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anime: Zetsuen no Tempest
Jan. 12th, 2014 08:33 pmZetsuen no Tempest is a 24 episode anime that kicks off with Hakaze, princess of the Kusaribe clan and the most powerful mage in the world being betrayed by her cousin, Samon, and stranded on a deserted island. Since magic in this world operates by sacrificing "the products of civilization," this deprives Hakaze of most of her powers. Despite this, she's able to create a wooden charm that will let her communicate with whoever holds it, and casts it into the sea. The charm is found by Fuwa Mahiro, a young man whose parents and stepsister, Aika, were brutally murdered the year before, and whose killer he's obsessed with finding. (Theoretically, Mahiro wants to avenge his entire family, but the characters and series, focus on Aika for numerous reasons, and I think the writers actually forgot about the parents altogether after a while.) Hakaze makes a deal with Mahiro: She'll use her magic to find out who killed his family if he'll help her stop Samon, who is possibly about to cause the apocalypse. Mahiro is soon joined by his best friend Yoshino, who was secretly dating Aika.
In case you hadn't guessed yet, the series is partly based on both Hamlet and The Tempest, with one of the major themes being whether or not the tale of revenge will end happily or with everyone dead.
I watched the first episode and was very meh-ed by it (especially because the very fridged Aika, though she becomes less so as the series progresses, and is prone to saying various things in flashbacks that become pertinent to the present-day story) but remembered a few friends liked it, and so watched the second and liked it a little more. Then the next day, I accidentally watched 10 episodes in one sitting, spamming twitter the whole time. I suspect people were very happy when I finally went to bed.
Various bits:
-There are a pair of apocalyptic trees that could control and/or destroy the world that are tied to teenaged girls (note: Terry Brooks is not involved in this series) and a large part of of the plot revolves around figuring out which tree is the actual apocalypse-causing tree.
-One of the apocalyptic trees has the unfortunate side effect of turning people into black iron as part of its waking up. Unsurprisingly, this appears to kill them.
-Mahiro, never quite "normal" to start with, is pretty much a sociopath when we meet him at the beginning of the series, and doesn't care if the world is destroyed, only about finding Aika's killer. He was also very obviously in love with her (note: Kaori Yuki is not involved with this series) though he's the only one who didn't know it. At one point, he's in a position to either save the world or destroy it, and his decision is based on finding out who Aika's secret boyfriend is.
-Hakaze plots to overthrow her usurper while stranded on a deserted island with nothing but her underwear and a barrel, and is prepared to avert the apocalypse while naked. (Despite that sentence, this actually isn't a a very fanservicey series.)
-Yoshino appears to be long-suffering BFF to the bad boy lead, but is a little too perfect and is actually a sneaky conniving little such-and-such with an angels face. He's actually kind of concerning.
-The series sometimes likes to abuse it's right to overuse dramatic butterflies. (Note: Clamp is not involved in this series.)
-At one point, a character spends a couple episodes arguing about whether or not a person is actually dead, while playing with what may or may not be said person's skeleton. He's also trying to bolster that same person's spirits at the same time (Note: Kaori Yuki is still not involved with this series.)
-People in this series are almost unbearably logical and reasonable in their reactions to things (even Mahiro, at times). At one point, a character literally flips out and starts breaking people and things because HE CANNOT TAKE IT. IT IS NOT NATURAL TO BE THIS LOGICAL ABOUT EVERYTHING. I spent his entire tirade going "I feel you, dude."
-Several characters apparently have the entirety of Shakespeare's works memorized, and can spontaneously quote long passages.
-A few characters actually become masked superheroes at one point.
-This has the most annoyingly placed recap episode ever, taking place after an episode that ends with what's about to be a huge battle, only to have the events of the that battle be mentioned in an offhand way a bit later. I WANTED THAT BATTLE INFINITELY MORE THAN A RECAP EPISODE AND FEEL ROBBED.
I'm not sure there was much about the series that was particularly original, but I definitely enjoyed it, and it did a good job of putting most of its tropes together interestingly.
In case you hadn't guessed yet, the series is partly based on both Hamlet and The Tempest, with one of the major themes being whether or not the tale of revenge will end happily or with everyone dead.
I watched the first episode and was very meh-ed by it (especially because the very fridged Aika, though she becomes less so as the series progresses, and is prone to saying various things in flashbacks that become pertinent to the present-day story) but remembered a few friends liked it, and so watched the second and liked it a little more. Then the next day, I accidentally watched 10 episodes in one sitting, spamming twitter the whole time. I suspect people were very happy when I finally went to bed.
Various bits:
-There are a pair of apocalyptic trees that could control and/or destroy the world that are tied to teenaged girls (note: Terry Brooks is not involved in this series) and a large part of of the plot revolves around figuring out which tree is the actual apocalypse-causing tree.
-One of the apocalyptic trees has the unfortunate side effect of turning people into black iron as part of its waking up. Unsurprisingly, this appears to kill them.
-Mahiro, never quite "normal" to start with, is pretty much a sociopath when we meet him at the beginning of the series, and doesn't care if the world is destroyed, only about finding Aika's killer. He was also very obviously in love with her (note: Kaori Yuki is not involved with this series) though he's the only one who didn't know it. At one point, he's in a position to either save the world or destroy it, and his decision is based on finding out who Aika's secret boyfriend is.
-Hakaze plots to overthrow her usurper while stranded on a deserted island with nothing but her underwear and a barrel, and is prepared to avert the apocalypse while naked. (Despite that sentence, this actually isn't a a very fanservicey series.)
-Yoshino appears to be long-suffering BFF to the bad boy lead, but is a little too perfect and is actually a sneaky conniving little such-and-such with an angels face. He's actually kind of concerning.
-The series sometimes likes to abuse it's right to overuse dramatic butterflies. (Note: Clamp is not involved in this series.)
-At one point, a character spends a couple episodes arguing about whether or not a person is actually dead, while playing with what may or may not be said person's skeleton. He's also trying to bolster that same person's spirits at the same time (Note: Kaori Yuki is still not involved with this series.)
-People in this series are almost unbearably logical and reasonable in their reactions to things (even Mahiro, at times). At one point, a character literally flips out and starts breaking people and things because HE CANNOT TAKE IT. IT IS NOT NATURAL TO BE THIS LOGICAL ABOUT EVERYTHING. I spent his entire tirade going "I feel you, dude."
-Several characters apparently have the entirety of Shakespeare's works memorized, and can spontaneously quote long passages.
-A few characters actually become masked superheroes at one point.
-This has the most annoyingly placed recap episode ever, taking place after an episode that ends with what's about to be a huge battle, only to have the events of the that battle be mentioned in an offhand way a bit later. I WANTED THAT BATTLE INFINITELY MORE THAN A RECAP EPISODE AND FEEL ROBBED.
I'm not sure there was much about the series that was particularly original, but I definitely enjoyed it, and it did a good job of putting most of its tropes together interestingly.
