The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Part 2 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Part 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Evidently 'Story of the Unknown Generic Protagonists' didn't test well.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 3, 2012

Just how silly is Legend of the Legendary Heroes’ name? As was discussed in the review of Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Part 1 of this new two part set, it’s never a good sign when the voice cast mercilessly pillories the name in several commentaries (something that continues in this second part). But aside from the Department of Redundancy Department aspect of the title, when most people see something like “legendary heroes” in the title, chances are they’re going to think of, well, you know, actual legendary heroes, whether real life ones or iconic figures from myth, legend (dare I say it?), and lore. Instead, this anime is culled from a Japanese light novel series which features characters few Westerners (if any) will have ever heard of, and the title’s inherent silliness is further exacerbated by the fact that the legendary heroes of the name may not in fact refer to the actual on screen protagonists, but to other characters in the storyline, people from long ago who had, and then hid, a group of sacred relics which the anime’s main trio, Sion, Ryner and Ferris, are out to retrieve, in the hopes that finding them will usher in an age of peace and contentment across a land roiling and rife with political intrigue and conflict. The first half of this release had some interesting elements but too often shot itself in the foot with meandering sidebars and long, involved flashbacks. The back stories of Ryner and Sion played out with a fair degree of interest (despite being told as somewhat interminable flashbacks), and likewise some salient information about Ferris was doled out in dribs and drabs, but overall the series had an on again, off again ambience that made it hard to totally invest in the characters and (especially) the plotline. Unfortunately, the second half continues with many of these same deficiencies, despite some more visceral intrigue with regard to a couple of characters. Legend of the Legendary Heroes is a rather scattershot enterprise, one that seems to want to throw as much as possible on the figurative wall in the hopes that at least something might stick.

When a series is released in two parts like Legend of the Legendary Heroes is, there’s a tendency to cut the first half a little slack if it doesn’t completely fulfill expectations. That tendency seems especially appropriate to this novelistic series as the first part dealt so much in introducing characters and developing interrelationships and the basic plot (such as it is) of the show. But there were already troubling signs afoot, as was detailed in the review of Part 1. Legend of the Legendary Heroes is ostensibly about Sion engaging Ryner and Ferris to go out and hunt for a series of long lost relics that have magical powers that will help bring peace to the Kingdom of Roland. Instead over and over we got new tangential characters introduced who didn’t seem to hav a whole lot to do with this main plot arc, and also (perhaps more understandably) a bunch of flashbacks that supposedly helped to elucidate the long history of these characters, especially that between Ryner and Sion.

Once again this series just kind of meanders along, lurching from weird tangent to weird tangent, with occasional references to the actual ostensible point of the piece. In terms of the story, the best parts of this second half have to do with two supporting characters. Miran, one of Sion’s Generals, is a complex and somewhat duplicitous schemer whose true motives never seem to be entirely clear (think of an anime version of Ben from Lost for a good example). Late in this second half, there’s also a nice minor plot arc dealing with Tiir, another interesting character who’s something of a cross between a zombie and a Harry Potter Death Eater, in that he consumes flesh and thereby absorbs the magical powers of whomever he’s dining on. While these two relatively minor characters provide some passing interest, they point up one of the general deficiencies of this series as a whole: it simply veers away from Ryner and Ferris too often, making the supposed focus of the series seem like afterthoughts.

Perhaps the most maddening thing about Legend of the Legendary Heroes is that erstwhile fans will have stuck with the series for 25 episodes hoping for a payoff, or at least a partial resolution, only to discover that this entire first arc seems instead to merely be a setup for the real story, which is supposedly to follow (although no subsequent episodes have been produced or are even evidently in the pipeline). This may in fact remind some regular television viewers of the brouhaha surrounding The Killing, a show that infuriated a lot of viewers by not providing a supposedly promised denouement at the end of its first season. That may or may not actually be an apt comparison, but as patient as some viewers may be with Legend of the Legendary Heroes, my hunch is a lot, if not most, of them are going to feel like that patience netted them relatively little in return.

The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Part 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Legend of the Legendary Heroes is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. As with Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Part 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, and in fact the animation may well be the major calling card for anime fans who want to check out the series despite its failures in the story department. Once again as in the first part, character designs here are fairly straightforward and not very innovative, but a lot of the backgrounds are really nicely rendered, sometimes in a quasi-Impressionistic, somewhat blurry way, but at other times with really crisp and clean detail. Line detail is strong and well defined and overall this high definition presentation boasts superior clarity and sharpness that as in the first part is very appealing.

The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Part 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

My comments about Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Part 1 prove equally apt for this second part. Part 2 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 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Episode 21 Commentary features Joel McDonald, ADR Director for the second half of the series, as well as Eric Vale (Sion). They get into a bit about Sion, as well as some of the other Kings (and kingly characters) that Vale has voiced through the years.


• Episode 24 Commentary features Ian Sinclair (Ryner) and Luci Christian (Ferris). This last episode has to wait until after Sinclair and Christian finish skewering the silly repetitive title, which they say they call Legend of the Legendary Legend of Legends of Legends—of Lore.


• Textless Opening Song – Last Inferno (HD; 1:32)


• Textless Closing Song – Filament of Light (HD; 1:31)


• U.S. Trailer (HD; 1:22)


• Trailers for other FUNimation Entertainment Releases

The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Part 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

From a purely visual standpoint, Legend of the Legendary Heroes is, if not quite legendary, at least really, really potent. There's a lot of gloriously beautiful imagery here that helps elevate the series substantially above what its meandering plot and mishandled characters might otherwise attain. The series is confusing on a number of levels. As was mentioned in the review of Part 1, it feels both too long and too short by different standards. Because so many tangents are explored, and so many flashbacks utilized, the series seems to take forever to actually get anywhere, and the punch line is by this first season's wrap up, it turns out it really hasn't gotten anywhere to begin with. On the other hand, there is a lot here that simply doesn't make a whole lot of sense, as if the creative staff simply expected the viewer to divine what's going on, or at least have a really solid grounding in the light novel series. Diehard fans of the fantasy genre may well have the requisite patience to make it through this series, and it must be stated that on a visual level, there's certainly a lot to recommend Legend of the Legendary Heroes. Taken as a whole, though, this is one "legend" that barely rises to the level of anecdote.