Tales of Eternia: The Animation - Wacky Island Vacation
Apologies in advance for the poor image quality. This anime series is very old and not widely available in good quality.
Opening Music: Sora ni Kakeru Hashi (by Masami Okui)
Credit Music: I'd Love You to Touch Me (by Masami Okui)
Spoiler Warning: I am going to give a synopsis of each episode and my opinions at the very end.
Episode 1: Adventure in Polar Worlds
Two worlds - Inferia and Celestia - exist directly opposite each other and can be seen in each other's sky. They are gradually moving closer together and will eventually collide in an event dubbed the "Grand Fall". Keele Zeibel and Meredy (both mages) reminisce around a campfire about their first meeting and shared belief that the Grand Fall can be halted with elemental spirits called "Craymals".
In the forest a warrior named Reid Hershel saves a bard called Corina Sorujente from a dog attack. As thanks, Corina warns Reid to stay away from a haunted swamp nearby, where 'deathcrabs' consume humans alive. Reid returns to camp find Farah Oersted, a martial artist, missing. Keele and Meredy claim she went into the woods to search for Reid and has yet to return. The group finds her in the swamp and has to help her fight off a giant Crayfish monster.
Episode 2: Bounty Hunter of the Sea
A woman named Maronne Buruqano abducts Reid from his camp and escapes on a tamed wyvern named Barossa. She asks Reid to help her kill a sea monster near the seaside city of Verkaniu. Keele, Meredy, and Farah find a paper dropped by Maronne that they follow to Verkaniu in time to watch Maronne and Reid slay the sea monster in a single blow.
Episode 3: The Southern Island Hurricane
The group spends the day relaxing despite Farah's eagerness to return to their journey. After Reid and Keele blow the group's money on trinkets, Farah snaps at Corina the bard for convincing everyone to go swimming. The next day a hurricane moves through the area while Corina is crossing the mountains. The group rushes to help her and has to escape a surprise tsunami while crossing a rope bridge.
Episode 4: The Ultimate Women Showdown
Maronne and Farah compete in a swimming competition, while Keele tries not to ogle every lady in a swimsuit. The two ladies are attacked by a seas monster which they repel. Meredy wins the competition and Reid slays the monster.
Episode 5: The Songstress' Elegy
With Barossa and several ships having been damaged or destroyed in the hurricane, the group decides to build their own. However, wood prices have gone up and the group is without funds. Meredy and Corina decide to take on part-time jobs but get fired from every place. They perform a song at an establishment that then refuses to pay the girls without certain "services" being offered to the male guests. Maronne steps in to protect the girls but the owner calls in his bodyguard, Reid. The fight is broken up by the elemental spirit Undine, summoned by Meredy.
Episode 6: Verkaniu's Mystery
With the money everyone scrapped together, a boat is built, but it sinks upon touching the water. While the girls hang out at a hot-spring, Reid and Keele travel to ancient ruins where they discover a secret passageway. Reid puts a hole in the dripping ceiling to extinguish a large fire monster and then exists through the newly made hole. To their surprise, they emerge in the girl's hot-spring.
Episode 7: A Dark Wings' Special
A trio of shipwrecked adventurers are hauled in by fishermen. Due to the similarity of their names, "Black Panther" John, "Black Rose" Mimi, and "Black Dragon King" Greid demand that Reid join their team as the "Black Sunfish". Together they get lost in ancient ruins and accidentally unleash monsters upon Verkaniu. Reid's team deals with the monsters while the "Wings of Darkness" trio sail away on a log.
Episode 8: Night of Craymel Dust
Verkaniu revives an old festival where people watch spirits rising from the water causing it to glow. It is also the only day when it is legal for women to confess their love to a man. Reid is asked by two different village women - Platia and Minima - to meet at the eastern cove.
Episode 9: The Stolen Summoning Spirits
The two ladies lead Reid to a better viewing spot but then attempt to murder him. Platia and Minima reveal themselves to be the descendants of Celestians that were marooned 2,000 years ago. They have nothing against Reid personally but feel compelled to kill him due to their culture's anti-Inferia beliefs that have been passed down through the generations. Both ladies actually like Reid and eventually have a change of heart, prompting the island chief Excia to order their execution. Excia then calls on Corina to trap the group's summoning spirits which she takes for herself.
Episode 10: Disappearing Into The Sun
Excia has all her Inferian residents put into concentration camps and any Celestians that refuse to cooperate jailed. Maronne, being of mixed heritage (half-Inferian and half-Celestian), meets with Excia feigning allegiance. Maronne tries to assassinate Excia for having her Celestian father Kastek executed, but ends up killing a body double. She escapes on Barossa, but is perused by flying saucers with lasers.
Episode 11: Corina
Corina joins Reid's group when Excia (her mother) orders her execution. They travel to an island where Corina was raised alone, away from the Celestians. Upon arriving they discover that the Inferian's put into concentration camps have been moved to the island to be hunted down by wild animals. The group rushes to save the people and succeeds.
Episode 12: The Chain of Existence
Maronne wakes up in a hospital owned by a Celestian that knew her father and does not agree with Excia's rule. She meets up with Reid and finds Platia and Minima there, having survived the attempt on their lives. Using the summoning spirits, Excia causes a tsunami and raises a landmass into the sky. Upset at having their homes ruined, the Celestian's lend Reid and the rebels their flying saucers in order to reach Excia on the floating island.
Episode 13: The Departure
The group infiltrates the flying fortress and confronts Excia, who has raised an undead army. They discover that Excia is immortal because she split her soul. The other piece is found and released from its container to reunite with Excia. Excia then ceases her battle and releases the summoning spirits. The people of Verkaniu rebuild while Reid and his friends travel to Celestia.
On the whole 'Eternia The Animation' is well
below average and not likley worth your time, but as an extra bit of
side content it may be of interest to gamers. Unlike some of the other 'Tales of' titles that have been adapted to
anime, this one doesn't contain a lot of fantasy jargon and has a
relatively simple plot that is easy to follow. This is also one of those
rare few instances where more episodes in a series isn't a good thing.
The plot is so bare-bones that many of the episodes are just empty
filler with one-off side characters like the "Wings of Darkness" gang or
are meant to serve as titillation for certain viewers (episodes 4 and 5
most notably). This series easily could have been condensed into an
hour-and-thirty-minute long feature film and would have been better for
it.
The characters themselves all have clearly defined
personalities and are easily recognizable. The show uses a vibrant
pastel color palette with detailed backgrounds full of greens, yellows,
purples, and reds. The animation though, often uses cost saving measures
such as zooming in on a character during battles in order to avoid
showing their attacks. Lengthy elemental summoning animations are used
and re-used, along with them explaining and re-explaining why they are
(very obviously) useless in the fight they were called into. Such as the
water elemental being summoned against water-based crabs and having to
outright explain to the cast how elemental strengths and
weaknesses work. This happens again and again, and is something the
viewer easily could've figured out themselves. Some of the scene
transitions are also quite odd, such as one with Reid and Maronne
happily swimming that then cuts to Reid watching a half-naked Maronne
crying at night. The scene then abruptly cuts to a crowd of people
looking at a broken boat in the morning. No context or explanation is
ever given for this.
I am also not sure what the intended age
target for this series was. Given the simplicity of the plot and being
based off of a relatively-tame video game series, I would've expected
it to be aimed at a younger audience. However, there is more than one
scene (several in a row actually) with full nudity, ogling, and sexual
services being requested by older men from girls who are very clearly
minors. As someone with a low tolerance for pedophilia in media, I
was very put off by this. It's mostly played for laughs in this series, but is definitely something potential viewers should be aware of.
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