Ragnarök The Animation

Fantasy anime is a bit of an odd genre at times. One would think that, with all the great ideas and influences out there, the fantasy genre of anime would be exceptionally strong and, most importantly, original, and would turn out some cracking shows season after season.

Unfortunately this isn't the case, and more often than not the viewer is subjected to episode after episode of mediocrity, genericism, and poor storytelling.

One such example is Ragnarok: The Animation.

Based on the MMORPG, Ragnarok Online, which itself is based on the Korean manwha Ragnarok by Lee Myung-Jin (who also took on the role of chief director for the anime ... adaptation), the series follows the exploits of a young band of adventurers as they travel through the world of Rune-Midgard, the same world in which the game takes place.

On the surface the story seems remarkably similar to that of Slayers and several other fantasy anime already available (i.e. save the world from the demon lord), however one's early expectations are rapidly scuppered as the anime gets into it's stride. The plot develops in a rather haphazard manner, partly because there was an effort made to merge the manga with the game and turn it all into a TV series. Unfortunately, the approach taken to mesh everything together into a new shining whole failed miserably, and both the plot and story are, at best, only slightly above par.

One of the other reasons for the lacklustre plot development is purely based on the fact that unlike many other game adaptations, Ragnarok was adapted from a game that essentially has no real story, and the lack of anything coherent meant that the writers had to rely heavily on Lee Myung-Jin's manwha for inspiration. Add to that the fact that Myung-Jin was effectively in charge of the anime (although the series was really directed by Kishi Seiji, of Seto no Hanayome fame), and one has a recipe for confusion at the very least.

In truth, the lack of an in-game storyline should have proven a boon for the anime adaptation, as it would have given the writers a great deal of freedom in an already developed imaginary world, however this was not to be, and the story absolutely reeks of genericism and formula because of the attempt to tie it into the manwha.

In terms of looks and sound, the series isn't bad, however it's also not that great. The characters are designed with the MMORPG in mind, and athough there is some individuality in certain aspects of their design, one must remember that they were made to appeal to fans of the game, rather than to the average anime viewer. In terms of animation the series works fairly well, however while the characters move in a decent manner, there is a certain "woodenness" and repetition to their actions.

The backgrounds and settings are also on the formulaic side, and no real effort has been made to make the world of Rune-Midgard more "real". This also, unfortunately, counts for the sound effects, many of which are reasonably executed but lack any real depth.

The series also drops points for its choice and execution of music, as quite often the atmosphere of a scene is thrown off by the track playing, whilst on other occasion one is subjected to a barrage of sound as speech, music and effects clash to produce a veritable cacophony.

That said, it should be noted that the majority of seiyuu performed reasonably well, but in an effort to further sabotage itself, the series, like many others, resorts to using strange or high pitched voices for its bad guys, especially in scenes that are supposed to be filled with tension and action.

As far as the characters go, Raganrok: The Animation proves once more that genericism isn't the best option when it comes to fantasy anime.The two lead characters, Roan and Yufa, are, at the very least, two of the most annoyingly juvenile leads in fantasy anime. Roan, for example, is a ponce of the first order, whilst Yufa is glibly stupid. The series charts their growth through the course of several "adventures", however their, and the other characters, development is overblown and overly dramatic, so much so in fact, that any growth that occurs is overshadowed by the inane, stupid and downright idiotic events that lead up to it.

In truth, the only character who actually develops in any meaningful way is Maya, and while her story is suitably over dramatic, she is far less annnoying as a character later on in the series because of the changes in her personality (unlike Roan and Yufa).

While I can understand, and even appreciate, the reasoning behind Ragnarok: The Animation, in particular the where and whyfor of the plot and characters, I have to say that this series is way down on the list of what I would recommend with regards to fantasy anime. The series has several major flaws that no amount of plausible deniability can hide, and many of these stem from the fact that the creators didn't treat this adaptation as a completely new tale.

In all honesty, if you want a good fantasy anime, then watch Slayers, Kemono no Souja Erin, Guin Saga, Tears to Tiara (which is also a game adaptation), Seirei no Moribito, or shows of that calibre. Whilst Ragnarok isn't a bad show, it also isn't a shining example of the genre either, and even though it does have it's good points, these only serve to highlight the problems.

Given that the world of Rune-Midgard was already developed to quite a large degree thanks to the manwha and MMORPG, I can only consider this series to be wasted opportunity.

Many people thinks because this anime is base of a game so it naturally suck and that might be true for another one, but this one is really good.

Story:
some people watch a little of the beginning and saw that it was not game related and then say is not worth watching. well, i think those people watch the anime because of the game's brand name. this anime got a really good plots that come with a good ending. this story also included some romance in it, which makes it even better.if only the game is more like the anime.

Art:
the art was ok since is kinda ... hard to make tiny figures into full size monsters

Sound:
nothing special

Characters:
the characters all got a very unique relationship with each other, as the story develop, they begin to find their own feeling

Enjoyment:
this story is very enjoyable, when i am watching this anime, time seem to fly by.
some people say is not very enjoyable because is totally different from the game, but that because they play the game to much and watch the anime because of it's brand name.

Overall:
this is a pretty good anime consider is an anime made from a game, but even thought is base of a game, it has a really great plot. also, this is an ANIME, NOT A GAME. a game is restricted by rules to keep it's balance, but how the anime develop is not restricted so dont compare the game to an anime, which is completely 2 different things.

If you are watching this anime because you love the game and expect something very game related, then i suggest you DON"T watch it
However if you are watching this anime because of it's plot and interested in their adventure, then i greatly suggest you watch it.

This review is mainly aimed at those who have played the game Ragnarok Online, and are tempted to watch this anime as an additional bonus. All I can say... It was an extremely disappointing and generic fanservice based fantasy show.

You would think that with the game, there would be countless of possabilities in making the anime good based on the potential surrondings. But instead we get given two extremely annoying characters that don't seem to have a clue about what they're doing and where they are going. The romance in this is extremely forced, in fact, it was more focused on perversing on the female ... characters than developing the romance.

For those who believe there can be no real decent story adaptation from a game. The reason I claim this is wrong, is due to the countless amount of fanfiction and fan-comics that have developed over the years on the internet. Most of them have better plot lines than the one presented in this.

Save your time if you are wanting to watch a decent anime. Otherwise, watch it if you're curious about how bad, or how unfairly I've rated it.

About 1 year has passed since I finished watching this anime and now that I am writing this.

I've played Ragnarok Online for several years now 4+
I've read the 10 Ragnarok manga chapters.


This game is just an adaptation of the Ragnarok Online game... every information like the locations, monsters, items, graphics, classes is part of the game.
The story and the characters are original from the anime.


... I am considering 7 as average.

Story - 7
Story of those people going in an adventurous journey for the sake of justice and then answering their questions, ok. However the journey itself becomes very lame. They just go around the world (not that much distance is covered hmmm maybe region? I want to say the map of the game), and encounter different lame enemies... they just give me this lame feeling.
Each episode, they encounter a different scene... it gets boring making the whole thing boring.
There was however 1 past fact, flashback that was somehow interesting.

Art - 6
Everything was like taken from the game so I do not see what art it has. It's real art is... adapting a MMORPG into an anime, I'll give it that, but I wish they had done it better... much better.

Sound - 6-7
Other than a possibly good OP, and an ok ED, there was no music that attracted me.
The sound effects were normal, ok.
NO, I lied. I was not particularly paying attention at the sound, and it was 1 year ago. I think it was just normal, anyways 6-7

Characters - 6

Each character has some classic characteristics, and they stick very tightly to those classic attributes. Somehow adapting to their classes.
All classic characters = fail
They never walk out from their classic attributes.
Character development? the very normal one.

Enjoyment - 7

The fighting scenes using magics and swords was ok....
Was nice to see some skills from the game being animated in an anime.
Enjoyed that the story was finally over, and their enjoyment of having achieved something big... although it was like normal people SOMEHOW achieving something extraordinary.

Overall - 7

The anime would have been good for a childhood anime. Good anime for 10- year old childs, it really gave me that feeling. The ideas being resolved were at that level.

I know that based on my art and ound score you might think its a nice show, but altogether, it SUCKS.

Story:
I only watched the first epiode, so I can't really tell you about it, but from what I saw, it is really bad.

Art & Sound:
Well, its anime. It's art is nomal. And I never saw an anime with low sound rating, so...

Character:
Well, aside from your every-show rocket team, the background story of the 2 main characters sucks. The new hero for the first chapter (uses ice) is moderate.
...
Enjoyment:
1 can't really cover it. I never saw a show and dropped it after only 1 epiode.

Overall:
Most people might come and say:"Its a great anime!! What are you talking about?!", well let me explain: You know how you got a show based on a game or manga, and there were some stuff that diden't stick to the real plot or rules? Well its the ame here. Only this time - its not some minor details. If you ever played Ragnarok (RPG, although it is named after the norse version of the apocalipse, it has nothing to do with it) then you would know that the show really fucked some things up. Like, they use a branch in TOWN!! Or, you got a wizard with ice bolt, and a warrior lvl 1, and guess who makes the diffrence when they fight? You got it right, the warrior...
Maybe some will say "that is so irrelevent", but I can't watch a show so unclose to its base story - the game. + Ragnarok had no story anyways, so how can you make a show based on a plotless game?

I know LOADS of better shows. Complete waste of time.

Okay, all of you can say that MARS of DESTRUCTION is the worst anime ever.
But at least MARS is just an ova.
Ragnarok the animated series IS 26 CHAPTERS FULL OF S***T!!

Let's just start with this crap:

Story:
I always say that the plot is a vital part of any serie.
Well, this history SUCKS.
Just imagine a generic history of a "good party" against a very bad person, AND NOTHING MORE.
...
Art:
Art it's good, but just good. Don't expect something better.

Sound:
Nothing memorable but the intro (We are the stars).

Characters:
If the history is BAD, the chars are WORSE.
I can't believe that so stupid and generic characters had ever exist.

Enjoyment:
What?

First of all, maybe it sounds weird but I think you can enjoy the animation more if you have never played the Ragnarok game like me, or just leave the fact that this is an adaption from a game away. I read some of the reviews from frustrated game players complaining that the animation isn't quiet the same as game, they certainly have reasons to do so but as someone who never have the opportunity to play it, I find it enjoyable with well-designed background and proper(kinda) story line.

Story

The story about Ragnarok is like any other fantasy animation. Young hero travels all over the world, ... getting some strong friends and finally kills the boss to save the day, those things never change since Lodoss-tou senki. As for this animation, the first half is funny with bright color and small jokes everywhere, however, stories suddenly become extremely heavy at the beginning of #17 and just keep dark till the end. The change of the atmosphere can be too sudden but it does have many good episodes. Episode 19 is the best IMO, really touching.

Art

Not much to complain, although it seems not impressive now, it was quiet good at that time, some characters like Maya and Judia can still make a shoot now.

Sound

Good, I watched Japanese version so I don't know about the American voice actors' performance, and as far as I can see, the Japanese seiyuus did their job quiet well, also the soundtrack is solid and close to the situation.

Character

Mediocre, there are characters that I love like Maya, Judia or Takius, but I have to admit I never like Yufa or Roan, and this part is where they fail and(I guess) where most fans criticized. Roan is a young, naive and sometimes childish swordsman and all of a sudden he becomes a responsible leader and a caring person who would devoted himself to helping others, this sharp change is rough in the animation. As for Yufa, well I have to say she is one of the least likable heroine I have ever seen throughout all these years of animation. Meanwhile, they do have other characters like Maya and Takius whose stories are well-organized and interesting to watch.

Overall

It is a good animation by my standard, and I think if you are a fan of fantasy animation and not care too much about the original game, it is certainly a enjoyment deserved 10 hours of your life to watch.

Very difficult to appreciate this anime if you are not already a Ragnarok fan. It was very fun to watch this anime with other Ragnarok users and discuss what we saw that was similar in the show and in the game :)

Cliffhangers kept me going through the show, always wanted to see what was coming up on the next episode. The animation was also relatively good. Unfortunately, the plot line and characters were nothing new or innovative to anime.

Great opening theme!! =D

I have finished this anime for a long time ago, and there is very few people who likes this.
it seems people are TOO attach this anime to the online games OR NEVER played the games either.
(c'mon man, in the games the monsters is continue to spawn, and you cannot die, and of course I didn't want watch anime with one group contains 3 priest with 1 tanker, 10 hunters and hunting mvp's like robot)

but for me, this is great anime (of course i had played the games)

Story: not too flat, with great emotion make it very good. And the proportion of the role of each ... character make it GREAT. I think there is no "true" main character, each of them has its story and reunite them in one party (remind me of FF VI)

Art: good at first, but getting worse at the end (the character), the enemy is not good from begining (if compared with the games).

Sound: good combination with story, its memorable for me

Character: Very good, the story is describe the character greatly and balance, also the technique and voice (when he/she did the technique) is nice.

Overall: 9

Ragnarok Online was the first MMORPG I came across 12 years ago. Needless to say, nostalgia goggles were wrapped tightly around me when watching this anime.

Despite the fact that it is heavily based on the game, the game mechanics aren't featured much here, unlike the recent animes such as Sword Art Online or Log Horizon, both implement the RPG elements such as the hp and mp bars, stats etc. None of these are present here.

Instead, what we get is a world largely based on the game. We have the familiar locations, jobs, monsters and skills from the game, and I must say I did squeal ... when Lord of Vermilion is first shown on screen. Fans of the game will be treated with the anime-ization Ragnarok brings. But non-players shouldn’t feel too left out either.

Being a game without a storyline, the creators will have to make one up themselves. Despite the huge potential behind the realm of Rune Midgard, the resulting plot is nothing more than a clichéd and generic fantasy story, where the antagonists attempt to resurrect their master, which is to bring ruin to the world. To make things more "interesting", some of the antagonists are people very close to our protagonists!

Really?

Dragged on by our crop of sub-par protagonists, the show sometimes become tiresome to follow. Their actions and behavior are so extreme to a point that it's laughable. Roan is a wuss who tries to woo Yuufa, then when he's not so wussy anymore, he becomes an asshole. Yuufa is always the dumb damsel in distress, and her incest towards her brother is so intense that I would wish that she would just die already. Iruga is so strong so the developers decided to just make him injured for the latter half of the show, then you can't rely on him to actually do anything. Judia has big breasts but her personality is flat. Takius and Maaya are written better as characters, although their development is easily predictable.

And what's with Yuufa constantly eating bananas?

The antagonists are also pretty generic and unoriginal. They can manipulate minds, summon mobs, have an evil laugh, can appear and disappear at will, is ridiculously powerful until the developers decide it is time to cut down their screen time. Duh. Dark Lord having such a short screen time is simply ridiculous despite the large buildup he enjoyed.

Another big issue I had with Ragnarok is the constant recycling of scenes. Many of the flashback scenes are being reused so many times, to the point that the dialogue are always included, at full length. Also, the skill animations, although cool on first sight, eventually becomes dull after being viewed the 50th time. I cannot help but feel the developers are fighting through this with a very tight budget. Character movements are often times rigid and with limited frames as well.

As for the designs, every job that the game has at the point of release is featured and drawn pretty decently. The landmark cities and buildings are nice looking as well. The enemies, however, are pretty much a mixed bag. Maya (the ant queen) looks pretty gorgeous but the Bloody Knight looks like a giant blue blob.

Sound-wise, like the scenes, many of the soundtracks are ruthlessly recycled. The town song, the sexy song, the crisis song, the happy song, pretty much reused when the developers seized the chance. The better songs are probably from the music boxes. Voice acting is kinda okay, hearing Koyasu always delight me, Nana Mizuki is pretty decent too, except the fact that she has to scream every episode in the early parts.

In my closing remark, I would say this show suffers from a limited production cost. The plot isn't a desired one, littered with deus-ex-machinas to save the day. For fans of the game, watching this anime is a delight as pretty much everything will look and feel similar to the game; for those who don’t, you might be confused by the mechanics of a few spells (Sanctuary and Blessing perhaps), but the story is still relatively easy enough to follow.

This was a great series! If you watched Final Fantasy Unlimited and was disappointed that it lacked a lot of mechanics from the game, you will love Ragnarok. This series is based off of an online MMO (massive multiplayer online) so be ready to see a lot of things that might feel more like a game than a movie or episode. This series does not hide the fact that it has a class system like games do (wizard, knight, crusader, monk, etc) and labels them as such in the series and there are even developments almost every character makes to become stronger in their own ... terms. The animation is great, clean and not over cluttered and characters were nicely drawn as well. The voice overs were fine for me, nothing too annoying. The story was a simple quest like setup, banishing monsters from places etc. each character with their own agenda in mind. I would agree that Yufa was dumb at times, but her character really wanted to heal her brother and not shun him so for me it fits her character. The ending was awesome and although at times I did wonder where things were going and when they would pick up the series never got too dull and did manage to pick up and keep up about half way through. If you are looking for a series that is like a game with knights and casting spells as they say them (that did get a little annoying but at least it did not take forever to cast a spell) like boomerang shield! and Holy Cross! then watch this, you will not be disappointed. If you think these elements mixed into a series will only be cheesy and get in the way of developeing a super deep plot then skip it.

This is my very first anime review so please be patient with me. As a gamer and game enthusiast, Ragnarok Online was very popular when it was released last 2002. It was based from a manhwa and lately adapted as one of the best MMORPG I ever played. As a gamer, when I first heard that it will have an anime adaptation I was surprised and thrill. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to watch it until now and I was deeply disappointed.

Characters: 6/10
The anime was composed of six MC. Mainly, the six available jobs in Ragnarok (Swordsman Class, Thief Class, Merchant Class, Mage Class, Acolyte Class ... and Archer Class). At first, I was excited to see them together but they messed up each of the characters in the series. Every one of them has their own problem and issues which makes them totally annoying. Character development was too slow (or should I say some of them didn't progress after all).

Art/Music: 4/10
Background design was good, the music is not. I was expeciting them to add some of the game's BGs in the anime but they didn't. The fight scenes are too lame and boring.

Story: 6/10
One thing I noticed in this anime is that they didn't stick to the original game's background story. They added some but totally unnecessary which means it didn't help the character's development. Too many plot holes which totally confuse me during the show.

Enjoyment: 5/10
As a gamer, I was really disappointed that it didn't live to my expectation. The story is different, the characters are annoying, too many plot holes and issues and the fighting scene is too lame which makes it hard to finish. It took me one week to finish this 26 episode series.

Overall: 5/10
If you're a fellow Ragnarok player, I suggest not to watch it anymore.

I was biased at first because Ragnarok Online it's one of my favorite videogames ever, I play it every time I can, I love to read about the lore of it and I've read the manhwa as well.

As for the anime... well, let's see.

Story 3/10
I felt like the plot went ahead way too fast, like it was rushed and poorly pierced together with clichés in order to make it interesting, but the writing was awful and it was so cheesy I mostly spent the entire time mocking this anime. Given that this anime was mostly based from the MMORPG, it had a lot more of ... libertities to follow the story of the main party on Rune Midgard - but it was just a disaster.

Art 6/10
Ok, I'll be honest, even though the artwork isn't what most people would call a masterpiece, it is pretty decent for an anime. The outfits for the characters stick to the original ones found in the videogame, and the backgrounds are pretty well drawn, but as stated before, it's just fair enough for an anime.

Sound 4/10
Nothing too pretty about the music, but nothing too bad either. Just okay, I suppose. I must say, though, that the battle music wasn't all fit for a battle at all, but overall the soundtrack is just ok.

Character 2/10
Now, I think this is the biggest downfall in Ragnarok the Animation. The characters are too one-dimensional and it's difficult to relate to them, if it is even possible. Roan and Yuufa, in particular, are pretty poor for main characters, in fact, I'd even go as far to say that Takius and Maya are one of the few interesting characters in the series (and that says a lot, though Maya's background is way over the top)

The bad guys are also uninteresting, bland and uncharismatic, relying on only being bad with not very solid motives behind so and full of clichés. Dark Lord, in particular, was just wasted potential, specially given all the fuss they make about him earlier in the story.

Enjoyment 4/10
Between all the poor writing, the ok artwork and the badly-done plot, neverthless it is an anime to pass time when you have nothing else to watch, and also to laugh while mocking its worst flaws. Really.

Overall 5/10
Ragnarok the Animation, while not the ultimate worse piece of animation ever made, it is still quite mediocre compared to other fantasy anime. Just an ok adaptation that could've been a lot better than it was.

I am forever looking for new fantasy anime to watch. So I picked this one up because it looked interesting. I was disappointed, however.

It played out TOO similarly to a video game. I wish it would have had a more interesting story. It seemed very cliche and predictable, so the story didn't engage me much. The characters, likewise, were rather bland. There was one character that I thought was interesting enough and that was Maya. The rest of the characters are generic and predictable.

The art is pretty generic, the music was forgettable.

I'm thinking maybe a younger audience would appreciate this show, but there are better ... alternatives out there. Possibly, fans of the game might enjoy it. I haven't played the game.

I haven't played the game, so I don't have a preconceived notion on the plot or story as a whole. Therefore, my review is based solely on the series. Ragnorak has a bit of what I'd call hoakiness, but then again, that's appealing in its own right. The story is pretty typical of an action/adventure series- group of travelers bound together even though they might not have much in common but one goal- to save the world... I did like the art it was clean but the backgrounds were nondescript. The sounds were off in terms of voice actors. Some were too high pitched ... or hyper sounding when they should have been more "tough" whereas others sounding so strong were actually weak.. The characters were annoying at times, but were also likable with character development throughout the series. Overall, it was a good watch for a normal length series, fair but nothing spectacular.

This anime is actually not bad ONLY if you do not compare them to the popular (at least in Japan) Ragnarok online. The anime is actually poor reflection of the online game and thus, it is disappointing for fans of the game. Why? It's simply because the story is full of exaggeration and drama. A low-leveled swordman and acolyte like Yuufa and Roan for example, will not be that easy to beat that monster from clock tower. However, the storyline is actually not bad (once again, ignoring the accuracy). Just bear in mind that dont compare this with the game online.

My most favorite character? ... Hmm..
But my most annoying chacacter is definitely Maya (Ma-chan). But, ironically my most favorite episode is her episode with Alice

for this anime combine the most annoying elements for shonen and shoujo anime into the two main character and have the story focus on their other somewhat pathetic character development. the other supporting characters are all damaged goods in some way while the two main ones wistfully and ingorantly go bout adventuring

i mean the fact that after the first few episodes you can predict teh path of the main characters makes it very weak. the lead male likes the female but she constantly dogs him and ignores him; he gets upgraded and she becomes angsty blah blah blah. same contrived ending

the fact that the ... pathetic character development coupled with a weak story was disappointing

well, it's time for another review by NightmareRequiemWolf ^^ to think i'd find another anime based off a game that i really enjoy and play quite a good bit. so how does it fare? well, in the story department, i thought it was pretty good. sure it may be a bit difficult to get a story out of an online multi-player game but i liked the actually placing us in the world of ragnarok. when you play the game, it's your character but you are always "outside" in a manner. not really there; however, this allows us to see how life may have been for ... a person inside the game world. it wasn't fully based on the game which has points of story but had a creative twist to it. not only the fighting adventure of ragnarok, but personal conflicts and developed relationships throughout. as for the art, i believe that was done very well too. to take the scenes from the games such as cities and surrounding fields can sometimes be hard to recreate. all the city scenes were attractive and reminded me of the real setting inside the game which i like. the only downfall i saw was the attack animations, which were overused and didn't change. i can understand it was the same attack but there was no need to use them so much. music wise, i loved the opening theme "we are the stars." the opening scenes might have been a little choppy at the beginning though as the song goes on, it gets more fluent and blends together. maybe that is an art thing but i mean how it flows with the music. i liked the ending song as well and it compliments the opening in design and sound. the music during the actual show matched the theme and battles were epic. that also goes for the sound effects during attacks and in game monsters. i'd have to say the greatest downfall i found in this anime was the characters. i did find them to be cute and the classes of ragnarok were pulled through pretty well to make a good mix. i did however find myself becoming annoyed with them at times for their actions. i know part of the story meant going through a stage of "darkness" and selfishness but i found it to be unattractive and annoying at times. another thing that wasn't perfect were the class abilities themselves. some of them were changed or not even used from the game at all. now, i understand how they may have been trying to be creative, but it is based off a set class of characters. you may have your own option from personal experience or if you've never played at all. i simply think that where some of the attacks done by a character in a certain class is unrecognizable, that ruins it a bit. yuffa's acolyte abilities for one were really down played, the monk character's attack had no recognizable reference to the game, zephyr was WAY too powerful for his high wizard level, and other things like that. i can't say they were horrible though for they all had their own quirks and flaws just like every other character so nothing too bad. overall, it was pretty good for an anime that was based off one of my favorite games. though not perfect, it was an above average recall of the world of ragnarok online. it did take me a while to watch and get through it all, not because it was long, just because i found that sometimes my interest for it sorta died off. while watching it however, it had its moments of epicness, funniness, sadness, and intense moments that i found enjoyable. if you're a fan of ragnarok online, this is something you might want to check out :D

I may be a bit biased when it comes to Ragnarok. It is by far my favorite game and I had played it for upwards of 6 years. As time caught up to me, I had to stop playing but I remember many great things from the game and as such these memories translated into enjoyment as I watched this series. In total I have watched this series twice now. The first some years ago, and again just now. I can see where people may not enjoy the series as the story is nothing new and the characters are not groundbreaking. With this in mind ... it is not a bad series as so many of the reviews I have read claim it to be.

The series does involve the cliche good vs evil story line, but it is hard to navigate away from that dealing with a game turned animated series. Other than that fact the story is a well rounded tale involving a range of emotions.

The art for the time it was created is superb, I have nothing but praise for the details in that department.

Sound was often recycled but it did fit the moods of the show when it was used amplifying the scene as any good music should.

Characters. This is where I most people think the show took its biggest hit (along with the story). However I believe many people try to over analyse this aspect. The creators were limited to certain classes from the game and as such had to stay within those parameters. As far as character development goes, for the most part viewers each gained insight to the individuals characters past as the story progressed. The rest was left up to imagination.

Enjoyment. As far as I can tell, its a great series to escape into. Of course I am lucky enough to understand many of the subtle points the show offers thanks to my experience in the game. But that shouldn't take away from the entertainment value for people who have not played it. Everything is explained enough so that it is enjoyable and understandable for all ranges of viewers.

Overall I wish there was more! It may not be the greatest most groundbreaking of shows but it has its positives. And in my opinion at least, the positives greatly outweigh the negatives. I do recommend this to everyone interested, if it isn't your flavor then you have the choice to stop if you wish to. At least give it a chance, be your own judge! However I must say, things get much better as the show proceeds with a crescendo at the end well worth the journey. All in all I gave the show an 8/10, it definitely has room to improve but I think many of the reviews are a tad harsh. I do wish they would continue with the series, alas I know the chances of that are near zero now as it has been 8-9 years since this show began. This is my first review don't be too harsh on me!