First Date: Jyushin Enbu/Hero Tales
Time to get back on track, don’t you think?
- Title: Jyushin Enbu - Hero Tales
- Studio: Flag
- Genre: Shounen/Action
Ratings (out of 5):
- Story: ♥♥♥
- Animation: ♥♥♥
- Characters: ♥♥♥
- OP/ED Themes: ♥♥♥
- Overall: ♥♥♥ (You’re okay, but…you’re just not FMA.)
Thoughts:
Jyushin Enbu -Hero Tales- features a strong, stubborn, and impetuous young man with a close relationship to his younger sibling and a mysterious power. Which may remind you of Fullmetal Alchemist, no surprise considering that Jyushin Enbu was created by FMA’s manga-ka, Hiromu Arakawa. (I know a few of you are inclind to argue on this point. Bear with me; shortly after this entry I’ll have another regarding this. I promsie I have good reason for taking this stance.)
Anyway, the show opens up with the aforementioned young man– Taitou –watching his village get trounced by an army led by a man named Keirou, who may or may not look an awful lot like FMA’s Fuhrer. Taitou gets the crap beaten out of him when he falls into a river off a cliff or something. He is nursed back to health by his non-blood-related sister (*cough*) Laila, and they are then attacked by a creepy and slightly perverted dude who was commanded by Keirou.
Overall, it looks like it could be an interesting shounen series, but if you were hoping for something as outstanding as Fullmetal Alchemist, you’ll be disappointed, at least so far. Everything is solid, but just a level below FMA– the characters don’t quite grip you, the dialogue isn’t as fun, and the story so far is pretty standard fare.
But don’t let the fact that it’s not FMA bar you from it entirely, because it’s still a perfectly decent show so far– just one with the misfortune of sitting in the shadow of a really awesome older sibling.
Tags: fall-2007, first-dates, juushin-enbu
October 19th, 2007 at 8:58 am
[...] « First Date: Jyushin Enbu/Hero Tales [...]
October 19th, 2007 at 9:51 am
Don’t forget that when FMA came out, so many fans dismissed it as nothing more than a Trigun ripoff (because of Ed’s red coat…). Of course looking back, everyone knows that FMA rox the haus, but I thought the first episode of Jyushin Enbu was actually better than some of the early FMA. Hopefully Taitou can grow out of his meat-headed ways, and amass his little army of stars, a la Suikoden.
The only things that have bothered me so far is the CG purple energy and the veins+lightning. I really hope that not every fight will be taking place in a thunderstorm, because that is depressing.
October 19th, 2007 at 9:57 am
@Kabitzin: Well, I think it’s pretty clear that the other star-type people will be joining forces at some point or another.
But I dunno, even the first episode of FMA really caught me for its characters. They were fun. Ed and Al jumped right out at me in FMA, but these characters aren’t all that interesting so far (and Laila’s voice gets a little irritating, too).