the end. As for the side-characters, though… they got better. Let’s just keep it at that. ^^;
Rating: ** (Excellent)

What the hell was that?!

I mean, words can’t describe this episode. Just… watch it. These past twenty minutes were at the same time brilliant and stupid. We’ve only got one episode left, and here this show comes and decides to completely ignore any kind of plot and focus most of its time on silly character antics. No really, 90% of this episode is just random banter between the different lead characters. No Tiaa, no Gastark, no Ryner’s father. We were in the middle of such a dramatic arc: that atmosphere is completely gone for 90% of this episode.

Yet, I have to admit the guts of the creators to go with such an episode. It’s brilliant to come with such a change of mood when just about every normal urge of common sense would say otherwise. I’ve seen a ton of series by now that had to deal with ending way before their source material does that would leave a ton of unresolved plotholes behind. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a ballsy way to do it: this episode completely ignored the politics that it knew had no way of wrapping up and instead focused on the characters.

A lot of the dialogue of this episode was just plain silly, yet make no mistake: this episode was really trying to develop its characters. I think that the revelation at the end of this episode was actually quite powerful: this entire episode was simply meant as a farewell party for either Ryner or Shion. Shion made his decision in the previous episodes: he’d kill Ryner. This entire episode was simply trying to give the both of them the time to relax and just be themselves. Oh, and I also loved that scene in which Ferris revealed that she wanted to start a dango shop.

But yeah: the plot. there is no way in which the final episode is going to be able to close off this show properly. Still, this episode showed that the creators are going to try something here. And I admit: if I had to chose between a simple adaptation of the next bunch of chapters, or coming with a twist like this, I’d prefer the latter. Let’s see whether the creators can actually make something out of this.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Another very strong episode for Denyuuden, full of introspection.The arrival of the guy who looks to be Ryner’s father came a bit out of left field, but it definitely gave a whole new spin to this series. I mean, at the start of this series Ryner really looked like this typical hero: huge powers, sad past and fated to save the world or something. He’s more and more turning into the role of a victim here: everyone wants to be able to manipulate his powers and half the country wants him dead. I’m really glad that this didn’t turn out to be the spiritual successor to Koukaku no Regios.

Ferris on the other hand is also miles away from your usual romantic side-kick. I mean has she even once been kidnapped in the series? Instead, she really feels like Ryner’s companion here, and is struggling along with him in order to get away from all of these superpowers that are after him. It’s here where the politics finally get interesting, because without them, Ryner’s situation would not have been able to get this complex.

The scene with Milk and that human experiment was a bit sudden, though. I get what the creators were trying to do there, but it felt a bit out of place, especially when that guy suddenly started talking with the voice of a girl… that was a bit out of place. Apart from that though, I loved Shion’s little introspection, as well as that strange dream in which Ryner ended up meeting what looks like his mother. Also, what is that significance of that strange symbol on Ryner’s chest that prevented him from dying? Is he a bit of the equivalent of a zombie now?
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Whoa, this episode again had some very good animation. While it was nowhere as good as episode 18, it still impressed me in the way it was so “subtly exaggerated”. The downside to this was that the boobs of the females suddenly grew two sizes, but the upside was some very expressive animation, surprisingly smooth inbetween frames and some great camera work. ZEXCS is really getting better here and I hope that they can keep this up. Not of course for the upcoming winter, they’re pretty much hopeless in that regard, but I do hope that after that they’ll be able to more and more let go of their usual generic graphics.

The rest of this episode was also very good: just about every character in it got pushed forward. I especially have to give credit to Milk, who as the once most annoying character of the show was actually very good now, showing that annoying characters have very much the ability to develop into likable ones. I’m still going to continue to rant on them though, because the fact remains that they once were very obnoxious and there are plenty of annoying characters who don’t develop…

The scene between Miran and Shion was probably the only point where the animation got a bit too cheesy, but aside from that it was a very good scene, finally showing Shion putting Miran in his place. It probably was the first point at which Miran really didn’t like the instructions Shion gave him because they stood against the ideals that he saw in him, and at the same time it showed that Shion hasn’t entirely lost his humanity for his dreams of changing Roland.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Again: a really good episode. I mean, it really took a while for this series to get going, but it’s quite excellent at this point with very few weaknesses left. Ryner’s angst ten episodes ago was still rather annoying. Right now though, with an entire episode dedicated to it, it really shined again: this was such a bittersweet episode for such a seemingly jolly fantasy series.

There is no real good and evil in this series, but the biggest asshole is without a doubt that short-haired Gastark guy. The things that he does in this episode were just… depressing beyond belief, especially after how often this series has reminded us how much the people with the Alpha Stigma have been suffering in the past.

The parts that really made this episode for me was when Ferris got in the picture, though. After 20 episodes, she finally got the chance to yell something other at Ryner than her usual random insults. It’s about time that the relationship between these two developed, and the past episode did a wonderful job there.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Well, I guess it was to be expected, but this episode reverted back to Denyuuden’s original art style, and it really seems like the previous arc was the work of one particular animator who was in charge of it. Really, people like those need to be in charge of the animation of a whole series: that would really make for some eye candy. A great example of that was Shion no Ou: its budget was small, but its graphics were non-stop powerful.

Anyway, this episode still was really good in the way that it kept juggling its moral scale: Tiia suddenly turns out to have a very noble goal, and the people of Gastark are horrible bastards who murder innocent children on one side, yet compassionate towards each other on the other. I have to admit, nobody in this series is pure good or pure evil, and I appreciate that a lot in this kind of a fantasy series.

On top of that, the drama also really worked. Ryner is suddenly thrust into an environment completely different from the one he grew up in: a warm and inviting one. Half of the episode also was a bit of an aftermath, but I especially loved how Shion reflected upon what happened in the previous episode.

I’m really glad to see that this series is like Kobato, in the way that it’s finally getting really good here. However, Kobato managed to close itself off perfectly, and it was really well planned out. Is the same the case for Denyuuden? I definitely hope so, and this episode definitely gave me hope.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

This may very well have been the first episode of a ZEXCS series whose visuals genuinely impressed me. I know that the first episode had a big budget and that this episode had a lot of off models and all, but that’s not the point. ZEXCS-series always have this look of genericness, with perhaps the only exception to this point being Umi Monogatari. This episode completely blew my mind, though. The animation completely threw this genericness aside and went all out, and it looked awesome. I know that they just probably got one particularly awesome animation director on this episode, but I’d really love more episodes like this.

And seriously, this pretty much was the best Denyuuden episode since episode three. Perhaps even better. It’s episodes like this that I’ve been waiting for, and I’m really glad that this series is finally picking up, and at least the creators realize it. Now if only the producers who are responsible for the number of episodes would realize this too!

I admit: this Tiia-guy is good. The previous episode introduced him a bit generically, but this episode used that introduction really well when it suddenly turns out that he was genuinely trying to make Ryner into one of his comrades. I really love the bits of character-development here between Ryner and Ferris, and how they’ve actually been separated here.

I think the scene that impressed me the most here was the part in which we saw Shion’s army fire all of those arrows at Tiia. Animating huge armies is an incredibly difficult thing to do, and this show obviously didn’t have the budget to properly animate such an army: most of the time they were just still frames. And yet the way they were drawn, and their arrows flew, it really managed to bring life to them, and make them feel like a real army, rather than just the same guy copied and pasted over and over again like some bizarre house of mirrors.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

So. this episode introduced the guy named “Tiia”, and yet strangely I found myself interested in just about every part of this episode except for him. That’s really meant as a praise, though, because this show is getting better here: the characters are moving away from their stereotypes, there is a ton of change in them, and the overall plot is also getting more and more interesting with every episode. But if the creators want to use such a stereotypical villain like Tiia, they really need to make him into much more of a character than what he showed here.

Of course, I love that Claugh ended up losing his arm: that was just the development he needed. But having him lose that arm by for example wrestling with an angry bear would not really have been that different. That Tiia guy is too much of the “muaha, look at me, I’m evil!”-type of villains. Writing a good villain is difficult, because they often have much less aitrime than the good guys and they’re so easily overdone, and Tiia is currently standing with one leg in that trap.

But really, I loved that the creators ended up splitting the main couple away. Ryner really did get a good scare from Ferris’ brother in the last episode, and you could really see that in this episode. On top of that, Milk really did get kidnapped for a reason, and it’s great to see that for once Miran is meeting his match. Those are some twists I definitely didn’t see coming.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Yes! This episode headed into the right direction! These are the episodes I want to see! Screw the politics of this series, the finale of this show needs to be about its characters. This episode really added a lot of depth to them, especially to Ferris and her brother. With this episode, I at least got a glimpse of why the second half of this show is supposed to be awesome.

This episode pretty much didn’t touch the story of the warring nations, and instead it showed some of Ferris’ background, her relationship with her brother, and it developed Ryner’s relationship with her as he found out more about her. This is the kind of character development that I’ve been waiting for for what feels like ages now. I also really liked how this episode cemented Ferris’ brother as one heck of a sunovabitch here. And to make matters even better, the creators are also really making Milk more bearable. She was just as annoying in this episode, but the few bits of drama around her felt much more genuine than in those earlier episodes.

Still, this episode in no way fixes all of the problems of this series: its politics still are uninteresting, and the reason why this episode was so good was because it didn’t put any attention to it. Now that I mention it, the reason the first four episodes were so good was because they also didn’t have much of a focus on the politics. It’s usually a genre I really like, because of the many different directions you can go in, and how it can provide pretty deep insights on its setting, though Denyuuden never really felt like that. I’m also missing creativity.

On top of that, I still don’t trust the anime creators, and whether they’re going to be able to stuff the good parts in the nine remaining episodes. They did take an awful lot of time for the boring stuff and the introductions, not to mention that I have seen the previous works of the director, which were all badly planned out. And I know that directors are accompanied by writers who do the series composition and all, but that doesn’t make me less worried here when we’re talking about the guy who wrote the anime adaptation of Kurogane no Linebarrels…
Rating: ** (Excellent)