Deltora Quest - 12
Take any other anime, which involves fighting huge monsters. In nine out of ten cases, these monsters are just screaming and attacking with just no particular purpose, only waiting for the hero to defeat them. I love how Deltora Quest manages to avoid this often-made mistake by giving every single monster on the show the ability to talk and think on its own. Seriously, at the moment, the Shadow-Lord and Thaegan are the only ones who still feel like pure evil, but it isn’t like their stories are over, and I’m expecting their background along the way.
The king of Rat City, a huge three-headed dragon, may not have been the best boss this series had to offer (the fight with Thaegan was much better), it was refreshing to watch, when compared to the dozens of other series with villains who can’t think for themselves. Okay, Lief won in the end, but the storytelling was good enough for me not to mind. I also like how the end of the episode subverted the “Disney-ending”-trope, with the elixir of life that Jasmine got from the forest in the first arc.
Jasmine’s story for this episode may have been a bit too forced, and it could have gotten a bit more detail, but it does give a bit more depth to her character. Her reasons to join Lief were quite fragile to begin with, and with this episode, they were quite a bit strengthened. It seems that she just can’t leave Lief and Barda, who like to do first, think later (especially the former), alone. The three of them make a nice team: Lief’s courage, combined with Barda’s experience and Jasmine’s alertness.
One thing I didn’t like about this episode is the rats-part. I didn’t like how some parts of the castle were full of them, while in other parts they were nowhere to be found. There are a few clichés here and there in the storytelling, but the rest of it definitely makes up for them.
EDIT: I’ve decided to drop this series. Even if new episodes do get subbed, I’ll still watch them, but at this point I have no real intention to blog them.
I remember seeing the first few episodes for what feels like ages ago. It’s a series I want to get into, but the subbing situation (or lack thereof) is making it awfully difficult.
I’m glad at least some people are still following it, and that it’s still proving to be entertaining. Hopefully, I’ll eventually catch it down the line.
Comment by AlwaysSunny — October 26, 2007 @ 0:42
I was really glad they kept in the part about Jasmine blaming the previous king because that was a pretty huge issue in the books that both Jasmine and Lief had to deal with.
Mostly though, I’m just happy that you’re still watching it! (Even many of the RAW providers are abandoning it…)
Comment by Lika — October 27, 2007 @ 2:49
The king of Rat City was a three headed dragon? In the book it was a giant female serpent called Reeah.
I remember watching the ACG subs on YouTube; they were SO bad. DATS are a lot better because they’ve read the books and are able to spell the characters’ names. Also they can translate better. In one episode ACG put ‘blah blah blah’ as a translation.
It’s great to see someone blogging the series! ^^
Comment by snowcone — November 18, 2007 @ 3:01
Watched all 12 eps subbed so far in one day yesterday. Now i feel a huge void. I’m going to have to go on a quest to find the books that i imagine will probably be even more fun.
So whats similar to this i can watch to fill the void?
Comment by joel ison — May 17, 2008 @ 15:25