The third volume of “Tales of the Abyss” is the most emotional and tragic volume yet! If you have watched this far into the series, you definitely want to watch vol. 3. As the series is coming to a close, the final confrontation between Luke and friends vs. Van and the six generals begins. Who will live and who will die?
Image courtesy of © 2008 NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc./Sunrise, Bandai Visual, MBS. All Rights Reserved.
TITLE: Tales of the Abyss Vol. 3
ANIME RELEASE: 2008
DURATION: (Episodes 15-20) 150 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: February 7, 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
Luke and Natalia have escaped from their home city after being accused of being imposters. They fnd out the Outer Lands are about to collapse, obliterating humankind unless someone stops the vibration of the planet’s core. But frst they need to overcome their pasts before saving the world, and Van Grants and his six God-Generals stand in their way.
It’s a race against time to prevent the world from ending in the third volume of “Tales of the Abyss”.
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 third volume of the anime series has been released in the United States courtesy of Bandai Entertainment in Feb. 2012 featuring episodes 15-20.
A SUMMARY OF WHAT “TALES OF THE ABYSS” IS ALL ABOUT:
“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?
WHAT HAPPENED IN “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.
In “Tales of the Abyss” Volume 3, it is a race against time as Van is trying to destroy the world. Obsessed of his homeland being destroyed and that everyone is trying to follow the words of the Fonstones, Van wants to to create a new world where Fonstones do not exist but also for all humanity to die and start over.
Luke and friends must stop Van, but Van sends out his six generals to confront the team.
But this time around, these battles are to the death and tragedy hits both sides. Who will live and who will die in this latest volume of “Tales of the Abyss”.
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. 3” includes the following special features:
- Textless Opening “Karma” Version 2
- Trailers – Bandai Entertainment Trailers
Tragic, heartbreaking and the most intense “Tales of the Abyss” by far If you have invested your time in watching the previous episodes of this series, just know that after this volume, things will never be the same as there are a significant number of tragic deaths in this volume.
It was a given that Luke and friends would have to face the six guards again and again, but as the group must do all they can to stop the world from being destroyed, they have no choice but to fight to the death.
While volume 2 had more revelations of what Van was planning, the true identity of Asch and what Luke truly is. “Tales of the Abyss” also has a few surprises as we find out more about Fion Ion, Anisse’s actual role and who was responsible in the destruction of Guy’s homeland.
But it’s the battles that will captivate viewers and there are a good number of them, and surprisingly, a good number of people die. And it’s probably best to leave it at that.
Fans of the “Tales of the Abyss” anime series will probably be surprised and shocked by this emotional volume but it definitely sets the story up for the final conflict in order to save the planet from destruction.
As for the DVD, there are six episodes and they are all presented in Japanese only with English subtitles. There is only one special feature and while I wish there were more, but it all comes down to the anime series and its storyline. And as a big fan of the “Tales” video games, “Tales of the Abyss”, the anime series has been entertaining since the first episode and I can’t wait to see how this series ends.
Overall, “Tales of the Abyss” is an exciting and enjoyable series! While volume three is possibly the most intense, tragic and emotional volume yet, I definitely recommend this anime series 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!
Check it out!
