Customer Reviews

Heroic Age: The Complete Series [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Having just watched the full series of Heroic Age in its Blu-ray incarnation (it was only just released this month), I must give it a very strong recommendation. Set in a world that essentially unites elements of Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and with explicit influence from Greek mythology, the show is an obvious choice for fans of sci-fi spectacle. Action fans will enjoy heavy-hitting, subwoofer friendly battles of often entertainingly absurd scale. If planets and even galaxies could run and hide, they'd be advised to in Heroic Age. But the show is also more than just bang and boom.

Political intrigue and emotional underpinnings of the battles are never far from mind. Many of the important players in the show are desperately looking for a way out of the violence and chaos, not reveling in it. Two of four primary tribes (species) in the series have been set to battle each other, many confused by the meaning of contractual obligations (Labors) set before them, or rather to individual powerful beings "assigned" to them. These two are the technologically sophisticated but blindly arrogant Silver Tribe, and the space-faring upstarts the Iron Tribe, our human race. The Golden tribe is the one each aspires to find but which has also set them into galactic conflict. The Bronze tribe is an insect-like tribe that works at the behest of whichever tribe has been granted control over them. In this case, that would be the Silver tribe which uses them as front-line fodder against the Iron Tribe.

Last but not in the slightest least, there are five dominant beings formerly of the Heroic tribe. Four of them are under the thumb of the Silver tribe due either to contract or threats against their related homeworlds. The fifth is within our titular hero, Age.

Age is a young man of straightforward innocence found alone on a planet by Princess Dhianeila and a group of human space-farers who quickly discover his true power when he transmutes into the powerful being Belcross (a "Nodos") to single-handedly smite a planetary invading force of the Bronze tribe.

With some comic relief early on as Age acclimates to his new-found friends, the show largely shifts to the aforementioned interstellar political wrangling and the mega-battles that usually ensue when not all players are interested in talking. As such, for those looking for much in the way of relationships and interpersonal drama, it is there but kept largely secondary in this grand conflict. There is some to be had such as whether the otherwise smart soldier Iolaous will ever see past his own dense infatuated loyalty to Dhianeila to recognize that her best friend and healer Aneasha is always there for him. But keep in mind that this is a show in which even Age himself becomes at times tertiary to the wider conflict.

As for the visual quality of the Blu-ray, the show is an upscale that benefits from great clarity of color and line and the constant and fast-paced action never suffers from compression issues. Importantly, with a rare exception such as in a disc 3 episode with excessive banding, the wide expanses of space otherwise manage to be held crystal clear.

Finally, the surround audio English track features universally solid voice acting and will rock your sound system during the many battles. The English voice cast especially excels over the Japanese interpretations of these animated creations in the cases of Christopher Sabat and Lydia Mackay. The former best defining the character of Karkinos and the latter of Prome O.

My wife was streaming this series from the Funimation site last week. It was a little blocky and the sound was not high fidelity, but it reminded me how much I liked it when I saw it a few years ago. Was a little hesitant buying it since I had now watched it twice -- very glad I did.

First nothing beats a professional translation; things that were murky in the first version I saw were crystal in this one.

Second the video is gorgeous. I was thinking HD was wasted on an abstract medium like anime. I was wrong, it matters.

Third the audio has impact. The 5.1 soundtrack is impressive. My subwoofer kicked-in a lot. The strong beat really helps with the emotional impact of the scene. It was like being deaf before. The score gets a little repetitious, but that could be due to having watched it three times.

Fourth the plot is good. It is like David Brin's Uplift Saga meets Gundam.

Fifth the dub, I normally prefer subtitles, but this time I liked the dub better. One of the voice actors was also in my favorite series (Irresponsible Captain Tylor).

Sixth the price, this is ridiculously cheap for a 26 episode series on blue-ray.

Much like Claymore and D. Gray-man, this is a fairly recent series I loved watching on rented DVDs, but held off on buying on the off-chance it would arrive on blu-ray. And here we are. The animation for this series is stunning, and I love the story. It's not without problems; sometimes the battles between the Nodos get a little redundant and tedious, and some of the main characters are downright unlikable. Even so, it adds some unique ideas to the space opera genre, and ends far more conclusively than some other series I could name. Recommended (though try a couple episodes before you drop the dough on the whole collection).

I wasn't sure whether to chalk the bare bones structure of of Heroic Age's story (plot, themes, and character development) to a younger target audience, a wish to pay homage to classic mecha shows, or bad writing. I figured, in the first and second cases, the error was on my part for purchasing the anime with the wrong expectations. But after thinking, I decided that, while thematic subject could be excused and even appreciated for a younger target audience or as homage, the character development wasn't that good.

Minor Spoilers:

In what way, exactly? Well, we basically have cast of types; the Man Child Hero, his Mature/Disciplined Soldier Rival/Friend, the White Princess, her Villainous Brothers, the Voluptuous but Talented Female Captain, the gruff and good natured Seasoned Veteran Captain, etc, none of whom deconstruct, exceed, or subvert their roles in any compelling or inventive way (in the manner of more exciting anime like Death Note and Code Geass, or even less dynamic anime like Gundam Wing). The characters are what they are, and they stay that way straight through. Part of this may be because the classic mecha shows had less refined methods of character development than more modern anime (post-Gundam), but when I look at the level of sophistication other media for children have achieved (Pixar, DreamWorks, etc, I have to question whether that is a plausible explanation.

Such character transformations that exist are limited mainly to the antagonists, hegemonic aliens who for the most part can be described as Good-Intentioned Extremists who gradually warm up to the 'compassion' of the human protagonists as an alternative way of administrating an unruly universe. While welcome, it isn't nearly enough to satisfy the interests of a modern audience's accustomed wish for more elaborate psychological explorations.

There are ways to compensate for lack of dramatic interest: the technical aspects of the show (music, including a highly addictive opening theme song, art direction, graphics) are highly polished and may sate the appetites of people who enjoy the sweeping cinematography of space epics. Unfortunately, while I can accept different points of interest besides psychological ones in other medium (in Lord of the Rings, for example, where the setting of Middle Earth and its culture and languages makes up for the lack of psychological complexity in its characters), in a 20-something episode television drama, it is hard to overlook.

In the end, I felt interested enough to watch the series to its conclusion, but not enough to feel as though it had to be part of my collection.

This series has everything:
- Human's with advanced/super powers who are still getting their butts kicked by older races in the galaxy
- Epic fleet battles in space
- Mecha fighting swarms of aliens
- Giant monsters with earth shattering power battling it out

I have not enjoyed a series this much in ages. The heroine, princess Dhianeila is a clairvoyant/telepath who leads a ship called the Argonaut on an epic quest to find the savior of humanity. Prophesied by an ancient race, the hero Age fights with an almost zen like innocence to protect his people.

After watching the first episode I KNEW this was going to be one of the great anime series. The ones you stay up way too late on a work night to watch and think about getting back to all day. Even the ending wasn't the typical Japanese "Oh crap" finish. I left feeling both satisfied and remorse that it was finished.

I just may have to buy this one in blue ray too.

If you like well written science fiction, buy this series. You won't regret it.

G-

Heroic Age is an science fiction anime that doesn't appear to have received the publicity that it deserved. In fact, the only way I came across this series was through Amazon Recommendations and the outstanding reviews of my Amazon peers. If you're wondering about this series, its worth taking the chance. Watch the trailer and know it only reveals a fraction of the series itself. Heroic Age is one of the most satisfying anime purchases I've made in months and at 26 episodes, its a complete series.

Pros:
+ Smooth, polished animation that looks great on Blu-ray
+ High quality, top notch voice acting (its really worth listening to the dub, even for sub-only fans)
+ A detailed story provides plenty of backdrop, but leaves many questions
+ Action, subtle romance, and space battles
+ Epic score adds to the high quality feel of the series
+ The final episode provides a sufficient conclusion for most characters

Cons:
- A few middle episodes move slowly due to the lack of action on the part of one of the main characters
- The score is frequently reused over and over so you will hear the same great music multiple times in different episodes
- Don't overthink parts of the storyline, there may be a gap here and there
- Expect lots of crying on the part of the Princess

Heroic Age doesn't explain itself to the viewer, it just sucks them in. Don't expect the series to explain what starways are, how the ships travel at high speed or what's happening. The viewer is given almost as little information as the humans in the series and ultimately, you have many questions until the last several episodes when things come full circle. The best part of this series is that the conclusion was well thought out and almost an entire episode is dedicated to what happens to the characters instead of leaving open giant cliffhangers or having the entire cast die off. This is a series you will want to add to your library.

I love this series, though I haven't watched many of the modern shows.

Space Opera type series have always been close to me (Robotech, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, etc). This one joins those ranks.

Video and Audio are great on my HDTV. If I had one complaint regarding this blu-ray release it would be that the subtitles are not colored very well, they blend in with the video. They should have used traditional yellow with black borders for the subtitles, instead of near solid white.

Anywhoo, minus that hangup, I definitely recommend watching this series.

The picture is indeed crisper than that of the DVDs, but it still isn't stunning as you would expect from blu-ray discs, especially if you know the quality of the Evangelions on blu-ray.

Disappointingly, it doesn't come with any extra features. Also, if you look at the packaging, you would notice that they did not put a lot of effort in it.

I still give three stars for the good effort in the translation.

I went into watching this anime unsure if I should've bought it. So far I am one disc in and the show has exceeded my expectations by far and is working it's way to be one of my favourites. The story is unique and interesting, likeable Characters, and the action is pretty good as well. Highly recommended. Get it!

A really awesome series if you're into SCIFI anime. Personally I don't really care for fantasy stuff too much and get rather tired of hearing about it, but this is an epic scifi series along the lines of something from hard-sf novels. Really great find for people who are bigger scifi fans than they are anime fans. My wife loves it too!

Like-able characters, a well written plot-line, and truly epic space battles make this one you don't want to miss.