Tales of the Abyss
I'll level with you folks... I've never played the games, read the manga, perused the doujin, watched any of the shows past the first or followed the four hundred+ post chain. But by sheer gall/veteranness I can deduce the remainder of the show via the Grand List I shall post below. Ladies, fans, other, tell me how close I get:
http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html
-Before five episodes there shall be some sort of cute rodent thingie/mascot/useless cute thing. Since the main character lacks one in the first episode, he shall come across it in a forest (never a swamp... or even a bog), and shall likely save it from some fearsome carnivore. Following the color wheel of Logic, since they don't want it to blend in with the main character when it perches upon his shoulder when he is standing upon the dramatic cliff with the sun setting and all that, so Red and Green are out, leaving some sort of Blue
-Following Rule 22 of the TGLoCRPGC; MacGuyver Rule, clearly since everyone in this fantasy setting is using swords and staves, there must be some oddball weapon character (typically the little girl).
The AMG clearly lacks firepower. After all, she put people to sleep instead of on fire. Thus Ranged DPS must come about. Since baddies can be physical and magical resistant we need both. Enter Mr. Shooty (gun or bow) and Mrs. Blasty(Magical). Or Mrs. Shooty and Mr. Blasty. However they must be diametrically opposed genderwise.
Whomever shoots must have short hair unless they are an elf, in which case it is excessively long, and it must be a lighter shade than the main character. Whomever is the Blasty has to have longer hair, and since the main character has red hair, they cannot upstage him on the color wheel so it must be a muted color, like brown, but it CANNOT be black, as that is saved for Mister Stoic.
Normally the hero and villain have complementary colors (gold - silver) (brown - Opalescent blue) etc.
With red though, that leaves only Red. But an eviler red, like fire vs blood or sunset vs maple leaf in fall. Since the main character is male, the odd color and style will not raise an eyebrow anywhere he goes (which is different for a female, as red hair in her case is either an omen, a legend, or really really rare. Or just like the villain or hero of yore).
The Applied Phlebenium (Green Space Crystal!) plus some sort of prophet girl/oracle invariably leads to villain who wants them, leading to use the main characters link to said Phlebenium to do rule 36, the Clockwork Universe Rule.
Hmm, Ladies... from the link I posted above, what does TotA follow to a T?
It’s a Tales show. If you like the games, you’re already watching it. If you’ve never played them, you might want to check it out.
It’s not at all original, obviously: you’ve got the bishie amnesiac lead with the sword, his evil twin/brother/clone (who wears black to contrast with the hero’s white for that extra layer of subtlety) the oncoming harem, the generic save the world plot, and the religious organization that is undoubtedly controlling the world from the shadows since there’s never been a good church in anime since Chrno Crusade (and they were only good because they had guns). Fans of the game will notice an obscene amount of shout-outs in the first episode, including tutorials on how to move your character and fight. Unlike Tower of Druaga, it’s playing these tropes straight, so it’s dull.
I found the main lead’s voice very annoying. There’s this priggish, stuck-up, arrogant quality to it that starts to grate after about two seconds — probably appropriate, since the guy’s supposed to be sheltered, but no less irritating. The rest of the performances were forgettable.
I was a little surprised when the show’s random encounter/the player’s first real fight featured the total dismemberment and decapitation of malevolent wildlife, but that was pretty much the sole visual treat of the first show. It’s more than a little dull, and I found myself reaching for the skip-cutscene button more than once. If you’ve ever played an RPG, you can probably map out the entire plot arc almost to the minute. You will also note that the characters look exactly like every other JRPG PC ever illustrated.
Warning: this show, predictably, includes a cute talking animal thing that goes Mew-Mew a lot and wears the One Ring as a life-preserver. If you like cute, you’ll love this Lovecraftian horror spawned from the same foul flesh as Ryo-Ohki. If you hate cute, take some solace in the fact that the main character does as well and goes to some lengths to spit and roast the bugger.
If you like Tales or run-of-the-mill adventure shows, join Fangirl Alley and squee as much as you like. This show is for you, and probably only you. Me, I think of this as the Britney Spears of anime: polished, shallow, and manufactured, and able to make zillions of dollars off of licensing fees. I believe Tales of Vesparia is also out right now, so I’d recommend playing that instead; it’s essentially an anime video game, so it has all the qualities of this show with the advantages of actual gameplay and a big red “Kill Cutscene” button whenever the prettyboys get too emo.I am completely and utterly biased because I've loved the game from day 1. (and I promise to be good and not fangirl all over this thread, m'kay?)
Though it does have the typical elements of most RPGs I enjoyed the characters and the plot right up to the very last cut scene. As far as the anime adaptation goes, I have absolutely no complaints, the animation is pretty and it's been loyal to the game plot while throwing in those few extras here and there. It does, at points, plough through a good deal of plot in short amounts of time and the characters never stay in one locale for long, but it's what happens when you cram 60-70 hours of gameplay into 13-14 hours of animation. For a fan who knows the plot and characters well, its quite a treat, though I'm unsure how much someone who just picks up the anime will enjoy it. Because of the rapid pacing, its hard to give the characters the development they should be getting and consequently may find it rather dry. But that's a perspective someone else will have to cover.
