Arc the Lad

Arc the Lad, the adventure show that's just a touch darker then others of its type.

Story

The story follows a young hunter named Elk and his quest for revenge against the infamous Arc. Although it starts off simply, things gradually grow more complex as soon as our so called antagonist enter the picture. Still the main point of this series is to show the growth of Elk and the heroine Lieza as characters. What can revenge do to a person, what can being overwhelmed by hatred hope to accomplish? Though these may be questions that other shows have presented as well, it's executed well ... here because Elk never comes across as insincere or forceful in his emotions. Deep down, he's a nice kid, he's just troubled with how he should handle himself. Some of the more traumatic events that happen certainly don't help things.

Characters

There is a lot of characters, too many in fact. Now this is based on a video game, so obviously it tried to incorporate everyone from the game, however it does leave a lot underdeveloped or underused due to the series's short length.

Fortunately the characters are never annoying or terribly stereotypical, so the ones that do get used are executed in a fairly decent matter. The main focus is of course on Elk and Lieza as said before. Thankfully both get appropriate growth and bonding time, while the other characters mainly act as support or a moral compass for them. Elk isn't just a guy where revenge is everything to him and Lieza isn't just a hopeless damsel in distress thankfully. Maybe they aren't the most original characters in the world, but they aren't poorly written by any means.

Art/Animation/Sound

All are fairly standard for the time. Nothing terribly impressive or original. The character designs are cool, but the animation is semi-lackluster which hurts the impact of some of the fight scenes.

Enjoyment.

Actually fairly enjoyable for an adventure show. It might start semi-slow but I can't say the show is ever that boring. Once the plot gets rolling it actually gets pretty exciting if you ask me. Some of the traumatic events that happen are kind of gut-wrenching, which I personally didn't expect from this show so kudos for the surprise. I enjoyed this adaption a lot more then game story if that says anything.

Overall.

It's nice to get a more mature adventure show every once in awhile. I really think with a tighter cast and a higher budget this could have been something a little more special. Regardless it's an enjoyable watch and I can recommend it to anyone who likes adventure shows.

Arc the Lad is based on a video game of the same name. There are multiple games in the Arc the Lad videogame series and the anime is an adaption of some sorts of the second video game: Arc the Lad II. I heard about the video game some 15 years ago because it is a name that is quite rememberable because it's a little silly sounding. I did not play the video games, so this is also the reason why I do not know in what way, shape or form this follows the second video game.

At the start of the anime, it is pretty ... clear that something happened in the near past (the first video game took place) and we follow a new protagonist named Elk who is out looking for revenge. The interesting thing here is that the protagonist is looking for revenge against the protagonist of the first game, who is introduced as a wanted criminal by the name of Arc.

You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. What could be a very interesting perspective on how all well intended actions could have negative consequences, soon fades away as Elk learns the truth and ends up joining Arc's crew. From here on out the story could go in several standard coming-of-age-through- adventuring ways, but I was pleasantly suprised with the dark themes and character developments that were presented in the middle of the series. There are nice substories about a blind girl and a childhood friend of Elk which were very good and emotional. Towards the ending the story turns pretty generic though.

There were some very disturbing visuals spread throughout the anime, which felt a bit out of place because they happen so sporadically. In a way it was almost as if the viewer has to be reminded that the world in which the heroes live is very harsh and unforgiven, even though the heroes are shown to have it pretty good and often appear quite overpowered compared to the chimeras they are fighting.

Seeing as this is based on Arc the Lad II in a way, and there are more games after this, I thought this series was going to be open ended and even though not everything is resolved, I was pleasantly suprised by the feeling of closure at the end of the anime. Also the final battle felt very catastrophic with all the impending doom vibes and the magnitude of everything. It really felt like an animated playthrough of the final stage of a videogame!

The quality of the animation takes quite a dip throughout the series and it is not just background characters, it is very notable unfortunately. The crew must have worked hard on the final two episodes because it shows in comparison to the few episodes before it. There are also a few goofs throughout the show, such as someone running off and in the next shot they are shown together again without further explanation. Nothing plot-shattering, but still noteworthy.

I enjoyed Arc the Lad, what started as a generic shounen anime grabbed my attention back with it's violence and cruel substories halfway through and then returned to a generic shounen anime at the end. Unfortunately it's not enough for me to recommend you to spend 9 hours of your life watching this.

When I was 12 years old, watching torrented anime for the very first time - you know, anime that wasn't dubbed, that wasn't on YTV, that wasn't Pokemon or Digimon or Dragonball (or even Gundam Wing), that was probably a fansub - I thought that Arc the Lad was the absolute best thing I had ever watched. It was doing something with animation and storytelling I had never seen before!

But! My close friend - the one who torrented it, the one I forced to watch it with me - insisted it was bad/that other anime series were significantly better, while I continued to insist ... that we needed to finish this amazing series that I loved, wow, so good.

When it ended and we started .hack/sign, I realized that he had been right the whole - Arc the Lad (the anime) is complete trash.

Oops?