Deltora Quest

Long ago, the blacksmith Adin forged a belt of seven powerful gems, one from each of the seven tribes of Deltora. Wielding the belt's unparalleled power, he repelled the Shadow Lord's attempt to overthrow the kingdom. Adin was crowned king of Deltora, but he never forgot that the enemy remained unbeaten.

Centuries later, memory of the Shadow Lord has become faded and almost forgotten, and the people of Deltora see their monarchy as detached and uncaring. Much to their dismay, the Shadow Lord strikes once more, breaking the Belt of Deltora by scattering the seven gems across the continent. Jarred, a close friend of the young king Endon, assists him and his wife in escaping from the castle as the Shadow Lord takes over, and they part ways to go into hiding.

The Shadow Lord now reigns over Deltora and many years pass under his tyrannical rule. However, there is a glimmer of hope in Jarred's son Lief, whom he has lovingly raised and trained to find the scattered gemstones and reassemble the Belt of Deltora. Along with his companions Barda and Jasmine, Lief must face devious enemies and dangerous beasts to oust the Shadow Lord and return peace to Deltora.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Jasmine Main

Takagaki, Ayahi Japanese

Lief Main

Sakamaki, Ryosuke Japanese

Barda Main

Yara, Yuusaku Japanese

Dain Supporting

Saiga, Mitsuki Japanese

Doom Supporting

Morita, Junpei Japanese

Thaegan Supporting

Fujita, Toshiko Japanese

Glock Supporting

Tachiki, Fumihiko Japanese

Golden-eyed Giant Supporting

Gorl Supporting

Oacus Supporting

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Hongou, Mitsuru Director

Aketagawa, Susumu Sound Director

Tsuchiya, Hiroyuki Episode Director

Honda, Akiko Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Apr 3, 2016

Certia

Recommended

Deltora Quest is one of the few anime that despite having so many problems, so many pitfalls, and one of the most predictable stories I've seen in quite so time, that I can say I enjoyed watching every single episode of.

The 2007 adaptation of Emily Rodda's Deltora Quest series is so remarkably unremarkable, so vanilla, that its pure simplicity stood out when watching it. Now, I may be a bit biased due to having read this book series as a child, but I could not remember the slightest bit about it for the life of me when I came around to watching this.

A brief synopsis ... is that The Generic Dark King (Literally the Shadow Lord) took over the kingdom, and only The Chosen One (Lief) can rebuild the legendary artifact that is the Dark Lord's one and only weakness using the Seven Gems of Deltora. The entire quest is to reobtain these seven gems, and each 'arc' of the story is based on the events surrounding each one of them.

While the story's outline is the most cliched premise in fantasy anime history, the actual writing is very well done. There is a large amount of Chekhov's Gun in play ALL throughout the series, almost every element they introduce is followed up upon or plays a great importance later on in the story. Never does it feel like the story is simply wasting time for time's sake, it always has a purpose in the grand scheme of the adventure, even the so-called "filler" episodes serve a purpose in the end. The plot twists feel real, and often times unexpected yet very clever, and looking back at it give the last third of the show a lot of legitimate tension and suspense. The pacing is very well done, as each Gem arc never feels like it drags on once, even in 64 whole episodes.

The visuals are very standard, and in some ways reminiscent of the original FMA series in terms of style. The most striking choice however, is the CGI models for the 7 Gem Guardians, which on one hand look pretty pathetic, but on the other hand give a real sense of 'impact' on screen, like they're much more than just another goon.

The voice acting is actually pretty alright, atleast in the English Dub, although Jasmine's voice can be fairly irritating to listen to. The standout in the sound department is easily Thaegan's Riddle song, which they play several times throughout the series and is easily the most catchy song I've heard in an anime.

The Characters of the show are easily Deltora Quest's greatest downside, although in some cases, I actually enjoyed just how terrible they were.

Leif is the generic "Justice triumphs all!" hero type you see in every fantasy story, who has a soft spot for damsels in need and doing the right thing even if it causes trouble for everyone; ala Morty from Rick & Morty.

Barda is the 'strong bodyguard' type who serves two purposes, 1. Story exposition, since he is the most wise and can tell the heroes what's going on or what they should do. 2. To lose every single fight he starts in order to make whatever enemy they're fighting appear so much more powerful. No seriously, I don't think Barda wins a single fight in the whole show on-screen.

Jasmine is Rodda's own pet character, as she's a clear Mary-sue whos purpose is to leave the party every few episodes like the lone-wolf she is, and then swoop back in to save Leif and Barda from whatever threat avails them. Not only is she Jesus reincarnated into a little girl, but she has two animal mascot characters, Fili and Kree, who she can speak to and also act as a deus ex machina half the time to solve whatever problem the protagonists run into. It doesn't take a genius to notice how biased the story is to Jasmine, and honestly she can come off as rather irritating most of the time.

Deltora Quest is a rare occurrence where a show so average and generic actually transcends the boundary of 'so boring it's bad' to 'so bad it's actually really good'. The characters chemistry just works, and even the most mundane of scenes is made entertaining by using overused dialogue and story cliches. Despite the odds being against the show, Deltora Quest proved that despite how boring a show may seem on paper, can actually turn out to be one hell of a memorable and enjoyable ride.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Sep 20, 2016

Ashender16

Mixed Feelings

5/10 overall
HERES WHY
I LITERALLY AND IM NOT JOKING
PREDICTED THE WHOLE ANIME UP UNTIL THE LAST 2 EPISODES(most predicatable anime I have seen)
The reason I didn't give it a lower score is because there are animes that are for noobies to anime meaning people who have watched allot of other anime shouldnt be mad that they could predict it and yes I was one of those people this anime gave me a headache because its predicatable and not in a good way you can always tell when someones going to do something wrong instead of right. The art was fair because it was around the ... same time as beserk although the CGI just didnt cut it, the fights were boring af, the sounds never caught my attention as you know from my rant above I didn't enjoy it
5 maybe 6/10 at most
AND IM PRETTY MAD MY SHIP DIDNT SAIL GAH!!!

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 18, 2024

CyrahOmega

Not Recommended

Preliminary (7/65 eps)

Deltora quest is easily the worst Anime I’ve ever watched. On its face it seems like it would be phenomenal. The straightforwardness and awky writing is so cringe. No real character development or story to follow. It seems like everything is on the fly. I had forgot the name of this anime it was so bad. The artwork drew me in because it’s the genre I like ie spell casters, warriors, brutes, wizards etc. the familiar was giving popful mail vibes. When I started watching it’s like they immediately went for it. The names of the demons are so ugh..hot and tot bruh? Come on ... it’s like they were even trying.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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