Deltora Quest – 03

Short Synopsis: Lief and Barda take on the first guardian with the Topaz, they witness his story, and his downfall. Jasmine also returns. Good: A surprisingly huge amount of thought put behind the story of the forest and the guardian. Bad: Lots of talking + my level of Japanese = X_X; Strange use of recycled scenes Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10 Deltora Quest keeps amazing me when it hugely deviates from your usual shounen-adventure with its well-developed characters and thought-out plot. Despite the concept, this anime cleverly stays away from all of the clichés that plague this genre, and delivers a great tale about Lief, set out to collect the seven gems. I was surprised when I learned that the guardian had an actual back-story. When he appeared during the previous episode, I just expected he was a brainless goon, and that this episode would focus a basic fight. Boy, was I wrong. During the fight, it seems that he’s been protecting something else. I couldn’t pick up everything, but this is what I think what went on: In the middle of the forest, there are some flowers which can produce the elixir of life. When the gems were stolen, this guardian was sent to that place, in order to protect it, along with his three comrades. When they saw the flowers, though, they started to fight about them, and the guardian ended up killing his two comrades. Over time, he began to get confused about his original goal, and in the end, he told himself he had to protect the flowers, instead of the gem. I’m not sure why he didn’t know who Adin was, though. It seemed like he’s been there for a lot longer than 16 years… It also seems that Jasmine has been after these flowers for some time, and she finally got the chance to get it when Lief and Barda arrived. She’s interesting, as you wouldn’t expect her to be the one to save Lief and Barda. It often goes the other way around when the main female lead turns into your usual damsel in distress. The next gem seems to be hidden inside a lake. Probably the water-country. In there, there’s a fearsome witch. She’s apparently famous, as even Jasmine has heard of her, and she’s been living alone for almost her entire life. It seems like she’s going to be quite interesting, perhaps even more than the armoured one we saw in this episode.]]>