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Ryu Knight: Adeus Legend

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Title Info

• alias: Lord of Lords Ryu Knight: Adeus Legend
  
• seen: 1-4
  
• type: OAV
  
• grade: flawed
  
• genre: mecha
  
• Series state: Can't find any more to watch.
• form: sub
  
• source: fansub
  
• dur: 200
  
• made: unknown
  
• Review created: Thu Mar 8 03:36:54 EST 2001
• mod: none
  

Mecha and magic in a fantasy environment sounds like a pretty safe bet for a familiar but entertaining anime. And this one has some pretty cool touches, and is very watchable, it's just gome some unbelievably dodgy design choices.

The story begins with a huge monster lurching around preparing to eat the world. But a small band of brave knights in mecha sacrifice themselves to seal him away beneath a huge sword (and i'm talking thousands of meters huge). He's not dead however and his people, the demons, believe the time is right for him to be revived and finish what he started. As such they begin to move against the forces which hold him prisoner.

And sadly those forces seem to be in some degree of disarray. There's a young girl vital to maintaing the seal, but while a powerful sorceress she's no match for the demons. She's aided by a survivor of the original group, but he's got his own problems. The most they seem to be able to do is run as one fortress after another is destroyed by the demons and their powerful airship (these demons are also plenty smart). While seeking allies they find a hot-headed youth focused on becoming a great knight and a young ninja boy seeking vengeance. And both of these youths have obtained and been accepted by a Ryu knight mecha...making them a force that just might be able to stand in the way of the demonic awakening.

In other words it's all very familiar. Cute female that must be protected. Terrible prophecy that must be averted. Hot headed young warriors with difficult personalities. Lots of mecha action during inconclusive fights with the demons. All played out against, barring the inclusion of mecha, a world straight out of any number of role playing games. It's not going to win awards for originality in any way, but it's a workable formula.

The novelty comes from the mecha, unsurprisingly. Whereas the hero's have various `classes' this anime extends these powers through the appearance, actions and attitude of the Ryu knight mecha. The young sorceress has a pink colored magic using mecha. The knight has a tough warrior with picky morals and the ninja has an agile and stealthy mecha. There's even a priest mecha. It's a sort of cool concept and adds a degree of depth and complexity to the mix.

Here's the bad part though. These have got to be the weirdest mecha you've ever seen. And they're frighteningly unattractive. They look sort of like super-deformed suits of armor, real cartoony stuff, with incredibly thin arms and huge boots, hands and shoulder pads. Think of an armored dustbin with an attitude and arms and legs attached and you might get an idea. And, try as I might, they just look stupid. Add in the fact that their appearance is matched to their power, which is very painful in the case of the ninja mecha, and it gets even worse. What can I say, these things will cause seizures in most mecha fans. They don't look cool, they don't even look logical.

Apart from that the production values are not bad, basically at TV level, which is disappointing since this is an OAV. The design is fairly cartoony in general, but not offensively so. The motion animation is interesting, and the story flows well, but they're still not able to make the mecha fights look cool or keep interest. It's gome some decent world design work, and the story flows well enough, but it's all very familiar. The voices are alright, a touch over the top in many cases, and the music seemed fairly restrained.

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Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:24 WST 2009