Ar Tonelico

Information of Anime

Orica Mestomille is a Ravateel.  A Ravateel sings to support members & attack demons.  However, she can't sing.  She finds a crashed ship that fell from the sky.  Inside, she finds Laina Barselt who came from the upper level of Soul Shell.  He was fighting a monster above & is unable to return to the upper level.  With Orica showing him about the lower level, Laina looks for ways to repair his ship.

Ar Tonelico is based on the PS2 RPG game.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

Basically, it's introducing three characters from the game.  Mainly it involves the relationship between Orica & Laina as she tries to sing & overcome failures from it.  It's only until she journeys with Laina that she finally sings as they fight the monster that Laina was going after.

My Personal Review

Ar Tonelico is fairly short as it's only a 25 minute one episode OVA.  I'm assuming it's a marketing ad used to draw people into this game or a fanservice for fans.

Animation

The drawings are too bad, but they don't seem to resemble the ones in from the game based on the promo ad pics I've seen on the net.  But the faces look sharp & the character designs are good even though the armour looks a bit bulky & the clothing are a bit plain.

The colours are still very dull.  It's not bright as it's flat.  But, it's pretty good & the blending with the background is solid as they don't clash with one another.  Even the CGs of Laina's ship is flat.

The CG is really on the fake side.  It really stands out from the OVA as it almost doesn't belong there.

As for the background, it's quite fuzzy.  Very little detail is put into it when it comes to the nature sceneries & town structures.  It seems to be a trend for a lot of anime shows these days.

In terms of the animation movement, the flow was quite nice & natural.  Nothing too weird.

Sound       

The volume seems to be very quiet.  What's worse is that it's fuzzy when you pump up the volume.  I'm not sure if it's from the fansub that I got or the OVA is actually like that.  The fuzz was louder than the voices & sounds.

The voice actors are good.  Not annoying or off-key.  The seiyuus played their parts well as they gave their characters life & emotions.

The music is ok & isn't anything exciting.  In fact, most of the time I don't notice it being played.  It's mainly on the folk side though.

Story

Basically, it's the relationship between Orica & Laina.  I assume it's the same in the game as their relationship builds between them.  I've been hearing how the OVA isn't anything like the game's story, so I can't say this OVA is like a prequel or the beginning of the game's story.  Although it's fairly short, it's written pretty well even though the ending is an open one & we didn't get to see all characters.  however, they do make cameo appearances at the credit roll.

Overall Conclusion

Ar Tonelico is a nice OVA.  It's basically a warm-up in getting ready for the game.  It's more of an fanservice thing personally.  I would watching this & playing the game if you want the full story of the series.

Ar Tonelico gets a 7.5/10.  Personally, this OVA isn't filling if you don't have any background of the game or don't have access to play it.  The story is nice & does go in-depth of the characters, but you would want the full deal by playing the game to feel satisfied.

Last updated on December 19, 2007