Fire Emblem

The Kingdoms of Dolhr, Grust, and Gra band together to wage war on the rest of the continent Archanea and defeat the Kingdom of Altea. King Cornelius is slain in battle but his son Prince Marth is able to escape the invasion thanks to the sacrifice of his older sister Elice. He and a small group of retainers find refuge on the island nation of Talys, where they spend the next three years in hiding under the royal family's protection.

Marth lives a peaceful life in Talys, enjoying the beauty of the island and the friendship of its pegasus-riding princess, Caeda. But he is uneasy, knowing soon the day will come that he must take up arms. That day arrives when Caeda comes to Marth and his retainers in a panic, telling him that the castle town has been attacked. After some close calls, they manage to defeat the assailants and save the city.

Realizing that his presence may bring further danger to his new home, Marth decides that now is the time to set off. He journeys to raise an army with which to reclaim his kingdom.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Marth Main

Midorikawa, Hikaru Japanese

Sheeda Main

Tange, Sakura Japanese

Gordon Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Paola Supporting

Dohga Supporting

Kawazu, Yasuhiko Japanese

Narrator Supporting

Ootsuka, Akio Japanese

Kain Supporting

Hiyama, Nobuyuki Japanese

Jeigan Supporting

Katou, Seizou Japanese

Lena Supporting

Neya, Michiko Japanese

Julian Supporting

Yamaguchi, Kappei Japanese

Misawa, Shin Director, Storyboard

Tanaka, Kazuya Sound Director

Sakata, Junichi Episode Director

Kuroda, Yousuke Screenplay

Reviews

Aug 27, 2014

ktulu007

Recommended

Fire Emblem was a game franchise virtually unknown outside of Japan until Super Smash Brothers Melee came out. That game featured two Fire Emblem characters, Marth and Roy, as playable fighters. Creating an interest in the franchise that was great enough to get the seventh title, Blazing Sword, and most subsequent titles released internationally.

So, why was the franchise only released outside of Japan at that point? My theory is that the games were simply considered too difficult. Yes, Nintendo had a lot of really hard games, some unfairly so. But Fire Emblem is the most difficult franchise developed by Nintendo itself. The games feature ... permanent death for party members. That's right, no phoenix downs, revives, Yggdrasil leaves or anything like that. Except for one single use item that you get later in the game. No or few opportunities to grind and battles that are difficult enough that a single tactical error can easily get one of your team members killed. Maybe I'm wrong about that and there's another reason. If someone knows for certain I'm sure that person will politely correct me.

Oddly enough, the first Fire Emblem related thing to be released outside of Japan was an OVA. It's a simple, two episode work developed by KSS Inc and Studio Fantasia in 1996. The OVA is based on the first/third title in the series. (the third was a remake of the first.) So, how does the anime hold up?

Story:

Our tale covers the first couple missions of the game. Marth, is forced to escape from his homeland, Altea. It moves to Marth and his men at Talys with princess Sheeda. They're planning a counter-attack against the army that forced them into exile when they're forced into battle with pirates for Talys' sake. Knowing that the encounter will make their presence known to their enemy, they make their way back to their continent, planning to join the princess of Aurelis in her opposition to the hostile Doluna kingdom. Upon arrival at the mainland they encounter and defeat yet another group of pirates. The group hears about a nun named Rena who was abducted by thieves and they go out to save her.

I will give the OVA credit on several counts. For one thing, it does do a good job of covering those early missions. It also expands a bit on Marth's back story, providing information about his childhood that you really don't get in the game. I also like that the second episode spends a lot of time giving you Nabarl, Rena and Julian's perspectives which helps build them up as characters who you have some investment in and also sets up what happens with them later.

That being said, there are some issues with the two episodes. While it is nice to see the character interactions, they do move into padding at times. For example, the first episode has a montage of Marth and Sheeda just playing around in Talys. The second opens with Nabarl killing a group of people who are attacking him for no apparent reason. There weren't more important things to cover? They glance over the prologue scene pretty fast. Wouldn't the time have been better spent expanding on that? Even if they were set on adding in some extra details, they could have put something more substantial in.

Characters:

The game has a lot of characters, even in the early missions covered by this. As such, some of them get better developed than others. Marth and Sheeda are well developed and fleshed out. Nabarl, Rena and Julian are as well. Then you've got characters like Cord, Bord and Barst who have one line of dialogue among them and characters like Cain, Abel, Oguma, Gordin, Doga and Jeigan who appear and speak on occasion but don't get fleshed out by any means. Although Oguma comes pretty close. In all fairness, developing five characters pretty well is about the best you can expect from an OVA that, taken in total, is less than an hour long. There are some very strong interactions too. The way Sheeda recruits Nabarl in particular is just great. Slightly different from the game, but in a way that actually works a bit better.

Art:

The art is probably the biggest weak point. It's pretty standard art for anime in the mid-90s. There are some nice little details like the pegasus animation and the way they differentiate the killing edge from other swords but it's largely pretty generic.

Sound:

They did get some great voice actors for this. Marth is voiced by Midorikawa Hikaru, who also voiced Zelgadis and Heero Yuy. He also reprised his Marth role in the Smash Brothers games. Sheeda is voiced by Tange Sakura who was also Cardcaptor Sakura. Koyasu Takehito, who has appeared in a hugwe amount of anime, voices Nabarl. Oddly enough, both he and Midorikawa Hikaru played Dio Brando in different Jojo adaptations. With Koyasu being the actor in the main series and Midorikawa voicing him in one of the films. All of the actors do their work very well. The music is less well done. A lot of it is pretty generic and lacks impact, leaving little impression.

Ho-yay:

While there is arguably some ho-yay in the games this was based on, there isn't any in this. Of course, a lot of that comes from Rickard's character who doesn't appear in the OVA. So, the ho-yay factor is a 1/10.

Final Thoughts:

This is one that's firmly for fans of the series. It expands on some details, fleshes out some characters really well and gives you a nice look at the first three chapters of the game. That being said, there's really no reason to watch it unless you're a fan of the game. It simply doesn't stand alone very well. So, if you're a fan of Fire Emblem check it out. If you don't care about the franchise, it's not going to be worth your time. For myself, I give it a 7/10. Next week, let's take a look at one more Nintendo based OVA. To be specific, Super Mario Brothers.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Mar 11, 2017

SolidBren

Recommended

Not bad at all. Go watch it together with your friends that also happen to be fans of the Fire Emblem video game series!

===Pros===
Great '90s style artwork and very nice orchestrated music based on the music from the game. The animation itself looked fairly smooth at times as well. I personally really enjoyed the voice acting, but I can see where people may think otherwise. It is delightfully cheesy.

===Cons===
While the story sets up a solid premise that follows the video game, it doesn't get to go very far due to this series never surpassing two episodes of length. The same issue can be said ... for the characters. The voice of characters were often out of sync with their mouth animations, which becomes slightly annoying. However, the fact that this is only two episodes long, could be a pro to those who didn't find this OVA to be particularly enjoyable. If you really did not like it, at least you didn't waste much time.

Don't watch if you don't care about Fire Emblem and Marth or you are expecting something to be of quality of a Ghibli film.

===Final Thoughts===
It is a shame that this show didn't continue to be longer. I could really see the potential in this show. It had a lot of room to develop and grow. The style and story of the Fire Emblem series is just the right recipe for an anime adaptation. Cheers to Nintendo and Intelligent Systems if they ever let an anime studio try again to make another OVA out of one of the newer games (or older ones) in the franchise.

For what this OVA is, it is a must see if you are a fan of the Fire Emblem video game series and/or you main Marth in Super Smash Bros. Get together with some friends and embrace the cheesiness. You are bound to have some good laughs. Gordon the archer especially has some real laugh out loud moments. It has some rather epic moments too. You don't have much to lose.

I low-key loved this OVA, but realistically it is probably a 5 out of 10, because of its incompleteness. Had the show continued, it could've been an 8 or 9 out of 10, because it was on a solid path to be something bigger and better. Nonetheless, it was quite enjoyable and I would totally watch it again for fun. So for me, it is a 7/10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Feb 22, 2009

Anomalous

Mixed Feelings

With the recent release of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon in English, this OVA is perhaps more relevant than it has been in over a decade. Some quick backstory: in 1990, the first Fire Emblem game was released for the Famicom (and was remade for the Super Famicom in 1994). Since games back then had simpler stories and characters, extra care was taken by Fire Emblem’s creators to make supplemental media to flesh out the game. This OVA wasn’t meant to stand alone or take the place of the game, but to help players understand a little more about what was going on. I’m sure it ... helped them at least somewhat in the 90s, and hopefully it can help new players of the DS remake as well.

Still, it would be a lie to say that this OVA has many memorable qualities. While the plot is more detailed than that of the game, especially when delving into character motivations and reactions, in the end it’s still quite a simplistic story of a prince versus his kingdom’s enemies. Character development is even more minimal, but that’s not surprising considering how many characters are introduced in a short time. In a lot of respects, the OVA actually seems to fail at its purpose; you’re likely to walk away from this knowing very little more about the game than you already did. Still, this little bit of knowledge is an improvement over the no knowledge that comes from playing the game by itself, so players of both the original and the remake are advised to give this a watch.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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