Eien no Aseria: The Spirit of Eternity Sword

Information of Anime

When visiting their parent's grave, Yuuto Takamine & his step-sister Kaori are mysterious transported to a world called Phantasmagoria.  The king & a princess named Restina took Kaori as hostage & orders Yuuto to fight for him in a current war.  Once they win the war, the king would release his sister.  Giving Yuuto a sword called Motome, Yuuto fights off evil spirits with the assistance of the kingdom's spirits.

Eien no Aseria: The Spirit of Eternity Sword is, I believe, based on an ero PC 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.

The story starts off with Yuuto living with his spirit companions & already in the process of killing evil spirits with ease.  In the middle of the story, we get to see how he & Kaori entered into Phanatasmagoria & how Yuuto ends up battling in a war he doesn't wish to take part of.  Just when he's about to win the war, the opposing army comes in & kills the king & takes Kaori away.  It seems the evil spirits are interested in Kaori as she is a key to something important.  Because he is now free from the king's demands, Yuuto continues to fight for the kingdom in order to get Kaori back.

My Personal Review

Eien no Aseria: The Spirit of Eternity Sword is quite confusing to follow at the start.  The OVA does have some nice action scenes & doesn't waste time getting to the point.  If you like fantasy with some action in the era of knights, you may want to try this show out.

Animation

The character designs have this early 90s appearance.  The faces are long & some of the female characters eyes are large & shiny.  Also, the faces are quite long & narrow.  But, the female characters look pretty cute as they have this roundness to them.  In terms of fashion, they fit will with the sceneries.  However, some of the female armours are either quite revealing or heavy duty.  Yuuto's clothing looks like a torn up school uniform for some reason.  The weapons aren't too bad, but Motome looks like a paper fan or a block.  It's not too appealling.

The backgrounds are dry & dull.  Although most of the OVA takes place in the fields & forest, it's not too bad.

The colours are surprisingly bright.  I find this a bit strange since OVA tend to be dull in colour.  This 1 was very bright.  The balance between the characters & background isn't too bad.  But, it was difficult to see the OVA using a LCD monitor during the night scenes.  The characters blended too well to the background.

In terms of the animation movement, it's quite flowing.  Hardly any of those silly stunts involved even though you see very little of it.  The movements are pretty smooth regardless of the speed.

Sound       

The sound effects are more on the realistic side.  Not too much on the silly sounds involved.  It's not too clear though.  You can actually hear the fuzzes.

The seiyuus here are average.  Some of the female characters don't express much emotions even though their character may be cold. 

The music isn't too great.  It's nothing to get excited about & doesn't do much to the atmosphere.

Story

The story doesn't waste time getting to the point.  However, the pace is a bit too fast as the OVA starts off almost at the middle of the war.  We see Yuuto fighting without problems since Motome teaches & somewhat provokes him.  Also, it doesn't seem to let the viewers seem the characters develop properly.  As least with the spirits.  It's almost like a stranger-like relationship.  The OVA isn't too clear on a lot of the story's elements.

Overall Conclusion

Eien no Aseria: The Spirit of Eternity Sword isn't a very good anime OVA in terms of its story's pace.  It moves too fast to get an idea of the characters relationships to one another & it throws the viewers in the middle of the situation.  However, since it's an OVA, it won't hurt to watch it on your spare time.  Keep in mind though that the OVA is incomplete.  I was doing a little searching on the OVA on how many episodes there are.  My results came up with nothing as the official site to the OVA is now gone.  This gave me an indication that the OVA has been stopped & incomplete.

Eien no Aseria: The Spirit of Eternity Sword gets a seven out of ten.  The OVA has some nice action & fights, but the story moves too fast.  Although there are flashbacks here & there to understand Yuuko & Kaori, it's not enough to understand the spirits.  With the OVA dead, there's no ending to the story.

Last updated on March 18, 2008