So I finally got around to watching the Tales of Symphonia OVA
... to be fair, I already watched the first three episodes ages ago, but still. Now that I'm actually not a rage-filled thirteen-year-old, I figured I'd actually be able to see the anime without getting angry about everything.
(And I was right, thankfully! Fandoms are a lot more fun when you don't rage at the drop of a hat, I've noticed. But that's off-topic. Sort of.)
I still feel that the OVA is rather flawed, especially the Sylvarant arc - there's just too much Colloyd angst (I like Colloyd, but. Why is there so much angst, it's supposed to be fluffy and adorkable! ;o;) and some of the characters feel a little off to me. Most notably, Sheena just acts too cold when she's really fairly mellow in the game, and Lloyd... well, he does have legitimate resons for the constant crying and all, but the cutesy moments in ToS are what make the more serious ones really matter, and the anime just doesn't have many of those. It's understandable, of course, since all adaptions have to cut little things like the aforementioned ones out, but. The skits and the silly inter-party banter are just my favorite things about Tales of games, ok ;_; and also, the battle system but that's hardly relevant here
Other than that, honestly, another problem with the Sylvarant arc is that Lloyd and Colette kind of hog too much of the screentime. It needed more Raine, clearly. And more Zelos, because everything needs more Zelos, but I guess that can be forgiven since he was probably busy hitting on random chicks in a different world and all
The Tethe'alla arc, though! It was a pretty huge improvement upon the previous episodes, in my opinion. I think they handled Presea's, Regal's and Sheena's backstories really well (and I'm glad the part about Zelos' mother was included at all). A-also anime!Corrine is the cutest thing ever
and (rather predictably) I bawled when he died ;__; nooo why
I'm kind of surprised to see that the anime got better once it started to stray from the game's main plot structure, but in any case, I'm happy it did. Watching the party go through all of the Summon Spirits and such would... probably make for a pretty boring, drawn-out anime, so. No complaints there! It even fleshed out some of the backstory, which was nice to see.
(Oh, but, speaking of backstories... am I the only person who is a little weirded out by how much taller Regal was than Alicia
he's like, two heads taller than her at the very least. but most likely even taller Why yes that was the first thing I noticed, that's probably really weird)
Overall, the best thing about the anime is probably the crazy bonus episodes. They're like crackfics, except they're animated. By professionals. Actually, I wouldn't mind it in the slightest if the entire OVA had just been crack. Bartender!Yggdrasil, Kratos being perfectly aware of his legion of fangirls and attempting to use it to his advantage, bishie sparkles and pink roses appearing every time Zelos comes on-screen, the cast complaining about not getting enough lines, and Yuan... suddenly being gay for Lloyd?
... I don't even know where they got the idea for that last one, but it totally happened in one of the bonus episodes. I'm so confused, what do I even.
Watching this OVA, though... it's made me realize how much my fandom preferences have changed. If I had gotten into the ToS fandom now, I probably would have ended up with Lloyd/Zelos as my favorite ship. Or alternatively, my favorite broship. Both are fine by me! When I was new to the fandom, I hardcore shipped Kranna for some reason, which is actually kind of a really weird OTP to have because Anna is technically going to be an OC in all fan art/fic no matter which way you slice it. Though I guess I still sort of support it, in the sense that I don't think Kratos ever gets over Anna's death but instead angsts about it for the rest of his life. Kratos is just the angstiest character. Mr. Angst.
But similarly to the above, my favorite characters have changed quite a bit as well - I recall Raine being my least favorite and I think I even had one of those "Colette is the worst" phases at one point (nope I have no idea whatsoever how I rationalized that. Probably just jumping on a bandwagon. I was twelve. This is clearly a good excuse.). They're both some of my favorites, now. Huh. It feels odd. :o
... also, I was thinking about what my stance on angst ships really is, because obviously I do like certain forms of angst, and... I came to the conclusion that I just like my ships to be happy once the characters actually get together. Angst before that is fine. Actually, it's inevitable the vast majority of the time, really. It's just that I don't usually like pairings where one or both characters feel sort of unhappy with the other or somehow incomplete in the end. ... does that even make sense? I don't really know. orz But this is why I can't really come up with any "angst ships" I really enjoy. I think.
(And I was right, thankfully! Fandoms are a lot more fun when you don't rage at the drop of a hat, I've noticed. But that's off-topic. Sort of.)
I still feel that the OVA is rather flawed, especially the Sylvarant arc - there's just too much Colloyd angst (I like Colloyd, but. Why is there so much angst, it's supposed to be fluffy and adorkable! ;o;) and some of the characters feel a little off to me. Most notably, Sheena just acts too cold when she's really fairly mellow in the game, and Lloyd... well, he does have legitimate resons for the constant crying and all, but the cutesy moments in ToS are what make the more serious ones really matter, and the anime just doesn't have many of those. It's understandable, of course, since all adaptions have to cut little things like the aforementioned ones out, but. The skits and the silly inter-party banter are just my favorite things about Tales of games, ok ;_; and also, the battle system but that's hardly relevant here
Other than that, honestly, another problem with the Sylvarant arc is that Lloyd and Colette kind of hog too much of the screentime. It needed more Raine, clearly. And more Zelos, because everything needs more Zelos, but I guess that can be forgiven since he was probably busy hitting on random chicks in a different world and all
The Tethe'alla arc, though! It was a pretty huge improvement upon the previous episodes, in my opinion. I think they handled Presea's, Regal's and Sheena's backstories really well (and I'm glad the part about Zelos' mother was included at all). A-also anime!Corrine is the cutest thing ever
and (rather predictably) I bawled when he died ;__; nooo why
I'm kind of surprised to see that the anime got better once it started to stray from the game's main plot structure, but in any case, I'm happy it did. Watching the party go through all of the Summon Spirits and such would... probably make for a pretty boring, drawn-out anime, so. No complaints there! It even fleshed out some of the backstory, which was nice to see.
(Oh, but, speaking of backstories... am I the only person who is a little weirded out by how much taller Regal was than Alicia
he's like, two heads taller than her at the very least. but most likely even taller Why yes that was the first thing I noticed, that's probably really weird)
Overall, the best thing about the anime is probably the crazy bonus episodes. They're like crackfics, except they're animated. By professionals. Actually, I wouldn't mind it in the slightest if the entire OVA had just been crack. Bartender!Yggdrasil, Kratos being perfectly aware of his legion of fangirls and attempting to use it to his advantage, bishie sparkles and pink roses appearing every time Zelos comes on-screen, the cast complaining about not getting enough lines, and Yuan... suddenly being gay for Lloyd?
... I don't even know where they got the idea for that last one, but it totally happened in one of the bonus episodes. I'm so confused, what do I even.
Watching this OVA, though... it's made me realize how much my fandom preferences have changed. If I had gotten into the ToS fandom now, I probably would have ended up with Lloyd/Zelos as my favorite ship. Or alternatively, my favorite broship. Both are fine by me! When I was new to the fandom, I hardcore shipped Kranna for some reason, which is actually kind of a really weird OTP to have because Anna is technically going to be an OC in all fan art/fic no matter which way you slice it. Though I guess I still sort of support it, in the sense that I don't think Kratos ever gets over Anna's death but instead angsts about it for the rest of his life. Kratos is just the angstiest character. Mr. Angst.
But similarly to the above, my favorite characters have changed quite a bit as well - I recall Raine being my least favorite and I think I even had one of those "Colette is the worst" phases at one point (nope I have no idea whatsoever how I rationalized that. Probably just jumping on a bandwagon. I was twelve. This is clearly a good excuse.). They're both some of my favorites, now. Huh. It feels odd. :o
... also, I was thinking about what my stance on angst ships really is, because obviously I do like certain forms of angst, and... I came to the conclusion that I just like my ships to be happy once the characters actually get together. Angst before that is fine. Actually, it's inevitable the vast majority of the time, really. It's just that I don't usually like pairings where one or both characters feel sort of unhappy with the other or somehow incomplete in the end. ... does that even make sense? I don't really know. orz But this is why I can't really come up with any "angst ships" I really enjoy. I think.