Halo: Legends has a total of 7 stories, technically 8. The first story is Origins, which is a recounting of the Halo universes history from the distant past to present day. It's entertaining to watch and it can catch anyone who isn't familiar with the in-universe history up to speed in about half an hour. It also presents possible plot points for future Halo video game titles. The second short, The Duel, is set in the distant past not long after the formation of The Covenant. It explains how the rank of Arbiter became a mark of shame. This is a critical piece of Halo lore that should not be missed, even if it can be a bit over dramatic. The third short is Homecoming. It's a side story that follows a Spartan II named Daisy. To be honest, this one, while self-explanatory, was also a bit confusing. It sheds some light on the Spartan-II project, but otherwise doesn't do much else in terms of story. Though it does have a nice bit of fan service at the end. The 4th short is known as Odd One Out. This short is the only non-canon episode of the Halo: Legends collection. It's a parody of sorts that makes Halo seem more like Dragon Ball Z. It's hilarious to say the least. It's a nice change of pace from all the seriousness I'll admit. The 5th short is Prototype. This one is one of the more serious episodes and tells a more Human story than the others, revolving around the Marine known as Ghost. The tagline BE HUMAN is constantly brought up, whether through dialogue or other means. Best to keep that in mind while watching if you want to truly understand this episodes purpose. The 6th short is The Babysitter, which follows the ODST's of the 105th on a mission to assassinate a prophet with the help of Spartan Cal-141. This episode is entertaining and at the same time serious. It shows just how dangerous the job of an ODST can be. The last short is The Package. Unlike all of the other episodes in this collection, The Package is entirely CGI rather than hand-drawn animation like the rest. It follows the series titular character Master Chief John-117 as he leads a team of Spartans to recover an important package. It's an action-packed episode and has no real meaning other than to be entertaining.
The art style varies from episode to episode due to the change in production studios. Origins has a very fluid art style and at times looks slightly reminiscent of something out of a Miyazaki film. The Duel trades in traditional animation for a cel-shaded animation style with a watercolor overlay. This gives it a distinctly unique appearance in contract to the rest of the episodes, but it is quite beautiful to look at and is by no means out of place or unwelcome. Homecoming features a simplistic art style that rarely has many details. The quality of the art increases at times for important scenes, but other than that, it looks kind of low budget. The same can be said for Odd One Out, which does not feature heavily detailed art, again having a more simplistic art style. The greatest amount of detail can be seen in the only scene where it rains, which is quite beautiful. Anyone who has watched the Dragon Ball series will instantly feel at home with this art style as it was made by the same production studio. Prototype has the highest detail out of all the hand-drawn episodes. Being more gritty and realistic in terms of art style, there is a lot of detail in the appearances of the characters, the explosions, vehicles, and environments making this possibly the most visually appealing out of all of them. It adds character to the episode and goes along quite nicely with the tagline "BE HUMAN". The Babysitter on the other hand goes back to a somewhat simplistic style. The characters are often low-quality while the backgrounds are extremely detailed, and to be quite honest, this is actually a nice trade-off as it really brings out the character of the environments. The Package is a completely CGI episode, making it appear more similar to The Duel in terms of art style, minus the watercolor effect. The models are all very highly detailed and the effects go quite nicely with the action. Though I do have to take issue with the physical depiction of one specific character who is portrayed as far younger than they actually are.
The sound design remains mostly consistent between episodes, reusing sound effects and soundtracks between each of them with some unique tracks and effects to make them stand out. This was likely a budgetary issue rather than a lack of creativity. The dub is unfortunately a Sentai dub, however, they at least did a decent job at casting characters and they don't quite feel lifeless. David Matranga plays Ghost quite well. However, it was kind of disappoint that none of the voice actors from the video games reprised their roles for these anime shorts. The actors that replaced them fit well with the characters, but it just seemed out of place.
Because all of the shorts are separate from one another, there is no lack of new characters between them and very rarely is a character shared between episodes. The physical depiction of Master Chief John-117 varies between the episodes he is featured in and he seems to display more emotion than his video game counterpart. In fact, he seems closer to the Master Chief depicted in the novels. Cortana narrates the entirety of the Origins episodes, acting as a historian of sorts. She also appears in Odd One Out albeit briefly. Ghost is perhaps the most realistic depiction of a broken soldier in the series and while many may find him bland or unlikable, I personally found him to be the opposite and easily one of my favorite characters. Spartan-1337 provides quite a bit of comic relief in the parody episode Odd One Out. Being a parody, he can get away with a lot of things that normally wouldn't happen. He is also the closest thing we'll get to a Spartan version of Goku. Dutch from ODST is also present in the episode The Babysitter, although his voice actor did not reprise the role. And just to clarify, the Arbiter seen in The Duel is not the same Arbiter as Halo 2 & 3. This Arbiters name is Fal' Chavamee, while the Arbiter in the games is named Thel' Vadamee. Or in the case of Halo Wars, Ripa' Moramee. Sorry about that quick diversion.
Overall, this series was a phenomenal collection. I thoroughly enjoyed the anime take on the Halo franchise. And as a Halo fan and an anime fan, it was a dream come true for these two to be thrown together and I honestly hope a Halo: Legends 2 is produced at some point in the future, perhaps as a full-fledged television series or feature film. If you're a fan of Halo, or looking for a good sci-fi story, Halo: Legends is a pretty good watch and I highly recommend it, though the varying tones between episodes may not be for everyone.
