Ranked #2274

Xenosaga: The Animation

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Characters & Voice Actors

KOS-MOS Main

Christian, Luci English Suzuki, Mariko Japanese

chaos Main

Bickham, Clint English Hoshi, Souichirou Japanese

Kukai Jr., Gaignun Main

Ayres, Greg English

Mizrahi, MOMO Main

Shishido, Rumi Japanese Karbowski, Brittney English

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Staff

	Yuuki, Nobuteru Character Design
	Yamauchi, Shigeyasu Director

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Kiddy Grade add Both is talking about the future of human, fight, galaxy and the main characters are girls. reportRecommended by fuyuki_snn

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ArcXIII Overall 8 Story 9 Animation 6 Sound 9 Character 9 Enjoyment 8

Mar 30, 200812 of 12 episodes seen 9 of 13 people found this review helpful People that have played the games will find this as a good complement to go with it. Though, those that have not played the games, should give it a chance before judging its worth by basing it off the animation and image above. This twelve part series is an adaptation of the first game of the trilogy, "Der Wille zur Macht"( The Will to Power). Xenosaga is an epic story, which one could classify as a "Space Opera"; with its convoluted story that uncoils with tim...e and patience. The final product of what we see as, Xenosaga, is an assimilation of allusions and innuendo pertaining to: theistic, philosophical, pathos, ethos, and mythos undertones. It is no wonder, since the actual titles for the games that the animation is based off of are actually the titles of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical works/essays: Der Wille Zur Macht(The Will to Power), Jenseits von Gut and Bose(Beyond Good and Evil), and Also Sprach Zarathustra(Thus Spoke Zoraster). Indeed, the intricate story will have allusions to themes of Gnosticism, Agnosticism, Christianity, Judaism, Animism and the theme of "Eternal Recurrence". All these themes are emphasized in Xenosaga's story; however, in my subjective point of view, it was executed quite well. The story ventures off to ask the age-old questions such as: "What is the meanining of our existence?", "What is happiness?", "Is there such thing as higher being(s) of existence?"; the abstract questions that cannot be merely answered sufficiently with one answer alone. The anime seems to dig deeper into the actual character aspect of it all, where some questions are answered that the game didnt clearly give. As was the case with Albedo. The anime generally sticks close to the major scenes of the games, but with some alterations here and there. Where a brilliant and profound story shines radiantly, it is initially overshadowed by its animation style. To be honest, I wasn't to impressed with the art style and character designs they utilized for this anime, as it would seem a mutual feeling shared by a plethora of people besides me. The art style seemed to be in distinct contrast compared to the designs implemented in the game. Of course, the similarities of the two animation styles are still discernable; id est, you're still able to tell who Shion and KOS-MOS are, but in my opinion the animation was mediocre at best. Not to mention some of the animation for the fight scenes was repetitive at some points. Nonetheless, it gets the job done. The soundtrack was superb in Xenosaga the Animation. The musical score was done by Kosuke Yamashita, and I have to admit, though some may condescend upon me for it, but I felt the music was on par with Nobuo Uematsu's works because it felt reminiscent towards the Final Fantasy Franchise when I watched the anime and played the games. The openining theme especially; I was already entranced by the music already, before the show even started. As for the actual SFX, it was decent because it seemed to match with the corresponding actions or effects. There's a pretty colorful cast of characters, hitting many points of the character spectrum. We have the antagonist Albedo, a psychopath with a weird fetish for abusing these loli-like cyborgs(realians) known as the Kirschwassers; KOS-MOS, a non-sentimental android that prioritizes logic over fallible human emotion,yet with another side that's antipodal to this; Jr. a seemingly child-like character with insight that unveils the heart of the situation; Chaos the lachrymal being that possesses great power to destroy the Gnosis and wisdom that makes you wonder what the hell he is; et cetera. A wide range of characters; although, some typical, are interesting enough to keep you watching. As they say,"Don't judge a book by its cover"; although, its a cliche saying, it applies strongly to this title. Overall, I enjoyed this series, and I hope they make adaptations for the other two games. Ultimately, this is a title that doesn't deserve to be overlooked, and I think you should invest some time and patience into it. It's not much of a loss of you think negatively of it, seeing as it's only twelve episodes long as opposed to a twenty-four or fifty episode series. If you do decide to kick it to the curb, fortunately not to much time is lost, since you'll pretty much invoke a general opinion of it around the middle of the series. Anyways, if you've played the game it wouldnt hurt to watch this or vice versa. read more I found this review Helpful  Not Helpful  report

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