This was the weakest episode of Zetsuen no Tempest so far, mostly because it was nearly entirely about a big action scene with little else happening, other than getting the two lead characters to stay permanently together and solidifying their goal with the revelation that the killer of the girlfriend/sister is somewhere in the Kusaribe clan.
The reason why the action scenes in the first episodes rocked so much was that there was a lot of stuff happening at the same time. When nearly an entire episode is dedicated to one, there just seems to be something missing. The action itself was pretty nice, albeit a bit dragged out. The one flaw of it was that it tried to be smart, while using coincidences. Yoshino coming up with the idea of tracking someone using blood and healing magic is smart, but afterwards he comes with this crazy plan of hoping for helicopters to attack at the exact right moment. Or take the scenes where they’re running away: they don’t use magic there. It’s all a bit too scripted, unlike the dynamic first two episodes.
But still, the concept of magic in this series has some definite potential. The restrictions this series puts on its characters are great because they put limits on the powers of the characters. This may seem weak at first, but it puts much more complexity at their actions, rather than just having people spam beams over and over until one side goes down.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)
Zetsuen no Tempest does not actually have such a big focus on magic and action. Sure, there are fights, but it’s more of an intellectual series (think Death Note or Spiral – the latter by the same author). This hasn’t come to light yet since we are still in the opening scenes but it will become obvious eventually. So I hope you stick with it, because it gets quite interesting later on.
Hint: there is actually a reason coincidences seem to favor the Mahiro/Yoshino/Hakaze side, but we won’t find until later…
Changing topic: is this going to be one or two cour? I am wondering how much of the manga they plan to adapt.
“There is no such thing as coincidence in this world – there is only inevitability” – Ichihara Yuuko
Totally relevant quote.
Well, I’m kinda disappointed to find out that there are only 18 chapters out so this will most likely only be 1 cour unless they go off into anime original territory.
There are actually 38 chapters, but English scanlations are only available for the first 18.
mostly because it was nearly entirely about a big action scene with little else happening
Tt looked to me like a huge exposition of how the Kusaribe clan’s magic system worked. A lot of questions were answered about the basic philosophy of their clan’s magic (defending the world’s logic through defense, healing and management?), the mechanics of operating it and possibly it’s limitations (can’t use it to resurrect Aika cos it can’t defy the world’s logic. Hm. I wonder if breaking that magic tree is the way to bring Aika back?), what that tree is all about and how it requires sacrifice of elements of civilization like technology in exchange for power to the mage (explains why that princess is stuck on the island – not enough tech there to sacrifice and get out). Hm, so that’s why the subtitle of the show is “Civilization Breaker”. They still didn’t quite explain why people are turning into metal though. Also why there are so many victims this time and all seem to be human. No dogs or other animals as far as I could see. I was expecting metal birds or something. Maybe it’s only humans cos they’re the source of the civilization being consumed? There’s also a reveal in the end about what was discovered last episode about Aika’s killer.
All-in-all, a very useful episode to me.
Yeah, I didn’t see it as all action and nothing much happening either. To me it was a showcase of not only the rules of magic of this series, but also Fuwa’s character and Yoshino’s talents. The action scenes are also such good eye candy, so no complains from me.
Some things I picked up on were:
“Kusaribe clan’s magic”
-> Implying there are other types of magic, possibly one that could bring Aika back.
“Tree of Genesis” “Tree of Exodus”
The Kusaribe clan’s magic is from the Tree of Genesis, but they are trying to dig up the Tree of Exodus – if it is the opposite, it’s ability should be to “destroy the world’s logic” and harm other people. I wonder what the sacrifice for this tree is – life, i.e. living things, is a logical guess.
And yeah, that there are 2 trees reinforces my idea of there being more than one type of magic (whether or not it is limited to just 2 however… who knows?).
Aika also has some greater relevance. Perhaps Mashiro is a mage that uses the Tree of Exodus, but this inheritance was hidden from him, whereas Aika found out and was killed by her enemy – the Kusaribes.
The last part is baseless speculation, but I definitely think there are at least 2 types of magic.
I didn’t understand how Yoshino and Mahiro got so separated in the first place.. wasn’t Yoshino at an observable distance when Mahiro told him to learn magic in 3 minutes? While they are still fighting in the parking garage, Yoshino decides to run through the streets for a bit?
And if the healing magic can be used to track someone, why don’t they use it to find where Hakaze is?
Off the top of my head, but from what I remember….
wasn’t Yoshino at an observable distance when Mahiro told him to learn magic in 3 minutes?
Yup. And to keep the bad guy (Natsumura?) from targeting the vulnerable Yoshino, Mahiro went all out to knock him as far away from Yoshino as possible. Coincidence or not, Mahiro wound up knocked pretty far away from Yoshino. Maybe Natsumura wanted to separate them so he wouldn’t have to deal with taking two targets alive. As they got separated, Yoshino couldn’t track him so he had to run around to look for signs of their battle. I wonder why he couldn’t track them from the sound of their battle.
And if the healing magic can be used to track someone, why don’t they use it to find where Hakaze is?
The only reason the magic worked was because Yoshino managed to find Mahiro’s phone with his blood on it so he was able to cast the “spell” on the blood. For it to work on Hakaze, they’d have to find something left over from Hakaze’s body AND be close enough to sense Hakaze’s presence before the magic was complete.
Also, plotwise, I’m not sure if Hakaze will ever leave the island cos if she does, it sounds to me like she’s so OP, she wouldn’t need the two boys around to help her anymore. She could probably take Samon and his goons on all by herself, at least until they can fully tap the power of the Tree of Exodus.
Speaking of which, I’m curious where fansubbers are getting the translation for Tree of Genesis and Tree of Exodus. Is it an official engrish naming? It sounds like there’s one tree called the “Hajimari no Ki” which could be “Tree of Beginnings” while the red tree being summoned is the “Zetsuen no Ki” (sounds like the same Zetsuen as the title’s “Zetsuen” no Tempest”).
The first character “Zetsu”, seems to mean this:
http://www.yookoso.com/pages/kanji.php?file=display&jisdec=16484
The second character “En” seems to mean “garden”.
I’m not sure what you get if you put the two together but I’m not seeing the link to Exodus.
I think it was about four times that they used the exact same attack on him. You think after rushing him head-first while swinging down an object twice they would get the point.
I really don’t see any reason to call this the weakest episode, by far IMO it is the best one, and an excellent example of how to handle an exposition episode by integrating a fight scene into it that shows directly everything we are learning through the exposition.
So far this episode got some impressive animation and action sequences, impressive music, detailed explanations for how the Kusaribe clan magic works, its protective/healing nature and its source (the Tree of Genesis), the explanation about the technological sacrifices to the Tree of Genesis not only explain the title of the series and puts an interesting limitation on the magic system that makes it feel believable and consistent, it also shows us why all those magic infused items disintegrate after use (also explains why Hakaze was left on a deserted island to prevent her from using magic).
It also sheds some light regarding the evil tree which is the opposite of the Tree of Genesis, the Tree of Exodus that the rouge faction in the Kusaribe clan is trying to resurrect in order to gain limitless power, break the world logic and probably destroy the Tree of Genesis itself, the part where Hakaze talks about how resurrecting the dead is against the world logic made me think about how the Tree of Exodus will be capable of doing just that and that it also requires living sacrifices to be appeased/summoned (possibly the metalized people and “you know who” were all sacrifices to that wicked Tree).
This episode accomplices so much in so little time it’s in fact IMO one of the best episodes this entire season by far.
Same here, really enjoyed this episode a lot.
I liked this episode, some interesting things I found were the blending of technology and magic together, I like how there is a heavy use of themes, it feels almost like an act coming together.
Ouch ! They lost me this time.
First the fight was horribly long and boring. Then the lecture given by the princess was convoluted and uninteresting.
I don’t care about that ugly tree. All the atmospheric and cosmic magic of the previous episodes was lost.
I don’t see how anything you said is true, but to each his own. We learned much more about the magic in actual use (the fight) and having it explained to us in more detail. Don’t see how it was convoluted at all. Did you just want the magic to stay a mystery? Also we learned that the main guy isn’t stupid and can plan quickly.
I personally found none of it uninteresting and the animation is eye candy enough that a few long fights are fine with me.
I just have apparently an opposite opinion than you of this episode so I’m responding strongly. Not trying to sound like a jerk or anything.