First Impressions / Series Introduction / Snapshots

OP Sequence

OP: 「LAMENT～やがて喜びを～」 (LAMENT ~Yagate Yorokobi wo~) by 結城アイラ (Yuuki Aira)
Watch the OP!: Download, Streaming ▼

「昼寝王国の野望」 (Hirune Oukoku no Yabou)
“Aspirations for a Kingdom of Afternoon Naps”

I was almost giddy watching this premiere because it had everything I was looking forward to seeing from the manga. Some of the finer details were changed, but it didn’t lose the essence one bit with our anti-heroic protagonists arguing away and hightailing it in the face of a danger. Remember when heroes are supposed to take it upon themselves to make the world better? Well, the ones here won’t even take responsibility for problems they cause themselves, leading to some pretty good slapstick humor in my books. On the surface, this series will seem like your run-of-the-mill and fairly generic fantasy adventure, but underneath it’s hard to see it as such when the story revolves around a lazy protagonist named Ryner Lute (Fukuyama Jun), who’s accompanied by the lovely yet abusive swordswoman Ferris Eris (Takagaki Ayahi). The two of them are far from being your typical go-getting heroes, as they’re searching for ancient relics very very reluctantly on orders by King Sion Astal (Ono Daisuke), who’s loved by the people for trying to rebuild Roland Empire into a better place.

As I mentioned in the Summer 2010 Preview, Sion enlisted Ryner’s help to change the empire for the better during the last war, prior to him being enthroned as the new king. Ferris on the other hand turned out to be only helping out because she’s been blackmailed by Sion by holding dangos captive. How that works I don’t even know, but she is known as the “dango woman” due to her love for those sweet treats. So um yeah, no one’s out saving the world and making it a better place because they want to themselves. However, therein lie the beauty of this series (for me anyway), as Ferris is always quick to mistreat and insult Ryner by saying stuff like how he’s too stupid to be a Roland spy, even in the face of Nerfa soldiers. It’s hilarious how there’s little to no mutual respect between the two of them, which resulted in Ryner siding with the Nerfa commander when Ferris stated that she’s merely a beautiful woman and not a spy. I was already aware of this scene coming up after reading a bit of the manga, but found it a lot funnier animated with the voices to go along with it.

Incidentally, the two of them will instantly be on the same page when it comes to killing Sion for making them do such annoying work, making them an amusingly unpredictable pair to watch. More of their antics were seen when they were being pursued by Roland’s Imiyaburi Unit led by the very small Milk Callaud (Fujita Saki), who is responsible for preventing Roland’s magic from being leaked to other countries. Milk’s unaware that they’re under direct orders from Sion however, so it was pretty funny to see Ryner and Ferris completely ignore her attempt to arrest them and her insinuating that Ryner’s being extorted by Ferris. Evidently, Milk happens to have a past with Ryner and is in love with him even though he’s not aware of it yet, paving way to some good laughs when Ferris figured she was just some girl he casually messed around with in the past. That was a recurring insult of hers to Ryner, but seeing her actually have a person to focus the joke around made it even better.

Over the course of this episode, there was a fair bit of flipping back and forth between Ryner/Ferris in Nerfa and Sion back in Roland Empire, which some viewers may find a bit jarring but didn’t bother me one bit. In fact, I kind of liked how the story was being told from two different perspectives, as it gave it a sense of concurrency with Sion dealing with real problems while Ryner and Ferris were messing around. One part seriousness, one part slapstick humor. It worked for me. Even when things get semi-serious with Ryner trying to analyze an ancient relic monster with his Alpha Stigma eyes — which allow him to see through magic and copy it — the jokes don’t stop with Ferris adding how it’s “typical Ryner for us” after he said he’s unable to see through ancient spells. To add to the hilarity, they simply decided to run away and didn’t give a damn about what happens afterward with that monster roaming about, showing exactly why this is classified as an “anti-heroic fantasy”.

Anyway, there’s a plethora of well-known seiyuu casted to play the vast number of characters in this series. Luckily for me, I don’t have to list them all here because ZEXCS has provided English credits in the ending sequence. I can’t even tell you how nice it is to have official English spellings of western names written in Japanese, because it becomes a guessing game at times without them. Production-wise, I really like how this series is looking already, while the opening and ending themes performed by Yuuki Aira and Ceui gave me sola vibes simply because their songs are featured in the same series again. That said, this is a guaranteed watch for me like I mentioned in the preview, but I won’t be covering it on a weekly basis. I really wanted to say some words about this premiere episode and how it’s turning out exactly like I was hoping though, hence this introduction post.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「Truth Of My Destiny」 by Ceui
Watch the ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

Preview

59 Comments

  5. Yeah the part where they said to run away and let the workaholic Sion handle it made me -_-; + facepalm

    So far nothing smashingly out of the ordinary but good enough to keep watching. The part where he said not liking seeing people cry and hating crying seems to point out at the late stages it will get pretty dramatic

    Zaku Fan
    Reply

      1. fix’d

        The Legend of the Legendary Heroes and the Legendary Sword of the Legendary Legends.

        How much more awesome can that be.. I imagine it taking up all the space in a 16 x 9 screen.
        If it doesn’t… I am disappoint. 🙁

        This Legendary wall for legendary texts.

        megalith
        Reply

      2. LOL’ed. Thanks, guys!
        Wouldn’t it be funny if the sequel was actually “Legendary Legends of the Legendary legends of Heroes with the Legendary…” The 3 dots being they couldn’t fit everything in the title itself.

        Shinjiro
        Reply

  13. Oh, another fantasy adventure! I’ve always love the genre as long as there aren’t excessive ecchi/fanservice. Based on the first episode, DenYuDen looks good. And, somehow I pity Fujita Saki having to voice Milk, who’s in love with Ryner (Fukuyama Jun) which the latter is unaware of. Reminds me of Inami Mahiru and Takanashi Souta (Working!!) because they were voiced by the same seiyuu. XD

    Lil' Lilly
    Reply

  16. They might as well have called it “The Legendary Legend of the Legendary Heroes’ Legend.”

    This is a parody, right? Because if it is, I’m so gonna watch this.

    Tavor TAR-21
    Reply

    1. Haha, I know what you mean. Perhaps it’s just Ferris’ character design with blonde hair and a big sword (a la Gourry) and the upbeat intro, but I did recall Slayers for a bit.

      In any case, I’ll be pegging this one to follow this season.

      phatj
      Reply

  21. Have never enjoyed a ZEXCS title expect for CANVAS2, though considering most of their series have tits and panties shoved at you, it’s to be expected unless that’s your cup of tea. I have fairly high expectations for this series because I feel ZEXCS might be able to pull something off. It’s a shame you won’t be blogging this series and I would love to help blog it but sadly my Japanese knowledge isn’t as up to date as I would have hoped and I understand that it is one of the requirements to pick up and blog a series on this site.

    lHyDrAl
    Reply

  24. Good solid show for the season, reminds me of Prism Ark and CSR and even better with Jun as the male lead. Amagami SS was also very solid.

    Shows to Watch/unaired:
    The Legend of the Legendary Heroes
    Shiki
    Shukufuku no Campanella
    Seitokai Yakuindom
    Mitsudomoeo
    Asobi ni Iku yo!

    Shows in the middle/unaired:
    Gakuen Mokushiroku HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD
    Nurarihyon no Mago
    Amagami SS
    Strike Witches 2
    Sekirei ~Pure Engagement~
    Sengoku Basara 2

    Shows to Drop/unaired:
    Ookami-San
    Seikimatsu Occult Academy

    SHIKI
    Reply

  31. Loved Fukuyama Jun’s voice-acting.. Not talking like Zero but more like an older-aged deep tone.. which is new 🙂

    The Shikamaru-type personality of Ryner doesn’t really seem to fit for me some reason.. I guess I need to know why he’s always so lazy to do something, which we might know a little more in the next ep. Oh yeah, good to hear Ein (from Phantom) again 😀

    animato
    Reply

  33. Damn…. anyone see subs? If this turns out like Senkou no Night Raid with the skipping-five-weeks-and-then-pouring-everything-out-at-once situation, I am gonna be soooo pissed.

    Anyways, haven’t read the post ’cause i don’t wanna spoil myself, but I’m looking forwards to this one simply because it’s been so long since I’ve seen an action/fantasy anime without some random seductive demon following the group and trying to seduce the leader.

    AND THE REDUNDANCY IS ON PURPOSE. ACCEPT IT ALREADY.

    Kit Kat
    Reply

  34. After having watched the first to minutes I realized that my Japanese acquired by a two term university course still isnt sufficient for this 😡
    I really want the subs for this show, so I hope theyll come out soon 🙂

    Fiep
    Reply

  35. it’s pretty great to see this anime genre again,it’s been a time since i haven’t watched adventures + parodies.
    like mentioined upside this truly made me remember of the original slayers.
    my best wishes for the success of this serie.

    melo
    Reply

  38. Anyway I don’t think that the first episode is enough to judge this series since it is not a part of main story but a side story. Next episode will be the real start anyway. Wonder why they decided to start from a side story anyway?

    Diasen
    Reply

  41. The Legend of Legendary Heroes, it’s so legendary… I can’t believe the epic legendary proportions of it.

    yes making fun of the redundancy, but it looks interesting. I got hooked because of the PV, but haven’t seen anything that will really keep me watching this through and through.

    Sora no Kaze
    Reply

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