Zetsuen no Tempest

Yoshino Takigawa, an ordinary teenager, is secretly dating his best friend Mahiro Fuwa's younger sister, Aika. But when Aika mysteriously dies, Mahiro disappears, vowing to find the one responsible and make them pay for murdering his beloved sister. Yoshino continues his life as usual and has not heard from Mahiro in a month—until he is confronted by a strange girl who holds him at gunpoint, and his best friend arrives in the nick of time to save him.

Yoshino learns that Mahiro has enlisted the help of a witch named Hakaze Kusaribe to find Aika's killer. However, the witch has been banished to a deserted island due to infighting within her clan. Hakaze's brother, Samon, selfishly desires to make use of the Tree of Exodus' power, in spite of both his sister's opposition and the impending peril to the world. With Hakaze out of the picture, it is now up to Yoshino and Mahiro to help her save the world, all while inching ever closer to the truth behind Aika's death.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Fuwa, Aika Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Takigawa, Yoshino Main

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Kusaribe, Hakaze Main

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Fuwa, Mahiro Main

Toyonaga, Toshiyuki Japanese

Kusaribe, Samon Supporting

Koyama, Rikiya Japanese

Yamamoto, Evangeline Supporting

Mizuki, Nana Japanese

Hoshimura, Junichirou Supporting

Nojima, Hirofumi Japanese

Kusaribe, Natsumura Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Hanemura, Megumu Supporting

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Kusaribe, Tetsuma Supporting

Yoshino, Hiroyuki Japanese

Saitou, Shunsuke Producer

Maeda, Toshihiro Producer

Furukawa, Shin Producer

Yonai, Noritomo Producer

Reviews

Apr 4, 2013

nixnao

Recommended

“What’s past is prologue.” - The Tempest - William Shakespeare

Nothing could say more about Blast of Tempest than Shakespeare’s The Tempest which is heavily referenced throughout the series. Blast of Tempest is a story about overcoming entrapment in the past, both figuratively and literally.

Story

One thing that can be said about Blast of Tempest is that it follows a logical premise that manages to feel legitimately inspired despite its fair share of twists. Even though the story involves magic, the series defines a strong logical framework that both empowers and entraps its characters.

Above all, our character’s personal history is a major factor in the ... series. It drives Mahiro on a vengeful path to determine who killed his sister and weighs down Yoshino to the point of near-detachment. It is only when these characters are able to accept fate and focus that they are able to allow a tragic event to become the means to a better end (saving the world). Moreover, past as a general influence is extremely well-realized. Events in the past, including Hakaze’s imprisonment, Aika’s death, and even further back to the formation of the Tree of Exodus as a means to end the Tree of Genesis’s purpose in resetting humanity are central to the plot.

Furthermore, the notion of order and chaos is thematically prevalent in the series. Even though the Tree of Genesis represents order, it is only with the chaos represented by the Tree of Exodus that humanity can thrive and even exist. Despite the resurgence of crime and inequality after the dissolution of the Tree of Genesis, it is easy to understand the necessity in the action and why the order imposed by the Tree of Genesis would eventually deem all of humanity unrighteous.

The only major flaw to Blast of Tempest‘s story is that it tends to use its characters as if they are actors in a play (perhaps intentionally). Each character plays his part, often without question. This is extremely noticeable in Aika’s casual acceptance of her fate despite what clearly would have been a difficult decision – but this may actually speak more to her character than to the show’s tendency to have its actors fill a role.

Characters

Character development is very important in Blast of Tempest - and all of its main characters, Hakaze, Yoshino, Mahiro and Aika, are a strong basis to the show’s central themes despite their differing personas. What enforces their strength is their intelligence – even in Mahiro’s case – the characters carefully and cleverly plan their actions.

Hakaze is a strong female lead that is open and direct, while sometimes being too upfront and occasionally becoming distracted by desire. What defines Hakaze the most is that, despite her attunement to the Tree of Genesis, she is far from unquestioning. Her actions are often fueled by her desire to seek her own path, even with opposition or without knowing the consequences. It makes her into a character nearly embracing chaos despite the order surrounding her – which accentuates her foil in Aika.

Aika, though appearing frail, is strong to a fault. Her character embraces the ideology of Exodus far too unconditionally which is but testament to her acceptance with being an actress in a play. She often quotes Hamlet and The Tempest because she feels that her only goals have already been previously scripted and she must play to those ideals.

Mahiro, on the other hand, represents another extreme of chaos with his absolute path of vengeance. His early ambitions are simply to avenge the death of Aika, but this actually drives him to greatness because of her involvement in much more crucial matters. When he is freed from this path, his goal has actually become to enact a plan to save the world. Mahiro is a renegade without being overly reckless and ambitious to a point where he is not clouded.

Yoshino, for a large majority of the show, is very detached. Aika’s death had an opposing effect on him in that he nearly lost desire to function after her passing. Even though he is tied down by her loss, he thinks clearly and keeps Mahiro in check when he is pushing himself too far. It’s important to note that Yoshino is the last character to resolve his past as a lesson in history, because he is too entrapped by it. Hakaze’s confessions to him cause him to break because he is not ready to continue his life until all others’ problems have been resolved.

Quality

Blast of Tempest is breathtaking visually and its usage of classical pieces in its soundtrack is excellently done. By now, this is what we expect from BONES, so it isn’t too unbelievable that this show lives up to BONES’s capability to generate quality in its production value. Particularly of note are the show’s excellent action scenes that accentuate brilliant animation along with well-utilized classical music.

Closing

While Blast of Tempest occasionally falls short of absolute excellence in its willingness to allow its characters to fill roles, it presents a story of past entanglements that is very well-realized and non-contradictory with a cast that synergizes their differing viewpoints.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Apr 5, 2013

LuckyKrystal

Mixed Feelings

Zetsuen no Tempest is an action/supernatural/shonen anime by studio Bones, known for its previous works Eureka Seven, Fullmetal Alchemist, Star Driver, etc. Tempest starts out as a very promising shonen anime with interesting characters and an elaborate setup in a world full of turmoil. Preferring to skip the dramatic buildup, Tempest throws you right into the action and chaos right from the very first episode. Its steady pacing keeps the viewers on the edge of their seat and eager for more of the story. It’s too bad that Tempest doesn’t keep this up for the whole series. Halfway through, the show takes a serious dip ... in quality in just about every area, aside from maybe animation and sound.

And it’s a shame because Zetsuen no Tempest had so much potential, but it falls flat on its face instead. But let’s talk about the good of this show first. The art and animation are top notch. Studio Bones pulled no punches when it came to the gorgeous animation and character designs. The battles are fast, fluid, and intense, going hand in hand with the spectacular and vivid wheel of colors that enhance the magical effects. The character designs are stylish and unique, with no two characters looking too much alike. Another small little detail that was well done was the character’s clothing. Each character’s various clothing looks like something straight out of a teen fashion magazine; very funky and stylish. Small artistic details are also added in the character’s hair and accessories. If I were rating this anime solely based on its art and animation, it would easily score a nine at the very least. Unfortunately, I did not, and I won’t.

Now on to the not-so-good of Zetsuen no Tempest, which is basically everything else. Perhaps the weakest aspect of the show is its story. The story starts out with Hakaze Kusaribe, the princess of a clan of mages, contacting Fuwa Mahiro to help her extinguish an uprising instigated by her followers. Left stranded on an island by said followers, they can only communicate through magic. Hakaze promises to help Mahiro find his sister’s killer in exchange for his help. Mahiro’s friend, Takigawa Yoshino comes along for the ride, and together the three aim to prevent the Kusaribe clan from awakening the tree of Exodus, which would subsequently bring destruction to the entire world.

The entire story pays homage to Shakespeare’s works, namely The Tempest and Hamlet. For some reason, the story feels it needs to remind you of this quite frequently, as it seems every few minutes someone is throwing out a Shakespeare quote. There’s no subtlety in its delivery, and the quotes have little meaning to the plot or the characters. It seems they simply threw in several quotes in order to make the script seemed more grand and classy. Instead, it ended up making the entire anime sound incredibly pretentious. It could be argued that the two differing plays were being quoted to signal that this anime could either have a happy or tragic ending, leaving the viewer to wonder in anticipation. But not only is that grasping at straws, it gives the writers more credit than they probably deserve.

Now to be fair, the first half of the series was pretty good. It was standing on shaky ground but it was still quite good. It may have been standard shonen anime fare “save the world with magical powers, stop the bad guys” but it had an interesting enough twist to keep it afloat. The characters were interesting; they had clear cut motivations that at least made some sense. The plot moved about at a comfortable pace with just enough action and character development shimmied into each episode. The rules of the universe made sense. All that was completely ruined by its mess of a second half.

The plot begins to contradict the rules it established in its first half. It makes no effort to even make sense of Hakaze’s ability to time travel for a second and third time. It presents a ridiculous plot twist that makes even less sense and gives a sort of barbaric edge to Aika’s character that the other characters don’t even bat an eye at. And worst of all, romance is shoehorned in for the sake of throwing in some aspects of a corny school love comedy. Hakaze even alludes to this in a hilarious 4th wall breaking internal monologue.

Perhaps one of the most disappointing aspects of the show is the degradation of its characters. Yes that’s right, the very characters that made the show go backwards as it drags on. Perhaps the character that does it the most is Hakaze Kusaribe. She is initially presented as a strong heroine, with an arrogant edge that is backed up by her standing as the most powerful mage in the clan. She is cunning and unflinching, yet kind and caring when she needs to be. But of course that is all negated when she falls in love.

Yes, LOVE! She becomes clumsy, indecisive, and silly at the first hints of love. Her initial goal was to prevent the destruction of the world and take control of her clan once again. But when she falls in love, she leaves the fate of her clan in the hands of the guy who betrayed her and sent her to an island to die. All so she could travel freely with her love interest. Later, she wants to save the world simply for her love. To say anything else about her silly love driven mindset would mean spoilers, so to be vague, pay attention to what she says when she travels across time a second time. It is so unbelievably silly, bordering on completely idiotic. She goes from a strong heroine to someone whose sole reason for existing and acting is for her love.

Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad it we had some substantial buildup to the relationship, coupled with proof of an established and long-lasting bond that could never be broken. That, and if her feelings were actually reciprocated. Then it would be quite romantic and heroic that Hakaze would do anything for her love. But instead, her actions are based on a silly schoolgirl crush (that quite literally springs out of nowhere) and nothing more, making her actions and motivations seem incredibly idiotic.

Fuwa Mahiro and Takigawa Yoshino are perfect foils, making for a very interesting relationship between the two heroes. They get a significant amount of development in the first half of the show through a series of flashbacks, some of which involve Aika. Brash and arrogant Mahiro is the brawn of their duo, while the manipulative and analytical Yoshino is the brains. Their relationship is one of the most interesting ones of the series. How two young men who are so different from each other could end up cooperating so willingly and becoming the best of friends is a real mystery. But their actions in the second half become a bit odd to say the least. Not only that, but they show little emotion when finding out the truth behind Aika’s death, despite the fact that they are the most important people to her. In fact, their lack of emotion is prevalent even in the first half. They are just normal high school boys, not hardened soldiers. Yet their reactions to the destruction of their home certainly don’t give any hints to that.

Then there is Fuwa Aika, one of the most confusing characters. She’s already dead by the beginning of the series, yet still plays an important role in the story. She’s the motivation for Yoshino and Mahiro’s actions and appears in numerous flashbacks. Her character is described in the anime as having a “horrible personality.” That’s not even the half of it. Her development at the tail end of the series hints at a facet of her personality that is far more barbaric, border lining on psychotic. The rest of the side characters are mostly just there for decoration. They are lively personalities to either spice things up or be used as a convenient plot device to move the story along.

Now don’t get me wrong, Zetsuen no Tempest is not wholly unwatchable. There is plenty of enjoyment to be had watching this series, especially during the first half. It’s just too bad that Bones screwed up the story and characters so hard during the second half that it irredeemably sours the entire series. The character’s motivations during the second half make little to no sense. And trying to piece together why the characters are doing what they’re doing gives way to the realization that these characters are acting like total idiots. The plot twist during the second half was also ridiculous, giving the viewer little justification for WHY things had to be this way. Not to mention the implausibility of the situation based purely on the rules set by the anime.

Zetsuen no Tempest is a great watch if you turn off your brain and just enjoy it for what it is: Your “only very slightly above average until the second half of the show” shonen anime. Anybody looking for anything more won’t get much enjoyment out of this anime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jan 3, 2014

AngelsArcanum

Not Recommended

There's this common expression: "all bark and no bite." Blast of Tempest is a dog that barks Shakespeare quotes aimlessly, holding little weight and consequence out of the context of its wholesome product. It's like how there's so much Zelda paraphernalia that gradually obfuscates from the point of what the iconic series was in the first place - a large game franchise with a grand mythos of diverse interconnecting core stories and subplots. Blast of Tempest puts up a facade of intelligence and substance by spouting Shakespeare when there's hardly any actual story content to speak of it. Well then, I'll move on to the ... core of the review that I have something to talk about, unlike this very series itself.

Story: Okay, let's start this on a positive note before I start slamming this series for its lack-of-"Story"; the initial episodes have promise at least. We have the Romeo expy Yoshino standing at his girlfriend's grave when a mysterious woman by the name of Evangeline appears asking about the whereabouts of his old friend Mahiro, the Hamlet expy. Mahiro encounters Evangeline and things get hectic. It turns out Mahiro has connections to this missing woman named Hakaze who is a mage trapped on some far off island and she wants to stop her brother Samon from reviving a magical tree that threatens the planet. Mahiro fends off Evangeline with the various magical talismans Hakaze left across the area. Meanwhile giant seeds of the Tree of Exodus Samon is trying to revive are sprouting over the city and petrifying anyone who isn't protected by a talisman. Evangeline suspects it's Hakaze's doing because Mahiro is seen actively using Hakaze's magic himself. Mahiro communicates with Hakaze via this magic idol, and Mahiro is assisting Hakaze on the condition that she finds his sister's murderer, and unbeknownst to Mahiro, his dead sister was Yoshino's girlfriend in secret. Some of Samon's assistants are thrown into the conflict to ensure things go smoothly with Exodus' resurrection, and Yoshino teams up with Mahiro to get him out of the bind and to also find out who killed his lover Aika. The first 3 episodes have lots of action and intrigue, with various sides clashing, a catastrophic plan unfolding and a decent dose of angst...but then it doesn't know where to go from there, almost literally I might add. Mahiro and Yoshino travel around every 2 episodes or so, but since nothing's going on in the present, they just settle in one spot shortly after and show flashbacks of Yoshino, Mahiro and Aika and then one boring fight scene in an aquarium and Yoshino being captured for a short period thrown to mix it up a bit. Once episode 8 comes, things get even thinner; we have not one, not two, but FOUR episodes of a long winded sophistry battle between Yoshino, Mahiro and Samon trying to prove Hakaze still being alive (which was earlier suspected to be all a weird contradiction) involving duplicates, time rifts and other stuff, and the arguments go back and forth with neither party having much evidence or going to much length to argue their stance while the government tries to attack the Tree of Exodus. When the half point hits, the world is stricken by calamity, but there's no driving conflict or urgency in the second cour, so the characters--which, mind you, all villains reconcile with the allies at this point--just meander around and occasionally blow up a tree or two every now and then, because again, nothing is going on. After blowing up enough trees (yeah, take that environment!), the plot starts to head towards some semblance of a conclusion, but not before we find out who Aika's killer is, which happens to be one of the most ludicrous and groan-worthy twists I've ever seen, and it's all uncovered thanks to the magic of a crappy time travel element to put the crap icing on the garbage cake. The remaining events unfold without many bumps in the road, wrapping up in a totally run of the mill happy ending just to nip it in the bud. That's pretty much it. The story is about as thin as a nickel and is littered with many problems, but it has the occasional saving grace like the first 3 episodes, the conflict with society and the media on blowing up the trees fearing worse than the already poor conditions, and a delightfully liberating and refreshing scene where the one sane and logical side character beats the crap out of our far gone angst-ridden protagonists. That's all more than enough to save it from being one of the worst things ever, but it is still a big waste of time. I love Shirodaira's most prolific work, Spiral, so I had some expectations going in, and suffice to say I was massively disappointed, such a shame.

3/10

Characters: Oh goody, the characters. I'll be fair and say that for the most part they started off tolerable in the first cour before the even more dreadful second, but there's still nothing exemplary from most of them, and the second cour does some hefty damage to them. Yoshino is the lovelorn Romeo character who goes from being more proactive and level headed to whiney and self-loathing, Mahiro is the cynical and sharp-tongued Hamlet who goes from a driven avenger to an egotistical bully and Aika is the sadistic princess who played around with both of them. Hakaze turns from a confident and spunky lass to a nagging waifu trying to pine for Yoshino. Evangeline is something of an aggressive Misato-esque warrior woman who stays fairly consistent but is less prominent in the latter half while her assistant Takumi is pretty much just along for the ride. Hakaze's big bro Samon gets some of the worst of it, turning from a stern and headstrong antagonist to...comic relief with a straight face. His right hand brawn, Natsumura, is a ruthless stoic, but he doesn't have much of a hand in the second half, but Tetsuma the brains and voice for Samon has it worse, becoming nothing more than a cab driver for everyone else. Now, the one who is straight up the worst character of the lot the entire time...Junichiro. The lawful neutral who fulfills only that much, just wandering around being neutral; if he ever gets involved, he beats up members of both parties, of which, the fights are omitted to be left to the imagination, making it more dreadful than it already is. He is an absolutely pointless character, and the only time he ever did something with some effect to it is when he tried to share certain plot details which obfuscate details and make things more mysterious. Thankfully though, I'll close things off with the one character who DOES stand out as a good character - better than the series does justice to, which is Hanemura. He starts out as a bit of a spineless but sincere and rational guy who learns to fight under Mahiro's tutelage and gradually becoming more outspoken and vigorous after going through all the physical duress of Mahiro's training and emotional turmoil of all the other characters angsting and complaining around him, leading to the powerful scene of him kicking Mahiro and Yoshino's asses when things get out of hand. He's a stand up guy and he sets things straight when the plot is wrought with too much self-indulgence, anguish and melodrama, making him a refreshing change, ironically he is introduced in the second cour when all else goes to crap, so that in itself is a plus. At the end of the day, Hanemura breaks the series out of its conceited shell, but when leveled with the general character decay and initial merely decent characterization plus Junichirou, I can't give the roster a pass.

4/10

Art/Animation: Blast of Tempest being animated by Bones is a good sign. The very same company known for works such as both Fullmetal Alchemist adaptations, Wolf's Rain, RahXephon and many more nice looking series, and Blast of Tempest upholds some degree of that quality in its appearance. The characters are almost never off model, everything is smoothly rendered, clean and sharp looking and can pull off some more dynamic action scenes well, but those scenes are rather few and far between, and there's still much better out there, so it isn't THAT remarkable. The artwork looks really nice too thankfully, capturing the look of the manga well, with the designs being very sharp to begin with so the series looks cool at the very least.

7/10

Sound: The score is a rather enticing collection of melancholic orchestral pieces with bits of whimsy, mystery, grandiose and tragedy to them. There also happens to be select Beethoven pieces bundled in, so you know there's quality classical pieces to be had in this series, so that music happens to be the strongest department for this anime. The voice work on the other hand, is about average; characters come off as one note a lot of the time and lack a bit of enthusiasm at times, but the voices fit the characters well and performances are still consistent and serviceable.

8/10

Enjoyment: For me, enjoyment tends to run concurrent with story, and even if an anime may come off as "boring" in terms of tone and atmosphere to some, if there is some weighty metatheming or elaborate writing and intrigue permeating over the course of things, I won't get bored personally. However, as my story section dictates, there was hardly anything worthwhile for me to chew on. If Blast of Tempest were a steak, it would be a bland, dry and tough to chew on one. I was bored watching it most of the time because things always meandered and there wasn't much intellectual meat to it, and a lot of it was far below average. Blast of Tempest was just a really stale journey.

3/10

In closing, Blast of Tempest is one of those series that falls into-nay, EPITOMIZES the cliche of a lot of anime out there: interesting concept, poor execution (in this case, hardly any). It's one of the most sloggish and inflated series I've ever seen that clings to its premise like a pure catholic teen clings to his/her chastity. The series had a cool idea that was rather intriguing, but it didn't know how to expand on it, so they just run around haphazardly with it and start randomly expounding Shakespeare references to try and uphold the air of assured direction when they haven't a clue what they are doing. "Okay, so I've hooked them with the premise and I gotta make a series with this, but I have no idea what to do next...GOT IT! I'll have the characters quote Shakespeare because HE'S intelligent, so that will make them think THIS SERIES is still intelligent! Perfect!" Blast of Tempest is a stretched out, pretentious (I try to use this word sparingly) and unexciting odyssey (if you can even call it that) and it is not worth your time. Don't be fooled by the Shakespeare references, this series is hardly smart at all, don't waste your time on it. Do yourself a favour and just read Spiral by the same author, it's a mystery that's worth it, Shirodaira just dropped the ball here.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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