Prism Ark
Prism Ark (aka Prism Hearts II) is a 2006 SRPG/ADV game from Pajamas Soft. The heroine, Priecia, is the daughter of the main characters from the original Prism Heart. She’s voiced by Yui Sakakibara, aka Haruhi from Happiness!.
The general premise of the game is turn-based strategy role-playing etc, and I sort of recall the game having a few somewhat innovative features in its battle system but I can’t remember what exactly.
I thought the game wasn’t that great despite all the hype and I didn’t think the anime adaptation would be anything special either. But Priecia is kind of cute so I gave episode one a try.
Basically the story of Prism Hearts/Ark revolves around this war fought between two religions. There are three neighbouring kingdoms in a land that looks suspiciously like Europe. Windland (where Germany should be) and Vietaly (where Italy should be) are allies and Sablum (symbolized by a red patch of evil) are the weird foreigners.
By calling upon the powers of fearsome biological weapons called “Angels”, Sablum created a vast and powerful army and invaded Windland, conquering a huge portion of it (dark red on the map) before finally coming to a stop. The king and queen of Windland were assassinated by Sablum before the war began, during their trip to visit their neighbouring ally Vietaly. After the war, a knight took over the running of the kingdom and set up the Rozenberg Knighthood Academy to train a new generation of knights to fight and defend Windland.
The main characters of Prism Ark, Hyaweh and Priecia, are students of this school.
In the game, the story starts with you, as Hyaweh, enrolling in the school and learning how to fight, while slowly getting entangled in a web of conspiracies that have their roots in Windland’s past and meeting new party members during the course of the adventure.
The anime, however, takes a different route by beginning with the full party so as to expose the audience to all the important characters first.
I didn’t actually play the game to the end because, despite the admittedly high production value, I was bored by the story. But it seems to me that the anime is really shuffling things around because I don’t recall seeing the flashback scenes in the first episode at all. In fact, I was a little confused by the whole sequence until I did some research.
The first episode basically alternates between two timelines. The first is Hyaweh and his merry gang fighting Sister Hell (what a name), a sister who gave up her faith and joined the Sablum army. Also she has a fricking huge cross-shaped claymore.
In fact, almost everyone has funky-looking weapons. I guess that’s why it’s a fantasy RPG.
The other timeline tells the story of Princea, who is actually Priecia’s mother… (Also, witness how much the graphics have evolved between the two games)
Basically, the flashback tells the story of how Priecia’s father and mother first met and fell in love…when they were like eight or something. These things never happen in real-life.
This part of the episode was quite confusing because I don’t think it was in the second game. I thought at first that the flashback was of Priecia’s childhood, but that wouldn’t make any sense at all due to reasons that you will find out later on in the series.
It also doesn’t help that the two of them look so much alike that for a good while my brain didn’t register that they were supposed to be different characters. I simply assumed that it’s the lack of consistency in animation quality that seems so common with UHF titles these days…
Priecia
Princea
The first episode actually has tons of information crammed into twenty odd minutes. That’s not to say that it’s good or interesting, but it does seem like the producers is trying very hard to grab the viewers’ attention. Maybe too hard. I think a person who has never played the games before might feel somewhat overwhelmed and disengaged by this barrage of disjointed information, but then again maybe not. At least they managed to give every girl some airtime…
I guess ultimately, this is what’s going to keep people coming back for more:
Oh well, perhaps I shall stick around for one more episode to see if the story gets interesting. Priecia does look kind of cute…
October 9th, 2007 at 12:07 am
I´ll watch Prism Ark just because it´s a animation of a S-RPG and I´m weak against that kind of games…
100+h of Disgaea 2 says it all really :p
Now I just want to watch this. And hopefully I´ll enjoy this more than I did with Disgaea the anime.
October 9th, 2007 at 1:31 am
LOL~! i acutally did somewhat finish up the game…thou i used someone saves wif all freaking lvl 99 chars =x going for the story thou muahaha…the gameplay is rather ez as it is only abt less than 20 squares to walk arnd wif…thou it’s like only walking str8 to the opponents? after playing the game, i was tinking whether will the anime to made out of this and IT really happen as not i wan to c the HEN~ part LOL~! but the story in the game is rather nice to me…but after DM spoiler the 1st epi…it’s rather dissapointed as they CRAMP all the info in the 1st episode~! OMG!!!! actually the start of the anime shld put the main char saw precia bathing in the falls =x oppps
October 9th, 2007 at 2:50 am
Oh I never realised they were different characters. I was like, that blonde sword guy is the Super Saiyan version of the 8 year old brunette guy right?
What a crap show.
October 9th, 2007 at 10:20 am
How about you write about good shows for once. Like Gurren Lagann.
October 9th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
I don’t watch Gurren Lagnann. :O
October 9th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Manga: it wasn’t an SRPG to be exact, just a rigid RPG, and you can’t even change your party members’ equipment.
Having finished all but one ending of the game (and to find out the main reason why I gave up on the game will be portrayed in the anime, just by a few frames, that’s just -____-) I find it nice that there’s gonna be an adaptation, but as all adaptations, they’re gonna lack in a few areas.
I think the flashbacks were necessary though, as Priecia’s parents are an important part of the storyline later.
But, eh. The unnecessary fanservice and disjointed storytelling (this opening part was about episode 10 in the game) does make a lot of room for bashing. I don’t mind, I’m tsundere to Prism Fail.
As for Yuinyan, who I suddenly fanboy since the turn of the year, I don’t like her role here, because I just can’t stand pompous princesses >_>
October 9th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Darkmirage watching TTGL is like tjhan watching Shana.
October 9th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
“I don’t watch Gurren Lagnann. :O”
This is why you fail.
October 9th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
>>Darkmirage watching TTGL is like tjhan watching Shana.
I LOL’ed. That is so true.
October 10th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
I really hoped the best for this series though, I’ve been waiting a long time for it to come out ^^; Because I can’t get m hands on the game…
Personally, I’m glad that they chose Priecia to be the main, she’s my favorite of the lot (I haven’t played the game, but I do read up about the story :p).
The only thing that I’m worried about is whether they could fit the necessary content in the limited time they have…
October 10th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
I don’t watch Shana either. :O
October 10th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Lol. Shana is quite good too ^.^ Should try it…..
October 27th, 2007 at 3:06 am
i like shana, because of the storyline. it’s wierd.
the art style is okay—- i dont like it that much.
if there’s any art style i like the most, its the KOF another day anime, cowboybebop stuff, or texhnolyze.
but gurren laggen………………………………………………..
even if the story was good, the art style looks too kiddy-like.
November 1st, 2007 at 5:42 am
hm…i’d really like to give this a try, but….are there no subs of this anywhere?
November 11th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Watched till ep3.. my like to this anime, ok!
Wonder what happen to Maistel and Princea.. anyone know what happen later?
January 28th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Precia really seems like a sex kitten from the official art I found, oy. Two words: Stripper pole. But, I’m not really going to watch this anime because it is not of a high enough quality for me; this was shown by AnimeNewsNetwork.com’s user ratings of it. But I’d be EAGER to get screenshots of the Fan Service, oy.