「聖獣の森」 (Seijuu no Mori)
“Forest of the Sacred Beast”

 

Next Episode:
「神託の盾来襲」 (Orakuru Raishuu)
“Oracle Raid”

Impressions:
As some people were already aware, the second episode of Tales of the Abyss aired back-to-back with the premiere on CBC and MBS. Interestingly enough, these two broadcasters are continuing onto the third episode next week too, rather than using this as a special screening. Since there were a few requests to see this episode posted, I decided to put a post up about it; however, I’m still undecided as to whether or not I’ll continue blogging this series. That’s not to say it’s bad or anything though as this episode only reaffirmed the positive impressions in my Snapshot, but simply a matter of how much time I can commit this season.

With that said, we were introduced to a several more key characters this time around, which includes Jade Curtiss, Anise Tatlin, Ion, and Mieu — the latter of which is a sacred creature known as a Cheagle, who carries a Sorcerer Ring around its waist that allows it to communicate with humans and use various Fonims. Aside from getting party members to join up, the episode came off as a mini-quest to resolve a conflict between the Cheagle and Raiga. As I mentioned before, I really like the RPG-vibes that this anime adaptation gives off, which that was a good example of. What’s done well here though is that nothing feels episodic by any means, as they left us off with a bit of a cliffhanger when Jade and Anise suddenly turned on Luke and Tear for being Seventh Fonim users.

Seeing as Luke is a spoiled, brat-like character we’re not supposed to like much at first, I was happy to see Mieu accidentally scorch his face. Tear on the other hand I find is still one of the best reasons to watch this series though (if you aren’t already drawn to some other aspect), as her reactions this episode were really amusing to watch. As such, I really think Yukana needs to be cast in more roles like this one, or just more roles in general.

 

38 Comments

  1. nice of them to do back to back, gotta watch this soon, subs for ep 1 was out but low seed…
    anyways Ga-Rei was kool, kinda confusing cause i was wondering if they changed their names or something…
    back to this, stuff will be even more interesting after he fi..s o.t…

    Chimasternmay
  2. “I really think Yukana needs to be cast in more roles like this one, or just more roles in general.”

    Couldn’t agree more 😀 It was such a cute change to hear her be so ecstatic about the cute lil bunny thingies and saying “totemo kawaiiiii~” I just hope she extends herself to more roles, I’d love to see her in something funny, I’m sure she’d be great at it.

  3. xD.

    It’s weird watching this show after having played the game. Especially if they plan on following the game to the T (Which they have been so far, even if it’s only been 2 episodes.) The game is pretty unbearable for a while, when it comes to Luke’s personality.

    All the explanations of fonons and scores were a bit much as well… x_x. The battle system was pretty fun though.

    Kuya
  4. I like the Luke/Mieu interaction. Yes, Luke is a top level a-hole, but if you don’t take him too seriously, it’s actually pretty funny. Very surprised that they haven’t deviated from the game at all so far. But then again, it’s been a long time since I played Abyss, so I can’t be certain.

    Meh
  5. Mieu is sooo adorabe!! >.< I want one too!! *sees Luke’s burnt face* On second thought…that scene was hilarious, Mieu blowing fire with Luke will continue!! XD Now waiting for subs!

    Crucia
  6. If the anime follows the game closely enough and you have any sense of good taste at all, then you’re going to hate Luke throughout.

    He becomes a whole other kind of irritating later on. I’d say that I actually like him more at this part than I do towards the end, which isn’t saying much. (a lot of people try to tell me that you have to like him because HURRRRRR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND SMURT PEOPLE JUDGE CHARACTERS OFF OF THAT INSTEAD OF BY HOW LIKABLE THEY ARE, but I say that they’re a bunch of pseudo-intellectual douchebags that should go roll around in a pile of lye)

    anon111
  7. Wow, Jade’s Indignation so early in the story? Indignation can’t be cast unless 2nd playthrough onwards (I think). It’s nice that they added indignation in, totally cool

    Em0tic
  8. @anon111
    there’s nothing intellectual about it, some ppl just rather their characters not be as simple as dirt and actually have some story to them to digest

    and some ppl would rather just not think

    whatever floats your boat

    Anonymous
  9. The second episode on here already, the subbed version of the first one has only just been released.

    I don’t have the game to go on, as they never released it in Europe. But from what I’ve seen so far, I like it. Tear’s character definitly makes watching this show worth watching for me. Glad you brought this show to my attention and I hope you will have the time to keep blogging this one.

    JordiBlau
  10. @anon111

    I don’t see what is wrong with liking a character that has some depth to them. Some people like it, some don’t and if you don’t that’s fine. For the record, I loved Luke through most of the game- even whiney, bratty Luke like right now. There were 2 times I couldn’t stand him- and I’m sure you’re talking about one of them but by the end of the game he’s over that. >>

    I’m so glad this is turning out to not be bad- I absolutely adore the game. <3 Tear she’s so awesome and excited about Guy’s big entrance next week. 😛

    Silawen
  11. Lulu FTw:Actually, Jade does use his high lvl spells before his fonon slots are sealed,remember?

    Except that Indignation is his secret Overdrive move which is not available until you
    play the game a 2nd time.

    Garet
  12. @Garet

    Except that doesn’t exactly matter in the anime. The spell is not story-related or anything. Not even sidequest related. So I don’t see why it should matter.

    It serves its purpose to show that Jade is just really powerful.

    Meh
  13. Yeah, without Luke being so unlikeable, he and what happens to him would have so much less impact in the game.

    Therefore, I consider Luke a well-written character, probably one of the best-written ones in the Tales-series.

    A character who’s not perfect makes for a far more interesting character, and in the end one can only like and applaud Luke for what he makes of the situations he faces.

    All the whining is for better effect, in my opinion, and all the people who complain about him being whiny forget that.

    tokugawa
  14. I just noticed something interesting about the OP when was watching it again…

    Similar to how the ED sequence has a segment which is the preview for the next episode, a segment of the OP previews/foreshadows the current episode. It’s the bit where you see parts of the “Score” on the corners of the screen, so it’s a reference to that plot device, too.

    zero1328
  15. zero1328:
    While I didn’t explicitly say that the Score is “telling the future” of the current episode in the opening, I did refer to this briefly in my previous post.

    “Music-wise, I wasn’t particularly drawn to the opening or the ending song, but did notice that both sequences mixed in current/next episode scenes respectively — something you don’t see very often due to the extra work involved every week.”

    In any case, it’s like having spoilers in the opening! D:

  16. Frankly, I loved ToA’s plotline… Yeah Luke’s a bit of a pain here and there–but it’s actually a little refreshing to see someone go from a whiny spoiled brat, to a whiny (Censored) to a resolved (Censored) and then only in the last little bit of the plotline does he really deserve the title of hero–he’s not just some wiseman right from the start who saves the day through the Power of Friendship, he’s got his ups, downs…

    And honestly, given what he actually ‘Is’, I’d like to see anyone who complains about his attitude behave any better if the same reveal was made to you.

    More importantly, the party members call him on his bull–it’s not very apparent yet, but it starts mounting up as the plotline develops–they don’t just forgive their irrationality because he’s a Good Guy–more often, good intentions on everyone’s part winds up paving the way to hell–as such a thing will start coming up after the first little introductory arc that we’re in now.

    In summary–I can’t reccomend this series enough, and I hope you can make time to continue blogging it.

    Alectai

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