Tales of the Abyss
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a prince and has special.
Highlights: Bad first half, second half with promise.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6,5/10
I’m pretty much a fan of the Tales of-franchise, but I’ve never played Tales of the Abyss or Vesperia, so this was all new to me. At first, this promised to violently ruin my love for this series. The main character is incredibly annoying; he’s a prince with generic servants and a generic master, and worst of all: he’s got special powers. The setting also screamed “epic”, so there was no doubt that our little prince and his female friend will end up saving this world in the end. Then, however, he was removed from his cosy little palace, and the creators actually showed that they knew how to develop the guy: he acts like a total idiot when he’s not amongst his servants. Now that can prove to be some great character-development. Still, the reason why I became a fan of the Tales-series is that they all were thought-provoking somehow, and knew how to tell a story. Let’s hope that the creators can stuff that in. For now, I’ll remain sceptical, as I don’t want to see yet another World Destruction. And most importantly, I really think that the creators should have done a bit more effort in trying to hide their spoilers from the OP. Really, if that’s what this series will boil down to, I’m quickly going to drop this thing. I also really have to say that out of all the Tales-stories, this really has the worst character-designs of the bunch. Who the heck fired those awesome character-designers?
Tentai Senshi Sunred
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is super sentai who fights for justice.
Highlights: Horrible! Terrible! Not an ounce of potential!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
For this season, I managed to avoid all the previews, so I had no idea what the selection of new series would be. Still, even if I did end up preparing myself for the upcoming season, I don’t think I would have ever suspected that my favourite first episode so far would come from such a god-awful series. Sarcasm aside, the parodies in this episode were absolutely brilliant, and it’s quite possibly been one of the funniest first episodes of this year. The way this series took the premise of a super sentai series and made the main characters a yakuza characters and the villains a bunch of incompetent fools was hilarious, but the best part about this episode was the awesome sense of timing that the creators have. They knew EXACTLY when to deliver their jokes. Really, the rest of this series had better really good, because I don’t want this series to go down as the one that made the best impression of the entire season! There’s also the issue of potential with this series: how long can it remain funny? Still, whether it’ll turn dull or remain brilliant, I’m happy enough that I’ve watched just this episode.
Kurogane no Linebarrels
Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a cute girl who can summon a giant mecha.
Highlights: Typical bad Gonzo.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 5/10
Oh, Gonzo; what have you done? You had Blassreiter, and you go back to Dragonaut. You had a number of adults who fought each other with passion and lighting-fast action scenes, and you go back to an angsty teenaged couple who can summon an overpowered mecha with horrible CG-sequences and action-scenes. Seriously, even when talking about first episode, I can’t think of even one thing that Kurogane no Linebarrels did better than Blassreiter. The thing that stood out the most was the following: the main character stands right where the main female is supposed to crash. We see a huge blow, and he’s fine. So far, I guess it’s excusable, BUT the guy has huge blood-stains, all over his clothes AND HE DOESN”T EVEN NOTICE THEM. In fact, nobody pays attention to them. I don’t know about you, but if I saw an explosion, and later someone with blood all over his shirt, I’d freak out, or at least find it strange that someone drenched in blood walks around. Okay, so this has a bit of potential left, but this time, I just don’t feel like giving this series another chance. Goodbye Gonzo.
Trust me, if Sunrise doesn’t fuck up the plan, Luke’s character development will be perfect.
As for the bad chara-designs… ahem, Sunrise, anyone ?
Actually, the game’s storyline wasn’t that great, it was just hooking enough to grab the gamer. What was so great in the game, and WILL be great in the anime (if Sunrise doesn’t fuck up) are the charactersm, especially Jade and Tear.
Sunred looks epic.
Kurogane no Linebarrels seemed like a third season to Code Geass, full of entertainment and WTF-awesomeness, but instead, I guess it turned out as a simple, tasteless typical Gonzo clichĂ© and boring series… Can’t wait for Code Geass Q3. ;___;
Hang in there with Abyss; if Sunrise can pull off the story and great character development that was in the game, you’ll love it. Luke is definitely supposed to trip off your bratty radar at first, but he does get better, and perhaps best of all, pretty much everyone tells him he’s an idiot for the way he acts. And I’m not sure what you mean by “spoilers” in the opening — the only spoiler is Luke with short hair, which isn’t really a spoiler, and the presence of some characters not yet introduced.
Also, the characters look much better in the game … though Luke’s design was always a little bit funny.
well i have to admit that the manga is a little cliche, but what i like about it was that the main dude was a bastard no angsta and he was damn proud of it and i love to hate his twisted sence of justice, but nooo gonzo has to go and chance plot to make him a half assed,then it kicks his character development and the plot gets let said interesting.
From all the Tales of games franchise, actually I think Tales of the abyss has the best story of all, at least it did have various unique characters, personally if compared to TOS which is simply a main typical hero save the world thing, this one takes a much more interesting move in making Luke a spoiled brat so TOA ones make me enjoy the character’s interaction throughout the game and being the only Tales game I play till finish without dropping, much kudos to Jade and Peony.
I don’t think Luke’s idiotic is something you should mind about, that will leads to a huge development throughout the game (obviously,isn’t it?) , there’s a very interesting plot later which I think is promising enough to wait and see. I still haven’t watched the anime so is the character design from Sunrise look that bad?? Have to check.
And although it doesn’t have the best game story of all time, please don’t compare this to World destruction, I try to watch that one but horribly fails , man I mean how can that group of people destroy the world?? They didn’t even stray one bit from the common path to make their characters original.
Seeing the points you gave to Kurogane no linebarrels makes me feel like dropping this one rightout , well still have to see a bit if it’s really a real disappointment.
Looking forward to watch tales of the abyss and tentai senshi sunred, don’t know about kurogane no linebarrels. And from the score you gave the first ep…i probably won’t be following it, come on gonzo! I thought there was hope with tower of druaga and blassreiter…been then they go back to horrible cg and lame/flat characters, plus i don’t like that artist’s character designs.
Ramblings of a fangirl, beware:
Abyss is very dear to my heart, if simply for the characters (was I the only who screamed “PEONY!” during the opening sequence?). The story will, without a doubt, surprise you somewhere along the way. You’re right about the “epic” feel, but let’s be honest with ourselves – what Tales game isn’t epic on some scale? Let’s worry about the execution. Especially Luke’s development, one of the highlights of the game in general.
I think the flashbacks incorporated a lot for the anime, as well. The foreshadowing was a surprise, didn’t expect them to ALREADY hint at that little piece of angst.
But Abyss is slow to get into, I’ll give you that. Doesn’t really pick up until the main cast is fully introduced and the God Generals appear.
No, Shirachi, you are not the only one. I also scream Peony! at that opening scene. All the Malkuth guys are designated for players to fangirling XD.
Since I have seen the OP already, I guess it’s a bit spoiled but it’s just a spoil for someone who knows the story , if for someone who doesn’t play the game , I don’t think it reveals anything about the plot anyway. Have to agree with psgels though that the characters ‘ face looks weird…blame it on sunrise, I mean the animation in game looks a lot better (more handsome and all).
i remember that i did think that Gonzo might deliver us a good Kurogane no Linebarrels anime,but then i saw the mecha’s đ ,i like the CG in Blasreiter that turned out to be a decent anime but in KnL so far there is nothing to make me watch it
also i hope Tales of the Abyss will turn into a good anime(even if it takes a few episodes) since i did not watch any fantasy anime in quite a while and i feel like watching one that maybe will make me like this genre,that i keep on ignoring in a way,more
Don’t give up on tales of abyss yet, I have been play the games twice. The exciting part haven’t come yet. The side characters of the tales of abyss is the best. And u will see how they going to develop this main character to the point u going to like him . Yeah he is very very annoying at the beginning.
He know nothing about the world but this is a true behind it and it not going to reveal soon until half of the games.
Hope sunrise can cover the whole stories of tales of abyss in 26 episode..
“BUT the guy has huge blood-stains, all over his clothes AND HE DOESNâT EVEN NOTICE THEM.”
Surviving the incident & having a naked woman next to him…
I guess thats enough to make him ignore/ not notice the blood stains on his clothes.
To echo the Abyss comments you’ve no need to worry as annoying Luke goes through some huge character development.
The character designer for Tales of the Abysss is actually done by KĆsuke Fujishima, the creator of Oh! My Goddess. He also did character designs for Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Vesperia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosuke_Fujishima
do we need to have seen the other “tales of” stuff or are they pretty independent from one another?
asdf: they don’t have anything to do with each other part from their names, and you can watch each of them just independantly.
Depending on how they handle Luke as a character, Tales of the Abyss may be either one of the best animes of the fall or its biggest trainwreck. Luke walks that thin of a line.
In the game, it is tread as carefully as can be and Luke becomes one of the most interesting and well developed lead characters in any RPG ever. But one careless slip off the path would lead in to perpetual wallbanger territory.
Needless to say, either way this series is on the top of my watch list this fall. ^^
Sunred I have interest in, and Linebarrels I anticipated trainwreck from the get-go after checking out the manga.
Having played (and cried) through Tales of the Abyss, I assure you gets VERY interesting. I suspect it will take about four episodes before you start getting the feeling very little is what it seems.
Yes, that first ep was kinda horrible to watch, it ‘s a wreck , I was as surprised as you while seeing the main character covered in blood and seeing him walking around like that without anyone ever noticing it was just RIDICULOUS(he should be dying), okay the girl said he was dead but how is he supposed to move then, is he a living dead?It’s a real mess! The theme about a weak person growing to become strong could have been well- developped but they screw all the thing, and also it was dreadfully boring!!!!! The charach design was rather painful to watch too, it could have passed with a perfect development of the story but not with that one . I don’t think it’s a series that deserves a chance but don’t know.
As for TotA, it was the first Tales game I ever played. There’s way more to the story than you would think upon the first five minutes of playing the game. I totally agree with you that the beginning screams “epic”, but I was amazed as to how complex and amazing the plot became. Don’t lose faith in the creators–they did a great job with the game, let’s hope the anime turns out just as well crafted. đ