Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Part 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Just how legendary are these legends of legendary heroes?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 2, 2012

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.

Though they’re different enough at their cores not to warrant too generalized of a comparison, Legend of Legendary Heroes bears a certain resemblance to another somewhat lumbering epic fantasy piece, The Twelve Kingdoms (note that the hyperlink only links to the first volume of a multi-volume release). The Twelve Kingdoms also had a massive cast of characters, many of whom were involved in their own quests, but an even more telling similarity is that both The Twelve Kingdoms and Legend of the Legendary Heroes have storylines that lurch forward in fits and starts, often interrupted by tangents involving supporting characters, and often taking large swaths of any given spisode to indulge in somewhat involved flashbacks.

Part of this tendency is at least partially understandable, as we do get some relevant information about the relationship between Ryner and Sion, the King of Roland who has importuned his friend to help find the lost relics, and we likewise glean some information about Ferris as well. But taking so long to deliver this information means Legend of the Legendary Heroes is awfully top heavy with back story (so to speak), meaning a certain degree of patience is needed before the actual relic hunting really kicks in about half way through this first half of the series.

The series also has some tonal imbalances that can also be somewhat off putting at times. There’s a bickering, bantering relationship between Ryner and Ferris, as with all good “odd couple” pairings, and that actually gives Legend of the Legendary Heroes some of its best moments, with well drawn characters and clear, if somewhat silly, motivations. But when that bantering is thrust up against a rather convoluted tale of political intrigue, supernatural powers (in both characters and relics), and several warring factions, it means that once again the series lurches as much in tone as it does in its plot arc.

This first half of Legend of the Legendary Heroes gets the show to its thirteenth episode, and the results are highly mixed. There are a number of interesting, even intriguing, elements here, but they’re handled in such a haphazard fashion that it’s hard at times to make head or tails of them. The relationship between Ryner, Ferris and Sion is multifaceted, and all three characters have interesting back stories, but the series takes off on too many tangents too much of the time, introducing characters who don’t really play into the overall storyline all that much while also spending a lot of time on flashbacks that suck the energy out of what should be the main thrust of the plot. The entire tale is yet to be told, and so ultimate judgment should probably be reserved, but at the halfway point, Legend of the Legendary Heroes is a mixed bag at best, more potential than actual realization.

The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Part 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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, Part 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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 Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Part 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Episode 3 Commentary features Brina Palencia (Kiefer) and J. Michael Tatum (Miran). Tatum's character hasn't appeared yet in the series (something that tends to happen a lot in these FUNimation commentaries), so instead he and Palencia discuss more general items, helped by the fact that Tatum was the lead adaptive writer for the series.


• Episode 9 Commentary features Colleen Clinkenbeard, director and line producer of the first half of Legend of the Legendary Heroes (Clinkenbeard also voices Noa), as well as Monica Rial (Iris). Monica seems to have a sense of humor about her screechy high voice, apologizing to listeners if their ears bleed during the episode.


• Textless Opening Song – Lament (Yagate Yorokobi Wo) (HD; 1:32)


• Textless Closing Song – Truth of My Destiny (HD; 1:31)


• Trailers for other FUNimation Entertainment Releases

The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Part 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.