Look at the brilliance of that 3D dragon!
Take that Studio Deen!
Okay, so, a fantasy anime with powerful heroes AND several ties to the King Arther legend?
Yeah, it’s pretty good,
but enough about Fate/Stay Night.
I joke, but you have to admit it’s kind of hilarious that Ufotabe, a studio that doesn’t
mass produce shows like other studios, just so happens to be producing a series whose
main character is basically a re-incarnation of King Arthur.
Especially when only a few years ago, they produced a series that did something similar.
Best thing about it is that it’s completely coincidence.
Ufotable has produced “Tales of” anime in the past, are usually in charge of several
animated cut scenes for the games themselves, and are the obvious fit for a project like
this.
The similarities are just amusing to me.
Anyway, Tales of Zestiria the X is an animated adaption of a video game by the same name.
It was released in Japan back in January of 2015, and it is (in my personal opinion) the
most boring Tales of game I ever played.
I took it for a spin on my gaming stream several months back when it came out on Steam and
while I admit that the story drew me in, I kept feeling like I was hampered by gameplay.
This was only cemented further in my mind when I later started to replay Tales of Symphonia,
when THAT came out on PC and honestly commented that the gameplay, despite being 12 years
older, was much more fun.
But again, that’s just me.
So really, this anime is perfect.
Assuming it covers the entirety of the game, it allows me – as someone who never liked
the gameplay of the original, but was intrigued by the story – to still enjoy it but not
have to play it nor watch someone else do so in a Let’s Play or something.
Now the story itself is, well, kind of cliché.
Tragedy is striking a fantasy world and it’s up to our sequestered young hero to save the
day.
Technically I’m about to spoil something a few episodes in, so if you truly care, plug
your ears for a moment.
Our hero becomes an even more cliché stereotype when he pulls a sword out of a stone King
Arthur style and becomes “The Shepherd” prophesied to save the world from whatever
evil befalls it.
Though really that shouldn’t be much of a spoiler because the whole sword in the stone
thing was introduced in episode 0 and this kind of plot element only has one inevitable
conclusion.
I’d like to say that the real entertainment in the story is how all the various characters
interact, but we really haven’t gotten far enough in the series to truly see that come
out in the show, so I’ll withhold judgement in that regard for now.
The animation is obviously stellar, however I will say that – to a very small extent
– I feel like it’s missing the same extreme amount of polish that we are used to seeing
from Ufotable.
Though I don’t actually consider that to be a terribly bad thing.
When comparing it to the Fate anime that they have done, the animation is not the same quality,
but then again the production time for this series is far less.
Ufotable spent quite a few years with each of the Fate shows, and the same amount of
prep time did not seem to happen here, unless of course the anime was planned since before
the game was even released in Japan.
But I doubt that.
Which makes me really question the game plan here.
Even though it’s been over a year, I find it odd that Namco would approve a full anime
series containing the entire story of their most recent Tales Of game, well until next
month when Berseria (bear-sair-ia) comes out in Japan.
It’s not for promotional reasons like most manga adaptations because the story is finished,
and hell there already was an anime made to promote the game, though that was a film.
Did they give up on the game and still want to capitalize on the story?
Ehhhh, unlikely.
Unlike my opinion, the critical response to the game was generally pretty high in the
gameplay department and actually quite low in terms of story.
But hey, they have the next episode previews done in the same style as the story scenes
from the game, which was a nice nod.
I appreciated that at least.
But everything I’ve seen so far makes me question, where is the story going to go from
here?
As I’ve mentioned, it’s full of a lot of cliché elements and so far the characters
act within archetypes, but perhaps they will go out on a limb and change the parts of the
story people disagreed with so that it’s more entertaining or something.
Worth the watch, in that respect.
But in general…
Do I think Tales of Zestiria the X is worth watching?
So far it’s amazingly animated, so if you like sakuga-related anime sequences sure,
but as of yet I do hesitate to say that the story will make it worth the watch.
I’m hopeful that future episodes of the show will change my mind on that, but for
the moment if you are not a fan of any Tales Of game or never even played any of them to
begin with, then I don’t think this anime is for you.
But again, the animation might make you want to watch it for the prettiness of it all.
Far be it from me to stop you for that reason.
At the time of this video, this series has been licensed by Funimation Entertainment
and is available for streaming from them.
It will be part of their Broadcast Dub lineup this season and air during Funimation’s
Weekly Doubletalk block when the dub premieres, but no word as of yet on the English cast.
OUT OF DATE.
Since the recording of this video, a dub cast HAS actually been released.
Details in a link down in the description.
So what did you guys think of Tales of Zestiria the X?
Let me know down in the whatchamajig, and for those of you who are further along in
the show or have read the manga, no spoilers please.
Thank you for joining me on this First Reaction.
If you like this sort of thing, hit the like button to let me know and if you have a suggestion
for what you think I should talk about next, let me know down in the comments, though chances
are I’m doing it anyway.
And until next time, ladies, gentlemen, and others, Stay Frosty.