fudish123 said:After reading the first novel in its official translation (I've read a fan translation before), I'd give this arc a 5/10 (I'll be using both novels and new manga images to illustrate some parts):
- Contrary to popular belief, this is not that faithfully adapted. Let's begin with the beginning: the novel starts with the prologue being the scene of Azalie transformation, but it's way less gory in the anime. The book describes her organs and flesh falling on the floor, while tentacles and scales take place, and a lot of blood. It also took place in Azalie's bedroom rather than the big hall. Overall fathfulness: 8/10.
-The background lore explanation isn't in the first novel if my memory serves me right, I believe it's either from volume 2 or 4, but it was a good addition nonetheless.
- Then, 5 years later, we see Orphen chasing down the dwarves and Coggie meets him. This scene is actually from the Reckless series and replaced the novel part, both the old and new manga adapted this scene ok, with the recent manga being like almost 100% faithful to the source material, so if you don't wanna read a 191 page book, read both volumes 1 and 2 from the newer manga (although the mangaka is not good at drawing memorable scenes, but the story there is legit faithful). Anyways, in the novel, Volkan wakes up Orphen and he blasts the door with magic. Then the wedding con plan takes place as usual.
-The Azalie attack wasn't in the Everlasting armor/weaponry deposit but rather in the very same mansion Orphen was in, as depicted by the novel itself:
Anyway, the explosion happened, Orphen tried to get away blut Cleao begged for help, them he ran to the explosion source and the door was locked, so he chanted a spell to unlock it. In this part, the book explains the difference in between black and white sorceries, as well as to why sorcerers have to chant the spell with their voice. He opens the door and the scene is the one in the image above. Then Azalie began to scream and a fire spell was cast, Orphen cast the halo shield spell, Azalie left in the explosion effect. There were no sorcerers from the tower waiting outside, so that scene of Orphen beating 4-5 people didn't actually happen, although it was kinda cool to watch (but it could look even better with a better studio anyway). Overall faithfulness: 7/10
- What happens next? A flashback chapter depicting Orphen's past. The funeral part, actually. Then he wakes up at the prison cell and the argument in between the dwarf brothers takes place. The anime depicts this part later, but in episode 2, a part from the pre-arc is shown instead, to create a bond in between the viewer and minor characters like Heartia, Comicron and etc. Would have worked if the first season was solely focused on a mix in between pre-arc and volume 1, but 3-4 episodes for that is rushed as fuck. Anyway, here is the cut part, it's Cleao who bails Orphen out, not Heartia:
Anime:
New manga and novel:
So, she bails him out due to her family receiving a death threat letter, so of course they asked for Orphen's help.
“I think someone’s threatening to kill my whole family.”
“A valuable source has informed us that you are in possession of one artifact known as the Sword of Baldanders, and we will be coming to retrieve it. Your intentions for the sword are irrelevant. If you fail to hand it over to us for whatever reason, then we will take it by alternative measures if we must. Failure to comply with these demands may have disastrous results for you and your family. We will be coming to collect the sword on the following day"
Whoever watched the old anime remembers that Heartia is the Black Tiger, right? Well, he's no creation of J.C Staff! He was indeed in the first novel. At night, when they were all in the Everlasting property, this happens:
And boy, a helluva fight takes place, this would have looked awesome if animated by, I dunno, Pierrot, Mappa, IG, Wit, ufotable, you name it. Just read the chapter, I'm not spoiling this fight scene. So, it happens that Heartia was just a decoy, because Childman, dressed in a disguise was in the house to "kill" the girls, but he actually just put a "GPS" on the Baltanders Sword (the book spells it with a D instead of a T and is the most accurate word to the baldanders myth).
So they fight and his masks falls down, reveaving he's Childman, he backs Orphen away with his magic and they leave. THEN Orphen, in the next day, comes to see Heartia. But it still does cut stuff too. Black Tiger returns later while Cleo, Volkan and Dortin are waiting for Orphen in a pub (if you guys remember it, only sorcerers are allowed into the Tower of Fangs' branches). A good fight scene happens too, and to be honest, I quite liked the shield they added to Cleao in the new manga, while in the novel, she went straight to a two handed wielding sword:
Imma keep the comparison up to this point, cuz it's somewhat lenghty, as if someone would have any interest in this flopped anime, anyway, but it was fun, though, let me know if you guys want the full arc compared to the novel/new manga.