First Impressions / Tales of the Abyss

Summary:

Onboard the ship headed toward Luke’s home, Jade examines the fon disk obtained during the battle at Choral Castle and concludes that Luke might someday resent him enough to want to kill him. He later explains to Luke and the group that their enemies are researching isofons, but the subsequent discussion of isofons, fonon frequencies, and fomicry goes completely over Luke’s head. This is interrupted by the arrival of one of the six God-Generals, Dist the Reaper, who is here for the fon disk. Jade willingly hands it over because he’s already memorized all the contents, and this pisses Dist off enough to summon his Kaiser Dist R robot. Everyone pitches in to try to defeat it, but it’s ultimately Van who blows it up with a massive burst of magic, and the explosion sends Dist flying into the water.

Later that night, Luke is alone on the deck of the ship when he suddenly suffers another painful episode, and this time his body starts moving on its own. The voice in his head wants to see the power Luke has that’s supposedly the same as the voice’s power, and Luke then fires a blast from his hand that vaporizes part of the deck. It is not until Van suddenly arrives on the scene and calms Luke down that the painful episode ends. Van thinks that what happened was a hyperresonance, and he explains that a hyperresonance can destroy and reconstruct any substance. It usually requires two Seventh Fonists, and Luke used to be confined to his house because Luke is the only person in the world who can cause a hyperresonance on his own. Training could make this advantageous in a war, and Luke’s father and the Kimlasca king know this. This makes Luke realize that he was being confined to his home as a weapon, and he’s not very happy about it. However, Van then presents Luke with the prospect of being a hero instead if they can avoid the war.

The boat eventually arrives at the Kimlasca capital, and the group goes to see the king. They find that Mohs is already there, and they push Mohs aside to give the king the letter from the Malkuth Empire. Luke even accuses Mohs of speaking nonsense and trying to start a war, but Van calms him down. While the king decides what to do, Luke goes to see his mother, and everyone goes with him. They run into Luke’s father on the way in, and after the normal pleasantries, Tear apologizes to him for what happened with his son. Natalia then shows up, and everyone finds out that she’s Luke’s fiancée, but more importantly, she directly Luke to his sick mother. Tear follows him so that she can apologize to his mother as well, and after hearing about how Tear was trying to attack her own brother, Luke’s mother advises Tear to stop thinking about such things because inter-family fighting is sad. Afterward, Luke tells Tear not to worry about this and attributes his mother’s poor health to how she’s always had a weak body. Later that night, Tear meets with Mohs, and he denies wanting a war and orders her to continue looking for the Seventh Fonstone.

The following day, Luke’s uncle reveals that they’ve agreed to a peace treaty with the Malkuth Empire, but there’s a catch: the letter also asked for help concerning a mining city called Akzeriuth where a toxic miasma has appeared. Luke is being sent to help as a goodwill ambassador, but since he doesn’t want to go, he’s shown the piece of the Sixth Fonstone that Kimlasca owns. The prophecy on it claims that a boy with red hair will be born in Kimlasca and will inherit Lorelei’s power. Everyone thinks that this is referring to Luke, and since the prophecy also claims that this boy will bring some people to a mining town, they’re sending him now. Luke’s father thinks that it’s time for Luke to become a hero, and Luke subsequently agrees to the mission.

However, Van then takes Luke outside and tells him the rest of the prophecy: the boy’s power will lead to catastrophe and become a weapon of Kimlasca. Some think that Luke will bring about war, but fortunately Van has a plan to avoid it and get Luke his freedom. The prophecy claims that war will break out when Luke moves the inhabitants of Akzeriuth, so Van wants Luke to not move those people and just neutralize the miasma with the hyperresonance. Afterward, Luke will exile with Van to Daath. Van promises to help Luke with all this, but he wants Luke to keep their plan a secret. He also reveals that when Luke was young, Luke had wanted to go to Daath with him so that he could escape from the horrible experiments being done to him for hyperresonance research. This is the reason Van was the one who kidnapped Luke seven years ago. Learning this is a shock to Luke, but Van subsequently saying that he needs Luke leads to Luke agreeing to follow his teacher. Unbeknownst to them though, someone had been eavesdropping on their conversation.

Preview:

There’s something very fishy about the way Van talks about Luke becoming a hero and all. The kidnapping being Van’s doing was a surprise, but what bothers me is how powerful he is (almost too powerful to be a good guy), how good his timing is, and how blindly Luke trusts him. Van seems like the perfect character right now to pull off a betrayal. His plan seems suspicious too: I can just imagine a scenario where Luke using the hyperresonance goes horribly wrong, and that causes the war anyway. If we were closer to the end of the story, I’d be more likely to believe that Luke can break out of the prophecy, but since it’s still pretty early on, I suspect things will happen like the Score says they will.

On a different note, watching this anime adaptation makes me want to go play the original game. However, even if I had the time to do that, I probably wouldn’t because I’d want to enjoy the anime without having the story spoiled. Maybe I’ll pick it up once this series is over. For the time being though, it looks like Natalia finally joins the group next week. Based on the OP, it would appear that she’s the last group member, unless Asch eventually becomes one as well (I only say that because almost every shot of Luke in the OP has Asch there too). Largo also shows up in the preview for next week, so I guess being stabbed in the chest doesn’t necessary mean death in this series.

50 Comments

  4. “how blindly Luke trusts him”

    I still don’t know exactly what was said in that conversation, but it seemed almost too easy. I mean, Luke finally finds out Van kidnapped him, and he just instantly goes back to trusting him? Luke really is an idiot

    Nazarielle
    Reply

  6. Luke’s an idiot for a good reason. People tend to forget, that includes people who’ve played the game, that Van has pretty much brought him up since he lost his memory. *cough* Molded him into the person that he is now. Though Guy played some part in that, Van pretty much has Luke on a leash.

    Nellie
    Reply

  9. Natalia in action next episode! I don’t care if you’re viewed as useless, I don’t care if some people hate you as a character, you’re finally with us to balance out the sane/insane character count in the party~

    Don’t mind Tear not being punished. She’s the main healer of the group (although Natalia’s pretty good at it too). She needs to be there so the other characters don’t die in the middle of the story. As such, her crimes are instantly pardoned. XD;;

    Next week looks like the Abandoned Factory and the Zao Ruins, which presumably places Akzeriuth at 7 depending on the pacing of the next episode. That sounds nice, since Akzeriuth is probably somewhere around 1/3 into the game…maybe a little less.

    miken-chan
    Reply

  10. @Nellie (more in additon to what was said)

    not just that, but keep in mind what Van’s story was, before calling Luke completely idiotic in trusting Van.

    Van’s story wasn’t “i kidnapped you, beat the hell out of you, and then you slipped away” and now Luke trusts him again. yes, that would be completely moronic.

    But Van’s story was, “i kidnapped you to rescue you from your oppressive family that’s just going to use you.”
    in other words, Van (according to his story) kidnapped Luke to save him (now it sounds like a good thing. even sounds like a thing that someone that truly cared about you would do). and when you consider how Luke was locked up in his house for the past 7 years its not really that hard to imagine how he buys the “to save you from your oppressive family” line.

    Anonymous
    Reply

  13. Good episode.
    next week will most likely be the factory and zao ruins and they should get to akzeriuth at about episode 7 would be my geuss, since it marks the 1/3 mark for the game.
    im looking forward to seeing the next animated fight in the zao ruins but ill refrain from spoilers.

    Precise Moment
    Reply

  14. Good episode, nice to see Natalia joining the group soon.

    “The kidnapping being Van’s doing was a surprise.”
    Wait until you see the other surprises and plot twistsin this anime!

    Akzeriuth is coming soon!

    P3
    Reply

  16. There are a few noticeable changes to me but only like a couple and nothing huge that can’t be covered later. Show Spoiler ▼

    But yeah for the most part it’s very faithful to the game.

    Silawen
    Reply

  17. -There’s something very fishy about the way Van talks about Luke becoming a hero and all. The kidnapping being Van’s doing was a surprise, but what bothers me is how powerful he is (almost too powerful to be a good guy), how close he is to Luke, and how blindly Luke trusts him. Van seems like the perfect character right now to pull off a betrayal.

    Luke believes everything that Van says. Can’t be helped, though I commend Luke for being such a good apprentice. His parents DID lock him up in the mansion for a long time, and he feels that they themselves have betrayed him.

    -For someone who caused so much trouble to start all this, I’m surprised Tear was let back into the palace and wasn’t more punished or something.

    She acknowledged the fact that everything was an accident and it was her fault.

    I’ve played the game, and I must say, this anime is so faithful to it.

    Aeneid
    Reply

  18. for those who played the game,this serie dosnt have any mistery xD, we are merely seen the game into an anime, its very interesting, its like playing all the game again without your control XD

    Trejon
    Reply

  23. I’d say, go and watch it for yourself.. Then decide if you like, for now I like it and I’m hooked. But I think I’m going to stop reading te comments on here, there are to many people here who have played the game, and somewhere along the road there are going to be spoilers here without tags.

    It ruined a part of code geass for me and I don’t want that to happen with this anime

    JordiBlau
    Reply

  27. this is also just like symphonia where you have the bad guy who is pretty much human in power but has more power than the rest and is after some other more powerful thing that might result in the destruction of the world and the main character has to beat him.

    sdds
    Reply

  31. The only complaint I have for this anime if the male lead. I so feed up with his “shut up, shut up!” It will be fantastic if he is about to shout again and someone gives him a slap, kick or punch in his mouth to shut him up. And while we are at it, is the annoying male lead new trend in anime? The typical male lead in harem anime is not even that annoy (with a few expcetions) to those guys in Shikabane, chaos head and others animes this season.

    mysterious
    Reply

  32. @monochrome: Frings…

    The only thing I’m dreading is if they touch on the Frings and Cecille sidequest and then it ends the same way it did.

    @mysterious: Don’t worry, Luke should be activating short!hairedLuke soon enough and right before that….well, you’ll see for yourself. Let’s just say he pays for his attitude.

    Acerbus
    Reply

  33. Well I don’t think he’s crazy like the lead from Linebarrel, but Luke can be just as annoying. However the lead from Linebarrel doesn’t have the same kind of past.

    People just have to remember that he’s like a 7 year old bubble boy. I say 7 years cause that’s all he can remember of his life. Then he’s never been allowed outside and on top of that he’s been spoiled and his main life line is Van.

    Finally, yes, Luke will be much more likeable later on.

    Nellie
    Reply

  34. *Spoilers*
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Reika Noko
    Reply

  35. man van is really deceiving luke i,m not that suprised at first it looked like tear was attacking an innocent man( who so happens to be her brother) and this episdoe shows how powerful this guy is and i think he knew about that wheelchair dude but he shut him up pretty fast hope can,t really blame luke but i were him though i would rather find out the truth about what happened seven years ago and also he so focused on becomin a hero that doesn,t realize that van only sees him as a perfect weapon and is it only me that sees the resemblance luke and asch they look like brothers they look like they are the same person.

    john memento
    Reply

  39. i really like this anime..it has a cool story, but i also agree with the “jumping” thing — it jumps from one thing to another with nothing in between all the time which is kinda annoying…and that part at the end with van and luke…well i think it is pretty obvious that van has another agenda he is not telling anyone about, and it really bugged me that luke finds out that van kidnapped him all those years ago, and he still trusts him like a best friend…gosh how dumb can you get?

    whatchamini
    Reply

  41. Hey assss stop with the spoilers, even if I’ve played the game twice in this blog post people who are watching TOA for the first time.

    Well, I liked this episode, Dist and Jade were awesome as always, we got some Natalia screentime and Luke showed us how stupid he can be. The strange thing here is this https://randomc.net/image/Tales%20of%20the%20Abyss/Tales%20of%20the%20Abyss%20-%2005%20-%20Preview%2003.jpg
    this should happen in, at least, in episode 7 or 8.

    Rikku-sama
    Reply

  45. I love the characters except Luke, he is really bad. But I can totally see how it would work out from an rpg standpoint, so his character is probably a bit more interesting than what they’ve showed so far. There are still some scenes that feel really rushed which I wish they would make it a bit smoother. I hope I don’t read a spoiler by accident here, looking forward to this storyline and I *might* buy the game in the future.

    jho
    Reply

  47. 😀 the anime is truly following the game..but the next ep looks weird, like they will cut off some parts….hmm…
    about the score van told luke:
    Show Spoiler ▼

    YoruAngel
    Reply

  48. SPOILER:

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Watching this makes me want to replay the game all over again o_o Even though it’s so long hehe

    Karuki
    Reply

  49. Played the game…but still wanna watch. They change just small tid-bits but it’s still interesting (Natalia was supposed to overhead Luke and Van’s convo downstairs in a prison thingy) and I see Asch! Finally! Can’t wait to hear his voice!

    Crucia
    Reply

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