After looking through Impz’s posts on good anime, I’m going to start writing one of the anime I hate to the core and Ragnarok fans, please do not kill me after reading it, or rather you should not read this post at all (Avoid it, then) for your own safety and perhaps health. Present you one of the anime I hate in my entire life, Ragnarok the Animation!!! I’ve come up with reasons to back it up why I hate it even people say it’s good.
In the naked eye, i can already see Takius’s underwear. Really. And the show’s not for kids either.
And don’t let that dazzling and that stunning wallpaper fool you to watch the show either. I first started watching it after looking at screenshots and pictures of it and then forced myself to start watching the 26 episodes (The entire season, but I stopped at episode 24 to take a break because all the trouble started when the episodes gets darker and nearer to the end). After forcing myself to watch it, I was like ‘Whew! The show finally ended and I will never watch another episode of Ragnarok again as long as I live. Never judge a book by it’s cover.’
What the series is about:
Taking place in a ficticious world of Rune-Midgard (Reminds me of Midgar of Final Fantasy VII) Roan, Yuufa, Maya, Takius, Iruga and Judia were travelling the place to stop an evil entity named the Dark Lord (The name, geez! Where does the originality goes nowadays?) who will create chaos in Rune-Midgard with the help of 7 crystals of Strength that represent the 7 deadly sins which sealed him away hundreds of years ago.
And that is it. Pretty simple, yeah?
The reasons, they’re really simple:
1. The hero Roan, he is a lame guy and only develops pretty late in the series. His hair cut? Almost to a degree of being a prisoner and then his looks are below average. I wonder why Yuufa, the priestess like him very much (Even though her late brother said that he will protect her). You read too many fairy tales Yuufa. Sometimes I wonder if all MMORPG anime adaptations are so stereotype, like MapleStory. I really hoped for something with more character development and really wish the looks of the characters are better, especially Maya the merchant (The wannabe loli, acts like one but not. I hate her the most in the entire series) and Iruga the assassin (He’s a emo wearing a Goth costume under his pink and white bandages.)
2. Roan is thinking dirty. It’s not purely for kids if they are watching it (In one of the episodes, he was thinking dirty of all the girls in his party to go to the beach one day and take out all their bikini tops. I think the people who did it should think twice of making that scene, and some of the characters have big boobs (Look at Takius the mage and Judia the archer, see how big they are?). It’s inappropriate for kids to see some of the scenes in RtA. Luckily Maya is young and doesn’t have big boobs or else this show is flooded with fan-service with big boobs in the entire series. (Almost most of the female characters in the series have big boobs, with the exception of Maya, Yuufa and Alice and some other girls) There seem to be more female characters in the story than male characters.
3. Things get almost hopeless and dark in the later episodes, as if we are thinking that the story will be a twist of fate. All the heroes die and then the bad guys take over the world. Speaking of bad guys, I wish the bad guys are not so stereotype and the idea of the bad guys gets a little fresher. The originality of the story is almost zlich, leaving me almost sleeping while the show is on. But I was lucky that I forced myself to sit and watch the entire season.
THE SHOW IS FLOODED WITH BIG BOOBS!!! Help me!!!
4. It’s like half of the stuff is ripped out from the game. The spells (God, one of the elements I hate the most.) are like you just say the name of the spell out loud and then the spell is cast. I wish there is a challange in the part which they cast all their spells, rather than just shouting them out loud. The music can be easliy forgotten and now I do not remember them. And sometimes things can be confusing that made my mind hurts.
5. The monsters, just hack and slash like a game. Most of them are like just mushrooms, small sprites and are just too cute to be monsters. I thought the monsters in the anime should be a bit scarier but not this scary (Rather, they are NOT scary at all, with the exception of some and Baphomet the talking monster.)
6. The character I liked the most is the shapeshifter witch that appeared in front of Roan sometimes in the series. She’s unlike the other characters who get rash easily (Except for Takius) and has the charisma in which she is a wise lady who teach moral values to others who are inexperienced. Other than her, I liked no one else.
The animation and art are above average and there will be some humour expected (But also expected fan-service, which is big boobs). From the start you will see some big boobs but when you get into the story further you will get used to it. If you are bored watching too much good anime, you should get a balance of good and bad anime and watch it if you are the type who like fan-service, magic and good quality art.
I’m already bored with fan-service. And never judge an anime by it’s cover.
But what I hate about this anime overall is that MMORPGs make very bad anime adaptations. I also do not like visual novels themselves expecially the eroge and H ones but they made a good anime adapation themselves (I mean the plot, not the art) with drama and personal conflict (There’s Kanon, Air, Clannad [maybe except for this, with no content that is inappropriate for kids], Shuffle!, Myself;Yourself, ToHeart etc.) the characters must go through. Even light novels can do better than that other than TMOHS (Haruhi fans will know what it is). The story is pretty plain itself in my preference, I don’t like the art style the character design has drawn (Makes me think that I should stick to the Ragnarok manhwa from now on.) and you could get tired of watching halfway through the series.
I demand you to stop harassing Yuufa with stabbing her with a sword Roan! She has a bad bad day already and get a life!
31 Comments
I used to play Ragnarok like an addict a couple of years ago. I heard about the anime, and actually, it was the first anime I watched since Pokemon/Sailor/Moon/Dragonball back in my childhood. But that aside, now that I’ve seen better anime, it really does suck.
Also, Roan reminds me of Shirou from Fate/stay night.
KORUDO BORUTO!
I’m a huge RO fan and I think the anime sucked as well. There was supposed to be a different Ragnarok anime which follows the character design much more closely by a joint effort from a Korean and Japanese studio. The OP trailer came out long before this anime made its debut and I think that was what most RO fans were waiting for. But instead, we get the useless, hopeless Roan.
ragnarok the animation sucks, big time.
I also used to play RO few years back and in my experience it’s the most addicted MMORPG that i have ever played. Anyhow I never watch the anime version, so if you sat it suck well i have no comment on that but the online game kick butt.
Oh my goodness. You’ve outlined absolutely EVERYTHING that was terrible about Ragnarok the Animation, from the overuse of fan service to the reason the series was in a constant decline when things got darker (read: more stereotypical). You even liked the shape shifter (which I’m guessing was a GM, given her Character Class Changing Powers), the one character I also liked best. Such a shame she had less than four minutes of exposure.
Reverse Vampire, I salute you for your honest and perceptive review of RtA.
For those of you who really want to experience the absolute crap that is Ragnarok the Animation, click on that lovely red text of my name (and self-proclaimed title). It’s the in-depth analysis of what sucked in each episode.
Well, this wasn’t a anime, this was a very very long tv commercial that show all profesions/places/spells/monsters so why bother with the argument or characteres.
Great game, anime sucks.
Simple math :p
@ Megamouse: It’s an anime, and you can say it’s a very very very long commercial of the game.
lmao. was addicted to the game couple of years too but stopped cause gotta pay. Well the anime is average for me, but baphomet that talks and kills Dark lord while in the game he was the 1st owning mvp?
The most out-of-place thing in the entire show wasn’t how the show gets “darker” towards the end, but how it has that flashback scene really early on where Maya gets gangraped. It was so ludicrously out of place with the tone of the show at that point, not to mention incredibly squicky.
If you were to comment about the boobs, what of dragonaut.
Besides, Maplestory anime sucks tons much more than this, art style, plot, character design, everything! You should at least bring that up.
Even so, yea. Ragnarok sucked. Loads.
Series Spoilers Ahead.
Going to have disagree with the sentiments above and say that I enjoyed this anime. The “tragedy” behind Maya and how the people who become her friends die horrible deaths was a morbidly humorous theme to me.
The plot was simple (almost ridiculously so), but it was fairly entertaining and the way they chose to present the “battle system” was enjoyable to me as I happen to like it (being a fan of CRPGs).
It won’t win awards anytime soon, but in my opinion, it is definitely not “The Suck”. For an apparently “kiddy show”, the death count of the “good guys” was pretty high; and that is something I appreciate.
Cheers.
@ Skane: Well people have different have different taste. I know that there are some tragic moments but overall it still sucked.
lol, I play Ragnarok and often wondered what the show would be like…but thanks to R vampire I can now go through life without being scarred from this atrocity…although I still want to see maple story
Yes RO is the best addicting game ever but the series really sucks. I personally like Naruto the new anime series. But if you like a little adventure play RO online!
Ragnarok the animation wasn’t ‘The worst’. I mean…if you can go through watching the whole series…..
I agree with your review though, the plot sucked the most to me. Although every now and then there was a character I liked, Alice, the shape-changing woman who appeared in front of Rowan..
Ragnarok The Animation is the SECOND worst.
The WORST is the Maple Story anime. >_>;
Oh, I’m sorry, may we see someof YOUR own anime? RtA was good, ya little hater!
You actually watched the WHOLE series?! I stopped before episode 1 was over! I salute you.
To people who commented: Check out http://www.animenewsnetwork.com and check out the DVD review of RtA. They give really low ratings for it and they say it really sucked. Trust me. (Doing a victory dance)
Im a hardcore RO player for several years now, and i would have to say that the anime sucks indeed. The only thing that I did like, is the visualisation of the basic game play and the skills that are used. Other then that, DIIEEE!
People who were making fan-videos of Ragnarok Online did a much better job than this. I never understood why gravity had to butcher the whole series, why? Did they honestly believe the whole fan service theme will help sell the game? Did gravity make it in the first place?!?!
Well, I actually think the anime was very cliche and stereotypical.
Although, I really enjoyed it! XD It made me cry so much and I really loved the plot and the characters. I guess it is just me heh! I also play RO and it was fun to see all those class characters and skills~
To be honest…
I wanted the manga to be the Anime
me I like that movie it’s readly happy and fun to wach them fight with their favorite characters and I like it so much that made me so happy. even the girl what’s her name… oh yeah takius she is so nice and I love it so much. me I feel bad for her so that’s why she’s dead. in that movie I mean.
I bought the DVD and it really waste of time
Agree with this review. Besides the female character & the soundtrack, the anime is too boring & unimpressive. Even for me who had played RO for years
If you’ve played the game you’ll definitely be dissapointed with the Anime. It’s been a while since I stopped playing the game like 5 years and now I’m playing it again. This reminded me of the anime and I hope they do a remake of it!
Actually I dislike your comments because i like stereotypical movies
because usually like Naruto(I dislike this realy much) the main character
Naruto himself is made REAL POWERFUL when almost losing
to a powerful enemy
but this it’s just that the “Good Guys” are evenly matched with the
“Bad Guys”, also there are conflict between “Good Guys”(See episode
around 10″fighting in ant hell. the death of 2 “Good Guys”also make the
RtA impressive, there are only 6 “Good Guys”where Naruto Anime
has like 20 “Good Guys” where under even 5(if i’m not mistaken) died.
RtA is different from like Bleach And Naruto because yes it gets Darker
When they go deeper into the story, the good thing is not like the anime
I mention above where when the “Good Guys” are pressed they are
over powered like H*LL. RtA’s “Good Guys” gets stronger the more
they advance deeper to the story, so it’s like the game they “Level Up”
so they are not Over Powered(The last episode and around the third
fighting GTB gets ower powered tough)
A class from the thief tree would be a nicer main protagonist would be better in my oppinion. Thats all i want to say. (humor)