Toki no Daichi: Hana no Oukoku no Majo

Seeing that not many people cares about old OVAs has made me curious about these shows that are so low ranked in MAL that they don't even appear in the ranked list properly. So here we go, one more time for a show without a review and that the only way I could find it, it's in a raw state but it is really straight forward so let's go.

Since the only synopsis MAL has is "Based on the manga by Yama Miyuki." Here I will tell you what it is about. This show is about a group of 3 guys in which 2 are warriors/knights ... and the other is a kid that loves flowers and monsters that live in that world. So they travel through different towns and explore the world they live but one day they find this magician girl that escapes his home because some of his family members (I believe) want to revive an evil witch so they can control the world with the power of a mythical Dragon and all the other monsters around the area. Also there is a side story about a comic relief character that calls herself the "Queen of Darkness" but when she tries to be evil, she makes more good deeds than "evil" things, she supposes she is making.

The story is not that amazing to say but it is watchable, the focus on this group that wants to find a way to stop the evil guys is interesting and has that feel of 90s RPGs. The adventures they face are enjoyable but the action scenes are too bland. They always end quick and seemed very rushed. Only when there is focus on the powers of the magician girl it is quite good with what spell they could help the guys.

The characters are ok, but anyone could argue that the little kid can be annoying. Because he is always under the clumsiness and innocence of what is going on around him. He always tends to hug the monsters when clearly the monsters want to kill the people that go around them.

The 2 knights/warriors are ying and yang. One is this cool outgoing guy that loves the adventure but always is clear that the risks are there for them and the other is like Raphael from the Ninja Turtles always serious and having no time to joke around and always angry if something fails. They are not bad, but do the job.

The Magician girl is the character that enjoyed the most out of the group. She is very calmed and cares for the others around. Too bad that her personality is nothing more than that because they could have given her a bigger role on the show with the battles instead of just this protection amulet she has and spells. It could have made it a little better.

With the animation, for some reason that I can't explain and pardon my bias here the 90s animation no matter if a show is bad, it always gets me hypnotized, for me the animation and artsyle is really great and the best that Anime has. This was done by Magic Bus, the same producers that did my favorite anime of all time, Cipher The Video, The dark palettes that they use are great and make a good the presentation look very adequate. Although the first OVA suffers some issues with the 3D Backgrounds they try to implement. They look like those demo techs from the 80s about the 3D images in computers and really outdated even for the late 90s but the other 2 they use a more traditional 2D background. Also as I said the action animation is bad. They just use the technique where they make a portrait after an attack or simply a slash sometimes and that's it. They were really lazy for action scenes.

The music is enjoyable if you are into RPGs and medieval music. The opening is hit or miss, it is ok but nothing extraordinary. The voice acting is good but again with the little kid it could be annoying, because he has this cute high pitch voice that sometimes got me to a point of desperation.

Overall

If you are into medieval stuff and you like to weird stuff that you have never heard of from the 90s this could be for you. But again with many OVAs from the 20th century are hit or miss for some and the story is very straight forward don't expect big twists or shocking settings but if you have 1 hour and more minutes it could be watchable for you.

Thanks for taking the time for reading this review. English is not my first language so sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes. Take care in whatever you do and see you around.

Toki no Daichi: Hana no Oukoku no Majo is an OVA from the late 90s based off of a manga. It's from Magic Bus. That's right. The studio that gave us Mad Bull 34, Dragoon & Phantom Yuusha Densetsu. That's not a good sign. But let's give it a try.

Story:

The tale takes place in a fantasy world where a trio of adventurers is searching for information about the deadly dragon, Diablos. Only to find themselves embroiled in a country's conflict involving an attempted coup.

The biggest problem with the narrative is just that it's kind of standard. The whole plot to usurp the ... throne, the sealed evil. All of it has been done before, done since and done better. And this series brings nothing new to it.

I can give it some credit with handling all its standard content competently enough. And for having some decent foreshadowing.

Characters:

There are four major characters in this. Jendo, Kai, Izayoi and Princess Freya. The problem is with Izayoi. He's basically everything that's wrong with child characters. He contributes nothing of real value to the party or to the narrative. He makes stupid decisions that cause problems for everyone and then the writing tries to vindicate him for everything and act like he's being treated too harshly whenever someone brings up the fact that his poor decisions are causing problems. You also have to wonder why he's even travelling with the others. He's blatantly too young for the situation and he's clearly not actually doing anything to help when trouble hits. If anything, he's a detriment.

Most of the characters are just kind of dull. Jendo is the only one I really see any potential in from this little story arc. She has some complexity and a back story that has some compelling ideas to it. She even does the most in battle with Izayoi contributing nothing and Kai & Freya doing very little.

Art:

The artwork and animation aren't particularly good but they aren't bad either. It kind of looks like they were trying to go with a Fantasy RPG look but they didn't have any strong original ideas for it so they went the safe route.

Sound:

The acting is pretty good, actually. Ogata Megumi, Seki Tomokazu, Kurata Masayo and the others all deliver pretty strong performances. I also do quite like the music. It's pretty effective and just sounds nice.

Ho-yay:

There isn't any.

Areas of Improvement:

1. Have a point for your characters. First off, let's assume Izayoi has some reason to exist in the manga and it just isn't a part of this little story arc. Let's give this that much credit solely for the sake of argument. It's still a pretty serious problem that he seemingly has no purpose here. You can't assume every single viewer has read the manga. It's especially important in a situation like this where you have a child character tagging along on a dangerous journey for no apparent reason.

2. Let's talk about consequences. Part of the reason child characters like Izayoi are so grating and obnoxious is due to the lack of consequences they experience. This kid literally almost gets one of his companions killed because he's stupid and the only character who doesn't immediately make excuses for him and act like he did nothing wrong is Jendo. Which is another reason she's the best character. He doesn't even get scolded for his carelessness or have any kind of introspective moment where he has to face the reality that he almost got his companion killed.

3. Moving beyond clichés. The problem with a work like this that just plays every trope straight is that those tropes are going to be familiar to anyone who knows the genre. Which makes you lose a lot of intrigue and makes the work overly predictable. Some subversion or original twists would have been welcome.

Final Thoughts:

This anime isn't particularly good. It relies too much on clichés and features a really annoying child character. That being said, it is the most competent anime I've seen Magic Bus produce. It's got some strong elements and there's actual potential here. Overall, it was actually okay. I'm giving it a 6/10.