Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica
Polyphonica
神曲奏界ポリフォニカ
Phoron Tatara's no ordinary musician. As one of the rare Dantists who can summon elder spirits using music called Commandia, his gift is so strong that his spirit partner is none other than the infamous Corticarte Apa Lagranges. Sure, she may look like a young girl in her human form, but you don't get nicknames like "The Crimson Annihilator" and "The Bloody Duchess" for sitting back and watching the daisies grow. Now, at the behest of the Tsuge Divine Music Player Office, this dynamic duet travels the continent of Polyphonica on Phoron's combination motorcycle/organ, following the song of the open road, orchestrating rescues and generally fixing whatever's baroque! Some musicians wait for a muse to hit them, but Phoron makes his work for scale! (Source: RightStuf)
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Phoron Tatara's no ordinary musician. As one of the rare Dantists who can summon elder spirits using music called Commandia, his gift is so strong that his spirit partner is none other than the infamous Corticarte Apa Lagranges. Sure, she may look like a young girl in her human form, but you don't get nicknames like "The Crimson Annihilator" and "The Bloody Duchess" for sitting back and watching the daisies grow. Now, at the behest of the Tsuge Divine Music Player Office, this dynamic duet travels the continent of Polyphonica on Phoron's combination motorcycle/organ, following the song of the open road, orchestrating rescues and generally fixing whatever's baroque! Some musicians wait for a muse to hit them, but Phoron makes his work for scale! (Source: RightStuf)
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Archaeon
October 5, 2009
There aren't many anime that heavily feature music. The most well known would be Macross (any of them), Nodame Cantabile and La Corda Doro, and those anime that do rely on music are often reasonably straightforward affairs. Every so often though, an anime basen on music will appear that deviates from what we've pretty much come to accept as the norm. Happiness! is one such show, as is Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica. The series is based on the highly successfuly visual novel created by Ocelot in 2006, which spawned several light novel adaptations, a manga version in March 2007, and finally an anime in April 2007. Sincethen there has also been another anime adaptation (Crimson S), which was released earlier this year. The story is set in a fantasy world, on the continent of Polyphonica, and follows the lives of the Dantists who work at the Tsuge Divine Music Player Office, in particular, the Dantist Phoron and his contracted spirit Corticarte Apa Lagranges (Corti). The series actually has a rather refreshing take on music, and relates it to the summoning and command of spiritual creatures whose power is relative to the number of wings they have. While music in Polyphonica is not restricted in any way, the Dantists are the only ones with the ability to use "Commandia" - a summoning song or piece of music. Unlike most other series Polyphonica makes a definite connection between music and "magic" (although here it is limited to summoning spirits), which is interesting in itself as historically, and in folktales, music and magic in the real world are linked in many ways. It may also be the case that the term Dantist is an oblique reference to Dante and his Divine Comedy, although that is supposition on my part (for now). As interesting as the concept is, the story suffers from it's episodic nature. The series would have been better served by showing some actual progression rather than taking what is effectively a haphazard approach to the plot. Although the anime is fairly easy to get into, there is an overall lack of depth to the plot which is an effect of the format, especially as the characters suffer greatly from it. Visually the series looks good. The colours are bright and bold, with nothing that looks "washed out", especially in relation to the backgrounds and settings. The animation is decent, however the series suffers from an overall lack of cohesiveness which causes the animation, in particular of the characters, to sometimes become unnaturally rigid. Design-wise, the series is above par for the most part. There are some unique innovations in the show that separate it from the typical supernatural or music based anime, the two main ones being the "One-Man Orchestras" and the "wings" of the spiritual beings. As this is a music based series, one would expect the sound to be of a high standard. Unfortunately the show only passes muster with it's music and effects. The music is, at first, rather pleasant, however this quickly fades due to the repetitious nature of the series. The effects are okay for the most part, however (and unusually), they are sometimes too quiet, and play second fiddle (pardon the pun), to the music. The voice acting isn't bad at all though. The cast does a good job giving their characters a "soul" as it were, however the episodic format, and the repetions I mentioned, mean that there's really nothing there for the actors to get their teeth into. It's unfortunate that the anime has failed to capture the essence of the visual novel, epsecially when it comes to the characters. This is understandable on the one hand though, as the audience is simply thrown in at the deep end, with only a few hints given about how it all began (something which Crimson S has attempted to resolve). As much as I liked the show, there is an incomplete feeling to the characters, something which only makes their stereotypical nature more apparent. I have to admit though, even with the flaws I actually did enjoy this anime. The odd take on music is something I found appealing, and although this phenomenon is only lightly touched on in the series, it still manages to keep things reasonably interesting by highlighting how strong the bond between dantist and spirit is. This isn't the best anime about music, nor is it the worst. The concept is pretty good on the whole, but the execution is lacking in several areas, and this causes the series to lose cohesion from time to time. One thing I should point out though is that the series is actually better if you watch Crimson S first, as that series is a prequel to this one. Like many others though, I watched Polyphonica first, and I was dubious about watching Crimson S when it was released. I'm glad I did though as it makes the characters and events in the first Polyphonica series much more understandable, and my score is reflective of that fact. If you're planning to watch this series, I would advise doing so after watching Crimson S. Okay, now everyone sing "Doo Wah DiddY"....
