The story gets even deeper, more tragic but still this series remains addictive! Definitely one of the better video game to anime adaptations out there! If you love anime adventure anime series, “Tales of the Abyss” is recommended!
Image courtesy of © 2008 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc./Sunrise, Bandai Visual, MBS. All Rights Reserved.
TITLE: Tales of the Abyss Vol. 2
ANIME RELEASE: 2008
DURATION: (Episodes 8-14) 175 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0, 1:78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, Full English Subtitles/Songs & Signs
COMPANY: Sunrise/Bandai Entertainment
RATED: Suggested 13 and Up
RELEASED: January 3, 2012
Directed by Kenji Kodama
Series Composition by Akemi Omode
Music by Motoi Sakuraba
Original Character Design by Yoshihito Hishinuma
Art Director: Shigemi Ikeda
Mechanical and Monster Design by Junya Ishigaki
Sound Director: Eriko Kimura
Director of Photography: Shigemi Ogawa
Anime Production by Bandai Visual/Namco/Sunrise
Featuring the following voice talent:
Chihiro Suzuki as Luke Fone Fabre
Yukana as Tear Grants
Halko Momoi as Anise Tatlin
Jouji Nakata as Van Grants
Michiko Neya as Natalia L. K. Lanvaldear
Miki Maruyama as Mieu
Sho Hayami as Lorelei
Takehito Koyasu as Jade Curtis
Yasunori Matsumoto as Guy Cecil
Yukana as Yulia Jue
War is aborted between the two dominant nations of the planet Auldrant, and the King of Kimlasca appoints Luke to be a goodwill ambassador in order to rescue a mining town in enemy territory. The noble heir apparent is excited with the chance to be a hero… but little does he know that General Van plans to use the spoiled kid’s hyper-resonance superpower to cause an enormous disaster.
Accompanied by magical warriors Jade the Necromancer, Colonel of the Malkuth Imperial Forces, and Tear Grants, Locrian Sergeant of the Order of Lorelei, Luke’s adventure continues through this alternate-reality world of swords and sorcery.
“Tales of the Abyss” Vol. 2 feature a more deeper, complex storyline as the truth about Luke and Asch is revealed!
In Japan, one of the longest franchises for fantasy RPG is the “Tales” series from Namco Bandai games
The series began back in 1994 with “Tales of Phantasia” and as of 2011, the series currently on its 13th series with “Tales of Xillia”. But in 2005, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the series, Namco Bandai celebrated with “Tales of the Abyss”, a video game that was created for the Sony PlayStation 2.
While there has been anime adaptations primarily in OVA format, in 2008, a full 26-episode TV series was created and aired in Japan from Oct. 2008 through March 2009.
And now the second volume of the anime series will be released in the United States courtesy of Bandai Entertainment in Jan. 2012 featuring episodes 8-14. A limited edition version of “Tales of the Abyss” vol. 2 will be released and will include the second and final part of “Tales of the Abyss: Asch the Bloody” (a side tale featuring Asch).
SUMMARY OF VOLUME 1:
“Tales of the Abyss” the anime series begins with a prophecy made by a religious figure named Yulia Jue, a Seventh Fonist who is able to read the future. Yulia has written the future in scores that are documented in Fonstones. But something happened and the Fonstones were shattered and scattered around the world.
And this has led to infighting and long standing war between the nations of Kimlasca-Landvaldear and Malkuth who have been collecting the Fonstones in order to know about their future and finding out before the other nation does. Fortunately, there has been peace declared in the planet of Auldrant and the nations have ceased any war or battling for quite some time.
The series then focuses around the character Luke fon Fabre, the youngest son of Duke Fabre of the Kimlasca Kingdom. His Uncle has the family has literally kept Luke captive within the grounds of their home and has not been able to leave. All he looks forward to is learning to fight by his Master Van. But because of the royal duty of his parents, Luke rarely sees his father. So, his closest relationships are with the servants, Master Van, his good friend and swordsman Guy Cecil (who happens to be afraid of physical contact with women for some reason) and he is engaged to Princess Natalia of Kimlasca-Landvaldear. A promise that was made between both Luke and Natalia when they were younger.
The problem is that Luke has no such memory of what took place when he was younger. He was kidnapped by the Malkuth Empire and was found but have lost any memories prior to when he was a teenager.
Another problem that Luke faces is a recurring “hyperresonance” within him that makes him loses control of some unknown power or to give him visions of something he is not sure of yet. In fact, sometimes he is able to hear voices but has no idea where it’s coming from. These situations began not long after the kidnapping.
One day, as his Master Van is given orders to look for Fon Master Ion, the leader of the Order of Lorelei who is missing, Master Van promises Luke a good day of training before he leaves.
As the two are sparring, a mysterious woman named Tear Grants comes towards the home of the fon Fabres and she renders everyone to sleep through the use of Fonic Hymns. Her goal is to kill Master Van and as she begins to fight him, Luke quickly comes between them and blocs her strike.
But somehow Luke’s mysterious power and Tear’s mysterious power somehow combines and both are transported a long way from home to some unknown destination.
Now both Luke and Tear Grants, who is revealed to be a Locrian Sergeant of the Order of Lorelei’s Intelligence Division are in the middle of nowhere and must find a way to get back home.
As the two try to get a ride to the Capital city, they find out that they are headed to the capital of the Malkuth Empire not the capital of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear. And because Luke is a fon Fabre, his presence in Malkuth can be seen as hostile (and reignite the war). Fortunately, Tear is nearby to watch over him but she is surprised of how sheltered he had been because being out in the wide open, he has never seen animals, the ocean or villages ever in his life.
But through his adventures with Tear Grants, he begins to meet other people who end up joining him on his mission to return home but also to make sure there is peace in the world. Joining him are Jade Curtiss, a colonel of the Malkiuth Empire and is known as the feared “Jade the Necromancer”, Fon Master Ion who is trying to keep the piece between the nations, his bodyguard Anise Tatlin, a guardian of the Order of Lorelei (who is 13-years-old and has fallen for Luke), Luke’s good friend Guy Curtiss and a Cheagle named Mieu.
But there is a lot of deceit and corruption going on in the world, for some reason, the God Generals are trying to create trouble and kidnap Fon Master Ion.
Meanwhile, according to a score written by Yulia, a red-head child would be born to save the world. Because of his hyperresonance, a few who are familiar with Luke’s power feel that Luke may be the red-head child as prophesized to save the world. But one day, when the group are trying to rescue Fon Master Ion who was captured by the God Generals, Luke encounters Asch the Bloody. A man who has the same hair and same face as Luke?
How can this be possible?
ONTO “TALES OF THE ABYSS” VOL. 2:
The adventures continue with Luke and friends arriving to the land of Akzeriuth. Because Van has pretty much built Luke’s ego up to thinking that he will be the hero that will rescue everyone on Akzeriuth, while everyone is out helping the survivors who are suffering from the miasma (a poisonous pink cloud), Luke wanders away in a bit of anger that his friends are not listening to him and rather tend to the injured.
While roaming alone, Luke sees Van and Van lies to Luke that in order to protect Akzeriuth, he just needs to destroy the Sephiroth with his hyper-resonance.
Meanwhile, Asch arrives and tries to prevent Luke from destroying the Sephiroth but Luke doesn’t want to listen and thinks that what his Master Van is telling him is the truth and that he will save the land of Akzeriuth. But when Luke destroys the resonance, Van reveals that Luke is nothing but a replica and Luke and Ion both collapse.
Asch, Tear and friends manage to arrive just in time to protect Luke and Ion but unfortunately, Akzeriuth is destroyed in the process and thousands are killed.
When Luke awakens, he is not sure what happens but he can tell by everyone’s face that they are upset with him. Luke learns that because he destroyed the Sephiroth, he was the person responsible for destroying Akzeriuth.
Also revealed is that humans live in an area called the outlands and their lands are being held up in the air by Sephiroths because the original land was consumed by the poisonous Miasma. And that the intent by Van is to take revenge on the destruction of homeland by destroying humanity on the outlands by destroying each Sephiroth.
Also revealed is why Luke and Asch have this special connection and that Asch is the original Luke Fon Fabre and Luke is nothing but a replica.
And now with his friends upset, a distraught Luke realizes that he has been a person who never lived his own life but was constantly listening to others of how he should live his life. And now, knowing the truth that he is only a replica, he wants to make things right once again and create his own destiny by starting anew.
“Tales of the Abyss” Vol. 2 comes with seven episodes. Here is spoiler-less summary of each episode:
- EPISODE 8: Collapse – Luke and friends arrive to Azkeriuth. Meanwhile, Van has a job for both Luke and Ion…what can it be?
- EPISODE 9: The Usurped ONE – Luke awakens, to find out that his egotistical decision has led to unbelievable tragedy. And all is revealed of who Luke truly is.
- EPISODE 10: Return of Atonement – Luke and Tear return to the Outer Lands and he realizes that he must atone for what he has done.
- EPISODE 11: City of Falling Snow – Jade takes everyone to the port of Keterburg Bay for repairs. Where he meets with his sister Nephry, the governor.
- EPISODE 12: Water Metropolis – The group arrives in Grand Chokmah and both must stop both the Malkuth and Kimlasca from going into war with each other.
- EPISODE 13: Outbreak of War – As the group splits in half in order to stop the war, all is revealed of Natalia’s true identity.
- EPISODE 14: Sealed Past – The group travels to Belken to stop the fallen lands from sinking into the Qliphoth. Meanwhile, something happens to Tear…
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Tales of the Abyss” is presented in 1:78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 with English subtitles. For those who are familiar with the video game, the character designs are pretty much spot-on and the mechanical and monster designs are as well. A good balance of animation and CG, “Tales of the Abyss” is an adventure-based series which brings the characters to various locations and featuring a variety of characters. So, one of the major plus about the series is the constant moving around and scenery is not re-used over and over again.
Colors are vibrant, art backgrounds are well-painted and rendered. Character designs are very complimentary to the video game and for the most part, fans of “Tales of the Abyss” will find the overall animation to be quite solid for a TV series.
As for audio, “Tales of Abyss” is only in Japanese, no English dub and comes with English subtitles.
For the most part, I did enjoy the voice acting for the series but when it came to translations, I noticed a few changes to appeal to a Western audience, for example, when Luke tells Guy “Urusai!” (which means “shut-up!”), the English translation given was “Kiss my butt!”. Also, there were some English subtitles that I wondered if it was translated to sound a bit old English (with Master Van’s character), but I noticed it only happening in episode 1 but not on any other episode after.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Tales of the Abyss Vol. 2” includes the following special features:
- Textless Ending “Bouken Suisei”
- Trailers – Bandai Entertainment Trailers
EXTRAS:
“Tales of the Abyss Vol. 2: Limited Edition” comes with a slipcase and a copy of “Tales of the Abyss: Asch the Bloody Vol. 2” manga. The manga is the second and final graphic novel featuring the quest of Asch the Bloodyy not featured in the anime series.
In the beginning episodes of “Tales of the Abyss”, the series was lighthearted, humorous and all-out fun. But as the series progressed, the story became much more deeper and serious and with these episodes of vol. 2, “Tales of the Abyss” has become even more serious as major tragedies take place, the identities of Asch and Luke, as well as Natalia has been revealed. And not just that, we also get to know more about why Van, the man that Luke had trusted…has become the man he must stop.
Suffice to say, these episodes are much deeper than before and the adventures of Luke and friends have really become quite intriguing as there is a lot of conspiracy taking place and things are not as they seem.
“Tales of the Abyss” has everything that you look for in an adventure series based on the video game. A lot of action, monsters and the progression of a character through the adventure.
Also, featured are enjoyable characters such as the naive Luke, the mysterious Jade, the friend/enemy Tear, the chirpy Anise, to name a few… This is the kind of video game to anime adaptations that I tend to enjoy the most because it is based on a video game series and draws heavily on it, unlike another popular video game series which has had anime series that typically have no ties to a video game but only in title. It also helps that the series is coming out to the USA in coordination with the video game Nintendo 3DS release of “Tales of the Abyss” in Feb. 2012.
So far, this first volume literally kept me glued to the whole series and just watching episode after episode…I enjoyed it a lot and I can’t wait for volume 3. The adventures and also the challenges that Luke and the others must go through has continued to escalate more and more with each episode. It a complex series but easy to follow, enjoy and it’s so darn addictive! It’s that good!
As for the DVD, it’s only Japanese dialogue with English subtitles and there is only one special feature. But for a Bandai Entertainment release, I’m glad that there are seven episodes, rather than just four. So, I suppose to make up for the fact that there is no English dub or that many special features, we are treated with more episodes. The limited edition does have the “Tales of the Abyss: Asch the Bloody” vol. 2 manga which was a very cool addition, especially for those who are wondering what is happening to Asch behind the scenes when Luke and the others are on their adventures.
Overall, “Tales of the Abyss” is an exciting and enjoyable series! Definitely recommended for those looking for an action/adventure anime series that is well-written, features cool characters and most of all, is one of the better video game to anime adaptations out there!
