Heya people,
it’s zmote:
excuse me for taking a little longer for another Anime Review; I am very busy these days.
However, here comes another Anime Review and this time it’s Zetsuen no Tempest! Sadly, again, something I won’t be able to recommend to my muslim brethrens, but well, at least you’ll know why not to watch it and what’s it about.
Here you go with the PDF-Version with images: zmote.deviantart.com/art/Revie… (https://zmote.deviantart.com/art/Review-Zetsuen-no-Tempest-Review-by-zmote-407555808?ga_submit_new=10%253A1381899090)
And here is the Text only Review!:
Zetsuen no Tempest
What’s up people? Are we all enjoying ourselves today?
So here comes the next Anime Review! So excited! Although I am a little disappointed in the fact that I won’t be able to wholeheartedly recommend this Anime for all audiences yet again, I have to say that it’s still a pretty impressive and interesting story nonetheless.
You could guess why I am unable to go all “Yay! Awesome Anime, watch it!” but let me phrase it anew for those who might wonder. First of let me ensure you that I don’t pick these Anime consciously; generally I’ll go on some websites that deal with Anime and look what is rated high. Afterwards I’ll look through some episodes and if I think it has potential, I’ll watch it from start to finish. Furthermore I grew up in Switzerland, so some stuff isn’t as provoking and arousing to me as it might be for some of you who aren’t confronted as much with sexual content as I am due to the local culture here. If you find something really provoking and I’m not pointing it out as such, do tell me that so I can profile it and make a better review for the next time. I have been exposed all my life to stuff like miniskirts and bikini-type bathing suits, strange ideologies and wicked rituals so I don’t register them as strongly as some of you might. That doesn’t mean I’m “over it”, that I “figured it out” or what not; let’s say I don’t get caught by that trap as quickly as someone who has very rare exposure to stuff like this. So again, if you think I recommend something that is still very provoking for some of you just tell me that.
Alrighty then, with the sermon finished, let’s start talking business… or Anime in this case.
So next up would be plot overview, I guess?
Plot overview
So what’s this story about? What does Zetsuen no Tempest mean? Well a quick research will tell you it means something like Civilization Blaster, Blaster of Tempest or something else along the line. Although researching the word Tempest will also give your results such as the last book written by Shakespeare, which is an important reference, as some books from Shakespeare, especially the Tempest and the story of Hamlet have a role not to be underestimated on the story.
Basically the story revolves around the two main male characters Yoshino Takigawa and Mahiro Fuwa. The story and the two “main” characters are connected by another special passive main female character, which is Aika Fuwa – step-sister of Mahiro and girlfriend of Yoshino – who was murdered a year prior to when the story starts and plays a crucial role to the entire story.
Yoshino and Mahiro have very different personalities and as such deal with the death of Aika very differently. One accepts that her death was out of their control and that no action against the murderer would bring Aika back and as such is very passive about seeking a reason behind his girlfriend’s death. The other on the other hand needs closure and desperately looks for his step-sisters murderer; he is dead-set on revenge, because, in his words, “the death of Aika doesn’t make sense” when her murderer gets away unpunished and that he can’t live in such a world.
An interesting fact in their relationship with Aika is Mahiro’s and Yoshino’s separate relations with her. Aika is Mahiro’s step-sister, so she isn’t really his own sister, thus from time to time he struggles with feelings for her that he tries to deny. He basically struggles between being a brother and falling in love with Aika. On the other hand, Yoshino is Mahiro’s best friend, yet he is also Aika’s secret boyfriend; secret, because they are afraid of Mahiro’s reaction when he’d find out that he’s best friend is dating his “sister”. However, one night Mahiro finds his sister seated on a chair, dead and covered in blood. That same night Aika was supposed to be going on a date with Yoshino. That event is, as mentioned in the beginning, the backbone of the story.
Well enough of that relationship thing, let’s get on to the story.
After Aika’s death, about a year after, one day Mahiro finds a message in a bottle, in which there is something like a talisman. Through that talisman he gets contacted by Hakaze Kusaribe, the head princess of the Kusaribe clan, a magic practicing clan worshipping a so called “Tree of Genesis”, through which they gain their magical abilities. They are also referred to as the protectors of the Tree of Genesis and can only use defensive magic. Their enemy is the Tree of Exodus, symbolizing the opposite to the Tree of Genesis. The Tree of Exodus doesn’t have a clan, but it has an actor for its side, too.
The Kusaribe’s magic works by sacrificing pieces of technology, in return to which the Tree of Genesis grants magical powers. As such the Kusaribe clan members are always near developed civilizations, because their magic gets weaker the more distanced they are from technology and achievements of civilizations. It is believed by the Kusaribe that the Tree of Genesis is the protector of the world and that the Tree of Exodus is trying to destroy the world. A minor side-note: there are so called “fruits of the Tree of Exodus” that appear at certain locations. They announce their coming by a special disease, which turns people who are close to iron statues. Also, because this fruit affects its surroundings, it causes cocoons to blossom into butterflies way faster, because it’s nurturing life or something like that. It’s kinda confusing and I don’t really wanna dwell on that as it wasn’t that important in my opinion to understand the plot. And to be honest, it’s such a wicked story background. xD
Phew! So much babbling! Let’s get back on track. Where were we? Oh, right, Mahiro gets contacted by Hakaze through the Talisman. You see, there are different interpretations of what role the Tree of Genesis and the Tree of Exodus play in the worlds future, but a certain party amongst the Kusaribe believes that the Tree of Exodus needs to be revived, or else the Tree of Genesis, “hungry”, will devour all civilization on earth. So they oppose their leader, Hakaze and thus they send her on an abandoned island so that she cannot interfere with the revival of the Tree of Exodus. That’s where the main characters get tied to the bigger story through Hakaze Kusaribe and onto saving the world from ending. Because she is unwilling to let the opposing members do as they wish, she tries to contact people from the outside world, by sending enchanted objects in bottle messages.
Mahiro picks one of those up and is shown how to use magic by Hakaze. So he feels he is closer than ever to finding Aika’s murder and actually being able to avenge her; now that he has gained a new power.
In his search for the murderer through magic, Yoshino gets involved aswell and they are introduced into the bigger scheme of things; the battle between the Tree of Exodus and the Tree of Genesis.
After some action, Mahiro and Yoshino side with Hakaze and try to protect the Tree of Genesis. Although, another interesting side-note: the Tree of Genesis is somewhat special in another way: it makes things happen so that it serves the wishes and goals of Hakaze Kusaribe, the princess and head protector of the tree. As such it is also speculated if the Tree of Genesis had a role in the death of Aika, as she was the trigger who made Mahiro and Yoshino get involved into the battle between the Trees and as such side with and help Hakaze escape from that island.
But no matter their struggles, somehow the Tree of Genesis perseveres. It doesn’t destroy the world, but its “hunger” it kills like four billion humans and destroys A LOT of earth’s civilizations. As the Tree of Genesis is also known as the protector of reason and justice, the Tree henceforth doesn’t allow anyone to commit any crime and crime rates are at all low; but at the price of their freedom.
In the first clash, or maybe better expressed as the awakening of the Tree of Genesis, Mahiro and Yoshino get badly hurt and the story progresses 4-6 months into the future.
At this point, where the Tree of Genesis has destroyed most of earth’s civilizations and human population, the story feels like as if a second arc had started; up to that point it was more about getting to know what the Trees where, how magic worked etc.
The second arc or the story from that point on is a battle against the Tree of Genesis and trying to stop it from total annihilation of earth’s civilization.
The rest of the story is quite predictable, the reason of Aika’s death gets unveiled, encounter with Tree of Exodus’ “champion” happens, fighting, a lot of action and dramatic scenes and then the story ends with… well I won’t tell. Although you could look it up on wiki if you don’t intend watching the Anime.
Oh wait, I have skipped another major story element. The love relationship between Hakaze and Yoshino. Well, love relationship, maybe you could say the process of Hakaze falling in love with Yoshino while he totals doesn’t get it until the end. It has an impact on the story and it has to do with the fate thing I mentioned about the Tree of Genesis, but imho it wasn’t something I’d say extraordinary.
Personal thoughts?
Seriously? I found the Anime interesting or at least how it was told was very attention grabbing. But the story is not something that made me think, reflect or you know, it didn’t cause any strong reaction in me like Clannad or FMA: Brotherhood and the likes. It was entertaining, but yeah, I would recommend it only because of it’s good story-telling, not because of the plot. The plot is garbage in my opinion.
The characters were ok, I especially liked Mahiro’s character. His stubborness and inability to admit some of his own feelings are quite well done. Other characters shine aswell, but yeah, it’s really all in all mediocre stuff, not bad, not awesome, something inbetween. I can’t get myself really passionate about it, because I didn’t like the plot, and for me the plot is very important, because it’s a good plot that makes you think and reflect on a deeper level.
So excuse this scarce “Personal Thought” section, but it just didn’t go along well with me. As I said, mediocre, good story-telling, but not really intellectually engaging as some other Anime I’ve seen. Would I recommend it? If you don’t have the repeated issues such as almost nudity and magic, it’s a good watch of 24 Episodes (or something along that line). A lot of these stories really loose impact, because of forced sexual content, like tight clothing, almost nudity and you know stuff like boobs jumping out of the breast area etc.
There is a certain differentiation with that stuff I do make. One is if you watch an Anime about swimming, fashion show etc. than stuff like that is normal, it fits into the story no matter how much you or I may dislike it. But if a certain view, a certain type of clothing really makes you say “Really? You gonna wear that and pretend to be an undercover cop? And oh let’s not mention it’s kinda close to winter, but whatevs.”
One such instant was for example Hakaze on that abandoned island. She is basically naked, just some clothing here and there. What’s more disturbing or funny is that the ones who dropped her on that island, dropped her of half-naked, even though she was their princess and in the course of the story they still encounter her with some respect, so it wasn’t done just in spite. Another thing is that they cared to drop of a rocket on that island so if need be the princess could return in an emergency situation (of course that rocket is hidden), but they didn’t care to leave her any clothing at all. Yeah, that makes so much sense. I mean if you wanted her to freeze to death or die by catching a cold, why not just stab her directly to begin with…
Ah I’m getting off topic. The usual issues with some of the Anime, you know how it goes with some of these. With this Anime it is a little to present for my taste, and I’m pretty used to stuff like that due to where I live, so go figure. So yeah, to my muslim friends I’d say not worth watching it.
I’ll try to cover Animes which I can recommend to you hehe. But these which I covered were the ones I watched just recently so bear with me. At least you know what NOT to watch, huh?
Cheers, zmote
If the text feels a little weird to read, it just might be the two – three weeks it took to finish, too many breaks will cause some disconnect, sorry for that. I’ll try to start and finish within a day with the next review. ^^
Originally published by Anime4Muslims on DeviantArt. Source: https://www.deviantart.com/anime4muslims/journal/Zetsuen-no-Tempest-Another-Anime-Review-by-zmote-407557047. Original contributor: zmote.