Fire Emblem
ファイアーエムブレムPrince Marth, heir to the throne of Aritia, has fled his homeland and the invaders bent on conquering the entire continent. Together with the Aritian Knights he hides and bides his time in the friendly island kingdom of Talus. Though criticized for constantly daydreaming or being in a bad mood, he has found a friend in Caeda, the princess of Talus. Together they indulge in hayrides and shopping trips, or just standing upon the parapet and looking out over the land. However, despite how pleasant life is, he cannot forget the circumstances that separated him from his land and forced his beloved sister to sacrifice herself for him. (Source: ANN)
Reviews
pat.effertz - 2014-07-21 18:27:59
Not truly remarkable in any of the ways that matter, this anime is still worth the watch for fans of the games.
Based on the plot of the first Fire Emblem game, this show follows the story of Prince Marth(not Mars) of Aritia. The story is essentially a copy of said game, however the short length of the series hampers the full development of this plot. The game is divided into "chapters," which are akin to levels. The series covers roughly the first two chapters of the game, which means that 20+ chapters still remain.
Being an older anime, it is understandable that the animation quality is not anything spectacular, however the animation is not even up to par for the year 1997 in which it was produced. Take for example, the water. There is a scene wherein Marth and Princess Sheeda stand on a balcony overlooking the sea. Instead of resembling actual water, the sea simply looks like somebody used the color fill tool in Microsoft Paint to turn the area around the characters blue.
The music for this anime is mostly taken from the game, which is a very nice touch. The only real complaint I have for that fact is that I wish they had included more songs. As for the dub, well, it's no coincidence that Spike Spencer was the only voice actor who had a career after this show. The dub is utterly horrible, characters utter lines containing phrases that went out of vogue twenty years before the anime's production.
Another aspect to suffer due to this anime's short length is the characters. None of the characters in this show are given the time needed to develop. There are no memorable characters here, simply cardboard lookalikes for which existing knowledge from the games can be used to fill in holes.
I did enjoy this series however, it was interesting to see one of my favorite game franchises displayed in this medium. With more episodes and better animation, another attempt could perhaps be made with one of the more recent games.
Overall this show is very prosaic, the story and characters are not nearly developed enough, the animation is sub-par, even for 1997, and the dialogue is laughably awful. I would recommend it to fans of the game, and anyone who wants to watch an abysmal anime simply to mock it.