Not only that but in a certain way the anime kinda negatively affects my perception of the Northern War. Like I always thought that Rean losing control traumatized him because maybe he put civilians in danger or something, but there really is nothing of that here…. it just kinda happens and then he moves on…
I think my favorite bit of the protagonists being absolutely the worst spies who've ever lived is that, if what I'm putting together is correct, Lavi didn't know Rean was the ashen chevalier even *after he told her his name*, like it still took him summoning Valimar for her to figure it out. They did three episodes worth of spying and didn't even learn their target's name, despite the fact that we know from the games that it's really not an especially well-kept secret.
This anime was an embarrassment in every way. As a trails fan I’m almost ashamed that this exists. Falcom really needs to start being more careful with who they give their properties to, and be more cautious with keeping their artistic integrity, rather than making this series seem like RPG McDonald’s
Clowning on this anime was a bigger source of enjoyment than actually watching it. Its kinda hilarious how they had a completely serviceable plot already laid out for them from Nielsen's report , and all they had to do was expand upon that. Instead they built the entire anime around playing 'member berries with coldsteel and adding in pointless cameo's, (They didn't even Cameo Van and he was actually involved lmao). And some weird philosophical diatribe about what it means to be a hero.
What I expected in the story: Ouroboros and more What I got: Ouroboros? The End Honestly, I wanted to see how bad the experience had been for Rean, as I felt like it was an horrible one when playing CS3. But after watching the anime, I can't even remember anything bad that happened to him after the events. I only remember that he said goodbye to Lavi and that the anime was over with a "happy, smiley face?" type of ending. I didn't even realized I missed an episode until watching this video though.
Dude The Trails in the Sky SC OVA series tried harder than this! Sure the fact they started with the 2nd game and blasted through it is an atrocity but at least the action and animation was fantastic!!
I was expecting a Kiseki Rogue one. Painting Erebonia in the light of a villain, forcing Rean to do "something traumatic", LeGuin going off, ETC! I think an interesting way to save the story could have been Rogan fighting alongside Lavi vs the empire, however the archaisms start going crazy and attacking citizens, Make the white hair bitch an enforcer revealed as she kills Rogan, have Rean and Lavi team up to beat her however this isn't enough stop the Archaisms... and as a finale, have Rean's use his Ogre power in an attempt to save everyone and in his rampage ends up killing Lavi. Such a disappointment honestly.
This anime had so much potential but became such a dumpster fire when aired. What I believe should have happened. Should have been 24 ep with at least 14 ep on the actual war. Bond between Lavi and Rean should be explored even more. Lavi should have died, made a martyr and the effect it had on Rean. Jayna Storm should have been a member of Ouroboros. Rean's Ogre transformation should have had a dramatic effect. etc.
The story is also mostly written in a gacha game format where it can present the narrative in full. The anime had to slim that down into 12 episodes which is not a good idea
I used to want an anime for the main line Cold Steel games...but after watching this show, I think we're better off just leaving something that isn't broken alone....😮💨
@@AllOtakuProductions I imagine faithfully adapting a Trails game into an anime would be extremely hard. We'd be lucky if each game could get a 26 episode anime each, and even that would likely not be long enough to both cover the necessary events and get people that aren't already established fans invested in the characters.
@@chrischrisson4152 I know, and that's why a truly faithful adaptation of the games is pretty close to a lost cause. If somebody did want to make an anime that tried to be faithful to the games' story, I imagine they'd have to wait until the series is over to see what's okay to cut (since something/someone who might seem insignificant at first may turn out important later). Trails, as it currently is, works because of how it uses video games as a medium. It's for this reason I actually wondered if some person at some point could make a decent anime that uses the setting and characters from the games without necessarily adapting the stories and continuity; a "re-telling" that could be faithful to feel of the games even if the events aren't the same. I'm sure they would be plenty fans that wouldn't be satisfied, and I can certainly understand that feeling. But I personally think that would be more entertaining than trying to cram in as much of the story as possible in too small a runtime without letting the audience get attached to what they're experiencing. P.S. Another thing I wonder is, if characters had to be cut (since a genuine problem I have is cast overbloat), would it be a good idea to have other characters take their roles instead?
The big red warning signs were there the moment we learned who was animating it. Falcom needed to hand the project to a credible studio who would treat it with the love and care it deserved but instead they went with the cheapest alternative..
This is like falcom with NISA all over. they had a good cheap option in Xseed and opted to give it to NISA for a cheaper option and got Ys8s dumbster fire of a launch outta it. they dont learn. Will give NIS some Credit cause credit where credit is due, NISA at least did CS3/4 a lot cleaner and did fix 8 eventually this anime is screwed.
@@HelLDeWs What happened with Ys 8? I didn't get to play it until last year. And for what it's worth I think NISA has been doing a pretty good job minus a few...fan-angering decisions...either way those don't affect me. And although I'm playing the original releases, I can appreciate the initiative they took in releasing Kuro on Steam so that it's all set to go once they have the English translations all sorted out. If I wasn't impatient, I'd wait for the NISA releases because MAN, those Clouded Leopard releases have some of the worst optimization I've seen yet...
@@saintfayde4438 YS 8 pc port was so bad on release that it took 2 years just to fix it or rather it took them that much time just to hire some one else to do it. It was still playable for some players to some extent but you would have a much smoother experience in consoles. There were bugs and crashes galore that some can't even progress the game until Durante came and fix the mess of a port.
Machias drinking tea is not wrong. Is true he is a fan of coffee. But in a bonding event in the games, he drinks tea with Rean, because Rean is more of a tea person. Machias from that moment says that drinking tea sometimes is not bad. This bonding event shows Machias growth as a person. He always was closed minded but now he is open to experience differents points of view.
The foundation of it had big potential. There's probably a production issue and goals of those people differs . I'm sure even the animators themselves knew it isn't good but they can't do anything about it. It's clear that the writers never knew Cold Steel series as a whole heck we would be stupid to assume these writers are Nihon Falcoms'. If only some rich people would salvage this and make a remake because that recollection of Rean is serious in the game and it needs to be portrayed accurately. I work in the anime industry as a freelance. It pains me to see that this workers will get trash because of the production issue that they have no power to fight against. As for the writers who the hell hired someone clueless and never gave them actual instructions so they can polish it.
@@roxascross3741 300k usd per ep would be the baseline but that's still leave your workers under paid but not extremely. Schedules is a also a thing and proper rest. I work in my country who do clean ups with Ufotable Demon Slayer and AoT s4. S4 Aot we're all rushed to the bone and payment per month is at least 300 usd , that's a bare minimum if you live alone in my country . Kny films have much more budget than regular anime films(anime films ofc had bigger budget than 12 eps normally). For the remake of this it's better in film format with run time of 1hr 30min minimum. And make the budget the same with Your Name about 5mil USD if you want less action but more narrative , Demon Slayer Mugen train is 16 Mil USD if it's really action pack. I guess the balance is 10 Mil USD. Never mind over work you'll still gonna get that even with that budget. A lot animation industry are over work worldwide even Cartoons but Japan ranked one of the highest if not the highest (but my experience it kinda is )
There's so much missed potential with this show. When it was first announced, I was excited that it was telling a new story instead of just rehashing the plot of Cold Steel. It could have been really easy to turn the story of the North Ambrian war into a really solid, self-contained story that could appeal to new fans and get them interested in the rest of Trails. Episode 1 felt like the show was setting itself up to be that - sadly though, it very quickly turned into Lavi And Friends' Excellent Adventures in Erebonia (TM). By the end, the show had morphed into this complete dead zone where new fans aren't gonna be able to follow it, and hardcore fans aren't gonna be interested in it either, making it a rare show that appeals to exactly nobody. I still feel like the core story could be turned into something good if it was given to a better directing/writing team.
It reminds me of the Sky animation too, like a good idea but the execution and adaptation was insanely horrible. They tried to addapt the entire of the Mid to End game into TWO chapters, and they ignored the best aspects of that game, and did some very weird choices.
@@advmx3 I mean, I'd say trying to make an OVA of the main plot of Sky was a bad idea in the first place. I can't help but imagine that the initial plans were MUCH different than that.
I think the two main problems were Rean's popularity and the nature of North Ambrain annexation. Unlike the other protagonists who only had two games sorely focused on them (other than Kevin), Rean had 4 (Kurt should have been the MC or at the very least be a deuteragonist for 3 and 4.) The anime had Cold Steel in its name so people were expecting Rean to play a major role, which to be fair he canonically did. The second was the North Ambrian geopolitical nature. North Ambrian, as a result of the Salt Pale, became the weakest country in Zemuria due to it not being self-sufficient. Crossbell despite being in the crossfire between the two superpowers of Zemuria could literally destroy Calvard and Erobania's economy if they wanted to. However, N.A. had to rely on their Jaegars to commit atrocities just to keep them fed, which made them a lot of enemies. If the anime went for a total war route, the anime would last only about 3-5 episodes if we are being generous. So the creators turned it into a Spy thriller.
Hopefully, if there's an anime surrounding events in Erebonia up until the Kuro era - they put more effort into it, to show a few details. 1. When Rean finally decided to name himself the "Divine Blade of Ash" 2. Altina joining the Epstein Foundation 3. Fie and Towa's transfers over to Calvard 4. Crow joining the mercenary group in Calvard 5. Rixia returning to the role of "Yin" 6. Rean perfecting Spirit Unification (We're shown up to the point of "Enlightened Spirit Unification", but by the "Kuro" era, it seems more perfected)
This anime was such a huge let down. The Northern War was supposed to be a major and traumatic event in the Cold Steel timeline that sets up Rean’s whole character for the second half of the arc, and they told the story in the most PG-rated manner possible which didn’t justify anything we heard about in-game. And that’s before you get into plot holes and the like! It baffles me that a few stills could be the superior way to experience the story.
There was also this noble guy in episode 5, who starts as a typical noble, a complete asshole who thinks nobles are above doing peasant work. He even sits on a chair looking at the passenger working, with a smile on his face. But then he sees dirt on a child hands, and sudenly his whole character makes a complete 180, starts talking about how he was always supported by many people and he needs to do his part, and then starts helping with the derailement! He even shouts that there should be no difference between commoners and nobles anymore! I don't know what the writers were thinking here, but one thing is for sure, they failed miserably
My friend who's been on the fence about playing Trails brought up this anime when it was announced and offered to watch it with me. Now he's feeling very mixed about trying Trails later. :/
At first i was hyped for the anime but yeah when it was finished i was also asking "wasnt this war supposed to be traumatic for Rean"? You pointed it out but yeah it was kinda disappointing. No Sera, Altina or anything that was "important".
To be fair, Northern War arc HAVE EVERYTHING NEEDED to be a good 12 episodes anime, at least to Trails fan. -They can elaborate more about poor people from North Ambria and Salt Pale effects. -They can make principal Aurelia or even Rean as conflicted antagonist. -They also can make the main cast died in the end of the story to explain their absence of them in the northern jaeger grudge in Lamere. Biggest Trails strength is geopolitical world building where every countries have their own share of problem and North Ambria is the perfect one to emphasize this feature. But no, they rather make Erebonia tour filler in first 5 episodes in a 12 episode seasonal anime.
I have it from credible sources that Sharon Kreuger barely appeared and Mishy didn't save the world. Terrible. I'm writing Falcom a passive aggressive email... but in half-Spanish and half-Korean so it confuses them
It was nice seeing cameos from the Old Class VII but there were cameos from the New Class VII. That was a nice touch cuz they wouldn't be important until Cold Steel 3
When the anime was announced back then, i was very hyped. i want to know what happened in the North - Ambria war and what triggered Rean ogre power to lose control, even traumatized him. i even speculated maybe Rean meets someone, a new friend maybe that he meets in north ambria, then that friend either captured by Erebonia or die in war. or maybe seeing the horror of war so that rean loses control of his ogre power. but nope, after seeing the first three episodes, i felt bored and very much disappointed. the north ambria collapse by itself and the war hasn't even started yet.
The story has the potential to be good, even with bad animation a good writer and story boarder can make passable anime. I think every character has potential that is absolutely squandered after few episodes in. I like the *concept* of the characters. Lavi, grandaugther prodigy of a hero finally finding meaning in her journey, iseria, which is a regular girl in any way possible forced to take up arms in hope of earning money and survive, talion which envy the protag's skill and talent turned into admiration and real ally. They just fumbled this cool concept in every line of dialogues. Even glaark and the higher ranking politician has the potential to be interesting. I really would love this story to be redone competently either in game trough an episode/door like in revierie or sky the 3rd, but i guess falcom at this point just want to sweep it under the rug especially if the mobile game flop. Edit: also arts. They fkin rarely use arts in this anime even though everyone has a fkin enigmas. Like the random mercenary use forte to stop that truck, and i actually love they use buffing arts instead of regular attack magic and shows how useful arts are even outside of the damaging attacks. Aafter that no, like everyone just forgot battle orbments are a thing. Like when they fight the ice monster.
I get headaches just listening to this summary. I haven't gotten to Cold Steel 3 yet, because I only started getting into the games 2 years ago. I started with CS1 and paused after CS2 to go back and play the older games to fully understand what happens in the later ones. Finished Zero last week and now sitting on Azure. And after that I can finally continue the CS series. During the past 1,5-2 years I spent more time on the Zemurian Continent than in the real world. I think it was one of your old videos that put the Trails games on my radar. Thank you for recommending them.
I can't believe that one of the most important characters from Class 7, who's from North Ambria only gets like 10 minutes of screen time. Sara got done so dirty, there was so much potential for Sara to explore her past, inner conflict with Erebonia invading her previous home, having to watch her own student lose control, meeting her past comrades, only for that potential to be tossed aside and focus on some OCs that we will never see nor care about again.
Have to agree. Some episodes are a waste of time. Also I skiped stuff in my watch and didn't think I missed anything. For the opening I actually thought that it was gonna switch between Lavi and Rean to give us the scope of the war from both sides. Yet there was no war. And yes Altina and Sara were done dirty.
It really feels like they were setting up for a 24 episode anime only to find out while making episode 11 that it was ending after 12. So much time spent setting up the new characters only for absolutely nothing to happen with everything resolving itself in 5 minutes.
Yup I can watch through the low quality animation but it's major problem is the story is written to be more than 12 episodes. An obvious problem of this also was written for a gacha game where the gacha game can present the longer form of the story but the anime version is mostly a "digest" version of it.
Even if it was 24 episodes I think it would fail, if anything it might be worse. I don't think the writers had any clue how to plan it out in a way to keep the story engaging. If they had more to work with, I'd fully expect to see more episodes in the same vein as 3 and 4.
Yeah, this pretty much surmises my thoughts, and I watched this episode by episode as they were released. The cameos and references were fun fan service, but the plot is just confusing. I'm still not sure what Jayna(?) was up to. When Sara briefly appears in the last episode why does no one, civilian or soldier, exclaim "It's the Purple Lightning! She's come back!" or something to that effect? I'm also still confused why we had that scene where early on where the Stahlriter and Phantom Thief B appear with Campanella only to never show up again. I thought that meant they were going to be involved in the series but they never reappear.
For me there are three main problems with this anime. No, its not really the new characters that are not introduced enough in many cases or even animation that is not the best. First and biggest problem for me is targeted audience. They refused to choose between standalone anime and "lore broadening anime". They just created something that is dreadful and not worth it for fans and chaotic and incomprehensible for newcomers. It fails as another piece in big kiseki puzzle and also as interesting little anime (which is sadly not). Second problem is pacing. There are some ultra unnecessary and hideous episodes like third and fourth ones that were even worse that the worst kind of filler episodes. Third episode could be probably worst anime episode ever for me. Then at the end they rushed and underwhelmed the story with non hype or satisfactory final battle or conclusion. It wasted two or even more episodes on dipshit at the cost of better character and story developments at the end. Third problem I find not the worst one but definitely still problem is usage of game characters as probably a little snack for fans. I would have no problem with that if those characters played some more significant roles. The biggnest of them would be definitely Rean, Altina and Lechter. Then the rest of characters had minor roles or just cameos (same with some locations)... I just hated this. If you include some character, give them some purpose... and when you manage to do at least that, flash them out a bit if you wanna play on hype feelings of fans. Lavi spent so little time with Rean and knew shit about him but still he acted as big deciding factor of decisions and actions of Lavi in the second half of anime. Their confrontation was so lame and weak and only thing that tops it in terms of badly executed important parts is absolutely wrong final boss fight with the most laughable "villain. Woman acted like this sly warped bitch only to be literally randomly beheaded without any cool or threatening moments that would make you care about her or consider her menacing. The bossfight itself was more like random puzzle solving moment with no tension (well the fact that you do not give a damn about the characters on scene is not helping). Then you have Sara which should definitely have some moments with northern Yegers but nah, not at all, she just appeared and thats it. Instead of investing time into some interesting episode about Sara interactions with her old pals we got the cringiest clown Ordis episode in the beginning. I dunno if this is budget issue. Animation and stuff was still ok and even CGI was nice... but the story pacing and decisions were the worst. Probably had not enough money and space for VA and storywriting. Honestly this anime is doing disservice to the games, not good advertising at all. Opening music was lit tho... and Spiral of Erebos at the end too.
I was okay with the anime being bad until I had a sentiment similar to what you start explaining at 20:50. Like the new characters and story sucking? Whatever. This was an outsourced project with clearly a low budget and poor directing. But realizing they really did a disservice to what CS3 establishes with Rean & Altina and the year 1205 in general really felt bad, and made me wish this anime never existed.
Great video was very curious about this series, with Reverie coming soon I hope some one does a recap video. My brain is so foggy, heck played the first two Cold Steel games back on the ps3...... 😔
its a shame because i was also looking forward to this since it was never really covered in the games. Now i see why Xanthe Huynh and sean chiplock wanted nothing to do with this
Honestly the only good thing about the Anime was playing a game of "Where's Waldo" and trying to find all of the Main and Major Side Characters in all 3 games -Rixia and Lloyd got a few minutes in the Geo Front -Claire just talking to Rufus -Olivert talking to Osborne -Ash flirting with some girls in Raquel -Elliot and Machias drinking some Coffee with Rean -Sharon & Alisa literally going down the Escalators -Alfin, Elise and Musse just chatting in St Astraia Like that was literally the whole thing that I did during the whole run
Wish they did an anime on CS1 instead but oh wells. Although it'd take them a couple of seasons to cover an 80hr game or a very rushed 12 episodes which would suck as well.
yeah, I was kinda hoping we get to see how the northern jaegers still got a grudge over the empire that lead to the event in cs 3, how they ended up teaming with the steel maiden to get their revenge to the empire, perhaps even a short cameo of her along with her divine knight even heck I think the story would be better if they just stick to the original cast, maybe the story will follow rean & altina perspective in some episode and sara perspective on the other
I’m glad someone is talking about this anime and how it did bad. What’s worse is that it has a worst rating compared to the Sky OVA. It’s a shame that the Northern Sar didn’t explore Sara or Rean’s character more
Such a disappointment. I liked a few of the references like the sneaking into the palace as a maid (Sky) and Altina’s freak out over unauthorized head pats but it didn’t give me anything I was hoping for. It would have been great to see more of North Ambria since we never went in games but half the anime was spent in Erebonia. I get they were going for culture shock with the characters coming from an impoverished nation and seeing the wealth of the Empire but that could’ve been done in a single episode. And seriously no interactions with Sara? I mean she would have to be someone Lavi would idolize as an up and coming female northern jaeger right? I know the jaeger turned bracer trope has been done to death and it would have just made Lavi Fie 2.0 but I think it would’ve been a much better ending to see Sara recruit her to the guild.
I enjoyed watching it however rushed it was and I liked the cameos, and the supporting characters were good too. Lavi was a little lackluster though. I got really busy after ep 11 and I was like “oh finally getting to the war!” And then learning that 12 is the last episode, I’ve had zero interest in actually finishing it. Nor does it answer any questions about what happened to Rean and why he’s so torn up about it in cold steel 3. But you gotta admit that Mishy committing terrorism was a cinematic masterpiece
I was very VERY sad the moment they confirmed that it wasn't going to be following the Cold Steel story from CS1 onward because, not only are we missing the adventure of *Class 7* from the very beginning, but also for those who haven't played the games... how could they understand what is going on in this anime if they haven't played CS1/CS2 beforehand? That and the fact that *multiple external studious* working on this anime (instead of 1 competent anime studio) all disappointed me so much and signaled to me that this anime was going to be a total failure.
It's actually not that bad for actually to outsource. Demon Slayer also outsources a lot of their stuff and my country had an outsourcing studio cleaning the in betweens for Ufotable. The problem here is the production management that can't afford itself due to the budget
I stop at episode 2. I had this feeling saying this anime doesn't work but I can't find the logic or explanation why. Now, watching this video I understand. Thanks, man.
Yeah... big reason why i was not even excited when i heard the announcement but was instead confused why they would even bother with it... Anime adaptations of games very rarely does it well..... so much so that its best not to expect much.
This had all the potential in the world, on top of that it was the last chance to actually flesh out what Rean was supposed to go through to give some more weight to his constant whining and feeling down, but instead of some actual morally grey stuff that makes you think its just the same thing we get in the games, saving everyone everywhere with power of friendship at no cost. I liked the anime original cast in general but it was too short to actually flesh out the story and the potentially most interesting parts were generally quite glossed over. Could have been great if they took more risks, if they had at least 24 episodes and if the story was just better told overall. And of course if the animation was better. Its not exactly dissapointing because I wasnt expecting anything, but at least they are now done milking CS hopefully. Best thing about it is that it had Sara.
thanks for saving 5 hours of my life. i havent played CS III yet as i'm still working on Azure right now. and i'm 100% sure Tio would DEMOLISH whoever made the script of that strange mishy cult to the ground if she was there.
Rean did mention that what happened in North Ambria was not even a war since the Empire dominated like crazy. But yeah the anime is a disappointment. They could have at least made the war last like 3 eps and dive into Rean's trauma, Altina and Sara reaction to Rean's super ogre form. Like when they mentioned it in Cold Steel 3. It really emphasized on Rean's trauma and somehow after the war. Rean was not even bothered by what happenes.
I managed to make it as far as 7 episodes before dropping it. This anime was handled poorly in general. And for me, the biggest misstep was choosing Lavi over Sara as the main protagonist.
I had no issue with choosing an original character as the protag, but Lavi's just terrible. Iseria would have been better, she's one dimensional but at least she's relatable.
@@TheKisekiNut I don't normally have an issue with them choosing an original protagonist either. Infact, I was on board with it when I heard the news initially. However, the question is whether or not we needed an original protagonist for this particular anime. Now that I've seen 7 episodes of it, my honest opinion is that we really didn't need one when we already had a pre-established character that would have done a much better job. Sara checked all the boxes for a good protagonist here. Her ties to Erebonia, North Ambria, the Northern Jaegers and Rean? Check. Inner conflict related to her new homeland invading her former homeland? Check. Her desire to protect the people she cares about on both sides? Check. It would have been easy for the writers to write a compelling story with her as the lead. And they wouldn't have had to waste a bunch of time trying to come up with a compelling backstory for her, because one already exists. They would only need to expand on it a bit. Not saying that you are wrong about Iseria, by the way. She probably would have made a decent protagonist. But I still believe Sara would have been perfect for the role. >.>
Same with the trails in the sky animation. It was just all over the place and having played the games it couldn't fit everything into their little time window. After watching it I felt like it was just a waste of time since I got a decent story in the games. As much as I want to see a trails series anime succeed they currently don't have a good track record on any animation projects with the series they've taken.
25:18 I don't think there's any cause for concern there. Trails has a big enough fanbase that another anime isn't an if....it's a when. I completely agree with your criticisms but I do actually want to see Lavi again but only cause I don't like series putting out a series or movie and then for it not to matter. Lavi will need a lot of work but there have been worse characters redeemed in other franchises so maybe she can be redeemed(Though honestly I don't know how). This anime's biggest crime is the pacing in my book and I only recently finished Cold Steel 4 so I was hungry for more Cold Steel stuff but when I finished the anime I was annoyed and bored. I do hope there's more anime(If I had to make a suggestion I'd ask for an anime based on Rean's last year at Thors but that maybe too vague...I'm not an expert on this franchise so I hope my comments aren't too stupid).
Falcom said they gave two options for a Cold Steel anime either the Northern War or Crow’s past and all I can say is thank god they left Crow alone. Instead they let a fanartist who loves his character make a cute comic and its so so much better than this awful anime. I’m one of the few who likes the Sky ova because at least its the story and characters I love animated decently, this anime has no redeeming features at all
What is funny is they only had 12 episodes yet they spent most of the episodes with filler. I think that and trying to paint the all the erebonian heroes as good people was the main issues. They were too afraid to have Rean, Lecther, and Altina be a menacing villain. They made the war more like a slight scuffle between malfunctioning mechs too. In the game the war was supposed to scar Rean, he was suppose to lose control and actually hurt people. In the show he’s a good guy helping Lavi and the Jaegars save the day!
As weird as it sounds I'm actually kind of glad the anime ended up being a total flop. The trails series already has a lot of info spread out over a ton of games, I think the series would be made worse if relevant plot details were put in other mediums like animes, movies, stage play etc. The last thing the trails series needs is to become a Yoko taro multimedia train wreck.
I’d really like to know who this show was made for? It doesn’t expand on the existing lore enough to be interesting for fans but relies on existing lore so much that it’s near impregnable for newcomers so it was made for no one I guess.
I just imagine what would have happened if they had somebody in production that was actually an avid Trails fan if that were the case it might have been Faithfully adapted even given the budget
off topic but not really - it would be really great if you did more lore videos on characters in the trails series was one of my favorite segments of yours
I kinda liked the anime, but from the moment they did Mishy dirty I knew It would be nothing more than some random sidething. It's kinda sad, It had some pretty good parts, and amazing possibilities, but well. I guess It's time to go write my fanfiction on how I belive the story should've been...
I made it through about 3/4 before I dropped it, I really enjoyed the Liberl, Crossbell and Erebonian arc games and thought it would be enjoyable to hear about the war that always got skipped over. Yeah... this wasn't it.
Could have done more. Rather unusual that Lavian never got to talk with Sara. This could be the closest thing to having the protagonist party being a jaeger corps and looks like it’s the official North Ambria arc.
I think Kondo gave a story to the animators and they read one page and threw the rest of the book away, because the Lead Dev of the Kiseki games basically has a giant book of notes and lore on everything that happens, but animators and studios don't give a eff on that, they want a cool 'movie-like' project. This explains why when they had animated series in the past for Sora no Kiseki SC, it was a OVA of different scenes. Maybe the worst part is, you would need to know what studio they worked with to make this, and chances are it's a 'cheap' studio?
It had some great "so bad it's good" moments, like the clown episode that was comedy gold in the same kind of way The Room was. The last episode made me feel like a clown though what an absolute monstrosity
Oh man...I'm a huge fan of the games, and I was so excited about this when it was announced. Dropped it immediately after the first episode. It felt like watching a generic, low-budget 2002 anime. Such a shame, as it had so much potential... I still believe that anime could be a great way to further expand Trails' lore, characters, and events...but not like this!
I was simply dumbfounded when Lavi didn't realize that Rean was the Ashen chevalier upon meeting him and learning his name. Isn't learning his name the first thing one should do when gathering intel? And it's not like that was secret knowledge or anything. All they had to do was read through any post- civil war Imperial Chronicle edition that had Ashen Chevalier propaganda in it.
With how long it took to actually GET to the Northern War part of this Northern War anime, I was starting to wonder if there was intended to be a second season planned, but no it just. Ended with a whimper. I was especially made for two reasons. One: This premise held so much potential. Two: Apparently, the other option was a Crow-centered anime and as Crow is my favourite Trails character, I'm miffed that we got THIS instead of something potentially enjoyable from multiple angles.
thanks for the summary. I hadnt heard a good thing about this anime, but as a huge trails fan myself I was still thinking I should watch it. I dont anymore, thanks for saving my time!
Falcom just somewhere down the line turned this into one big advertisement for the future gacha game Northern War. The story will probably be much better since they'll actually take their time executing everything.
Yep, I finished 3 other series during that period, and Blue Lock gave me all the hype I needed to push through the last few episodes of this trainwreck.
Thats a shame to hear. I was really excited for it when I heard it announced a while ago, but have bee super busy with my college semester. I was planning on watching it once summer hit, but it sounds like its probably a waste of time.
Yeah, I kind of felt like this anime didn't know what its audience was or what it wanted to accomplish, hence why it satisfied almost nobody. Personally, I wanted more focus on North Ambria, hence why the mission to scout out info on Rean wasn't something I was a huge fan of, even if I could understand the logic behind it. Also, I noticed a minor continuity error in the last episode, so SPOILERS for those who care: ...Sara was shown in her CS1/2 outfit, when the flashback in CS3 showed her in her new outfit. I know that's the least of the show's follies, but it still bugged me.
Wow...I didn't have any expectations for this anime, because anime based on videogames tend to be trash, and I thought, "Kiseki has so much lore, they won't be able to do a good anime in 12 episodes, a Kiseki anime needs like 20 seasons or something like that". I didn't see the anime, and just by hearing this analysis I'm still deeply disappointed with it, if I saw it I would've thrown my pc out of the window.
Admittedly, out of a fondness for Trails, I tricked myself into thinking it was alright for a first watch...then after thinking on it, this one definitely felt bland a.f and didn't provide too much insight into a Rean that was reaching CS3 breaking point through some grey stuff. I dunno, felt like they could had the guy go through the wringer more here or something instead of being sorta like a Dues Ex. There was a nice moment with Rean chatting with Elliot and Machias that I liked but I think that's it really :V
Wow. Good thing I saw this, but I didn't know if I was going to pay a site to see something that I could probably get more detail out of Trails to Reverie or the upcoming Calvard Series. So much potential, but wasted opportunity, I guess.
I just wanted to watch it, I've been waiting so much for this anime. But this... Yeah, thanks for saving a few hours of my life that I would be more than glad to spent in Ys 8 again. This result is really sad and I really don't know if we ever get at least good anime in the series :c
I watched this a couple days ago.... I regretted it. How did they not at least get all of the original VAs back. And even if that wasn't an issue, it was just soooooo boring and many of the side-characters ended up being barely there. *Note, I did watch it in english since I had played CS in english and I had heard of some voice actors coming back, but not the most important ones.* Oh and to be fair about episode 3 and calling out their real names, most people wouldn't bat an eye at the "Lavi" since it's just her nickname.... BUT THE INSTRUCTOR PART WOULD ACTUALLY RAISE SOME EYEBROWS. Not that their fabulous showcase of their "skills" and personality throughout the rest of the episode ain't a giveaway.
I have been waiting on this to decide if I wanted to bother watching it, because I kinda suspected it was not going to be good. Seems as though you just saved me a lot of time. Thanks!
this anime looks like hot garbage. I was already suspecting its pretty bad when I barely saw anybody on the falcom subreddit fawning over it, which is a rare occurrence, cause they usually cannot help themselves but fervently praise anything falcom related coming out, and making posts about how it changed their life. personally I don't think this series can ever work as an anime. There is so much lore, there are so many characters, it would take a legend of galactic heroes type of anime to really do it justice, and we aren't ever gonna get that. nobody is going to fund that. its a shame really cause the source material obviously does have potential.
Thank you for spoiling the daylights out of this. I was on the fence about watching this and not looking forward to the crummy animation quality obviously evident even in the trailers. You did a noble sacrifice for us. 👍
Well, thanks for reviewing this and sparing me 5 hours of skippable trails side-content. At least I got a 25 minutes rant of "The Kiseki Nut "ᵗᵐ out of it 🙃.
I couldn't get past episode 2 personally. The writing was on the wall for me then that this was going to be handled poorly. It just blows my mind how they managed to make such an interesting setting like North Ambria into a boring mess. I would've much preferred to pay for a shorter side story game instead of this to get more of a slice into the northern war imo.
I tried watching this series three times, but couldn't get into it so i thought i was just burnt out from trails. Sad to hear that the anime was a disappointment, because I was actually hyped about it releasing :(
I liked the fanservice stuff because I love the games. The “travellers guide to Erebonia” driving the plot would only have worked if the show was twice the length. Also they could have discovered more about the attack on Ymir instead of digging holes there. Everything after they return to North Ambria is so rushed. I liked Lavi but they did her dirty.
I watched 6 episodes and couldn't take it anymore... It wasnt even the low budget that made it so bad (although it didn't help), it was mostly how awful and tropy the new characters were, and how uninteresting each episode felt. I didn't understand how this was supposed to be part of the Trails series, it was so disconnected and different, in a bad way.... I think watching paint dry for 2 hours would have been more captivating than what I watched... I don't have the courage to finish it, I'm just gonna pretend it doesn't exist....
Didn't even realize there was an anime even for Sky. My goodness the things I need to watch have just increased. I know you say it's bad but I'm a sucker for these things.
Best thing about the anime was when the game OST played. 😅 ... Although the original OP and ED weren't bad either. ... But, yeah, that's sadly about it.
I thought a few scarce moments felt very Legend of Heroes like, but yeah, overall it made the big sequence that changed so many character lives in between Cold Steel 2 and 3 feel like a joke. I feel like it would have been better as a small visual novel instead of an anime, but if they didn't flesh out the story/ characters more, nothing will help it. There is only one small silver lining in all of this, and that is the mobile game will hopefully fail just as hard, so they never do something stupid like make a mobile game again.
TFW a few text boxes over still images in the game did the Northern War more justice than a 12 episode series bruh
Oof that's really bad lol. Glad I didn't watch it
100%.
Lol
Not only that but in a certain way the anime kinda negatively affects my perception of the Northern War. Like I always thought that Rean losing control traumatized him because maybe he put civilians in danger or something, but there really is nothing of that here…. it just kinda happens and then he moves on…
I think my favorite bit of the protagonists being absolutely the worst spies who've ever lived is that, if what I'm putting together is correct, Lavi didn't know Rean was the ashen chevalier even *after he told her his name*, like it still took him summoning Valimar for her to figure it out. They did three episodes worth of spying and didn't even learn their target's name, despite the fact that we know from the games that it's really not an especially well-kept secret.
This anime was an embarrassment in every way. As a trails fan I’m almost ashamed that this exists. Falcom really needs to start being more careful with who they give their properties to, and be more cautious with keeping their artistic integrity, rather than making this series seem like RPG McDonald’s
Cold steel is also an embarassment compared to zero and azure
Clowning on this anime was a bigger source of enjoyment than actually watching it. Its kinda hilarious how they had a completely serviceable plot already laid out for them from Nielsen's report , and all they had to do was expand upon that. Instead they built the entire anime around playing 'member berries with coldsteel and adding in pointless cameo's, (They didn't even Cameo Van and he was actually involved lmao). And some weird philosophical diatribe about what it means to be a hero.
What I expected in the story: Ouroboros and more
What I got: Ouroboros?
The End
Honestly, I wanted to see how bad the experience had been for Rean, as I felt like it was an horrible one when playing CS3. But after watching the anime, I can't even remember anything bad that happened to him after the events. I only remember that he said goodbye to Lavi and that the anime was over with a "happy, smiley face?" type of ending.
I didn't even realized I missed an episode until watching this video though.
We got like 1 or 2 Campanella cameos, and he's far from my favorite Ouroboros member
I swear Rean had PTSD from this event when i played the game, the anime seems make it another tuesday 😂
Dude The Trails in the Sky SC OVA series tried harder than this!
Sure the fact they started with the 2nd game and blasted through it is an atrocity but at least the action and animation was fantastic!!
I was expecting a Kiseki Rogue one. Painting Erebonia in the light of a villain, forcing Rean to do "something traumatic", LeGuin going off, ETC!
I think an interesting way to save the story could have been Rogan fighting alongside Lavi vs the empire, however the archaisms start going crazy and attacking citizens, Make the white hair bitch an enforcer revealed as she kills Rogan, have Rean and Lavi team up to beat her however this isn't enough stop the Archaisms... and as a finale, have Rean's use his Ogre power in an attempt to save everyone and in his rampage ends up killing Lavi.
Such a disappointment honestly.
Oh man ... 😢
I was so excited when ep 1 dropped I hurtled straight into it.
😬 I never returned to watch more.
I didn't know about poor Mishy's fate 😱.
You didn't miss much, Britta.
It's dreadful.
This anime had so much potential but became such a dumpster fire when aired.
What I believe should have happened.
Should have been 24 ep with at least 14 ep on the actual war.
Bond between Lavi and Rean should be explored even more.
Lavi should have died, made a martyr and the effect it had on Rean.
Jayna Storm should have been a member of Ouroboros.
Rean's Ogre transformation should have had a dramatic effect.
etc.
The story is also mostly written in a gacha game format where it can present the narrative in full.
The anime had to slim that down into 12 episodes which is not a good idea
@@Snzn_7 The kiseki gacha game has better story, no joke. I can't even put up with this anymore.
There was aNorthern War game?
I used to want an anime for the main line Cold Steel games...but after watching this show, I think we're better off just leaving something that isn't broken alone....😮💨
They should still, but only if it has better quality than Northern War.
@@Snzn_7 Not just better animation! Directing, runtime, and faithfully following the events in the games!
@@AllOtakuProductions I imagine faithfully adapting a Trails game into an anime would be extremely hard. We'd be lucky if each game could get a 26 episode anime each, and even that would likely not be long enough to both cover the necessary events and get people that aren't already established fans invested in the characters.
Thats impossible. Like you would need at least 2 seasons per game and thats even a bit rushed imo
@@chrischrisson4152 I know, and that's why a truly faithful adaptation of the games is pretty close to a lost cause. If somebody did want to make an anime that tried to be faithful to the games' story, I imagine they'd have to wait until the series is over to see what's okay to cut (since something/someone who might seem insignificant at first may turn out important later). Trails, as it currently is, works because of how it uses video games as a medium.
It's for this reason I actually wondered if some person at some point could make a decent anime that uses the setting and characters from the games without necessarily adapting the stories and continuity; a "re-telling" that could be faithful to feel of the games even if the events aren't the same.
I'm sure they would be plenty fans that wouldn't be satisfied, and I can certainly understand that feeling. But I personally think that would be more entertaining than trying to cram in as much of the story as possible in too small a runtime without letting the audience get attached to what they're experiencing.
P.S. Another thing I wonder is, if characters had to be cut (since a genuine problem I have is cast overbloat), would it be a good idea to have other characters take their roles instead?
The big red warning signs were there the moment we learned who was animating it. Falcom needed to hand the project to a credible studio who would treat it with the love and care it deserved but instead they went with the cheapest alternative..
It took 2 years even with the low budget. They should've just wait and earn more funds instead so they can afford to up the production
There s cheaper studios that give out decent/goodish work too, like Silverlink.
This is like falcom with NISA all over. they had a good cheap option in Xseed and opted to give it to NISA for a cheaper option and got Ys8s dumbster fire of a launch outta it. they dont learn.
Will give NIS some Credit cause credit where credit is due, NISA at least did CS3/4 a lot cleaner and did fix 8 eventually this anime is screwed.
@@HelLDeWs What happened with Ys 8? I didn't get to play it until last year.
And for what it's worth I think NISA has been doing a pretty good job minus a few...fan-angering decisions...either way those don't affect me. And although I'm playing the original releases, I can appreciate the initiative they took in releasing Kuro on Steam so that it's all set to go once they have the English translations all sorted out. If I wasn't impatient, I'd wait for the NISA releases because MAN, those Clouded Leopard releases have some of the worst optimization I've seen yet...
@@saintfayde4438 YS 8 pc port was so bad on release that it took 2 years just to fix it or rather it took them that much time just to hire some one else to do it. It was still playable for some players to some extent but you would have a much smoother experience in consoles. There were bugs and crashes galore that some can't even progress the game until Durante came and fix the mess of a port.
Machias drinking tea is not wrong. Is true he is a fan of coffee. But in a bonding event in the games, he drinks tea with Rean, because Rean is more of a tea person. Machias from that moment says that drinking tea sometimes is not bad. This bonding event shows Machias growth as a person. He always was closed minded but now he is open to experience differents points of view.
I watched all 12 episodes and the only part I enjoyed was Rean fishing
The foundation of it had big potential. There's probably a production issue and goals of those people differs . I'm sure even the animators themselves knew it isn't good but they can't do anything about it. It's clear that the writers never knew Cold Steel series as a whole heck we would be stupid to assume these writers are Nihon Falcoms'. If only some rich people would salvage this and make a remake because that recollection of Rean is serious in the game and it needs to be portrayed accurately. I work in the anime industry as a freelance. It pains me to see that this workers will get trash because of the production issue that they have no power to fight against. As for the writers who the hell hired someone clueless and never gave them actual instructions so they can polish it.
how much does a good quality anime cost? I would take on the bill and be in debt for a good Colds steel anime lol.
@@roxascross3741 300k usd per ep would be the baseline but that's still leave your workers under paid but not extremely. Schedules is a also a thing and proper rest. I work in my country who do clean ups with Ufotable Demon Slayer and AoT s4. S4 Aot we're all rushed to the bone and payment per month is at least 300 usd , that's a bare minimum if you live alone in my country . Kny films have much more budget than regular anime films(anime films ofc had bigger budget than 12 eps normally). For the remake of this it's better in film format with run time of 1hr 30min minimum. And make the budget the same with Your Name about 5mil USD if you want less action but more narrative , Demon Slayer Mugen train is 16 Mil USD if it's really action pack. I guess the balance is 10 Mil USD. Never mind over work you'll still gonna get that even with that budget. A lot animation industry are over work worldwide even Cartoons but Japan ranked one of the highest if not the highest (but my experience it kinda is )
There's so much missed potential with this show. When it was first announced, I was excited that it was telling a new story instead of just rehashing the plot of Cold Steel. It could have been really easy to turn the story of the North Ambrian war into a really solid, self-contained story that could appeal to new fans and get them interested in the rest of Trails. Episode 1 felt like the show was setting itself up to be that - sadly though, it very quickly turned into Lavi And Friends' Excellent Adventures in Erebonia (TM). By the end, the show had morphed into this complete dead zone where new fans aren't gonna be able to follow it, and hardcore fans aren't gonna be interested in it either, making it a rare show that appeals to exactly nobody. I still feel like the core story could be turned into something good if it was given to a better directing/writing team.
Great idea, terrible execution.
Funny considering how much Falcom ripped its own balls out while making Cold Steel all in the name of appealing to new fans and the Persona crowd.
It reminds me of the Sky animation too, like a good idea but the execution and adaptation was insanely horrible. They tried to addapt the entire of the Mid to End game into TWO chapters, and they ignored the best aspects of that game, and did some very weird choices.
@@advmx3 I mean, I'd say trying to make an OVA of the main plot of Sky was a bad idea in the first place.
I can't help but imagine that the initial plans were MUCH different than that.
I think the two main problems were Rean's popularity and the nature of North Ambrain annexation. Unlike the other protagonists who only had two games sorely focused on them (other than Kevin), Rean had 4 (Kurt should have been the MC or at the very least be a deuteragonist for 3 and 4.) The anime had Cold Steel in its name so people were expecting Rean to play a major role, which to be fair he canonically did. The second was the North Ambrian geopolitical nature.
North Ambrian, as a result of the Salt Pale, became the weakest country in Zemuria due to it not being self-sufficient. Crossbell despite being in the crossfire between the two superpowers of Zemuria could literally destroy Calvard and Erobania's economy if they wanted to. However, N.A. had to rely on their Jaegars to commit atrocities just to keep them fed, which made them a lot of enemies.
If the anime went for a total war route, the anime would last only about 3-5 episodes if we are being generous. So the creators turned it into a Spy thriller.
Hopefully, if there's an anime surrounding events in Erebonia up until the Kuro era - they put more effort into it, to show a few details.
1. When Rean finally decided to name himself the "Divine Blade of Ash"
2. Altina joining the Epstein Foundation
3. Fie and Towa's transfers over to Calvard
4. Crow joining the mercenary group in Calvard
5. Rixia returning to the role of "Yin"
6. Rean perfecting Spirit Unification (We're shown up to the point of "Enlightened Spirit Unification", but by the "Kuro" era, it seems more perfected)
This anime was such a huge let down. The Northern War was supposed to be a major and traumatic event in the Cold Steel timeline that sets up Rean’s whole character for the second half of the arc, and they told the story in the most PG-rated manner possible which didn’t justify anything we heard about in-game. And that’s before you get into plot holes and the like!
It baffles me that a few stills could be the superior way to experience the story.
There was also this noble guy in episode 5, who starts as a typical noble, a complete asshole who thinks nobles are above doing peasant work. He even sits on a chair looking at the passenger working, with a smile on his face.
But then he sees dirt on a child hands, and sudenly his whole character makes a complete 180, starts talking about how he was always supported by many people and he needs to do his part, and then starts helping with the derailement! He even shouts that there should be no difference between commoners and nobles anymore!
I don't know what the writers were thinking here, but one thing is for sure, they failed miserably
My friend who's been on the fence about playing Trails brought up this anime when it was announced and offered to watch it with me.
Now he's feeling very mixed about trying Trails later. :/
Ok let's not get crazy now the games are better as long you don't rush it and talk to everyone to see there litte story's lines of the NPC.s
This anime is bad for people that don't know anything about the series
At first i was hyped for the anime but yeah when it was finished i was also asking "wasnt this war supposed to be traumatic for Rean"?
You pointed it out but yeah it was kinda disappointing. No Sera, Altina or anything that was "important".
To be fair, Northern War arc HAVE EVERYTHING NEEDED to be a good 12 episodes anime, at least to Trails fan.
-They can elaborate more about poor people from North Ambria and Salt Pale effects.
-They can make principal Aurelia or even Rean as conflicted antagonist.
-They also can make the main cast died in the end of the story to explain their absence of them in the northern jaeger grudge in Lamere.
Biggest Trails strength is geopolitical world building where every countries have their own share of problem and North Ambria is the perfect one to emphasize this feature.
But no, they rather make Erebonia tour filler in first 5 episodes in a 12 episode seasonal anime.
I have it from credible sources that Sharon Kreuger barely appeared and Mishy didn't save the world. Terrible. I'm writing Falcom a passive aggressive email... but in half-Spanish and half-Korean so it confuses them
It was nice seeing cameos from the Old Class VII but there were cameos from the New Class VII. That was a nice touch cuz they wouldn't be important until Cold Steel 3
Add some Arabic as well, just for the fun of it.
When the anime was announced back then, i was very hyped. i want to know what happened in the North - Ambria war and what triggered Rean ogre power to lose control, even traumatized him. i even speculated maybe Rean meets someone, a new friend maybe that he meets in north ambria, then that friend either captured by Erebonia or die in war. or maybe seeing the horror of war so that rean loses control of his ogre power.
but nope, after seeing the first three episodes, i felt bored and very much disappointed. the north ambria collapse by itself and the war hasn't even started yet.
I would like a series set around the hexen clan, won't happen but it'd be nice.
The story has the potential to be good, even with bad animation a good writer and story boarder can make passable anime. I think every character has potential that is absolutely squandered after few episodes in. I like the *concept* of the characters. Lavi, grandaugther prodigy of a hero finally finding meaning in her journey, iseria, which is a regular girl in any way possible forced to take up arms in hope of earning money and survive, talion which envy the protag's skill and talent turned into admiration and real ally. They just fumbled this cool concept in every line of dialogues. Even glaark and the higher ranking politician has the potential to be interesting. I really would love this story to be redone competently either in game trough an episode/door like in revierie or sky the 3rd, but i guess falcom at this point just want to sweep it under the rug especially if the mobile game flop.
Edit: also arts. They fkin rarely use arts in this anime even though everyone has a fkin enigmas. Like the random mercenary use forte to stop that truck, and i actually love they use buffing arts instead of regular attack magic and shows how useful arts are even outside of the damaging attacks. Aafter that no, like everyone just forgot battle orbments are a thing. Like when they fight the ice monster.
I get headaches just listening to this summary. I haven't gotten to Cold Steel 3 yet, because I only started getting into the games 2 years ago. I started with CS1 and paused after CS2 to go back and play the older games to fully understand what happens in the later ones. Finished Zero last week and now sitting on Azure. And after that I can finally continue the CS series. During the past 1,5-2 years I spent more time on the Zemurian Continent than in the real world. I think it was one of your old videos that put the Trails games on my radar. Thank you for recommending them.
I can't believe that one of the most important characters from Class 7, who's from North Ambria only gets like 10 minutes of screen time. Sara got done so dirty, there was so much potential for Sara to explore her past, inner conflict with Erebonia invading her previous home, having to watch her own student lose control, meeting her past comrades, only for that potential to be tossed aside and focus on some OCs that we will never see nor care about again.
it's tatsunoko productions, i dunno what anyone expected.
Have to agree. Some episodes are a waste of time.
Also I skiped stuff in my watch and didn't think I missed anything.
For the opening I actually thought that it was gonna switch between Lavi and Rean to give us the scope of the war from both sides. Yet there was no war.
And yes Altina and Sara were done dirty.
It really feels like they were setting up for a 24 episode anime only to find out while making episode 11 that it was ending after 12. So much time spent setting up the new characters only for absolutely nothing to happen with everything resolving itself in 5 minutes.
Yup I can watch through the low quality animation but it's major problem is the story is written to be more than 12 episodes.
An obvious problem of this also was written for a gacha game where the gacha game can present the longer form of the story but the anime version is mostly a "digest" version of it.
I'd rather have had 6 good episodes rather than whatever this was.
Even if it was 24 episodes I think it would fail, if anything it might be worse. I don't think the writers had any clue how to plan it out in a way to keep the story engaging. If they had more to work with, I'd fully expect to see more episodes in the same vein as 3 and 4.
Yeah, this pretty much surmises my thoughts, and I watched this episode by episode as they were released. The cameos and references were fun fan service, but the plot is just confusing. I'm still not sure what Jayna(?) was up to. When Sara briefly appears in the last episode why does no one, civilian or soldier, exclaim "It's the Purple Lightning! She's come back!" or something to that effect? I'm also still confused why we had that scene where early on where the Stahlriter and Phantom Thief B appear with Campanella only to never show up again. I thought that meant they were going to be involved in the series but they never reappear.
For me there are three main problems with this anime. No, its not really the new characters that are not introduced enough in many cases or even animation that is not the best.
First and biggest problem for me is targeted audience. They refused to choose between standalone anime and "lore broadening anime". They just created something that is dreadful and not worth it for fans and chaotic and incomprehensible for newcomers. It fails as another piece in big kiseki puzzle and also as interesting little anime (which is sadly not).
Second problem is pacing. There are some ultra unnecessary and hideous episodes like third and fourth ones that were even worse that the worst kind of filler episodes. Third episode could be probably worst anime episode ever for me. Then at the end they rushed and underwhelmed the story with non hype or satisfactory final battle or conclusion. It wasted two or even more episodes on dipshit at the cost of better character and story developments at the end.
Third problem I find not the worst one but definitely still problem is usage of game characters as probably a little snack for fans. I would have no problem with that if those characters played some more significant roles. The biggnest of them would be definitely Rean, Altina and Lechter. Then the rest of characters had minor roles or just cameos (same with some locations)... I just hated this. If you include some character, give them some purpose... and when you manage to do at least that, flash them out a bit if you wanna play on hype feelings of fans. Lavi spent so little time with Rean and knew shit about him but still he acted as big deciding factor of decisions and actions of Lavi in the second half of anime. Their confrontation was so lame and weak and only thing that tops it in terms of badly executed important parts is absolutely wrong final boss fight with the most laughable "villain. Woman acted like this sly warped bitch only to be literally randomly beheaded without any cool or threatening moments that would make you care about her or consider her menacing. The bossfight itself was more like random puzzle solving moment with no tension (well the fact that you do not give a damn about the characters on scene is not helping). Then you have Sara which should definitely have some moments with northern Yegers but nah, not at all, she just appeared and thats it. Instead of investing time into some interesting episode about Sara interactions with her old pals we got the cringiest clown Ordis episode in the beginning.
I dunno if this is budget issue. Animation and stuff was still ok and even CGI was nice... but the story pacing and decisions were the worst. Probably had not enough money and space for VA and storywriting. Honestly this anime is doing disservice to the games, not good advertising at all.
Opening music was lit tho... and Spiral of Erebos at the end too.
I was okay with the anime being bad until I had a sentiment similar to what you start explaining at 20:50. Like the new characters and story sucking? Whatever. This was an outsourced project with clearly a low budget and poor directing. But realizing they really did a disservice to what CS3 establishes with Rean & Altina and the year 1205 in general really felt bad, and made me wish this anime never existed.
Great video was very curious about this series, with Reverie coming soon I hope some one does a recap video. My brain is so foggy, heck played the first two Cold Steel games back on the ps3...... 😔
Watching the anime made me cry...
If anyone watches it, theres no way they wanna play the games. So much potential just thrown out the windiow >_>
The only way to appreciate this is by playing the games first
@@Snzn_7 I've played all Sky, Crosbell, and Erebonia arcs and got the platinum trophies but watching the anime made me cry its horrible
its a shame because i was also looking forward to this since it was never really covered in the games. Now i see why Xanthe Huynh and sean chiplock wanted nothing to do with this
Honestly the only good thing about the Anime was playing a game of "Where's Waldo" and trying to find all of the Main and Major Side Characters in all 3 games
-Rixia and Lloyd got a few minutes in the Geo Front
-Claire just talking to Rufus
-Olivert talking to Osborne
-Ash flirting with some girls in Raquel
-Elliot and Machias drinking some Coffee with Rean
-Sharon & Alisa literally going down the Escalators
-Alfin, Elise and Musse just chatting in St Astraia
Like that was literally the whole thing that I did during the whole run
Wish they did an anime on CS1 instead but oh wells. Although it'd take them a couple of seasons to cover an 80hr game or a very rushed 12 episodes which would suck as well.
yeah, I was kinda hoping we get to see how the northern jaegers still got a grudge over the empire that lead to the event in cs 3, how they ended up teaming with the steel maiden to get their revenge to the empire, perhaps even a short cameo of her along with her divine knight even
heck I think the story would be better if they just stick to the original cast, maybe the story will follow rean & altina perspective in some episode and sara perspective on the other
The review is on point, but buddy... Machias gets into drinking tea. It's part of his development
I’m glad someone is talking about this anime and how it did bad. What’s worse is that it has a worst rating compared to the Sky OVA. It’s a shame that the Northern Sar didn’t explore Sara or Rean’s character more
Such a disappointment. I liked a few of the references like the sneaking into the palace as a maid (Sky) and Altina’s freak out over unauthorized head pats but it didn’t give me anything I was hoping for. It would have been great to see more of North Ambria since we never went in games but half the anime was spent in Erebonia. I get they were going for culture shock with the characters coming from an impoverished nation and seeing the wealth of the Empire but that could’ve been done in a single episode. And seriously no interactions with Sara? I mean she would have to be someone Lavi would idolize as an up and coming female northern jaeger right? I know the jaeger turned bracer trope has been done to death and it would have just made Lavi Fie 2.0 but I think it would’ve been a much better ending to see Sara recruit her to the guild.
I enjoyed watching it however rushed it was and I liked the cameos, and the supporting characters were good too. Lavi was a little lackluster though. I got really busy after ep 11 and I was like “oh finally getting to the war!” And then learning that 12 is the last episode, I’ve had zero interest in actually finishing it. Nor does it answer any questions about what happened to Rean and why he’s so torn up about it in cold steel 3.
But you gotta admit that Mishy committing terrorism was a cinematic masterpiece
Mishy being a terrorist was just humour, a so bad it's good event. Still had no reason to be there though, not in a 12 episode series.
I was very VERY sad the moment they confirmed that it wasn't going to be following the Cold Steel story from CS1 onward because, not only are we missing the adventure of *Class 7* from the very beginning, but also for those who haven't played the games... how could they understand what is going on in this anime if they haven't played CS1/CS2 beforehand? That and the fact that *multiple external studious* working on this anime (instead of 1 competent anime studio) all disappointed me so much and signaled to me that this anime was going to be a total failure.
It's actually not that bad for actually to outsource. Demon Slayer also outsources a lot of their stuff and my country had an outsourcing studio cleaning the in betweens for Ufotable. The problem here is the production management that can't afford itself due to the budget
I stop at episode 2. I had this feeling saying this anime doesn't work but I can't find the logic or explanation why. Now, watching this video I understand. Thanks, man.
Yeah... big reason why i was not even excited when i heard the announcement but was instead confused why they would even bother with it... Anime adaptations of games very rarely does it well..... so much so that its best not to expect much.
This had all the potential in the world, on top of that it was the last chance to actually flesh out what Rean was supposed to go through to give some more weight to his constant whining and feeling down, but instead of some actual morally grey stuff that makes you think its just the same thing we get in the games, saving everyone everywhere with power of friendship at no cost.
I liked the anime original cast in general but it was too short to actually flesh out the story and the potentially most interesting parts were generally quite glossed over. Could have been great if they took more risks, if they had at least 24 episodes and if the story was just better told overall. And of course if the animation was better.
Its not exactly dissapointing because I wasnt expecting anything, but at least they are now done milking CS hopefully. Best thing about it is that it had Sara.
thanks for saving 5 hours of my life. i havent played CS III yet as i'm still working on Azure right now. and i'm 100% sure Tio would DEMOLISH whoever made the script of that strange mishy cult to the ground if she was there.
Rean did mention that what happened in North Ambria was not even a war since the Empire dominated like crazy.
But yeah the anime is a disappointment. They could have at least made the war last like 3 eps and dive into Rean's trauma, Altina and Sara reaction to Rean's super ogre form.
Like when they mentioned it in Cold Steel 3. It really emphasized on Rean's trauma and somehow after the war. Rean was not even bothered by what happenes.
I didn't hate it or anything but it is trashing on the actual series ngl I'm sad we didn't get reans actual VA (Sean chipplock) same with Altina
@mushy probably not because most of the original VAs are still in it
@mushy that makes no sense huh?
@mushy never said that bro it's just translation never usually effects who voices a character especially when most of the original cast are in it
From what I read it was union related. Sean at the time put out a tweet surrounding it.
@@TheKisekiNut ah okay thank you man!
I managed to make it as far as 7 episodes before dropping it. This anime was handled poorly in general. And for me, the biggest misstep was choosing Lavi over Sara as the main protagonist.
I had no issue with choosing an original character as the protag, but Lavi's just terrible. Iseria would have been better, she's one dimensional but at least she's relatable.
@@TheKisekiNut I don't normally have an issue with them choosing an original protagonist either. Infact, I was on board with it when I heard the news initially.
However, the question is whether or not we needed an original protagonist for this particular anime. Now that I've seen 7 episodes of it, my honest opinion is that we really didn't need one when we already had a pre-established character that would have done a much better job.
Sara checked all the boxes for a good protagonist here. Her ties to Erebonia, North Ambria, the Northern Jaegers and Rean? Check. Inner conflict related to her new homeland invading her former homeland? Check. Her desire to protect the people she cares about on both sides? Check. It would have been easy for the writers to write a compelling story with her as the lead. And they wouldn't have had to waste a bunch of time trying to come up with a compelling backstory for her, because one already exists. They would only need to expand on it a bit.
Not saying that you are wrong about Iseria, by the way. She probably would have made a decent protagonist. But I still believe Sara would have been perfect for the role. >.>
Same with the trails in the sky animation. It was just all over the place and having played the games it couldn't fit everything into their little time window. After watching it I felt like it was just a waste of time since I got a decent story in the games. As much as I want to see a trails series anime succeed they currently don't have a good track record on any animation projects with the series they've taken.
11:51 I don't think he has Stormtrooper aim...I think this was meant to be Lammy and Sammy's shields, but they forgot to add the special effects in.
Yup - I had watched it as it aired and your conclusions are pretty much mine as well. Also, great callout of the Opening Theme. Great stuff!
25:18 I don't think there's any cause for concern there. Trails has a big enough fanbase that another anime isn't an if....it's a when. I completely agree with your criticisms but I do actually want to see Lavi again but only cause I don't like series putting out a series or movie and then for it not to matter. Lavi will need a lot of work but there have been worse characters redeemed in other franchises so maybe she can be redeemed(Though honestly I don't know how). This anime's biggest crime is the pacing in my book and I only recently finished Cold Steel 4 so I was hungry for more Cold Steel stuff but when I finished the anime I was annoyed and bored. I do hope there's more anime(If I had to make a suggestion I'd ask for an anime based on Rean's last year at Thors but that maybe too vague...I'm not an expert on this franchise so I hope my comments aren't too stupid).
Falcom said they gave two options for a Cold Steel anime either the Northern War or Crow’s past and all I can say is thank god they left Crow alone. Instead they let a fanartist who loves his character make a cute comic and its so so much better than this awful anime. I’m one of the few who likes the Sky ova because at least its the story and characters I love animated decently, this anime has no redeeming features at all
What is funny is they only had 12 episodes yet they spent most of the episodes with filler. I think that and trying to paint the all the erebonian heroes as good people was the main issues. They were too afraid to have Rean, Lecther, and Altina be a menacing villain. They made the war more like a slight scuffle between malfunctioning mechs too. In the game the war was supposed to scar Rean, he was suppose to lose control and actually hurt people. In the show he’s a good guy helping Lavi and the Jaegars save the day!
As weird as it sounds I'm actually kind of glad the anime ended up being a total flop. The trails series already has a lot of info spread out over a ton of games, I think the series would be made worse if relevant plot details were put in other mediums like animes, movies, stage play etc. The last thing the trails series needs is to become a Yoko taro multimedia train wreck.
I’d really like to know who this show was made for? It doesn’t expand on the existing lore enough to be interesting for fans but relies on existing lore so much that it’s near impregnable for newcomers so it was made for no one I guess.
They said it was intended as a way to get more people in to the series - that ain't happening with this.
Hey man at least we got some Diddy Kong music in the background.
Rare were the kings back then.
Thanks for watching and recapping this for us. I gave up after two episodes.
This is an adaptation that no one wanted. Also a perfect example of how not to write anything. And what exactly did we learn in the story...?
I just imagine what would have happened if they had somebody in production that was actually an avid Trails fan if that were the case it might have been Faithfully adapted even given the budget
I spit out my drink after you said "Rean's recollection of the events in Cold Steel III does a better job than this anime". Well said!
off topic but not really - it would be really great if you did more lore videos on characters in the trails series
was one of my favorite segments of yours
I kinda liked the anime, but from the moment they did Mishy dirty I knew It would be nothing more than some random sidething.
It's kinda sad, It had some pretty good parts, and amazing possibilities, but well.
I guess It's time to go write my fanfiction on how I belive the story should've been...
I made it through about 3/4 before I dropped it, I really enjoyed the Liberl, Crossbell and Erebonian arc games and thought it would be enjoyable to hear about the war that always got skipped over. Yeah... this wasn't it.
Could have done more. Rather unusual that Lavian never got to talk with Sara. This could be the closest thing to having the protagonist party being a jaeger corps and looks like it’s the official North Ambria arc.
She probably only knew Sara as a bracer, and not her background
I think Kondo gave a story to the animators and they read one page and threw the rest of the book away, because the Lead Dev of the Kiseki games basically has a giant book of notes and lore on everything that happens, but animators and studios don't give a eff on that, they want a cool 'movie-like' project.
This explains why when they had animated series in the past for Sora no Kiseki SC, it was a OVA of different scenes.
Maybe the worst part is, you would need to know what studio they worked with to make this, and chances are it's a 'cheap' studio?
It had some great "so bad it's good" moments, like the clown episode that was comedy gold in the same kind of way The Room was. The last episode made me feel like a clown though what an absolute monstrosity
The "clown" episode was absolute trash though, not even in an "It's so bad, it's good" way.
Oh man...I'm a huge fan of the games, and I was so excited about this when it was announced. Dropped it immediately after the first episode. It felt like watching a generic, low-budget 2002 anime. Such a shame, as it had so much potential...
I still believe that anime could be a great way to further expand Trails' lore, characters, and events...but not like this!
Ngl, the ONE Thing that I always looked for when it came to the Cold Steel anime was the opening theme because it’s a banger.
Literally the only good thing about the anime outside of the cameos.
I was simply dumbfounded when Lavi didn't realize that Rean was the Ashen chevalier upon meeting him and learning his name.
Isn't learning his name the first thing one should do when gathering intel?
And it's not like that was secret knowledge or anything. All they had to do was read through any post- civil war Imperial Chronicle edition that had Ashen Chevalier propaganda in it.
With how long it took to actually GET to the Northern War part of this Northern War anime, I was starting to wonder if there was intended to be a second season planned, but no it just. Ended with a whimper.
I was especially made for two reasons. One: This premise held so much potential. Two: Apparently, the other option was a Crow-centered anime and as Crow is my favourite Trails character, I'm miffed that we got THIS instead of something potentially enjoyable from multiple angles.
thanks for the summary. I hadnt heard a good thing about this anime, but as a huge trails fan myself I was still thinking I should watch it. I dont anymore, thanks for saving my time!
Falcom just somewhere down the line turned this into one big advertisement for the future gacha game Northern War. The story will probably be much better since they'll actually take their time executing everything.
The fact that it took you two weeks to finish finish an anime that could be finished in two days says a lot
Yep, I finished 3 other series during that period, and Blue Lock gave me all the hype I needed to push through the last few episodes of this trainwreck.
Thats a shame to hear. I was really excited for it when I heard it announced a while ago, but have bee super busy with my college semester. I was planning on watching it once summer hit, but it sounds like its probably a waste of time.
Yeah, I kind of felt like this anime didn't know what its audience was or what it wanted to accomplish, hence why it satisfied almost nobody.
Personally, I wanted more focus on North Ambria, hence why the mission to scout out info on Rean wasn't something I was a huge fan of, even if I could understand the logic behind it.
Also, I noticed a minor continuity error in the last episode, so SPOILERS for those who care:
...Sara was shown in her CS1/2 outfit, when the flashback in CS3 showed her in her new outfit. I know that's the least of the show's follies, but it still bugged me.
Wow...I didn't have any expectations for this anime, because anime based on videogames tend to be trash, and I thought, "Kiseki has so much lore, they won't be able to do a good anime in 12 episodes, a Kiseki anime needs like 20 seasons or something like that". I didn't see the anime, and just by hearing this analysis I'm still deeply disappointed with it, if I saw it I would've thrown my pc out of the window.
Admittedly, out of a fondness for Trails, I tricked myself into thinking it was alright for a first watch...then after thinking on it, this one definitely felt bland a.f and didn't provide too much insight into a Rean that was reaching CS3 breaking point through some grey stuff. I dunno, felt like they could had the guy go through the wringer more here or something instead of being sorta like a Dues Ex. There was a nice moment with Rean chatting with Elliot and Machias that I liked but I think that's it really :V
Wow. Good thing I saw this, but I didn't know if I was going to pay a site to see something that I could probably get more detail out of Trails to Reverie or the upcoming Calvard Series. So much potential, but wasted opportunity, I guess.
I just wanted to watch it, I've been waiting so much for this anime. But this... Yeah, thanks for saving a few hours of my life that I would be more than glad to spent in Ys 8 again. This result is really sad and I really don't know if we ever get at least good anime in the series :c
I watched this a couple days ago....
I regretted it. How did they not at least get all of the original VAs back. And even if that wasn't an issue, it was just soooooo boring and many of the side-characters ended up being barely there.
*Note, I did watch it in english since I had played CS in english and I had heard of some voice actors coming back, but not the most important ones.*
Oh and to be fair about episode 3 and calling out their real names, most people wouldn't bat an eye at the "Lavi" since it's just her nickname.... BUT THE INSTRUCTOR PART WOULD ACTUALLY RAISE SOME EYEBROWS. Not that their fabulous showcase of their "skills" and personality throughout the rest of the episode ain't a giveaway.
I have been waiting on this to decide if I wanted to bother watching it, because I kinda suspected it was not going to be good. Seems as though you just saved me a lot of time. Thanks!
this anime looks like hot garbage. I was already suspecting its pretty bad when I barely saw anybody on the falcom subreddit fawning over it, which is a rare occurrence, cause they usually cannot help themselves but fervently praise anything falcom related coming out, and making posts about how it changed their life.
personally I don't think this series can ever work as an anime. There is so much lore, there are so many characters, it would take a legend of galactic heroes type of anime to really do it justice, and we aren't ever gonna get that. nobody is going to fund that. its a shame really cause the source material obviously does have potential.
Thank you for spoiling the daylights out of this. I was on the fence about watching this and not looking forward to the crummy animation quality obviously evident even in the trailers. You did a noble sacrifice for us. 👍
Well, thanks for reviewing this and sparing me 5 hours of skippable trails side-content.
At least I got a 25 minutes rant of "The Kiseki Nut "ᵗᵐ out of it 🙃.
By far the worst animes I've watched recently, mostly because I usually drop something this bad after a couple episodes.
I've watched a lot of bad anime, and this is easily in the top 5.
@@TheKisekiNuttry kimisen
Miracles do happen though, I was convinced to give the series a try because of the SC OVA that I watched on a whim.
Your opinions convinced me to be British and not British at the same time. You now owe me a £0 note.
Inflation adjusted, it might get you a sherbet saucer at the local sweet shop.
My favourite part of this anime is how I didn't watch it.
Perfect Review. I lasted to episode 4...then lost my will to continue.
I couldn't get past episode 2 personally. The writing was on the wall for me then that this was going to be handled poorly. It just blows my mind how they managed to make such an interesting setting like North Ambria into a boring mess. I would've much preferred to pay for a shorter side story game instead of this to get more of a slice into the northern war imo.
I tried watching this series three times, but couldn't get into it so i thought i was just burnt out from trails. Sad to hear that the anime was a disappointment, because I was actually hyped about it releasing :(
5:37 To be fair, clowns are always OP lmao.....that scene had me laughing for like 5min straight.
Nah, her getting wrecked was way more enjoyable.
I liked the fanservice stuff because I love the games. The “travellers guide to Erebonia” driving the plot would only have worked if the show was twice the length. Also they could have discovered more about the attack on Ymir instead of digging holes there. Everything after they return to North Ambria is so rushed. I liked Lavi but they did her dirty.
I watched 6 episodes and couldn't take it anymore... It wasnt even the low budget that made it so bad (although it didn't help), it was mostly how awful and tropy the new characters were, and how uninteresting each episode felt. I didn't understand how this was supposed to be part of the Trails series, it was so disconnected and different, in a bad way.... I think watching paint dry for 2 hours would have been more captivating than what I watched...
I don't have the courage to finish it, I'm just gonna pretend it doesn't exist....
Didn't even realize there was an anime even for Sky. My goodness the things I need to watch have just increased. I know you say it's bad but I'm a sucker for these things.
Best thing about the anime was when the game OST played. 😅 ... Although the original OP and ED weren't bad either. ... But, yeah, that's sadly about it.
I thought a few scarce moments felt very Legend of Heroes like, but yeah, overall it made the big sequence that changed so many character lives in between Cold Steel 2 and 3 feel like a joke. I feel like it would have been better as a small visual novel instead of an anime, but if they didn't flesh out the story/ characters more, nothing will help it. There is only one small silver lining in all of this, and that is the mobile game will hopefully fail just as hard, so they never do something stupid like make a mobile game again.