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「ラピスラズリ(第2部)」 (Lapis Lazuli)
“Lapis Lazuli”
Okay that wasn’t so bad it was atrocious or anything, I was sort of expecting this to be another train wreck, and even though the animation quality wasn’t godly or anything, it was still enjoyable and sort of relaxing and calming. I would even go as far as to say as this could become a guilty pleasure because of it. With dungeon delving in full swing, things picked up rather quickly. Shiloh finds Shinju-hime (Nazuka, Kaori) and then loses sight of her, then finds Ruri (Umehara, Yuuichirou) and finally forms a proper party in order to search for Shinju aka Pearl. In that wake, they encounter the boss of the dungeon and fight it off, not with Shiloh’s power but Shinju has a sort of awakening, or she’s keeping some of her powers hidden.
I was very quickly over this damsel in distress Shinju was playing, even though that might be part of her character, I was not into it. On the other hand, she goes on and gives Shiloh a new nickname, which I personally found really cute. Big Brother Shiloh is his new name and you can’t convince me otherwise. She even gets captured by the big rabbit and passes out, of course, necessary in order to activate her power.
After we get some exposition, this time about the Jumi people. Who are created from jewels, I mean if Ruri’s English name is anything to go by, it’s not exactly subtle. Elazul – literally meaning, The Blue One in Spanish. Couldn’t hide this even if you tried. And of course, the big gems on their chests are dead giveaways. To dive deeper into this one – search up 瑠璃 on google images and you’ll find hundreds of examples of Lapis Lazuli. And search up 真珠 and you’ll find hundreds of images of pearls. Even their names in Japanese allude to gemstones. When translating the game overseas this same sentiment had to be carried over. Of course, Pearl was the easiest but it was Ruri the one who got the biggest change.
(sauce here)
Anyroad, apparently, there’s a legend that says if you cry for a Jumi you turn to stone and if a Jumi cries then a storm brews. Well color me interested, I very much want to see some angst turn into a deadly storm. Or someone turns into stone for crying over a Jumi. That’s why Ruri (yes I will continue to call him by his original Japanese name) was acting like such an unlikeable little brat. There was a reason behind it and it was justified. Of course, Rachel (Takahashi, Minami) is totally understanding of the situation. Everyone has their own unique problems to deal with.
After the dungeon is over Shinju gives Shiloh some sort of artifact with a burning fire inside. And after Shiloh talks to the correct NPC and is able to start the questline, like in the last episode, he is envisioned by the 3D overworld and discovers that this artifact opens up the next dungeon for him to go delve into. With this new dungeon now open and Shiloh, all rested up and geared up he meets with this new comrade and ventures out at first light into this new dungeon. With a puff of his pipe and a boy now in his hands, they both venture out into the dungeon of the sacred fires. I must add that Shiloh returning home and putting a blanket over the kids in his house is super cute and definitely rounds that big brother vibe.
Nostalgia overload?
Maybe that’s the case since even the skeleton mobs are true to the original game, and when they fight the big rabbit boss; A remix of PAIN THE UNIVERSE starts playing. This is the boss music? That’s right this is the boss music! Even back then the rock-and-roll JRPG heavy guitar synth’s BGM was playing while the boss fight was happening. This is the equivalent to Sora and Riku squabbling and the remix of Simple and Clean started playing in the BGM, which consequently is something that would actually have taken place, were not Disney shut down the pilot for the animated Kingdom Hearts series way back in 2003. Kingdom Hearts was going to have an American animated TV series. Based of course mostly on Kingdom Hearts I.
Sorry, I’m getting off track here. Yet whatever the case it is you stand on this series, so far it’s not a disaster like Scarlet Nexus was for me when it first came out, even though I pushed through 8 episodes of that. I don’t personally want a repeat, so I’m looking at Seiken Densetsu with cautious eyes. However, they do share that sort of unpolished unfinished quality with them both. Seiken Densetsu has nostalgia to carry it through, Scarlet Nexus does not. The key difference in the former here is that this one is based on a beloved game, meanwhile, the latter was based on a soulless multimedia project. So let’s see how it goes with Seiken Densetsu hopefully it will give me more to talk about as the weeks go by. This is one is certainly one to add to my Friday lineup.
🙂
Full-length images: 36.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「」 (Song of Mana – The Teardrop Crystal-) by (?)
I have a hard time pinning down how I feel about the show so far. It’s a nostalgia show first and foremost, but surprisingly not in a bad way. The choice and execution of references are all high quality, the music is on point, and they’ve properly focused on the character of each person beyond what the game could convey.
But wow the combat is mediocre.
I’m kind of impressed how they can have singular stills of good stuff like the spin slash and knockback effect, while everything else is a little worse than okay. They’re not lacking for creativity on the character interaction, so do they just not have good choreography and time to really animate within the constraints of an anime season?
I do love how they’ve brought the artifacts to life, both graphically and narratively.
The problem probably is that there are way too many hands circulating on this project, plus outsourcing that simply doesn’t make sense. It feels like Warner Bros Japan wanted to get this out as soon as possible and cut all corners as much as possible. Even though animators are struggling to keep the consistency probably out of love towards the IP. It’s not until the producers start caring enough to send back cuts that feel awkward or jarring and be willing to invest that money, that “budget” fights scenes will be prevalent through the rest of the series.
Either someone didn’t care enough to do their job, or doesn’t have enough love for the IP, and doesn’t understand what SQE strives for with graphics. This is probably one of the reasons why they have abstained from hiring any anime studios directly. And have handed out their IP’s to other companies as a means to “test the waters” For example the upcoming Nier project has Aniplex behind them, so probably that’s why A-1 pictures is probably going to do a wonderful great job! At least from what we’ve seen in the PVs. It really all comes down to who wants to produce the anime. 🙂
I’m getting strong deja vu with this show. I swear i never played the game.