Fire Emblem was a game franchise virtually unknown outside of Japan until Super Smash Brothers Melee came out. That game featured two Fire Emblem characters, Marth and Roy, as playable fighters. Creating an interest in the franchise that was great enough to get the seventh title, Blazing Sword, and most subsequent titles released internationally. So, why was the franchise only released outside of Japan at that point? My theory is that the games were simply considered too difficult. Yes, Nintendo had a lot of really hard games, some unfairly so. But Fire Emblem is the most difficult franchise developed by Nintendo itself. The games featurepermanent death for party members. That's right, no phoenix downs, revives, Yggdrasil leaves or anything like that. Except for one single use item that you get later in the game. No or few opportunities to grind and battles that are difficult enough that a single tactical error can easily get one of your team members killed. Maybe I'm wrong about that and there's another reason. If someone knows for certain I'm sure that person will politely correct me.
Oddly enough, the first Fire Emblem related thing to be released outside of Japan was an OVA. It's a simple, two episode work developed by KSS Inc and Studio Fantasia in 1996. The OVA is based on the first/third title in the series. (the third was a remake of the first.) So, how does the anime hold up?
Story:
Our tale covers the first couple missions of the game. Marth, is forced to escape from his homeland, Altea. It moves to Marth and his men at Talys with princess Sheeda. They're planning a counter-attack against the army that forced them into exile when they're forced into battle with pirates for Talys' sake. Knowing that the encounter will make their presence known to their enemy, they make their way back to their continent, planning to join the princess of Aurelis in her opposition to the hostile Doluna kingdom. Upon arrival at the mainland they encounter and defeat yet another group of pirates. The group hears about a nun named Rena who was abducted by thieves and they go out to save her.
I will give the OVA credit on several counts. For one thing, it does do a good job of covering those early missions. It also expands a bit on Marth's back story, providing information about his childhood that you really don't get in the game. I also like that the second episode spends a lot of time giving you Nabarl, Rena and Julian's perspectives which helps build them up as characters who you have some investment in and also sets up what happens with them later.
That being said, there are some issues with the two episodes. While it is nice to see the character interactions, they do move into padding at times. For example, the first episode has a montage of Marth and Sheeda just playing around in Talys. The second opens with Nabarl killing a group of people who are attacking him for no apparent reason. There weren't more important things to cover? They glance over the prologue scene pretty fast. Wouldn't the time have been better spent expanding on that? Even if they were set on adding in some extra details, they could have put something more substantial in.
Characters:
The game has a lot of characters, even in the early missions covered by this. As such, some of them get better developed than others. Marth and Sheeda are well developed and fleshed out. Nabarl, Rena and Julian are as well. Then you've got characters like Cord, Bord and Barst who have one line of dialogue among them and characters like Cain, Abel, Oguma, Gordin, Doga and Jeigan who appear and speak on occasion but don't get fleshed out by any means. Although Oguma comes pretty close. In all fairness, developing five characters pretty well is about the best you can expect from an OVA that, taken in total, is less than an hour long. There are some very strong interactions too. The way Sheeda recruits Nabarl in particular is just great. Slightly different from the game, but in a way that actually works a bit better.
Art:
The art is probably the biggest weak point. It's pretty standard art for anime in the mid-90s. There are some nice little details like the pegasus animation and the way they differentiate the killing edge from other swords but it's largely pretty generic.
Sound:
They did get some great voice actors for this. Marth is voiced by Midorikawa Hikaru, who also voiced Zelgadis and Heero Yuy. He also reprised his Marth role in the Smash Brothers games. Sheeda is voiced by Tange Sakura who was also Cardcaptor Sakura. Koyasu Takehito, who has appeared in a hugwe amount of anime, voices Nabarl. Oddly enough, both he and Midorikawa Hikaru played Dio Brando in different Jojo adaptations. With Koyasu being the actor in the main series and Midorikawa voicing him in one of the films. All of the actors do their work very well. The music is less well done. A lot of it is pretty generic and lacks impact, leaving little impression.
Ho-yay:
While there is arguably some ho-yay in the games this was based on, there isn't any in this. Of course, a lot of that comes from Rickard's character who doesn't appear in the OVA. So, the ho-yay factor is a 1/10.
Final Thoughts:
This is one that's firmly for fans of the series. It expands on some details, fleshes out some characters really well and gives you a nice look at the first three chapters of the game. That being said, there's really no reason to watch it unless you're a fan of the game. It simply doesn't stand alone very well. So, if you're a fan of Fire Emblem check it out. If you don't care about the franchise, it's not going to be worth your time. For myself, I give it a 7/10. Next week, let's take a look at one more Nintendo based OVA. To be specific, Super Mario Brothers.
sysylvanelite
December 10, 2009
Mixed Feelings
This OVA tells the story of the very first Fire Emblem game, and features Marth (Mars in the OVA) as the main character. From Super Smash Bros. fame, Marth's game was not released outside of Japan, that was until 2008/9, where a remake was made for DS, which saw international release. This OVA, strangely, was dubbed into English before Math made his maiden appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Ironically, his name was translated as "Mars" in this release. The final thing to note, before I start fully reviewing the OVA, is that it only lasts 2 episodes. It was cancelled before any additional episodeswere made, as such the story only just reaches the introductory stages before the series ends.
The actual OVA is quite old, and the animation style is very indicative of the era. This aside, it is quite well done. The sound also leaves a lot to be desired, old compression technology means most copies of this OVA still in existence are distorted with VHS-encoded sound. Expect a few drops in pitch and tone while watching this OVA. Encoding aside, the sound is very noticeable, with the Fire Emblem Main Theme having an excellent rendition in the OVA.
As mentioned before, being only 2 episodes long, the story is nothing more than introduction. There is no "middle" or "end" to the OVA, only a "beginning". But the bits that are there are well done, they give a good impression of the setting, and many of the characters are given more story than they are in the game, which is a nice feature. The characters are likeable, and each have their own traits. They differ from the game slightly, as some are stronger than their in-game appearances would imply.
Overall, it's a must-see for Marth fans, since it gives a few glimpses to his role in the Fire Emblem franchise. This OVA does more in 2 episodes than most of the dialogue in his game, thanks to his game being a NES-era game (with only bare-minimum amounts of text). But aside from fans of the series(or people who just want to know a bit about fire emblem), the OVA is too short to be considered a full plot.
Recommended
Not bad at all. Go watch it together with your friends that also happen to be fans of the Fire Emblem video game series! ===Pros=== Great '90s style artwork and very nice orchestrated music based on the music from the game. The animation itself looked fairly smooth at times as well. I personally really enjoyed the voice acting, but I can see where people may think otherwise. It is delightfully cheesy. ===Cons=== While the story sets up a solid premise that follows the video game, it doesn't get to go very far due to this series never surpassing two episodes of length. The same issue can be saidfor the characters. The voice of characters were often out of sync with their mouth animations, which becomes slightly annoying. However, the fact that this is only two episodes long, could be a pro to those who didn't find this OVA to be particularly enjoyable. If you really did not like it, at least you didn't waste much time.
Don't watch if you don't care about Fire Emblem and Marth or you are expecting something to be of quality of a Ghibli film.
===Final Thoughts===
It is a shame that this show didn't continue to be longer. I could really see the potential in this show. It had a lot of room to develop and grow. The style and story of the Fire Emblem series is just the right recipe for an anime adaptation. Cheers to Nintendo and Intelligent Systems if they ever let an anime studio try again to make another OVA out of one of the newer games (or older ones) in the franchise.
For what this OVA is, it is a must see if you are a fan of the Fire Emblem video game series and/or you main Marth in Super Smash Bros. Get together with some friends and embrace the cheesiness. You are bound to have some good laughs. Gordon the archer especially has some real laugh out loud moments. It has some rather epic moments too. You don't have much to lose.
I low-key loved this OVA, but realistically it is probably a 5 out of 10, because of its incompleteness. Had the show continued, it could've been an 8 or 9 out of 10, because it was on a solid path to be something bigger and better. Nonetheless, it was quite enjoyable and I would totally watch it again for fun. So for me, it is a 7/10.
FAFAKEANIMEGIRL
September 27, 2015
Mixed Feelings
(Check out my profile for a link to my site containing more up-to-date reviews and bonus media!) I admit it, I was pleasantly surprised at how much better the Fire Emblem anime was than what I was expecting. Short OVA adaptations of existing franchises usually tend to be heavily abridged and amount to little more than a special trailer for the source material. And when the source material comes from Fire Emblem, specifically one of the earliest, simplest games in a series where the storylines are just amusing at best, you would naturally expect no different. But in a twist, that's not the case. This OVA's creatorsactually did honor to their source material, adhering to the original storyline while using the new format to flesh out the game's scenarios and characters more than the game itself did. Player characters are given more personality and dialogue than they did in the game and are seen interacting with each other and contributing to the anime's adaptations of some of the game's earlier chapters.
There are even parts of this OVA that seem as if they were somehow made for future fans of the series. All characters featured in the OVA are at the very least given brief moments for their own cool stunts and maybe a tough line or two, and we even get to see a fight between Ogma and Nabarl, the first instance of the series's natural rivalry between the Mercenary and Myrmidon classes.
In addition, most of the score contains new orchestral renditions of music from the game, and it sounds just as good as it did on the consoles, if not better. I know for a fact I've never been as much of a fan of the Fire Emblem theme as I was while watching this OVA. The original scores are quite nice as well, and I especially like the tune that plays during each episode's introduction to Akaneia before the Fire Emblem logo appears.
Now, before Fire Emblem fans get too excited, let me clarify that I'm only saying this OVA is good for what it is. It goes above the call of duty for a videogame adaptation, but it's still an adaptation of a fairly generic plot and character archetypes. This isn't a particularly good anime in any general sense, and if it satisfied at all that's entirely due to the fact that it's just mildly appeasing fanservice at its best moments. The OVA also ends far before the game's storyline does, although this does mean we avoid the awkward breakneck pace a lot of videogame adaptations have. The animation and art are completely average for its time, though the framerate is quite nice and Shiida is classic anime cute.
With all that said, the Fire Emblem OVA does an admirable enough job for a videogame adaptation, and it deserves proper credit for doing the fans a service by expanding upon a storyline and its characters when the game itself didn't give much attention to them.
