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[series:4841#628] | ||||||
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(Nine episodes watched}: There must be a sizable market in Japan for anime and manga targeted to MMORPG players who feel they have been unfairly cast aside by their former fellow party members and would love to hear stories about people in similar situations who were able to prove that those moves were a mistake. 'Once everyone looked down on me, but I showed them!', basically. And here's another. Episode one is all about Laust and Narsena forming a new party and as of yet there are no signs of any hidden powers that the title infers. Narsena, whose specialty is the martial arts, is disappointed that Laust doesn't remember their previous meeting, but then she had yellow hair then. She keeps her frustration a secret. Laust is a 'labyrinth orphan' who has been an adventurer since he was a child. While he's not much of a Healer, he has learned to be a respectable fighter over the years, as he demonstrates when they encounter a fearsome giant Orc on what should be a relatively safe level of the Mardat Labyrinth. Guild clerk Amherst and manager Hangun may be significant characters (Hangun seems to know something about Laust that most don't). Again, nothing really novel has happened at the end of episode one, and this was all seeming rather familiar at that point. But since this show hasn't really revealed what, if anything, will be unusual about it, and Laust and Narsena are fairly likable characters, I figure I will watch episode two. In episode two we learn more about Laust's past--how he has been mistreated by previous parties, in particular. Still no sign of any extraordinary abilities on his part. It turns out that Narsena is a nobleman's daughter and the people in power don't want her adventuring, so someone is given secret authority to do whatever he must to get rid of Laust. Narsena is pretty powerful because she can employ some sort of mana (except a different term is used here) when throwing punches and kicks. This show could be much worse, so I figured I would continue watching for now. I was pleasantly surprised by episode three. I had figured that the members of Blades of Lightning would be pretty much two-dimensional assholes whose only purpose would be to be humiliated by Laust in the end. But no, they have a good deal of depth to them. Already Margulus, their leader, has come to realize that ejecting Laust was a mistake--he's not much of a healer, but he was quite handy as a fighter. I had assumed that Laust would discover amazing abilities as a healer, but really who gives a damn about healers when there are fighters to be had? Margulus asks Laust to return (without much tact) but Laust of course is now part of a new adventuring party and won't desert Narsena. One of the girls, Armia, feels guilty that she didn't speak up for Laust when Margulus dumped him. Margulus recruits another fighter, Sieg--and it turns out that this is a guy that Laila (IIRC), the female healer who replaced Laust knows (an ex-boyfriend?), and him showing up is surely not a coincidence. You could almost say that what's going on in Laust's former party is more fun than what's happening in his new one. Actually, you could say that, and you'd be right. Unfortunately, this intriguing tension within Blades of Lightning doesn't last long. Rather than an ex-boyfriend, Sieg is some sort of high ranking investigator of malpractice among adventurers. And Margulus and one of his girls say some stupid things and are forced to flee from the party as a result. It looks like Laust will return to BoL as its leader, and of course Narsena will join as well. That's why the members were given some depth. Sieg will hang around for awhile; he seemed much more interesting as an ex-boxfriend who could not let go of his lover than the formidable fighter with a magic sword who is content to act as an observer that he has actually turned out to be. Something weird temporarily happened to Laust during a fight with the hydra--his eyes glowed red and he sprouted some sort of horn from his forehead. Sieg wants to keep an eye on him as a result. But again I would much rather have been presented with a sort of soap opera within an adventuring party than this pretty standard stuff. Eh, this show is now looking very ordinary rather than exceptional. Anybody can be the best adventurer if they have the good luck to have some unexplained powers. But I suppose I will continue to watch, at least for now. In episode five the two parties agree to work together to hunt a Phoenix within the labyrinth. Narla (IIRC), an old acquaintance of Sena--and, it turns out, Laust--turns up to check up on her status. We also meet Hanzum, the gruff de-facto manager of the local adventurer's guild. Something funny is going on with the actual manager, Mist. Narla demands a meeting with Hanzum and conveys her fears that a 'labyrinth uprising'--whatever that is--may be coming soon. She also wonders what the purpose of a ring of plain stone towers around the city might be--evil magic, no doubt. Meanwhile, Laust, Narsena and the BoL people take on the Phoenix. Armia has a not terribly convincing struggle with panic. All in all, looking like a very average show. Episode seven was sort of interesting, though. It was a between-quests episode with no action and basically about the possibility of romance between not just Laust and Narsena but between Sieg and Laila as well (I wasn't completely imagining things when he struck me as a possible former boyfriend). The episode flipped back and forth between conversations among the girls and the guys, and I got the impression that a little finesse had been employed here. While hardly brilliant, this is of more interest to me than a fight against another monster in the labyrinth. Also, everyone agrees to combine the two parties into one, no doubt with Laust as the leader. In episode eight we meet Keith, a labyrinth orphan who was callously sacrificed by adventurers to distract some 'Orks', but miraculously survived. Laust gets into an argument with Hanzum over the matter, and realizes that they have met before--they once had a similar experience to that of Keith. Laust had asked to have a private talk with Narsena, but that is put on hold when the team gets an unofficial quest to hunt monsters that have been showing up in increasing numbers around the city (knowing anime in general, there's no way he was going to propose to her). Also, we learn that there is significance to Narsena's unusual blue hair (IIRC, she said she just woke up one morning and her hair had changed color). In episode nine the 'monsters' turn out to be goblins and hobgoblins, and the characters realize that what's going on is indeed a labyrinth uprising. The Goblins attack the town but the battle is pretty lame and unexciting. The goblins are slaughtered wholesale, conveniently transforming into drop crystals when they expire, while the only injuries the humans sustain are a handful of minor ones which are easily healed using spells. Last updated Thursday, December 05 2024. Created Friday, October 11 2024. | ||||||||
