(Rather than my usual format, I will attempt to use a different, more organized style based
on the score categories...so here goes my review for the anime, Elemental Gelade.)
Story
The story involves a young orphan by the name of Coud Van Giruet who wants
to become a man and a real sky pirate, thus he works as a trainee with a band
of sky pirates known as the "Red Lynxs". After successfully raiding
another ship of its treasure and returning, Coud goes into the room where the
treasure is kept and looks around a little, eventually coming upon a strange
coffin. Somehow, he manages to activate and open this coffin by pressing
strange buttons on it in the exact right order without knowing the actual
combination if there was one, and thus the coffin slowly opens...revealing what
he mistakes for a doll. However this "doll" is not a doll at all, as
it is actually a girl that is known as an Edel Raid who would later be known as
Reverie Metherlence or "Ren" for short. Being an Edel Raid, she ages
more slowly than humans, so her actual age in human years is questionable, but
she takes on the appearance of a young girl around Coud's age.
After Ren is released, she quickly realizes that Coud is a human, and shows
extreme dislike of him due to the fact that Ren believes all humans use her
kind (Edel Raid) as tools of war and nothing else. Without much more talking,
Coud takes Ren to the main area of the ship, where it turns out that the ship
they robbed earlier had found them and they boarded the Red Lynxs' ship. The
owners of the ship, Cisqua, Rowen, and another Edel Raid called Kuea Envatilia
find Ren and Coud and attempt to make a bargain with Coud using money to get
Ren, however he refuses and is angry at their attempt to buy Ren as if she were
property. A little while later, a random group of ninja attack the ship in an
attempt to steal Ren, and Coud tries to fight them off and protect Ren. However
he proves to be no match for them by himself, and is almost defeated.
It is then that he states how he is similar to Ren and shows his resolve for
protecting her, and this moves Ren, so she decides to "react" (aka
merge) with Coud. Using the jewel on her forehead known as an Elemental Gelade,
she forms a contract (similar to a pact) with Coud and becomes a giant sword
that attaches to his arm. This gives him the power to defeat the ninja easily,
but the ninja eventually cause the ship to crash, and with the help of the trio
that boarded the ship earlier, known as members of the group called "Arc
Aile", he escapes the Red Lynxs' ship with Ren and thus begins his
adventure.
For an older anime, I actually really enjoyed this one...the general
story/plot is pretty original, but how they play it out is extremely
interesting, and probably one of the more interesting stories out there. This
anime is a good example of how original stories don't always equal bad or
boring stories.
Animation
There is nothing particularly wrong with the way the anime's graphics are
used that I can think of. If anything, for an older anime, it is pretty decent
looking and I doubt that there is much that could have been improved. I suppose
maybe you could add more "flashy" stuff in there, but it is
definitely not needed, nor do I see a point of there being a remake with
updated animations/graphics. The characters and other things moved smoothly and
I didn't get the sense that they were doing anything that look cheaply
animated.
Sound
There's not really much to say here honestly. The actual "sounds"
in the anime were nothing spectacular, but that's not really that important in
general as long as you don't hear a bunch of "cracking" or
annoying/repetitive sounds, I guess. The music was decent, but other than the
opening theme "Forever", nothing that I would personally search for
and listen to. The Voice Actors for the Subbed version were very well done,
especially Ren, which worked perfect for her. There is really no one that I can
think of whose voice actor seemed bad to me. This unfortunately cannot be said
for the Dubbed version though. Coud's voice was not that great dubbed, and compared
to the Ren's Japanese voice actor her English voice actor failed in comparison.
Characters
While none of the main characters screamed of uniqueness, most were decent
enough as to not be extremely boring.
Coud- Coud is a young orphan sky pirate that is horrible at piloting
planes who dreams of becoming a man one day, and works with a group of sky
pirates called the Red Lynxs. He was likeable to me and had a pretty cool, but
normal-for-anime-characters hairstyle which is probably one of those impossible
to have in real life without a pound or so of awesome hair gel hairstyles. At
least it was a normal color. Right from the start, he had similar qualities to
my own (such as an extreme dislike towards treating innocent girls like trash),
which is probably part of what made me like him.
Ren- Ren is a quiet, mysterious girl known as an Edel Raid, however
she has been called a Shichiko-hoju which is a special type of Edel Raid that
hasn't been seen in around 500 years. I tend to like the shy/mysterious female
characters more for whatever reason, as they seem more interesting and aren't
usually an open book as to their likes and dislikes. They make the main
character work to get information about them. Sometimes they get in comical
situations in which they misunderstand certain actions or words of the main
character. You get my drift.
Cisqua- Cisqua is an upbeat girl that is the leader of her small
group that works for an organization known as "Arc Aile", which works
to keep Edel Raids from being used as slaves and gives them freedom. What I
liked about her was her attitude, basically, but there were some parts of her I
didn't like. Mainly just the way she always thought about money and that she
was going to betray Coud.
Rowen- Rowen is a polite, sensible guardian of Arc Aile who is great
at cooking and dislikes conflict, but will not hesitate to save his friends if
they are in trouble. Rowen wasn't particularly one of my favorite characters,
but I certainly don't dislike him at all in anyway. He's pretty much the
"nice guy" of the group and pretty reliable, so I don't see a reason
to not like him at least a little. He is a tad bit boring though I guess.
Kuea- Kuea is an Edel Raid who has contracted Rowen, and often eats a
large amount of food while still managing to keep her slim figure regardless.
Kuea was very likeable imo. Being a huge food addict and coming off as a goofy
character, but actually being a pretty wise and mature character at times
appealed to me a bit.
Overall
A great anime that will appeal to pretty much anyone who likes action,
adventure, and romance anime. I highly recommend it if you are into sword
fighting and magical powers/abilities, but don't expect mind blowing action
that will leave you in awe. IMO however, the fighting is unique, as I don't
believe I've seen an anime that uses fighting styles similar to how Coud fights
with Ren like that before. This anime is pretty clean so if you are one of
those people who are specifically hoping that this has some or a lot of
ecchi/panty shots/nudity or anything, then you won't find it in this anime.
Screenshots
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