Heroic Age Episode 1 - The Destroyed Planet
No OP this time.
ED - Amarantine (Tae Urakabe) - Petals. In. Space!
Long ago, the planets were fashioned by the Golden Race, super-powerful glowing cloaked beings. Being super-powerful, they decide to bugger off elsewhere after creating the three main races of the universe - the Silver, Bronze and Heroic Races. Of course, mankind, the Iron Race, pops up just as they’re going.
Anyhoo, the telepathic Princess Deaneira (in Greek myth, the wife of Heracles; she killed him with a coat soaked in poisoned semen. Niiice.) points the Argonaut, a big spaceship, towards the half-destroyed planet of Oron, where “their saviour” is. Their saviour, as foretold by the Golden Race, appears to be a feral young lad by the name of Eiji who lives in the bowels of a wrecked ship he likes to call Mother; immune to the telekinetic powers of the twins Meiru and Teiru, Deaneira chooses to greet him herself and is surprised when he speaks… human, or whatever it is they speak in the depths of space. However, the evil insectoid Bronze Race attacks the Argonaut and Oron; whilst the soldier Iolaus fights using an agile mecha, Eiji transforms into a giant, monstrous mecha instead of being melted by the Bronze Race’s acid breath and flies up into space to bust open their Sphere of Insectoid Death. Much gasping ensues.
I had to remind myself that this is the first episode of a Xebec original show and therefore not to get too impressed. Because damn, this episode is impressive; it’s absolutely sumptuous to look at, the animation quality is pretty high, and most of all I’m really quite pleasantly surprised by how the story turned out. True, it’s nothing special for a first episode in that it just sets things up really, but I really like how the three central characters seem to have turned out. I was worried, for instance, that Deaneira was going to be a bit useless; it’s true that she’s quite passive in this episode as she’s so carefully sheltered from others, but her telepathic powers (I always like telepathic powers!) make her actually useful as opposed to being a figurehead or a trophy for Eiji and Iolaus to fight over (which they will do anyway!). Eiji manages to avoid being overly exuberant, and Iolaus looks to have a pleasantly light side to counteract the no doubt incredible levels of brooding and bishounne angst he will bring us later - after all, this IS from most of the team that brought us Fafner!
Yes, the Hisashi Hirai designs aren’t overly original. Yes, it’ll probably be downhill from here. For the moment, however, Heroic Age looks to be very promising indeed. Now we just need to see the OP; THEN I can make a full judgement!
April 3rd, 2007 at 2:05 am
I hope they can keep up the animation & background quality. This is just gorgeous in widescreen. Not much more to say about it (good BGM, etc.), but it’s definitely off to a more felicitous start than Fafner.
April 3rd, 2007 at 3:16 am
It was SEMEN?? …My childhood…
April 3rd, 2007 at 3:17 pm
[…] realise how good and epic the story is until I read some other blogs (Wrex’s Anime Whirls and Cinnamon Ass, who clearly understand a lot of Japanese, as opposed to my almost zilch understanding of the […]
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:10 pm
Wow, really.. what?
I’ve only read the “blood” version. Unless you are only inferring it in a type of mythological deconstruction.
Like, the myth of Nessus’ poisoned blood was actually a representation of Nessus infecting Deianeira with a sexually-transmitted disease which she then passed on to her husband Heracles.
You liberal arts types are strange. 8)
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Apollodorus Book 2, Section 151:
“Being at the point of death, Nessus called Deianira to him and said that if she would have a love charm to operate on Hercules she should mix the seed he had dropped on the ground with the blood that flowed from the wound inflicted by the barb.”
I don’t have access to the Greek, but I presume that Nessus wasn’t doing much farming at the time (especially as he lived in a river!)
April 4th, 2007 at 8:27 am
LOL. This anime quite reminded me of sousei no aquarion, which I hated. I hope this doesn’t turn out to be as melodramatic.
April 4th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Well, seeing that Nessus was trying to rape Deianeira, I think we may be safe to assume that it was definitely semen…
April 5th, 2007 at 6:07 am
One should note that neither Sophocles, in his Trachiniae, nor Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, make mention of Nessus’ semen as a component of the venomous robe. Still, I would turn to Apollodorus first in matters of Greek Mythology.
April 5th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
How can it be like Aquarion??? I didnt see bunch of kids piloting mechs, and screaming Power Ranger lines… :) :D
Heroic Age has trully suprised me, cant wait for more eps.
April 19th, 2007 at 12:34 am
Is it just me or is there a serious Tarzan feel to this whole show? Maybe I’m suffering from Gonzo classic paranoia…