RG Veda

The fearsome warrior Taishaku-ten rebelled against the world-ruling gods three hundred years ago and began his own oppressive reign. His dominion remained unchecked for years—until one day, the blind prophet Kuyou prophesied that warriors known as the Six Stars and a child of the vanished race called Ashura would defeat Taishaku-ten.

Ashura, marked by his pointed ears and golden eyes; Yasha-ou, a robust warrior; and four other Stars prepare to challenge Taishaku-ten. In order to do so, they must journey across tarnished landscapes and battle monstrous demons that have plagued the land. But as the wheels of fate turn, Ashura and Yasha-ou must find the sixth Star before it is too late.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ashura Main

Ikura, Kazue Japanese

Yasha-Ou Main

Hayami, Show Japanese

Karura-Ou Main

Sakakibara, Yoshiko Japanese

Ryuu-Ou Main

Yamaguchi, Kappei Japanese

Kendappa-Ou Supporting

Andou, Arisa Japanese

Ashura-Ou Supporting

Tanaka, Hideyuki Japanese

Kujaku Supporting

Matsumoto, Yasunori Japanese

Taishaku-ten Supporting

Wakamoto, Norio Japanese

Souma Supporting

Yamamoto, Yuriko Japanese

Kara Supporting

Ikeguchi, Kazuhiko Producer

Ebata, Hiroyuki Director

Ohkawa, Nanase Script

CLAMP Original Creator

Reviews

Jun 8, 2016

MorgantheFae

Mixed Feelings

I was a bit hesitant going into this OVA, as i've been a fan of the RG Veda manga for a long time and i've heard the OVAs were terrible. Once i finally watched them, the first was a pleasant surprise. The second was a letdown. I was prepared for some changes, such as how the staff didn't want to be bothered with the whole "Ashura was born without a gender" thing, so they turned Ashura into a girl. It does simplify matters, and with so little time to work with, simplifying whatever you can can only help. On the other hand, some other changes ... didn't make much sense to me.

There's nothing especially wrong with the first OVA. It's a straightforward adaption of the "demon of the frozen castle" arc. There were some plot details i was disappointed were cut, but they weren't necessary to the story and i fully understand why they were left out. The story works just as well as it did in volume 4 of the manga.

The second OVA is where it falls apart. It combines original material with events from all over the manga, especially the last two volumes. With a lack of proper setup for the ending, it simply couldn't happen the same way it did in the manga. This is where the OVA's simplification started to work against it. Characters' motivations, never what they appear in a CLAMP title, were changed to the surface explanation. Because they were motivated by different things, they behaved differently for the major confrontation, with the result that the ending felt incomplete and, to me, illogical.

The animation, on the other hand, was excellent. I feel like this would have been best handled with ten OVAs of this length, one for each volume of the manga. That would have enabled them to show the full story, which i believe was the cause of the problems. If they had time to set up and foreshadow later events, the story told would have been more interesting as well as more complete. It would also make more sense – always a plus in my book.

As a companion piece to the manga, it's perfectly alright, although not what manga fans would want. But to watch it on its own, without the manga as a reference point, i doubt it would make much sense. It certainly doesn't tell a full story. I fully admit that i'm biased in favor of RG Veda, which is why on my own list i give it a 6, but really it's more of a 5.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by MorgantheFae (17)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Jul 28, 2013

gknight

Mixed Feelings

I actually found this OVA pretty decent considering the widespread hate it got. I'd say it delivers what it promises, and I'd really love to see more of this story animated.

The premise is about the journey of the young king Ashura, who fell from his throne, and his six guardians lead by warrior Yasha, who try to help him reclaim it. The OVA focuses the journey of the king and his guardians through deserts, castles and icy landscapes in search of the 6th and last guardian, while briefly encountering the main villain, Taishakuten.

Although having a pretty generic fantasy-adventure setting I found the cast to be ... what set it apart from other titles of the genre. Being from the shoujo genre, the guardians consist of beautiful and delicate yet kick-assing guys and three girls who aren't hyper-sexualized for a change. Being only 2 episodes short it's hard to say the supporting characters have depth but their basic archetypes are unique enough and I would love to see similar representations more often in anime.

The two characters that gets most of the screen time are the main couple, Ashura and Yasha, which are simply adorable. In the manga, which I plan to read following this OVA, Ashura is born genderless and thus being referred to mostly as male, I also saw him as male yet the DVD English translation insisted on referring to him as a girl, which is annoying since his being male is one of the things that make his character, and his subtly-romantic relationship with Yasha so interesting.

Yasha is being very protective of Ashura and they both seem madly in need of each other which is very sweet to see.

Other than that, the art is gorgeous. The animation, detail and movement, can't be compared with today's standards but the shoujo-ish art is something that is sadly very rare in modern anime and it gives a great feeling to return to it. The character and world design is also very pretty.

In conclusion I recommend this OVA for any lover of romantic adventures, I was surprised at how much I found it enjoyable.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by gknight (16)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Sep 13, 2024

SgtSalamander

Not Recommended

RG Veda is a convoluted, generic, boring OVA, with glimpses of what it could have been serving only to highlight its various flaws. Beginning with the story, this anime just sort of drops the viewer in the thick of it without much context, but once things get going it unfolds as a somewhat typical fantasy adventure tale. A quest to unseat an evil usurper, with side quests along the way. Nothing's wrong with this formula, but this anime gives you little reason to actually care about the events unfolding in the anime. The pacing is also all off, and switches ... from moments of action to drawn-out stretches of moral pontification and callbacks to things which the viewer had no opportunity to see in the first place, robbing the moments at hand of whatever emotional weight they could have theoretically had. Also, other than the fact he is a usurper and took the throne from the protagonist's father, we have little evidence to show just how supposedly evil the warlord Taishaku-ten really is. Hell, when they arrive in his city, people are letting off fireworks and going about normal life. They even cheer for him when he lets them into the palace courtyard! Not really what you'd expect the realm of a mad tyrant to look like.

The art is fine, with a unique art direction that we should really attribute to the manga, but there are a variety of aspects which seriously fall behind. The animation is stunted, the fight scenes are awkward, the backgrounds are grainy, and the characters suffer from what I term the 'dreaded mask', where facial animation is not properly applied when and where it absolutely should be.

The sound is just barely the strongest aspect of this anime, largely thanks to the soundtrack, which oscillates from soaring and orchestral to synth-heavy and electric. However, there are still a lot of problems in this category as well. The voice work is corny and unremarkable, the sounds of life sound artificial, if they're even there at all, and they also rely on these cheesy stock sound effects way too much. One jarring example is how they use the THX Deep Note sound, which is that loud 'bwaaah' noise they play alongside the THX logo, on two separate instances. I don't even think THX was affiliated with this anime to begin with, so hearing that sound was downright bizarre, and i had to go back a couple times just to make sure I wasn't imagining things.

The characters are generally bland, with little in the way of characterization to separate them from one another. As such, it makes little sense to say who's the relative 'best', but if I had to I'd say it's a tie between Taishaku-ten and Ashura, because they're the only ones who don't fall quite so neatly in the generic character bins that all the others do, but it'd still be a real stretch to say they're 'good', per se. Overall, RG Veda is an ignominious example of a failed adaptation, a product which is thoroughly boring, and ultimately, forgettable. Don't waste your time with this one.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by SgtSalamander (200)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

yuri 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩👭

by grrrlsrevolution

50 Entries · 99 Restacks

Really short anime series to watch (less than 12ep)

by lainnvx

50 Entries · 27 Restacks

classic/retro shoujo

by grrrlsrevolution

50 Entries · 149 Restacks

	Poll: RG Veda Episode 2 Discussion Blackouting - Jan 10, 2014	6 replies	by RenaPsychoKiller »» Nov 30, 2:52 PM
	Poll: RG Veda Episode 1 Discussion gknight - Jul 25, 2013	3 replies	by RenaPsychoKiller »» Nov 30, 7:03 AM