Ahhhh… after a long week in school and needing a foot massage standing up for almost the whole time with lots of homework, I really need to write an entry. January is going to be a very busy month for me that I won’t be updating often, but I’ll try my best to do one, even if I’m busy. I’m only publishing Part 1 because I want to describe the OVA as detailed as possible. Part 2 will come next week and also be updating D.Gray Man episode 65 putting up RAW screenshots.
Okay, back to business, I’ll be introducing a good OAV based on a GameCube game, Tales of Symphonia. The OAV is similar to the first half of the game in one of the worlds, Sylvarant except there are some differences and if you want to know more click here to find them out. (I didn’t managed to play the game because I don’t have a GameCube, and what’s more not too much a fan of Nintendo but I like the DS)
The story:
Two world, Sylvarant and Tethe’alla are fighting over mana without knowing each other existence (That was told by Sheena to Lloyd and his gang when they escape from the Renegades) and Sylvarant is now in a state of decline of losing everything. One world must flourish (Tethe’alla), and the other deteriorates (Sylvarant) and in order to restore the world that deteriorates, a Chosen is being sent to a journey to restore the world’s mana to become an angel for the sake of the goddess named Martel.
Colette, the Chosen and Lloyd’s friend, then sets out on her journey with the protagonist Lloyd Irving and Genis Sage and as they travel to restore the world, they meet new friends and enemies and to learn the truth behind the World Regeneration…
Episode 1 starts with Colette talking and lying down on a hill and Lloyd giving her a pendant (In the game, he does not give the pendant to Colette and saying that it was incomplete. Furthermore, he will give the pendant to Colette later). Next, we see a friend of Lloyd and Colette in class, Genis reading notes from his book and Lloyd is being lazy until he was woke up by Raine (Genis’ older sister and teacher) in dismay. Colette was not in class and in a temple Colette was assigned to go on the World Regeneration journey to restore Sylvarant to its former glory. She meets the angel Remiel and also given a necklace with a red jewel in the middle. But then there was trouble brewing in the temple and when Lloyd and his friends found out that Colette was in trouble. Lloyd and Genis insist on going but Raine called them to stay in class but fortunately, she let them go with her (In the game, Raine prevents them from going to the temple, Lloyd and Genis go there by themselves without her knowing) and begin to fight with the Desians which consist mostly of half-elves. Half-elves are being looked down because they are neither human nor elves, therefore they were being shunned by both elves and humans, thus they do not belong to Sylvarant and Tethe’alla but most of them join the Desians to prevent themselves from being shunned. When Lloyd and his party are at ends meet, Kratos enters the scene to save Lloyd and his friends. Lloyd unleashed a powerful force within him that comes from the Exsphere from his hand and then began murdering one of the Desian soldiers (Look picture below to see what I mean. Managed to take down the soldier by one attack. 
) After taking them down, Lloyd was punished by his dwarf foster father for using the Exsphere power that comes from his hand and Kratos outside looking at a grave. After that there are more fighting and Lloyd and Genis sets out on an adventure of their lives (Colette left the village with Raine and Kratos to protect her) with permission with Lloyd’s foster father and then their adventure begins.
Let’s believe that Colette can fly, it’s true!
Haha, pwned! And Lloyd just murdered someone!
Genis, we’re not going on a vacation, there’s no need to bring a multi extra huge bag~
Episode 2:
Episode 2 begins with Colette’s journey with Raine and Kratos at night resting in the middle of the desert (Giving a WTF look), I mean, in the middle of the desert with ruins, is there any water around? Lloyd and Genis they caught up with Colette’s party and decide to go on the journey together to seal 5 towers. When the party reached one of the towers, Raine got overexcited at things (BTW, she like ancient ruins, let her be a treasure hunter) at the tower, amazed which is pretty funny. The party then continue to get to the top and began fighting a powerful spirit at the tower with Kratos helping Lloyd and Genis with the tatics and Colette received some angel abilities but upon awakening the first seal, she lost the need to eat which is required to be a true angel. And when you see Raine passing some of the food she cooked by herself to Lloyd and Genis, they refused it (Raine is a terrible cook, compared to Genis which the reverse holds the truth.) and Kratos telling Lloyd the reason why he wants to get stronger, to protect Colette. Later late at night, Sheena (The ninja assassin) and Zelos (Red haired guy who is the Chosen of Tethe’alla not mentioned in the anime) were discussing some things about killing Colette to prevent her from saving Sylvarant. Sheena was sent to kill but didn’t as shown in the next morning. The party proceeds to the next tower and slaying off the guardian and after slaying it off, large number of Desian soldiers, with a captain calling them to come down and fight but Colette used her angelic powers to stop the Desians from fighting and making them weak. Lloyd, who saw feathers falling went up the tower and calling Colette to stop singing but Kratos insist on letting Colette to continue singing, as he indicate that it’s the only way to get the party out with no one injured. When some of the Desians who are unaffected and the captain gets into the tower, Sheena came to the party’s rescue leading them to a secret sewer. After the rescue, Lloyd asked for her named and when he was about to say his name, he was interrupted by Sheena to get Colette and starts attacking but with Kratos’ help, Sheena was pwned in a few seconds. Lloyd decided to let Sheena go but surprised with Kratos’ answer, he was pretty disappointed. The next morning Lloyd asked Kratos why he didn’t kill him for disobeying orders and replied that he was paid by the church to protect Colette and her friends and killing Lloyd is going to cost more (Since when Kratos became so money-calculating?) and the party sets off to the next tower…
Lloyd and Genis must have take a plane to reach the ruins, or they call Hiro to get them there to prevent themselves from getting to Colette ASAP
I’ll place you in the next audition of National Treasure 3, if they have a sequel, THEN you can go as much treasure hunting as much as you want.
Since when Kratos became so money-minded?
Thoughts:
After watching the first two episodes of the OVA, I think it was good and surely better than Ragnarok the Animation and MapleStory with lots of funny and dramatic moments in it. Watching the first two episodes has already made clear what the party is doing and the action scenes are not painful to watch (Episode 1 there’s Lloyd pwning a Desian, Episode 2 there’s the Sheena VS Kratos fight.) Things are not repetitive also and so far it’s good. Unlike most game to anime adaptation which stinks and very stereotypical, I can say Tales of Symphonia is one of the best adaptations with lots of character development along the way and if you watch the bonus omake from the first episode (Mainly Lloyd, Colette and Kratos taking over Raine as she take a vacation, WTF!) Kratos is tutoring Lloyd to improve his grades. So Lloyd is getting a bit clever steadily each episode passes by.
There were rumours going on that there’s going to have another 4 episodes which consist the party to get to Tethe’alla to find answers to their questions and more appearance of Mithos (Went ‘high’ and faints) but it’s not confirmed yet. Let’s just hope that it will appear or else ending in a deux ex machina is going to end the anime up in the drain. Let’s just say that the OVA is…fantastic. A two-thumbs up.
No one ever eats what Raine cooked…
I just like a Desian getting pwned by Lloyd in just one attack. ROFL!