7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Ryner Lute is a lazy student of Roland Empire Royal Magician's school. One day, Roland Empire goes to war against a neighboring country Estabule, and he lost his classmates in the battle. After the war, Lute sets out for a journey to search the relics of a "Legendary Hero" at Emperor Sion Astar's command. And he finds out a deadly curse spreading the continent.
Starring: Ayahi Takagaki, Daisuke Ono, Jun Fukuyama, Anri Katsu, Atsushi ImaruokaAnime | 100% |
Foreign | 94% |
Action | 26% |
Fantasy | 21% |
Adventure | 4% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Japanese: Dolby TrueHD 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Four-disc set (2 BDs, 2 DVDs)
DVD copy
Region A, B (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
It’s never a good sign when the cast of any given project is on record making fun of the project’s title, but that’s repeatedly the case the Department of Redundancy Department’s naming of Legend of the Legendary Heroes, an anime series whose title, according to one of several commentaries included on this four disc Blu-ray set of the series (split into two 2 disc sets labeled Part 1 and Part 2), “probably sounded spectacular in Japanese”. The problem with having the word “legendary” in your title is that it seems to only invite critical brickbats if the results, well, aren’t legendary, and that’s at least partially the case with this series, which has an interesting enough premise, some compelling characters, and some decent action elements, but which never rises much beyond the merely average, let alone the superlatives alluded to not once but twice in the anime’s title. The Legend of the Legendary Heroes began life as a well received (and quite long lasting) series of light novels that subsequently spawned everything from a manga series to a PSP game. The series is filled to the brim with various characters—in fact, some would argue too many characters—and it has several time honored elements which would seem to indicate it would have an easy time jumping into legendary (or at least near legendary) anime status. The hero is one Ryner Lute, a sort of wastrel, a failure as a student who nonetheless has a battery of special talents at his beck and call, including facility with magic and hand to hand combat. He also has a special proclivity known as the Alpha Stigma, a sort of pentagram looking apparition that appears in one of his eyes (rather strangely similar to the one that appears in Ciel Phantomhive’s eye in the recently reviewed Black Butler). This device (for want of a better term) allows Ryner to see the inner machinations of other practitioners’ forms of magic, giving Ryner the ability to assimilate different techniques and schools of learning. Ryner’s story plays out against an epochal battle between warring cultures, always a tried and true anime trope in any number of previous entries. Ryner’s comrade in arms is one Ferris Eris, a young female warrior who has some troubling aspects to her past. Ryner and Ferris make something of an odd couple, but they are thrust together on a quest to help their liege, the King of Roland, by finding some long lost relics whose discovery may help to usher in a new Golden Age free of war and conflict.
The Legend of the Legendary Heroes is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is generally a very sharp and well detailed looking high definition presentation, one that combines some nice CGI elements with more traditionally animated fare. While character designs here are fairly straightforward and not very innovative, some of the backgrounds are really nicely rendered, with gorgeously saturated color and some fantastic detail. These include everything from fire red cliffs to beautiful pink cherry blossoms floating through the sky. Line detail is strong and well defined and the overall look of this presentation is clear, sharp and very appealing.
The Legend of the Legendary Heroes is presented with two lossless audio options, the original Japanese language track delivered via a Dolby TrueHD 2.0 mix and an English dub delivered via Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix. Both of these tracks offer really excellent fidelity, but even original language track purists may well want to at least sample the English track for its extremely boisterous low end, which pummels the subwoofer fairly regularly in just about every episode. The English mix features good voice work from the usual FUNimation suspects, though a couple of the male voices frankly have the tendency to sound more like surfer dudes that legendary heroes. The 5.1 track offers some great immersion in the series' battle elements, and it also provides a significant opening up of the series' music. Dynamic range on both of these tracks is quite wide, though the edge once again goes to the English 5.1 dub in this regard.
The jury's still out on Legend of the Legendary Heroes. This is a series which would seem to have a lot going for it, but at the halfway point there's a weird dichotomy going on. On one hand, the series feels way too long and involved, with all sorts of side trips that really don't go anywhere. On the other hand, it often feels like huge swaths of the story have been left on the cutting room floor, with not clear explanation as to what various things mean or how certain events happened. (At least The Twelve Kingdoms came equipped with a dictionary of terms to help the uninitiated wend their way through the labyrinthine storyline.) Some series (like Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, for example) take their own good time getting to their goal, and end up being well worth the wait. Will that be the case with Legend of the Legendary Heroes? Part 2 of this new release will ultimately tell the tale.
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