Tales of Symphonia The Animation: Sylvarant-hen

Story: This OVA is based off the game by the same name "Tales of Symphonia" basically there is a girl that is the "chosen" and she is to go on a mission to save her world from dying of a mana shortage. She is joined by her friends and they go on the journey for her to become an angel, which she needs to become to save the world. Now, I won't say this OVA won't be enjoyable if you haven't played the game, but you will notice that there are big gaps in time which they are supposed to be filled in in thegame. And if you've played the game, you'll be disappointed only because it has sooo much potential to be a very good anime series, but it cuts short :( Assuming you haven't played the game, there'll be some plot twists, and should keep you interested. Art: If you've played the game, then you've seen the movie cut scenes that show up every now and then, and seeing as how Gainax produced those scenes, it's understandable that it was high end animation. Although Gainax doesn't produce the OVA, the quality stays. The characters are drawn well, and all the animation is smooth. Sound: I assume sound means the soundtrack and voice acting, both of which I felt were okay. I enjoyed the voice acting more than I did the music, mainly because of a very good cast. You'll recognize many of the voices, and I they fit the characters well. The soundtrack wasn't bad, but nothing memorable, personally, i got kind of bored the OP, and ED. Character: The characters never had a chance to progress, mainly because the series was so short. There was some progression, such as with Sheena and Lloyd, and change of character with someone else..., but there wasn't much gradual change. The characters are fun to watch, there are many personalities, serious, nerdy, naive, kind, etc. with all of them complementing each other. Enjoyment: Ever since I played the game a few years ago, I loved the movie cut scenes, and always said that they should make a series just from this, and now that they did, I had to watch. Although it did not nearly meet my expectations, I did enjoy it, in fact it had me wanting much much more. But as a person who has never played, I'd imagine that they would enjoy this series moderately, seeing as they'll obviously notice plot gaps, and a pseudo-ending. Overall: I give this series a 7 mainly because I thought it had an unimaginable amount of potential, but alas, this OVA series seems more like a promotional trailer for the game. And seeing as it is an OVA, it's too short, making the creators progress the story too quickly. I'd recommend anyone to watch this, and it may even make you want to play the game.

The problem that occurs when trying to make a show/movies/anime about a game is that you are inevitably going to have cut a fair amount of content, this problem is amplified when you try to adapt an RPG, because you are cutting a 50+ hour game down to 2-10 viewing, and skipping this content normally REALLY hurts the show in question. Now it's time to see how hard Tales of Symphonia hurt itself, at least for the first part. The Short Version: (+)The music is delightful. (-)The entire thing feels rushed. (-)The characters aren't really fleshed out. (-)You can tell they just want to get past the beginning of thegame in the first episode. (-)The art quality is below average for its time The Story (6/10):The story is a simple thing to grasp in this show, one of the main characters is more or less chosen by 'God' to become the Child of Regeneration and save this world from it's own destruction, basic 'Save the world plot'. But there are points in the story that WILL throw up a "Dafuq?" flag in your brain. An early example is what would be the first boss battle in the game, where some "baddies" have appeared in the MC's village and threaten the populace, the MC and head baddie duke it out, the hero wins, but then the show cuts to the villages salvaging their burnt down houses, this is the point where I thought, "Hang on, where the fuck did the rest of the baddies go? Did they die? Or did one of them just go, "Well I'm going home, whose coming with?" Then the rest of the lads followed him. There're a couple of these moments throughout the OVAs but there's not enough of them to leave you questioning the entire show, just a fair amount of it. Another thing with the story is that it horrendously rushed, like someone on the development team just said, "Ok, I know we need to make this good, but let's just get through all of the beginning of the game so we can get to the better stuff A.S.A.P." If you're not a fan of fast paced anime, this may very well throw you off, as the entire show for the most part, plays out in this format. The Characters (6/10): Their are 5 Main Characters in this anime, to get these guys and their relation to each other out of the way for future reference: Colette Brunel, The Child of Regeneration and childhood friend to Lloyd and Genis. Lloyd Irving, Male lead and evident love-interest of Colette. Genis Sage, Child mage and brains to Lloyd's brawn. Kratos Aurion, hired bodyguard of Colette and probably knows more about the situation then he's letting on. Refill (Raine) Sage, group healer and big sister of Genis. The characters as a whole are a fine group, but individually they would not hold this show in the slightest. But as a group though, they hold it just enough to keep you going. The love exchanges between Lloyd and Colette are cute, Kratos fills the mandatory badass slot but he pulls it off without also being an asshole, Genis and Raine are there to help Lloyd and Colette along and almost nothing else. After 4 OVA's I feel that we know just enough about the characters that we get their emotions and motivations, but not enough to feel for them in any given situation, and another thing I noticed was that there are what I call 'Houdini' characters, characters that pop up for a couple minutes then disappear just the reappear later on. Art and Sound (14/20): Now if you actually read the anime info off to the side, you'll notice that this anime was in fact animated by ufotable. I'll warn you right now, don't expect their Kara no Kyoukai, UBW, level of animation, it isn't here, but the animation that is there is good for the time, you're looking at Fullmetal alchemist level of animation, not Brotherhood, just the original series, but with smoother edges. Special note that, even then, they had their 3D revolving on point. The sound isn't your everyday fare. The OP is actually rather calm compared to modern day anime and the ED is much the same, and the voice acting is standard but special note to Kratos' VA, his voice is so good. What do you think of this anime? I won't actively go out a look for a physical copy of this show, I wouldn't even buy it if I just saw it at JB Hi-Fi and thought, "Yeah lets buy that one." I would've seen this in the recommendations and just streamed it at home. Would you recommend this anime? Yeah I would, only for the last stretch of the show, so unless you pre-plan to watch all three parts, you might very well only watch this part but I implore you get watching, you'll be pleased. Goodbye my brethren, see you in the next.

Tales of Symphonia was a Namco RPG released for the Gamecube in August of 2003, or July/ November 2004 if you don't live in Japan. It wasn't the first Tales game to receive an anime adaptation with both Phantasia, which some of you may recall from one of my previous reviews, and Eternia getting adapted before it, but it was the first to have the anime adaptation handled by Ufotable, the same studio responsible for Kara no Kyoukai, Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight, & Fate/Zero. Yeah, it's a bit strange, but most anime adaptations of the Tales franchise have been handled by different studios. So,how did Ufotable handle the series? Story: We open with our heroine, Colette, getting ready to undertake a journey of world regeneration to save her dying world. An angel, Remiel, descends to give her instruction and send her on the way. With the aid of her teacher, Refill Sage and a mercenary hired by the church, Kratos Aurion, she heads out on her journey. Colette's friends, Lloyd and Genis, both want to accompany them but are left behind. Until their village is attacked by people who want Lloyd's Exsphere, a mysterious object. At which point they decide to leave for the safety of the village and rendezvous with Colette and the others to aid her in any way they can. So, it's basically the same plot as the beginning of the game. Now, you've probably already noticed the major problem, the pacing is horrendous. All of those significant events I just described are in the first episode with little time between them. Events are thrown at you one after the other with no time to get a good grip on what's happening. The plot points also aren't expounded on very well. If you haven't played the game you will find yourself wondering what just happened on several occasions. Which is why it's probably a bad idea to condense a good third of the narrative of a plot heavy, multi-disc Gamecube game down to a four episode series. Sure, they managed to do it pretty well with the plot of Phantasia but that was a SNES game and much lighter on the plot. In all fairness, the anime does do a decent job of hitting all the major points in the part of the game they cover and the narrative, though rushed and condensed, does still hold up pretty well and has some really strong scenes, albeit somewhat weakened by being rushed through. They also chose a good stopping point considering that they had more OVAs to come. Characters: The OVA has all the characters you see in the series, except significantly less developed since a lot of their conversations and other character scenes get cut. Still, the series has some great characters. Refill, Genis, Sheena, Kratos and Lloyd are all great characters. No, I'm not including Colette. Honestly, she annoys me. She's one of those self sacrificing characters who worries about everyone else and is supposed to be pure and innocent. I've never been a fan of those characters. They just come across as kind of trite and boring to me. It's even worse in the anime version since she doesn't get any of her funny lines from the game. Art: The art is really good. The character designs, action sequences and background details are all really nicely drawn and animated. Really, there's only one complaint I can make about the OVA. The action sequences, though mostly good, have too many blur line scenes. You know the type. Character is shown in an action pose, multi-coloured lines appear behind them and no contact is made between them and the enemy, assuming they even bother showing the character and their enemy in the same frame. Sound: They got some really good actors. Mizuki Nana, Konishi Katsuyuki, Orikasa Ai, Touma Yumi, Okamura Akemi and Tachiki Fumihiko take the roles of our major characters. The music is also really good with Mizuki Nana and Kawai Eri doing lyrical work. Ho-yay: There's not any ho-yay in this. Making the ho-yay factor a 1/10. Final Thoughts: Tales of Symphonia the animation is made for fans of the game. If you're someone who hasn't played it, the pacing is going to leave you confused and without a lot of the context behind events. If you are a fan of the game, you'll probably enjoy it okay as a supplementary work. For myself, I'm giving it a 6/10. It's a decent OVA with some good moments but it definitely suffers from the pacing. Next week I'll take a look at Potemayo.

Tales of Symphonia, the original being a video game, is probably the best rpg games out there for both Gamecube and PS2. From its epic plot to its memorable characters--one of the best villains of all times, Yggdrasill!--all the way to its awesome soundtrack, it is a masterpiece. The OVA does an excellent job in capturing the most important aspects of the videogame, although, leaving out some major side plots that are very significant to the overall theme. Even with it's fast paced, and sometimes obviousness that is not present in the original game, the OVA allows fans to relive that heart-rendering experience with thecharacters in control. Although, we, the players, have no more role in revealing the destiny of their Worlds, it would seem as the characters have evolved from our level of direction! Awesome OVA, 10/10.

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