Manga Spinoff, Anime: Wellber no Monogatari has a manga spinoff known as Muzzle Loader ~Wellber Stories~ done by Naruse Takami that began running in Mag Garden's Monthly Comic Blade on February 28th, 2007, and is ongoing, and has yet to be licensed Stateside.
Wellber no Monogatari is a thriteen episode series with animation produced by Trans Art Co. (famous for their work on The Prince of Tennis, and the Pokemon 2000 movie), produced overall by Production IG (famous for their work on Ghost in the Shell and xxxHOLIC) and avex entertainment (famous for producing the Law of Ueki and School Days), and directed by Takayuki Hamana (famous for directing The Prince of Tennis). It aired on Japanese TV from April 3rd, 2007 to June 26th, 2007. It has yet to be licensed Stateside.
Story: Wellber no Monogatari kicks off with Princess Rita of Wellber stabbing Prince Gernia of Sangratas, her intended. This lovely scene is witnessed by Tina, a female thief, who Rita flees with. An order is put out by Sangratas for Rita's public execution, and if they do not comply in two weeks, they will declare war on Wellber. But the King gives Rita a petition that she must take to the neighboring kingdom of Greedom in order to prevent the possible war, and Tina decides to accompany her, for reasons of her own.
Here's the thing about Wellber no Monogatari. This had the potential to be really, really good. The premise sounds fairly awesome, no? And the first episode seemed to confirm that this would be a really good show. And the Final Fantasy-esque setting seemed really promising.
But as the show went on, the show seemed to devolve into stereotypical adventure/fantasy plot and filler and characters that were fairly generic, irritating, or overblown with a few hints of the brilliantness that it had originally seemed to have popping through here and there. And another problem was that one of the central parts of the premise ends up being thrown out in the last few episodes for an entirely new premise, and another is completely unadressed, a la Rozen Maiden.
Admittedly, there is a second season that finished up recently. However, it took subbers until just last month to finally sub the entire first season, and they haven't even gotten started on the second season. And I honestly don't know if I really want to see the second season, because I'm not sure if I'm interested, or if they'll even deliver.
WARNING: There is some blood and boobies and nudity.
Art: The animation is done pretty well, as is the CG. It's nothing that I'd rant and rave about, but it's still pretty good.
Music: Honestly, I didn't even really notice the background music. There were strings and techno, but it didn't stand out at all.
The OP is an instrumental numberand the ED is a female techno upbeat JPop number. Both are fairly catchy, but nothing all that special.
Seiyuu: No one that I recognize is in this show, but they still did a pretty good job.
Length: I understand the need for a second season, as not everything was answered/explained, but I think if they had planned it right and taken out some of the fillers, this could have easily been avoided and a better show could've been done.
Overall: A show that started out with a lot of potential but lost it somewhere along the way with only hints of the brilliance it originally promised. With unanswered plot threads that could've been answered with better planning, characters that are either generic, overblown, and irritating, and fairly standard music and art and seiyuu, it isn't something I'd really recommend, but it's worth checking out.
Story: 6/10
Art: 8/10
Music: 8/10
Seiyuu: 8/10
Length: 6/10
Overall: 36/50; 72% (C)
