Fire Emblem (TV series)
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| This article was copied (instead of imported) from the now-deleted Terrible TV Shows Wiki. |
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 There's no need for you to apologize, Fire Emblem TV Show. Everyone knows you're either mediocre or in a nutshell, or just being the crappy TV show you're meant to be.
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Fire Emblem is a Japanese anime OVA based on Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem which happens to be the third game of the Fire Emblem series. Produced by the Studio KSS and Studio Fantasia in 1996, the OVA is only two episodes long and covers only a very small part of the game's plot, presumably due to lack of interest or/and funding. Both episodes were released in dubbed and subtitled formats in North America on VHS by ADV Films in 1997, making it the first licensed Fire Emblem media to see an official release outside of Japan.
Bad Qualities
- False advertising: On the VHS box art, Marth is seen wielding the Falchion. However, the anime didn't let Marth even use the weapon.
- Also, the VHS cover said "Based upon the Hit Video Game" when the game wasn't even out yet in the US. It took until Super Smash Bros. Melee to get Fire Emblem titles outside of Japan. Ironically enough, the first Fire Emblem game to came out in the west was The Blazing Blade, which was a completely different game from Mystery of the Emblem.
- The VHS cover has Marth's outfit and Caeda's hair a different color, the anime however gives the color a different look with Marth's outfit having a different color scheme.
- Caeda's hair is blue on the VHS cover, which is her hair color in the games, but it's actually green in the anime.
- Caeda is flanderized in the anime. She went from a cute, kind, forgiving, and sharp young woman to complete crap. There was this one time in the first episode where she got mad at Marth just because he was making eye contact with a woman from a village. That means she's an overreactor.
- She also gets a damsel in distress role in the first episode when she is nothing like that in the actual games itself. She can still fight yet the anime makes her look like a joke.
- Poor grasp on the source material: Despite the anime based on the third game, it's pretty inconsistent with the source material. Ogma and his three Axe Fighter mercenaries play a prominent role in the first episode which covers the events of Chapter 1 when the afformed characters first appeared Chapter 2.
- Gharnef is portrayed as the main antagonist of the anime when the game states that Medeus is the big bad. Though to be fair, it was only two episodes but still.
- Jagen in the first episode appears to attack as an infantry unit when he's supposed to be a mounted unit.
- We never got to see what happened to Elice afterward so it's unclear if she was killed or not. Yes, she does get rescued in the original game, yet the anime seems to make it look like she was going to die.
- Castor is cut in the anime when he is supposed to have an introductory chapter.
- The infamous scene in the first episode where Marth screams to Elice during a scene where she uses a teleportation spell comes out as ear-piercing.
- Some scenes in the anime are just there to be used for padding purposes such as a scene where Marth and Caeda are playing around in Talys or a scene where Navarre killing a group of people who are attacking him for no reason. It's almost like they just want to add some extras for no reason.
- It can also serve as the reason why the pacing on the anime feels so stale and non-existent.
- Some of the names are changed come out as questionable. Marth for some reason is named Mars, Caeda is named Sheda, Navarre is named Navarl. To be fair, Fire Emblem hasn't come out outside of Japan. Even then, Navarre in the Japanese version of the games is referred to as Nabarl instead of Navarl while Caeda is named Sheeda. Ever since Nintendo gave the characters officially localized names, it feels pretty outdated.
- Despite the animation being passible for old-school standards, sometimes it can be too inconsistent with the lighting. Elice's hair in the games is blue yet the anime's lighting makes it look black. The same can apply to Marth who also has blue hair, but some scenes make his hair look blacker.
- Caeda's hair in some scenes where it's dark tends to look darker in turquoise.
- Overall, the lighting can make the colors look too washed out.
- Her hair in some scenes is sometimes too inconsistent with the lighting, where it's dark tends to look darker in turquoise.
- Though awesome, the fight scenes feel lackluster, even for Fire Emblem standards, which is a franchise known to have action. The first episode made the fight look pathetic due to Gordin saying "5 points" in the English dub which comes out as weird and cheesy.
- Speaking of the first episode, there is a scene where Ogma steals the spotlight from Marth during the fight. How anti-climactic.
- The budget on the second episode has been decreased somehow. Just compare the quality with the first episode. No wonder it's one of the possible reasons as to why it ended in two episodes.
- Another major downgrade would be a fight scene that comes off as awkward because, during the fight, there is editing done wrong whereas the fight cuts to a scene with Marth.
- The camera shots become awkward when they show a character's face in the most unsettling way in certain scenes.
- Plot hole: In Episode 2, Julian and Lena attempted to escape only for them to be facing off guards. Navarre then shows up who looks like he was going to kill Julian yet the former instead kills the guards. In another scene, Julian is surprised that Navarre helped Lena despite Navarre killing the guards earlier. It's like if Julian has short-term memory.
- The anime itself ended in a cliffhanger. This is really problematic to those who aren't aware of Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem. To make matters worse, Mystery of the Emblem hasn't been released outside of Japan so far. Not even the remake New Mystery of the Emblem.
Good Qualities
- Gordin's dialog is pretty funny due to his voice, especially in the English dub. For example, "But Mars" all thanks to Gordin's voice which made it.
- It was nice to see Fire Emblem be released outside of Japan way before we got the games localized as well as Marth and Roy appearing in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
- The character designs still stay true to the original video game counterparts. Speaking of characters staying true to designs, the characters are still pretty awesome like in the game series such as Jagen, Navarre, and Ogma.
- Even though Caeda can be unlikeable in the anime, she's still cute and even did prevent Ogma and Navarre to stop fighting only for her to make a reason with Navarre.
- Lena is still adorable.
- Some scenes are wholesome to look at like when Julian gives Lena some food when the latter was in a cage in the second episode or Caeda reuniting with her dad in the first episode.
- Same can be said about emotional scenes like King Cornelius' death as the character is Marth's dad.
- You can still get some awesome moments from the anime like the fight scenes of course and the opening.
- For an old-school anime, the animation is passable enough as it gives out a vibe to many early anime shows in the 90s including Sailor Moon, Cowboy Bebop, Doraemon, Keroppi and Friends, Dragon Ball Z, Neon Genesis Evagelion, etc. Even the backgrounds are nice.
- Despite the flaws, the anime did expand on some details story-wise. This is present on the characters alone. The anime expands a bit on Marth's back story while Navarre, # Lena, and Julian in the second episode does let the characters have their own point of view.
- The voice acting is tolerable in the original Japanese version. The English version would apply as well like Spike Spencer, Kim Sevier, Rob Mungle, and John Swasey. In fact, a lot of the English voice actors got to appear in other media that turned out to be well received as well. Also, some of the Japanese voice actors got to appear in other Fire Emblem media.
- Nice soundtrack.
Reception
MyAnimeList gave the anime a rating of 5.63 with mixed reviews. It also has a score of 5.7/10 on IMDb.
Videos
Trivia
- This was released way before any of the Fire Emblem games were released in North America.
- Some of the voice actors in the OVA also did voice acting in other Fire Emblem media after the anime existed. This includes the following:
- Hikaru Midorikawa - the voice actor of Marth voices the character in the games he appears in.
- Takehito Koyasu - reprises the role of Navarre in every game he appears in except for Fire Emblem: Archanea Saga.
- Sumi Shimamoto and Jurota Kosugi - the voice talents for Elice and Ogma voices the characters in Fire Emblem Heroes.
- Spike Spencer - the voice actor of Marth for the ADV Films English dub voices Excellus from Fire Emblem Awakening.
- The anime has spawned some memes like "But Mars", "5 Points", "You're still too slow", "Let them all go", and the opening of the anime (because of: Time before time)
- There are also several memes comparing Caeda's appearance in the anime to Eirika's (A character from Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones) appearance due to the afformed characters having blue hair albeit they are different characters from different Fire Emblem games.
- The full episodes are available on YouTube due to the VHS going out of print.
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