Tales of Symphonia The Animation: Sylvarant-hen

Story:
Well, this OVA of course comes from the video game Tales of Symphonia. So, the story is the same, however theres quite a few parts left out. However, I don't think it is quite right to say that just because of that the story isn't that good. This is the animation, not the game. Sure, it's based on it, but it's not gonna be an exact copy of it.
It starts really being a kind of 'save the planet' storyline, as a girl who is the Chosen One and her friends set out for a journey to a tower where she'll become an angel and rescue ... the planet. However, after Lloyd (the main character) learns something serious about becoming an angel, the story takes a pretty big twist, which it pretty interesting. The OVA ends really like only about half-way through the game, so it does not give you a feeling of closure whatsoever, but that's exactly why more episodes are supposed to be made at a later date.

Art:
The artwork is similar to the cut scenes from the video game. Which means it's pretty good. Everything is nicely drawn, and the motions are pretty fluent. It's more of a simplistic style, which is actually quite nice.

Sound:
The voice acting really couldn't have been better. The voices really fit the characters greatly. The background music isn't spectacular, but serves its purpose and is fairly good. The OP, I feel, couldn't have been better for this OVA. It, for some reason, just felt so perfect for the overall mood and tone of the show. The ED is actually a song that Collette, the Chosen One, sings in the series, so I guess it was a nice idea to have it as the ED.

Character:
The characters are all pretty cool, and each have a different personality, making them very likable. They didn't really get too develop themselves very much, which is unfortunate and disappointing, but I don't think it is fair to degrade the show for that, since it's simply 4 episodes.

Enjoyment:
Enjoyment would have been a 9 if the battles were better. That's really my biggest disappointment. The fights were very short and curt, and rarely involved a lot of intricacy or really just intensity, especially the battles against the seals. However, despite that, it's still a pretty enjoyable watch since there's a lot of emotion and, well, it's really just fun to follow it along, even if you haven't played the video game.

Story: This OVA is based off the game by the same name "Tales of Symphonia" basically there is a girl that is the "chosen" and she is to go on a mission to save her world from dying of a mana shortage. She is joined by her friends and they go on the journey for her to become an angel, which she needs to become to save the world. Now, I won't say this OVA won't be enjoyable if you haven't played the game, but you will notice that there are big gaps in time which they are supposed to be filled in in the ... game. And if you've played the game, you'll be disappointed only because it has sooo much potential to be a very good anime series, but it cuts short :( Assuming you haven't played the game, there'll be some plot twists, and should keep you interested.

Art: If you've played the game, then you've seen the movie cut scenes that show up every now and then, and seeing as how Gainax produced those scenes, it's understandable that it was high end animation. Although Gainax doesn't produce the OVA, the quality stays. The characters are drawn well, and all the animation is smooth.

Sound: I assume sound means the soundtrack and voice acting, both of which I felt were okay. I enjoyed the voice acting more than I did the music, mainly because of a very good cast. You'll recognize many of the voices, and I they fit the characters well. The soundtrack wasn't bad, but nothing memorable, personally, i got kind of bored the OP, and ED.

Character: The characters never had a chance to progress, mainly because the series was so short. There was some progression, such as with Sheena and Lloyd, and change of character with someone else..., but there wasn't much gradual change. The characters are fun to watch, there are many personalities, serious, nerdy, naive, kind, etc. with all of them complementing each other.

Enjoyment: Ever since I played the game a few years ago, I loved the movie cut scenes, and always said that they should make a series just from this, and now that they did, I had to watch. Although it did not nearly meet my expectations, I did enjoy it, in fact it had me wanting much much more. But as a person who has never played, I'd imagine that they would enjoy this series moderately, seeing as they'll obviously notice plot gaps, and a pseudo-ending.

Overall: I give this series a 7 mainly because I thought it had an unimaginable amount of potential, but alas, this OVA series seems more like a promotional trailer for the game. And seeing as it is an OVA, it's too short, making the creators progress the story too quickly. I'd recommend anyone to watch this, and it may even make you want to play the game.

Tales of Symphonia was a Namco RPG released for the Gamecube in August of 2003, or July/ November 2004 if you don't live in Japan. It wasn't the first Tales game to receive an anime adaptation with both Phantasia, which some of you may recall from one of my previous reviews, and Eternia getting adapted before it, but it was the first to have the anime adaptation handled by Ufotable, the same studio responsible for Kara no Kyoukai, Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight, & Fate/Zero. Yeah, it's a bit strange, but most anime adaptations of the Tales franchise have been handled by different studios. So, ... how did Ufotable handle the series?

Story:

We open with our heroine, Colette, getting ready to undertake a journey of world regeneration to save her dying world. An angel, Remiel, descends to give her instruction and send her on the way. With the aid of her teacher, Refill Sage and a mercenary hired by the church, Kratos Aurion, she heads out on her journey. Colette's friends, Lloyd and Genis, both want to accompany them but are left behind. Until their village is attacked by people who want Lloyd's Exsphere, a mysterious object. At which point they decide to leave for the safety of the village and rendezvous with Colette and the others to aid her in any way they can.

So, it's basically the same plot as the beginning of the game. Now, you've probably already noticed the major problem, the pacing is horrendous. All of those significant events I just described are in the first episode with little time between them. Events are thrown at you one after the other with no time to get a good grip on what's happening. The plot points also aren't expounded on very well. If you haven't played the game you will find yourself wondering what just happened on several occasions. Which is why it's probably a bad idea to condense a good third of the narrative of a plot heavy, multi-disc Gamecube game down to a four episode series. Sure, they managed to do it pretty well with the plot of Phantasia but that was a SNES game and much lighter on the plot.

In all fairness, the anime does do a decent job of hitting all the major points in the part of the game they cover and the narrative, though rushed and condensed, does still hold up pretty well and has some really strong scenes, albeit somewhat weakened by being rushed through. They also chose a good stopping point considering that they had more OVAs to come.

Characters:

The OVA has all the characters you see in the series, except significantly less developed since a lot of their conversations and other character scenes get cut. Still, the series has some great characters. Refill, Genis, Sheena, Kratos and Lloyd are all great characters. No, I'm not including Colette. Honestly, she annoys me. She's one of those self sacrificing characters who worries about everyone else and is supposed to be pure and innocent. I've never been a fan of those characters. They just come across as kind of trite and boring to me. It's even worse in the anime version since she doesn't get any of her funny lines from the game.

Art:

The art is really good. The character designs, action sequences and background details are all really nicely drawn and animated. Really, there's only one complaint I can make about the OVA. The action sequences, though mostly good, have too many blur line scenes. You know the type. Character is shown in an action pose, multi-coloured lines appear behind them and no contact is made between them and the enemy, assuming they even bother showing the character and their enemy in the same frame.

Sound:

They got some really good actors. Mizuki Nana, Konishi Katsuyuki, Orikasa Ai, Touma Yumi, Okamura Akemi and Tachiki Fumihiko take the roles of our major characters. The music is also really good with Mizuki Nana and Kawai Eri doing lyrical work.

Ho-yay:

There's not any ho-yay in this. Making the ho-yay factor a 1/10.

Final Thoughts:

Tales of Symphonia the animation is made for fans of the game. If you're someone who hasn't played it, the pacing is going to leave you confused and without a lot of the context behind events. If you are a fan of the game, you'll probably enjoy it okay as a supplementary work. For myself, I'm giving it a 6/10. It's a decent OVA with some good moments but it definitely suffers from the pacing. Next week I'll take a look at Potemayo.