Ys

The Y's franchise may or may not be known to you. Basically, it's a series of action RPGs that helped define the genre back in the late 80s. It's also Falcom's best known franchise with around a dozen installments at this point but Falcom also doesn't have much else under their belts that's memorable and even their best known games aren't all that well known compared to a lot of other franchises from bigger name companies. Don't get me wrong, though, most of the franchise is made up of quality games. Back in the late 80s, when the series was in its infancy, Falcom workedwith Tokyo Kids (a studio so minor they don't even have a wiki page) to produce OVAs for the first and second games. The first one being what we're going to look at today. Story: Our tale opens with a traveler named Adol Christin trying to book passage to the land of Esteria, a land blocked by a tempest and rumoured to be overrun by monsters. He manages to break through the storm and reach the land, learning that the rumours were true. Furthermore, a young fortune teller named Sarah claims that his coming was foretold and that he can save Esteria, but first he has to go on a perilous journey to find the six books of Ys. Those of you familiar with the game will recognise the plot as will those of you who have never even heard of it. The story isn't exactly original. The whole “destined hero” storyline was really common when the game came out in the late 80s and it's remained so to this day. To be fair, the game was initially released back in 1987 when the technology was a lot more limited and there was only so much they could do with a game's story without sacrificing gameplay and the story itself, though nothing new, isn't badly told and does have some compelling dramatic moments and exciting adventurous moments. The pacing is mixed. The action does flow pretty well from one episode to the next without being overwhelming or rushed, but it's done at the expense of character moments. There's never much of an opportunity to get to know the characters or for the characters to develop since Adol has to move from location to location, action scene to action scene too quickly. Characters: As you can probably surmise, the characters in this aren't very strong. Take our protagonist, Adol. His motivations are really flimsy and he's just kind of a stagnant, generic hero. He doesn't know why he wants to go to Esteria and he supposedly doesn't believe the prophesy about himself, but he does exactly what the prophesy demands from him because... moon prism power. There's really no development between his doubts and his deciding to follow the path of the prophesied saviour. It just switches from one to the other without explanation. Our antagonist, Dark Fact, is just as bad. The only motivation we get from him is that some people are short-sighted and careless but that's a really weak justification for him to try to destroy everything. Art: The art is pretty good. It definitely shows its age, but you can tell that a lot of time and effort went into the character designs and backgrounds. That being said, the action sequences over-use motion blurred backgrounds and the final battle sequence is kind of weak and anti-climactic. Sound: I have no complaints about the acting. They got some strong actors. Adol is voiced by Kusao Takeshi (who also voiced Cless in the Tales of Phantasia OVA.) It also features the vocal talents of Takayama Minami, Honda Chieko and Hayami Show, to name a few. The music is just really good. Ho-yay: There is no ho-yay, or romance at all really. Final Thoughts: Ancient Book of Ys is a decent enough anime, if you want a simple adventure. Unfortunately, the characters are weak and the story has been done much better before and since. You should definitely see it if you're a fan of the game. If you just want a quick fantasy adventure it'll probably appeal to you too. Otherwise, there's not much of a reason to watch it. My final rating is going to be a 6/10. Next week, Doki Doki Precure.

Story: The plot fallows the same basic story line of the original game without to much variation. There are a few minor changes but nothing that would alter the story. As a devoted fan of the games it's only natural that I know and love the story very much. So a 9 on story from me. Art: I'm a huge fan of 80's animation. Always have been. This show looks very much like Maison Ikkoku or even early Ranma1/2. It's very warm and straight forward with bright colors and smooth lines. For me, as I've played the original DOS game and the remakes of the games it wasvery fun to watch the story come to life with my favorite era of animation. A big fat 10 on art. ^__^ Sound: The sound is fine. But as the show is rather old the sound does leave a fair amount to be desired. I will say the sound effects are very nostalgic because they're old. But it's not up to the standards of today. A 6 on sound. (Music) There is no music section so I'll just say this here. The music is basically the music from the game just re-recorded and altered slightly for the show. But it's awesome to hear the music in the anime! If I could I'd give music a 9! Character(s): The characters are all the same characters from the game and I love them all. Because it's a show we get to see more character development. Still not a huge amount but it's still very nice. And who doesn't love Adol and Feena and them? The character designs are also very nice, and generally very much like the game. An 8 on character from me. Enjoyment: I enjoyed this hugely as an original old-school fan! It was great to see the game come to life like this. And even if you know nothing of the games it's still a great ride. ^__^ I would recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy. 10/10 on enjoyment! Overall: Taking everything into consideration I'll give this anime a 10. It's very fun and anyone can get into it. ^^ So I hope you all enjoy watching this as much as me!

Ys イース Review Story (7/10) Good More Specifically (7.75/10) Good+ The story for this anime adaptation of the first installment of the Ys franchise widely known as Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished is a good adaptation from a story standpoint. The progression and pacing all seemed on the money when it comes to everything important that needed to be covered in Ys 1. Obviously for anime purposes they couldn't make the authenticity of the video 100% accurate because certain scenes would probably have been more boring if that was the case. Example when Adol is venturing through the tower of Dahm he is accompanied by Dogi, LutherGemma and Goban. In the video game Adol is by himself going in as Goban never came, Gemma was already locked in there (which was kind of right in the anime) and Dogi who was in there and didn't know who Adol was until he freed Adol when he was imprisoned by breaking through the wall of the prison he and Gemma were in by accident in the anime but on purpose in the video game. Obvious changes that I can list on and on but majority of them didn't hinder the authenticity of the actual story so it is mostly forgiven. One episode in particular I have to give some points to is episode 5 which is the episode where Adol meets the Tree that gives him the silver armor the info dump in this episode was presented (imo) better than the actual video game making it more understanding when it came to the origin behind everything in the story. Art and Animation (7/10) Good The art and animation in this 1985 anime adaptation of a 1987 video game is not bad when you take into consideration of the time it came out. Majority of anime that came out in the 80s had this art style and animation which doesn't bother me, it's the art style and animation of the 80s and if you know that going in there you wouldn't be disappointed or disgusted unless you expected it to look like the cover picture on MAL or the don't like old style art style and animation. Sound (9/10) Great The sound for the anime is probably the best thing about this anime. I'm going through the Ys games and the only one I've completed is Ys 1 and another which isn't worth mentioning right now. All you need to know is as someone coming fresh out of Ys 1 and watching this anime I love the fact that majority if not all of the BGM that is played in the anime is remix BGM of music found in Ys 1. Every BGM that played during parts in the game plays during the exact parts in this anime and it's great from a adaptation quality stand point. The only reason I can't give this a 10 is the fact that I was watching the english dub version of the anime. And certain names aren't pronounced correctly as far as I know. Like Ahh-dol (As far as I know it's Aye-dol) and they go back and fourth between Dark Fact and Dark Factor those where the main two that threw me off and the voice acting is a bit dated but not bad when it take into consideration that this is from the 80s. Characters (8/10) Good Characters in the anime adaptation of Ys 1 is very good. Giving a personality to Adol a character which (if you only played the game) would never know how he is from a personality standpoint since he's presented to the player with a personality similar to a created character aka a personality that is hard to define. It is interesting to see how Adol acts since I personally didn't know until watching this anime and I felt they did a good job he isn't annoying, generic or boring which am grateful he isn't. Other characters since we know how they act in the video CAN be judged from a authenticity standpoint and everyone in the anime I felt was adapted perfectly except one character. This character is Dogi and I've only played Ys 1 (and Ys: Memories of Celceta which he's not in). And only going off of Ys 1 Dogi didn't really give off the same personality that he did in this anime. In the video I saw him has the muscle behind Adol sure but he never really gave off ANY signs of comedic relief in the video game. And in the anime he is obviously the comedic relief and this isn't a bad thing because at the end of the day it wasn't bad or annoying it was actually quite entertaining which I'm not TOO mad about it. BUT from an authenticity standpoint I felt it was incorrect characterization but it is what it is. Enjoyment (7/10) Good I enjoyed the 7 episode anime adaptation of Ys 1, especially the music that was played in the background. Nothing more to be said it wasn't dragged on longer than it should have been either which is good since the video itself isn't that long to begin with. Overall (7/10) Good More Specifically (7.75/10) Good+ I felt this 1989 adaption of the 1987 video game Ys is a good adaptation with a few changes to make it have that anime feel but not enough to straw it away from being considered a good adaption for when it comes to an anime made two years after it's video game in the 80s because back then and even today anime adaptations of video games aren't done well.

“Ys” is an enjoyable, albeit by-the-book, high fantasy adventure that feels like it was lifted straight from a video game (it was based off of one, so that’s understandable). This 7-episode OVA centers on a young man named Adol, who is driven by destiny to fulfill a prophecy and become a hero to a nation plagued by monsters. He must collect the magical six Books of Ys, which contain records of the nation’s past, to do so, while making friends and fighting monsters along the way. The plot progresses logically, and has a satisfying conclusion that sets things up nicely for the sequel. However, the story isformulaic to a fault, and plays out almost exactly like a video game. For instance, a character asks the hero to go into a cave to retrieve a magical artifact for them, which the character then uses to “unlock” something else to further the plot along. The fights are repetitive; the hero slashes through the “mob” characters easily, but always gets his butt kicked during the boss fights until a critical moment when he remembers something someone told him, and then he’s suddenly able to defeat the boss. The antagonists’ motivations are stated, but not explored, so they feel somewhat unrealistic. There are a number of twists and revelations throughout the series, but they’re so predictable that you can see them coming from a mile away even if you’re only halfway paying attention. The characters are all basically archetypes, but they do get some (predictable) development. The dialogue can be repetitive; the antagonists declare that humans are foolish at least a dozen times, for instance. Most of the conversations are reminiscent of video game dialogue. Also, while the writing is mostly solid, there are a few inconsistencies here and there. Regarding technical aspects, the animation is serviceable, although there are lots of still shots, off-model characters and even some blatantly recycled scenes. With a number of jumpy scene transitions, the direction is subpar. The character designs and art are “classic”; not unique, but pleasing to the eye. The voice acting is just average. The soundtrack is a mix of ‘80s rock music and orchestral fantasy-type music. The ending themes for the first two episodes are instrumental, but starting from the third episode we get “Endless History,” which is a fantastic (in all senses of the word) rock ballad, and one of the highlights of this OVA. This series does not have much in the way of objectionable content; it’s pretty family-friendly for the most part. There’s some human vs. monster violence, and a little blood and some deaths of minor characters that aren’t that graphic. Overall, despite my criticisms, I actually enjoyed the series and consider it an easy (or should I say “Ysy”?) watch. Your enjoyment of the series will likely hinge upon whether you are okay with formulaic plots or not; if you are, then “Ys” is definitely worth watching.

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