Final Impressions
Man oh man, what to think. First things first, the ending, I honestly thought it was good. I really did not want it to turn out any other way. It sure did cut it close though at the last five minutes when it seemed that Deianeira was going to be alone for the rest of her life and the show ending with her on the moonlit beach. Of course our knight in shining armor came along and took her to who knows where. So there we have it, everyone is happy, no more conflicts between the tribes, humans got some nifty powers, and Deianeira got her man. Done and done, I could not ask for more.
This season the anime gods have been bombarding me with some pretty shitty endings, Darker than Black (way too many topics unanswered), Gurren Lagann (depressing ending for a show that was set on overdrive for 25 episodes is a slap in the face), Claymore (pretty much said no to a second season), and the list goes on. So really the combination of craptastic endings by every other show really highlighted Heroic Age’s ending to me since it was the happiest of the bunch and the most satisfying.
Heroic Age had such an amazing start, it’s a shame it never ending the same way. Heroic Age had some epic starting episodes, the characters were good, the set up with the warring tribes was good, the music was good, and the art was good. The mystery of the Golden Tribe and the contracts in the background kept things moving also. But somewhere during its run it all lost steam.
My biggest peeve with this show is the fighting scenes and “epic” battles. It’s funny because they were what attracted me to the show in the first place; however they became repetitive and extremely unentertaining. An exchange in blows meant nothing; no one really seemed to get hurt, the battles involved zero dialog by the participants themselves so the element of strategy was none existent as you would watch these guys just smacking each other and five minutes later finish as if nothing happened. Crushing a bunch of peons for a couple of minutes can only get you so far, and there sure was a lot of this happening also.
The two brothers, oh my god, probably the worst characters I’ve ever seen in a long long time, I can’t even think of anyone as more annoying than these two. If you needed a great excuse to stop watching Heroic Age other than its mediocre battles and storyline that seemed to get nowhere, these guys were it. You just wanted to punch them. You really did. And you wanted to punch the nimrod that created these two idiots in the first place.
Speaking of characters, they weren’t that great. Age is cool and all, but he’s easily forgettable, Deianeira, a bore fest, the captain, another bore fest, the Nodos were somewhat interesting but pretty flat until the very end. Really no one stood out.
Oh well, I don’t feel like ranting anymore. It’s finally over and it’s ending on a good note though there was so much more I wanted to find out, like what exactly is on the other side of the gate. I feel pretty satisfied that I actually seen this series and for the fansubbers providing some LOL moments with their commentary. I literally fell off my chair when they added an extremely well placed emoticon during a very touching scene. Good god I can’t believe the best moment of this show was created by the fansubbers. In closing, if you got some time to kill, it’s a pretty decent show to invest some time into if your looking for some scifi fantasy and semi-mecha kind of show with a good story.
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I liked the ending a lot. Deianeira crying as she’s running to Age good. Throughout the show, you can tell Deianeira is being selfless and only thinking about other people. It was good to see that she had a moment where she could be a little selfish and think of her own feelings.
You’re right … she does deserve it doesn’t she … happy ending is always a good ending so I’m not going to complain …
I enjoyed the ending as well. It tied up some of the threads as to what happens to the characters. Deianeira’s reunion with Age, is nicely emotional and satisfying.
I do have to disagree that the battles were repetitive; or rather that that is a bad thing. In real life, the larger the battle, the more rigid and formalistic it becomes. There also isn’t time to think and plan during actual combat. The pauses in time that one sees in many shows are literary devices to make sure that the audience is following along with what is happening and why it’s so cool/awesome/terrifying. In real combat, it just doesn’t happen. The combatants are acting/reacting purely on trained patterns and instinct. There just isn’t any time for thought when your enemy is in your face. Just as there isn’t any time to think, there certainly isn’t any time to hold long and meaningful conversations!
I was actually extremely pleased that the writers of Heroic Age decided not to use the ‘pause everything’ device. It made the combat much more believable. The fleet battles are what I enjoyed the most, however.
I think the writers did an excellent job of showing what such battles might be like. Where they repetitive? Yes, but that’s how most large-scale battles are. A fleet commander decides on tactics well before engaging the enemy, and only makes minor tweaks to that plan once engaged. Why? Because one of the quickest was to get your fleet wiped out is to make sudden and/or drastic changes to a plan in mid-combat. It distracts the ship captains that are extremely busy trying to both kill the enemy and keep his/her ship in one piece, which would lead to confusion, which would then lead to a great many ships being crippled or destroyed uselessly. That’s also why there isn’t much talking going on.
As for the ‘Brothers Stupid’ I think that they were there to show that mankind hadn’t changed all that much. Oddly enough, they were very effective in showing that humans still had problems.
Having just watch all 26 eps over the past 2 days, I’m happy to say i loved it! I’ve grown tired of mech animes in general, RahXephon, being the only one I liked much (when it wasn’t immensely confusing).
The battle scenes were interesting. A sense of time and distance was well conveyed, as was the utter chaos of it all.
Dhianeila was probably my favourite character – but she’s a natural focus from the opening as she lead the story. I liked the way Age seamlessly added more to the continuity of the story through the memories he’d been given – none of this NGE/Naruto emo self-discovery BS thank god.
I was consistantly reminded of Asimov’s Foundation throughout the series. For those that don’t know Foundation, there were other races who had a different view of humans – we were considered barbaric and infantile because we didn’t follow the galaxy’s established rule of “psychology”. I found the Silver Tribe, with their hatred of feelings a fantastic addition.
The soundtrack was immense. I love a good soundtrack. I don’t think I’ve heard a better once since Maaya Sakamoto did RX. I welled up and cried in all the right places. (i’m playing the beach scene in a loop as I type this).
There were a few funny moments too. Mainly with the twins.
I liked the triangle between Dhianeila, Iolaous and Aneasha… Especially Aneasha’s acceptance of Iolaous’s love for Dhianeila. I wonder if Iolaous ever really grasped the depth of Aneasha’s feelings? It was subtle and almost Shakesperian, and reminds me of a girl who announced her feelings for me in a similar way.
The Hedron shields were pretty cool. Being a bit of a Babylon 5 fan, I liked the idea of races leaving the galaxy and leaving tech behind.
On the downside the fights were a little boring. With little damage ever occuring to the Nodos, their fights became a little tiresome towards the end. Still, the odd CGI scene with the Bronze ants made up for some of the repetition.
In relation to both your remarks about these ‘Brothers Stupid’, I completely agree. But don’t forget you were meant to hate them. And hate them I did. Well written.
I’m going to miss this anime. Hugely. I guess there’s a benefit to living in the future: all the girls have rather nice bums!
(I’m also going to miss Claymore… ruinous f#@king b*’ds)
I’ve got nothing to watch now. I want another epic, but I’m at a loss. Any recommendations?
Did anyone else notice that at the moment she grabs Age’s hand in the final minutes, her outfit suddenly changed to her standard Argonaut uniform, while seconds before she was wearing a fancy dress?
Oh well! the Anime was fantastic anyways :)
The ending was good and all but did she just ditch the rest of her people?
Yes she did, with no hesitation at all, but I wanted her to anyway, so I won’t complain.
She’s taken the hadron shield tech tho :/
I don’t think she ditched her people, it doesn’t show anything going up into the portal.
Age came back to her, and stayed with her.