Ys Legacy Series Collection

By J.J. Matthews     October 18, 2005
Release Date: May 11, 2004



What They Say
Contains the entire Ys series (Book 1 and 2 + Ys II)!

In ancient times, the books of Y's were guarded by six priests and two goddesses. The books contained the secret to all good in this world, and all evil in a man's heart. Adol Christen sets out to gather the books of Ys, and defeat that evil!

The Review!
Audio:
For the main viewing sessions, we listened to this anime in its original language of Japanese. We also listened to a few episodes in English in order to judge the English voice work. The audio is relatively well done, but certainly nothing to write home about. There’s no significant distortion or artifacting in audio, and volume levels are usually good, with ambient and cue sounds rarely overtaking the speech track. There were a couple of instances when a sound effect was not synched to the action on screen. The English voice acting is pretty good for this series; it fits well with the RPG-ish nature of the show. The 2.0 stereo track is adequate to convey the onscreen action and the voicing. Available audio tracks are Japanese 2.0 and English 2.0.

Video:
The transfer for this collection is done in its original television screen format. The video is mostly clear and there are only a few places where artifacts are noticeable, nothing that is very distracting. Aliasing is evident in some scenes, especially close-ups and on buildings, however it’s not always there and isn’t a major problem. The animation is smooth, and pleasing to watch. Coloration is often drab in the various cities and landscapes, but the colors that are present are generally well saturated and smooth.

Packaging:
This three-disc set comes in a standard, double-wide DVD case, with one side of the case designed to hold two discs overlapping. This package format seems well-accepted enough to not be an issue, but I personally am not fond of using overlaps like this. Inside, an insert details the usual chapter information, and also provides a key to the episode map extra.

The front of the case contains a charcoal-like drawing of Adol and Feena, with the first OVA’s character designs. It’s a nice piece that gets across the “old school fantasy” feel of this anime admirably (although there were a few pieces in the galleries extra that I would’ve preferred). The back of the case provides a montage of character art from the second OVA, a brief story intro, some credits, and a rundown of special features. One questionable area with the packaging here is that I don’t think they are clear enough as to the actual program contents of the series (i.e. that this is a collection of the existing OVA’s, not a new series). I don’t suppose this is a huge issue for a fairly niche title like this, but lack of clear labeling regarding episode contents is a hot-button of mine.

Menu:
The menus in Ys are a nice creative touch, although I’m not sure they really rate as a “special feature”, as the packaging claims. The menus are designed to resemble a Nintendo-era RPG, with a health bar, inventory items, and rpg commands replacing the usual DVD menu options. The menus are easy to navigate and work consistently, although the retro-rpg-commands do obscure what the actual commends to in a few cases. To keep with the RPG game theme, the menus act like video game loading screens. When an option is selected, the DVD tells you that you have “chosen wisely” and proceeds to a “Loading” screen for a few seconds before displaying the item you chose. The effect is fun, but having to wait 10-15 seconds after each menu press can get annoying...especially if you’re not sure which option to pick to get where you’re going in the first place. The menu items are “Play”, “Options” (audio options), “Cinema” (previews), “Continue” (scene selection), and “Inventory” (extras).

Extras:
The extras found in this set are the same as those provided in the individual disk releases of Ys, and are definitely in higher quantity than some releases. Some of the extras included are just fluff, but others will be of real interest to Ys fans. Kudos to Media Blasters on this set of extras.

On the first DVD, the following extras are included:

• Episode map – A map that depicts the travels of Adol during his journeys in the series. This could have been a nice feature if they hadn’t crammed so much stuff onto a single image. As it is, the map can be a bit hard to read, even with the enclosed key. On smaller screens, this image will probably be illegible.


• Character Bios – A brief overview of most of the main characters, with a nice headshot of each.


• Item List – Brief descriptions of several items that are important to the plot that come up throughout the series.


• Outtakes – Several voicing screw-ups. A few are kind of funny, but they’re not as laugh-out-loud hilarious here as on some other AnimeWorks releases.

The second DVD contains the following:

• Episode map – similar to DVD #1.


• Calendar Gallery – Several very nice images from the Ys calendar. Fans of the series will definitely want to check this out.


• Falcom Festival 1990 – A Live video performance from Falcom Fest ’90. If you’re up for some bad late 80’s J-Rock, you’ll love this!


• Rie Sugimoto Video – A very nice music video of Rie Sugimoto.


• JDK Band Video – Another music video for the J-Rock fans!

The third DVD contains the following extras:

• Art Gallery – Again, they have included several very nice pieces of Ys art. Fans won’t want to skip this one.


• Outtakes – Several more outtakes, somewhat better than those on the first DVD.


• Ys 4 Preview – A preview of the Ys IV RPG game.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Although this set is actually a compilation of two separate series, each with its own unique cosmetic look/feel, the three discs in this collection can easily be treated as a single 11-episode OVA series. The four episodes of Ys II pick up immediately where the first series leaves off, adding a logical final chapter to events that could have been complete as they stood, but which actually work better with the addition of the second series. And what's more, the segue between the two series is handled cleanly and without any major continuity gaffes.

The first thing to know about this Ys anime, if you don't already, is that it is a very faithful tie-in to the console-rpg series of the same name. In fact, judging by game synopses I've read, the plot of the two OVA's seems to be pretty identical, point-for-point, with the plot of the first two Ys games. If you're at all familiar with console rpg's, this legacy will be immediately apparent in the characteristic mini-quest pacing of the anime: a larger quest to defeat an evil overlord is broken up into bite-sized run-and-fetch and/or hack-and-slash tasks, with more information and better equipment doled out as rewards for each accomplishment along the way. This recreation of the rpg-experience in anime can add a factor of meta-amusement to one's viewing, especially in early episodes, but is likely to seem just-plain-cheesy for those unfamiliar (or uninterested) in the conventions of the genre.

Adol Christen is a young man who sets out to explore the mysteries of the land of Esteria, a continent that has been so overrun by monsters and evil magic that travelers from other lands have given up trying to go there. Adol manages to get to Esteria, and is taken to the town of Minea. There, Sarah, a local fortune-teller, recognizes Adol as the legendary "Brave Soul" who is destined to deliver Esteria from the monsters controlled by the evil lord, Dark Fact, and bring peace to the land. Though Adol isn't sure he can live up to this, he vows to do whatever he can to help, and Sarah sends him off to a second town to get more information from her aunt, Jevah. After a brief montage of Adol fighting through hordes of monsters (representing field-combat from the rpg, of course), he arrives at the new town and meets with Jevah, who gives him a larger quest, asking him to retrieve six legendary artifacts, the Books of Ys.

The first few books are obtained through fairly straightforward dungeon dives, with our hero exploring an abandoned cave or mine, solving a puzzle or two, and defeating a boss monster to claim the prize. By the middle of the first of these quests, my amusement with the straight-out-of-an-rpg elements was starting to fade and I was realizing that the story was liable to get monotonous pretty fast if it kept going at the existing pace.

Luckily, after the first book is retrieved, several other plot elements start running alongside (and intersecting with) Adol's quest, at least breaking up the monotony, though not changing much about the overall style of storytelling. The Books of Ys gradually reveal the history of Esteria, explaining how the monsters first came to exist and how the land was saved many centuries ago by two goddesses and their six priests. This history has direct ties to the present, as many of the people Adol meets along the way begin to play larger roles, getting a chance to flesh out their personalities and revealing ties to the goddesses and priests of the legend. Adol learns that the current plague of monsters in Esteria is caused by human progress re-awakening the ancient evil from that earlier time, and that the "Brave Soul" is destined to put a stop to that evil once and for all.

While Adol is discovering this information, Dark Fact also steps up his attacks on the Esterian towns, leading to a subplot in which the city of Minea must deal with the threat of monsters until Adol can fulfill his destiny. Adol eventually does confront Dark Fact, and the "evil" lord is revealed to have motives that are a bit more complicated than originally thought, having maneuvered events specifically to arrange for the "Brave Soul" to make his appearance. This was a pleasant change from the usual quest for world-domination, but didn't really impact the story all that much, since Adol still had to defeat Dark Fact just like any other evil overlord. Still, it was nice to see a few shades of gray thrown into the mix of what had otherwise been a straightforward good-and-evil conflict.

The first OVA ends at what would have been a fairly decent stopping point: Dark Fact and the evil he represents are defeated and Adol is spirited away from Esteria to the floating island of Ys by the returned goddesses of the legend.

Unfortunately for Adol, this floating island happens to be the final resting place of the evil black pearl that created the monsters in Esteria in the first place, and when he arrives, he discovers that there are people living on the island under the rule of a demon-like being, Dahm. The people of Ys have lived in fear for centuries, convinced that their little island is all that's left of the world, and that they're only saved from oblivion by regular human sacrifices to Dahm. Adol faces much violent skepticism when he makes the heretical claim that the rest of the world is still alive-and-well, and the four episodes of Ys II deal with Adol's quest to convince the villagers that they have been fooled all these years and, ultimately, to defeat Dahm and the black pearl.

I found these final episodes to be a definite improvement over the first arc. The situation Adol finds himself in has more depth to it, and the secondary characters were more developed. Adol's main ally, Lilia, in particular, has an effectively poignant subplot in her relationship with a monster in Dahm's army who was once a human man. In addition, plot-wise, this OVA fits in just about as much storyline in four-episodes as the first one did with seven, so the episodes themselves just have MORE meaningful storytelling and less rpg-ish filler going on. This, along with the increased depth in the characters helped to camouflage the fact that the story was still pretty much a straight step-by-step walkthrough of the original rpg.

The final conclusion, with Dahm attempting not just to defeat Adol, but to lure him to the dark-side through his anger and desire for revenge, put a nice cap on the series and brought the story to a worthwhile conclusion.

In Summary:
Although it does not have the depth of some of the classic anime of the sword & sorcery genre, and owes perhaps a bit too much of its plot to the old-school console games that spawned the series, Ys should be fairly enjoyable for fans of the genre. The characters are likeable and the storyline, though rather unsophisticated, is still entertaining and a worthwhile fantasy tale.

Features
Japanese 2.0 Language,English 2.0 Language,English Subtitles,Calendar Gallery,Map Guide,Art Gallery,Ys4 Preview,Item List,Character Bios,Retro Game Interface,Outtakes

Review Equipment
Marantz DV4300 Progressive scan DVD player via HD component connection, Marantz VP-12S3 DVI/Component HD DLP Projector, 110” 16:9 Stewart FireHawk Fixed Wall Mount Screen, Marantz SR9300 7.1 A/V Receiver 140 watts/discrete channel (7), DTS/DTS-ES/DTS Neo: 6, DD, D-PLII THX Certified 7.1 speaker system