Fire Emblem

This show makes me so, so very sad. Though, not in the manner you may be expecting. If anything, I grieve for this anime - for what was attempted, but so brutally failed. For what could have been.

___Fire Emblem_ has been my favorite video game franchise for countless years - much of my free time in high school and college was spent playing one of the now 14 mainstream titles as well as the multiple spin-offs and remakes. I have many a fond memory of being immersed in each game's own unique story, characters, and, of course, gameplay. As those who have played it as much as I have may have thought to themselves before, the game's famous anime artwork seems like the foundation for what may be a successful and popular show. Indeed, there was a time when I wondered just WHEN Nintendo would allow for such a show to exist! Little did I know...__

Literal decades before I even heard of Fire Emblem, let alone start to play it, Nintendo and Studio Fantasia DID try to make a Fire Emblem anime - one that would stand the test of time for all of the wrong reasons. Featuring perhaps the most iconic and recognizable FE character, Prince Mars (great translation work), Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem did what I have longed for Nintendo to do for years - try and make a successful Fire Emblem anime. And to their credit, they did try - only to can the whole project two episodes into development. I cannot say for certain why this happened, but what I can say is that it left a scar on the hearts of fans, such as myself, who hope to see what is now a 30+ year video game franchise succeed on TV.

What truly baffles me, however, is how/why we have even gotten to this point in the first place. On paper, almost everything about Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (FE1) and Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (FE3), the two games in the franchise around which the anime's plot is based, should be translatable into an actual anime. The artwork is already based on that style, the stories for both games in the Archanea Saga have already been established for the writers to copy and adjust as needed, all of the characters have been established and given designs, names and goals, and the soundtrack remains famous and well-regarded to this day. And indeed, much of these factors were successfully, if not a bit unorthodoxly, implemented. If Studio Fantasia were to follow the plots of FE1 and FE3 on a chapter-by-chapter basis, they would have easily had enough material to create two full seasons - not two mere episodes.

Moving onto what is perhaps one of Fire Emblem 's biggest strengths as a series, the amount of characters with different personalities, designs, backgrounds, etc. that are available in both FE1 and FE3 combined is massive. Fire Emblem is known mostly as a strategy game, but it also doubles as a great JRPG. It has always allowed the player to use characters that they find the most interesting - something that has remained a mainstay in every game in the series.

With that being said, I have very mixed opinions on how this anime handled said diverse cast of characters. If we were to judge based on the three chapters covered in the anime (all of which are available in both FE1 and FE3), "Marth Embarks," "The Pirates of Galder," and "A Brush in the Teeth," then the anime did not include Wrys, Darros, and Castor (Castor being the only playable character in both FE1 and FE3). Granted, these are perhaps some of the most minor and forgettable characters in the Archanea Saga. Meanwhile, I felt that the anime did a great job at giving the more memorable characters, such as Marth, Caeda, Navarre, Lena, and even the Altean Knights, not just a lot of screentime, but also lore and backstories. I learned stuff about characters like Caeda, Navarre, and Ogma that I genuinely did not know prior to watching this anime. It makes me wonder what other characters could have possibly been given a similar treatment, had the show continued past two episodes.

However, and I'll discuss this very shortly in the Ratings section, the characters themselves have become one of the biggest laughing stocks in not just this anime, but the entire Fire Emblem universe itself. While the Japanese voice actors do a very good job at portraying their assigned characters (Hikaru Midorikawa still voices Marth to this day), the English VAs are the ones who get the most attention, and not for good reasons. Many memes created by the FE fandom use this anime as material and, when you really stop to think about it, are well-deserved. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise, so please, do yourself a favor and search "fire emblem anime dub memes" on YouTube - you won't regret it.

1. Music: 47/100 - I absolutely love Fire Emblem 's discography of catchy and famous pieces. Yuka Tsujiyoko, the composer who composed the soundtracks for the earlier entries in the series, is one of my all-time favorite and respected composers. However, I cannot say with confidence that her work was translated very well into this anime at all. I thought that the anime had a great OST for what was actually included, but something about it just seemed missing. It's almost as if 95% of the intended anime and OST were never actually finished! Thinking about how great the soundtrack could have been is what really, really breaks my heart.

2. Plot: 2/100 - Two points for the amount of episodes released. In all seriousness though, what more is there even left to say? This anime consists of only two episodes - one whole hour that could've been spent playing an actual Fire Emblem game. The fact that it only consists of two episodes makes it uninteresting to those who are serious FE fans, while making it a mere joke-watch for anyone else. The foundation for the story was already established for the studio to copy, and yet they couldn't even make one full season. How else can I rate an anime's plot if the writers themselves don't even want to finish the thing?

3. Characters: 36/100 - Having already known all of the characters present in this anime prior to watching it, I can safely say that I find most of them to be interesting, enjoyable, and fun characters - Marth is a classic, Caeda was the first ever Pegasus Knight, Cain and Abel made twin cavaliers a staple, Navarre is one of the coolest characters from the Archanea Saga, etc. And I while do think that the characters themselves in this anime are good, this show took the established characters that arguably helped make the anime and made them into lowly memes - Prince "Mars," "Look at my hands" Navarre, everything about Caeda, and, of course, "FIVE POINTS!! But Maaaarrrrrsss!" Gordon. They didn't even give the characters a chance to redeem themselves past Episode 2 - they took that away from them and left them as fodder for the memers. Hilarious? Yes. Tragic? Also yes.

4. Art & Animations: 70/100 - This factor was, in my opinion, the best part of the show by far. I thought that the studio did an excellent job of not only designing all of the characters, but also animating many of the show's battles, actions and movements - something that I believe is essential for any anime based on Fire Emblem. It's an anime from the 90's - that much is evident from just looking at the cover page. But considering how much I enjoyed the animations from these two episodes alone, it really frustrates me to think about how epic some of the later battles could have looked.

So, here I am - writing a review for an anime that, in all honesty, does not deserve this long of an analysis. Though, as I finish tying up loose ends on how, exactly, I feel about this anime, I come to a very, very sad realization: I have spent nearly four hours writing this review - the same amount of time it would have taken me to watch the entirety of Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem...four times. Why have I done this to myself, you may ask? Because of how much I love the Fire Emblem series. To this day, I firmly believe that this series could garner enough support and love to warrant Nintendo another attempt at making a Fire Emblem anime - I am that confident that people would enjoy it. Who knows - maybe they will, or maybe they won't, but who wouldn't want to see the great Prince Mars get another shot one the big-screen? Lord knows I do.