EREMENTAR GERAD
Instant fantasy: just add water!
Review by: M.H. "He, the Ultimate Weapon" Torringjan
Length: 26 episodes
Genre: Fantasy
Watched: Entire series, subbed.
I don't have much time to watch anime these days, so what time I have, I want to really enjoy. I'd like to see something a little bit different, where interesting characters make me care about what happens to them, and if at all possible where what happens is something that hasn't already been done fifteen thousand times. I'd like to not be able to guess plot points, character developments, and even lines five minutes before they happen. After 10 hours of Erementar Gerad, I'm still looking.
Plot Summary: Coud van Guillet is an aspiring young air pirate on the Red Lynx who goes snooping into the booty one day. In what appears to be a coffin, he finds a young girl in a deep sleep (dear diary, jackpot!) with a pendant on her chest. He removes the pendant and awakens the girl just in time for the ship to be attacked by a different band of pirates, oddly dressed as ninjas. When trying to save the girl, the two are cornered by one of the ninja-pirates, forcing the girl to cuddle up to Coud at one of the most inappropriate times humanly possible. The result is a flash of light and whoosh of wind, after which Coud discovers the biggest-ass sword this side of Final Fantasy latched onto his arm. After kicking ass and meeting three members of the organization Arc Aile, he is told that the girl, Ren, is an Edil Raid, a powerful magical weapon. Not just any Edil Raid, mind you, but the Seventh Scintillating Treasure Tree (which sounds like the lead in to a really weird porn)! She asks him to take her to the mythical land of Edil Garden, to which he agrees in an appropriately eager fashion. I mean, who wouldn't want to travel with a cute girl whose sole purpose is to be a magical weapon of mass destruction? Or is that just me? The real question is, will they survive long enough to make it there?
Artwork: The artwork is appropriately sharp for a modern anime series, but there's nothing to really go crazy over. Some of the Edil Raids in their weapon forms are very reminiscent of s-CRY-ed's Alters (so much so that the show's producers should probably be looking for lawyers). The character designs are distinctive and seem well fitted to the characters, but nothing revolutionary. The color variety is nice, appropriately for a fantasy series, and the characters and backgrounds blend fairly well. As with most of the series, it's nothing special, perhaps to the point of being formulaic. The fight scene animations are all right, with only some minor shortcuts taken, but nothing too blatant.
Music: I certainly hope you haven't had enough of Yuki Kajiura from watching Mai HiME, Mai Otome, the Hack series, Noir, and every goddamn thing else she's done. If you have, this becomes a liability for the show. She seems to follow the same formula that she's used for pretty much every other series she's done in the past few years: a few good techno battle songs with Latin singing in the background, a bunch of other okay mood-setting music. I could use this chance to rant about how Yoko Kanno took her good beginnings and used the experience to learn how to write music for many different types of series and become an excellent (nay, legendary) music director while Kajiura hasn't diversified one bit over her career and has in fact become more derivative (although I will admit, she can pick her derivative Latin-singing tunes just right, judging from the Mai series) and use that to explain why Kajiura's going to fade away in a couple of years, but that would take up more space and time than I want to devote to that. Maybe a separate essay.
Characters: You want a mass-produced cast? You got a mass-produced cast! Start with Coud, the mouthy brat who underneath has a heart of gold and is still bashful about his feelings toward Ren. Although he can be rash at times, he shows at all the right times that he cares. Ren is the aloof waif who holds the key to the mystery and set the entire adventure in motion. She doesn't understand much about human nature and tries over time to become more familiar with it. Cisqua is the officer from Arc Aile assigned to bring Ren back to Arc Aile headquarters for her protection. She has a quick trigger finger, a short fuse, and wants to understand more about Edil Raids� nature because of the tears of one from years ago. Rowell is the easy-going guy who can hold his own in a fight (mainly due to Kuea, but more on that in a minute). He acts as Coud's elder and the group's cook (who, amazingly enough, actually knows how to cook well!). Kuea is Rowell's partner, an Edil Raid with an insatiable appetite who loves to butt into Coud's lovelife. When not trying to get him nookied up, she gives him tips on the best ways to use and take care of Ren. As usual in a fantasy series, there is an almost interminable list of minor characters who show up time and again, but that would start getting a bit long for the page.
Plot: As I stated in my opening section, I have a problem with the predictability of this series, as well as the over-used plot devices and a number of other minor squabbles that add up to a major minus. As with the plot itself, there was very little new or interesting in the humor department. All of the gags were recycled (personal attacks, grab da booby, etc.) that you see in most mediocre series these days. I found myself laughing very rarely at the jokes, and actually found myself laughing at the series at times (one episode in particular was the feel-good all-Ren episode that had a pipsqueak in a plane blowing up a wind-blocking dam to save a city; at the end, there was even a feel-happy-happy background song and obligatory montage of happy-looking people; they were so happy I felt sick afterwards). On the other hand, I wouldn't have minded the derivative plot so much if they had given us a reason to care about the characters, which they failed to do as well. Beyond "Hey, Ren's really cute!" they gave us very little reason to care what happened. Overall, I thought this was a sub-par effort.
CHICKS!! Despite the other drawbacks in the series, at least they do a passable job of providing us with eye candy to keep us occupied. As has been mentioned previously, Ren is extremely cute, but she isn't even the best of the bunch. Ren's got the waif character going for her that made Chii so desirable (although she's nowhere near as cute as everyone's favorite nation-conquering weapon of extreme cuteness). However, with such an amenable character, it should be pretty much a cinch to get her to do what you want, Also, noteworthy is the longevity of Edil Raid, which would leave her young and flexible when you're stuck in a wheelchair (bringing all new meaning to the phrase, "long-term investment"). Kuea is about the hottest character of the series, with the traditional anime-chick rack that would break a normal woman's back (reason 341 that anime chicks are better than real life). However, to sustain the relationship, you'll need value cards at every grocery store in existence. She eats a lot. Like Chris Farley a lot. The real upside comes from the increased longevity and the fact that she never seems to put on any weight with all this consumption, plus, she seems like she'd know how to have a good time. The real gem, though, isn't even a main character, but a minor character from later in the series, Viro! She falls easily enough for a pretty face and a nice guy, has a great body, and one more word. Glasses. Oh, yes, they even threw in a glasses chick for the otaku! Glasses, longevity, and a hot body, and easy to boot! They needed her in more than five episodes.
Overall: Although the series has slick animation and fair technical aspects, there isn't much else that you couldn't get from another fantasy/sci-fi series of recent release. If you don't have anything else to watch, I certainly wouldn't discourage you from watching it, but watch your other stuff first. You'll feel much more fulfilled that way.
IN A NUTSHELL:
+ Good animation
+ Okay music
- Derivative plot
- Oh god, don't care... don't care...
Final score: 6.5/10
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