2015 pseudo-historical fantasy, novel series adaptation in 25
episodes:
AniDB, vt
"Heroic Legend of Arslan". Prince Arslan of Pars is the weak son of a
tough and vicious king. But when the Parsian army is defeated by
treachery, he may be the only member of the royal family left…
This is the second version of Arslan Senki: there was a series of
six OVAs in 1991-1995, also based on the novel series, which were
generally well-liked, though in those days people who didn't speak
Japanese had to put up with some very ropey commercial dubs. (The
novel series in turn is based very loosely on the Persian epic
Amir Arsalan). The
characters here have been completely redesigned since the 1990s
series, with rather more variation between them (though one in
particular has been distinctly sexed up, for no apparent reason beyond
the obvious).
Pars is invaded by Lusitania, drawn here as a crusader kingdom. The
priests of their god Yaldabaoth are fanatics who insist on killing or
converting all outsiders, though it rapidly becomes clear that those
priests don't represent the mainstream of worship. Meanwhile the
Parsians have slaves as a significant part of their economy, as they
have for years, and this turns out to be a bad thing when the capital
comes under siege.
Because while this is in part a story of battles and loyalty, it's
also a story of doing the right thing: Arslan insists that all the
slaves will be freed once he sits on the throne, even though that
costs him the support of some of the Parsian nobles. In a world where
it's not only acceptable but expected for a king to be a
bloody-handed conqueror, he's somehow managed to become not only a
pleasant person but a moral tyrannosaurus. He certainly doesn't get
that from either of his parents…
That doesn't mean he can take back his country single-handed, of
course, and he gathers the traditional band of companions. They're
reasonably distinct and well-drawn, and rather than assembling into
The Band, which then stays constant, there's a continued slow change
of who's working closely with Arslan and who's more in the background.
There's a little bit of magic, but it's only in the hands of the bad
guys – who are not a single faction, but several separate groups
pulling in slightly different directions.
There's a great deal going on here, with no sort of conclusion to the
story, and some plot threads get dropped without comment (I'm sure
there was one ambush in the sewers from which a character escaped
simply by the writers forgetting that he was in trouble). There are
small fights and huge battles, the latter taking blatant advantage of
CGI so that they really can portray thousands of warriors; sure,
maybe each soldier is only a few pixels high at a distance, but then
we can zoom in and see everyone standing in formation. It's a very
different visual style from the older technique of four or five
distinct layers of animation, and for me at least it works very well
in showing the size and confusion of a battle.
The animation is otherwise workmanlike but not exceptional, in the
standard modern style. Same for the music, though there's a funeral
hymn in the final episode that I'd love to hear at full length.
Overall this was my favourite series of both summer and autumn 2015. A
sequel is expected in 2016, though no broadcast date has been
announced.
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