Audience reviews
18 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
AnimeEnjoyer420
Recommendation: This show was so much fun to watch. The plot is pretty bonkers and the characters are interesting, so it gets an unqualified thumbs up from me for anyone that likes fantasy anime.
Positives:
+ Wild story full of twists and turns that you won't see coming. Once you get into the meat of the story, almost every episode has at least one "oh shit what" moment. For me, the viewing experience was something like watching Code Geass, or more recently, Back Arrow. It just keeps escalating with crazy plot twists until it gets really weird, and it's so much fun to just be along for the ride.
+ Interesting flawed protagonist in Luke. He's a spoiled little rich kid at first, and his party likes him overall, but gets exasperated with his arrogance and some of his antics. I'll keep it v…
Read at the sourcebiodhe
TLDR, I generally enjoyed watching this series but overall it was just, fine.
Now on to the review. I did not play the game so I essentially went in blind/fresh.
Is an anime series considered a success if it successfully triggers contextually accurate emotions in the viewer? Some would say it is and I would generally agree, but in the case of this anime, I'd say it was a little overdone and it ends up working against itself.
Premise/Story
On the surface, Tales of the Abyss ticks all the boxes for my kind of anime. It has elements of action, fantasy, adventure, magic and a touch of romance. It certainly is an interesting take on the age old premise of "young spoiled brat goes through stuff, grows up and tries to save the world", but beyond the interesting approach, the story is quite…
Read at the sourceLegendAqua
"It's not my fault!" - Luke
Tales of the Abyss is another installment to the Tales of series and much like Final Fantasy don't have interconnections with it's previous and future installments and is a standalone. With this being said LA looking at Tales of the Abyss looked like a generic fantasy JRPG, however as the anime proceeded and showed more of it's characters and world it became something MUCH more, with some baggage here and there.
Luke fon Fabre voiced by Chihiro Suzuki getting whisked away early onto the story and him trying to get back home uncovers ALOT of the world with Tear Grants voiced by Yukana helping him, but it quickly escalates into something HUGE. Of course for a traditional JRPG, party members do join, from Guy Cecil voiced by Yasunori Matsumoto, Luke's best friend…
Read at the sourceDRkNz
Pretty much the same as the game, which is really good.. the characters developments are really great, great story, great music, especially the ending music, really worth every seconds of my time to watch it.. by far the best tales series for me, really blew my mind..
enjoyed this with my family and no complaints at all.. everything were spot on, although I would really love to see more than the ending, probably will be much better to see more after the ending..
Pretty much the same as the game, which is really good.. the characters developments are really great, great story, great music, especially the ending music, really worth every seconds of my time to watch it.. by far the best tales series for me, really blew my mind..
enjoyed this with my family and no complaints at all.. ever…
Read at the sourcedeathabarbar
What a crap, the story consist of plot-holes, and plot twists, almost every episode someone changes side, or revealed that they were on the other side all along or some other terrible secret, then everyone acts the same as ever in the next episode. There is one guy who helps the enemy, but the main cast lets him escape, then next time he spies on them but, the 'smart glasses guy' says it's not a problem, then a the next episode, said guy brings the bad guys on them, resulting in others dying, then a few episides later said guy heps the main cast.
While the starting point and the end point of the story is clear, the inbetween is murky at best. Enemies survive clearly fatal hits for the sake of plot, the main group has the ability to teleport, only shown travelling when there is some interac…
Read at the sourceElohimCrimson
I want to make a brief review of this anime as to not spoil others
Plot: The main plot is mediocre but it has some twist that separate it from others. The ending is not the best but it is executed well.
Art: The art is good, that's the only thing I won't deny. The characters are not unique in appearance but at least they're not hurting my eyes.
Sound: The worst. There are times when I literally mute it. The MC's voice is annoying, really. He literally does nothing but SCREAM, SCREAM and SCREAM. The voice actors don't seem to understand their roles as well. Not only the MC but also his friends as well.
Characters: Poor and inconsistent. The characters would change at times but they would revert back over and over and over again. It's really bad. The MC is annoying as fuck, not because…
Read at the sourceHatoVariant
This is the first review I've ever done, and I felt like this anime needed my opinion on it so let's go.
I HATE anime based off of existing games. There are about two or three that have ever really impressed me and even then the scores are low. This one joined the list of ones that I've liked, and I like it a lot.
Let me first say here that I quite literally had to look up the main character's information because if he wasn't going to change from what kind of character he was at first I would not watch it. As it were the first couple of episodes were long and a bit painful but in my opinion worth it. Sadly though his shitty clothing choices last the whole anime.
This show would have certainly benefited from being about 5 or so more episodes long to do more world building but at the same ti…
Read at the sourceSirHellfire
After reviewing the Symphonia OVA’s and the Vesperia movie I’ve finally arrived at the only full length Tales adaptations (apart from the one from WAY back in the day; I'm not going to review that). “So, how did it go?”, “Is it any better than the other adaptations?”, “IT’S STILL NOT AS GOOD AS THE GAME!” I hear you cry. Well shut up and let me tell you!
The Short Version:
(+)There’s blood; I always think this is a good thing.
(+)Characters actually grow and change instead of remaining static.
(-)It takes too long for the show to kick into gear.
(-)The MC is downright unbearable for half the show.
(-)The writing has plot holes; yeah it’s that bad.
The Story (6/10): Being a JRPG adaptation, the show starts out pretty simple but then kicks itself into gear to a grander scale and just becom…
Read at the sourceGroupanimenight
Laohoam- I was a bit skeptical when starting this anime, mainly because the main character was a douche. After the plot started to develop it became more and more enjoyable. Also the fact that this was based off an RPG makes it a bit more enjoyable for me because you can see some RPG characteristics in it. Overall I recommend watching it the beginning is a little rough but give it some time it is worth it.
Tadgh: This anime is also a video game. There are several times when that is noticeable, but if you know that going in, it's not a big deal. Otherwise it is excellent. You meet and learn about every character, the art and movement was smooth an excellent, the story had several twists and kept me on the edge of my seat. There is some contention among our group as to the ending, but I th…
Read at the sourceMama_Mega
"I'm not living for anyone else. There's no meaning in living. When I sensed my own death, I wanted to live. I know now. That's all I needed."
Being an adaptation of a video game, ToA has to balance between two things:
1: It has to remain true and accurate to the source material for the diehard fans who are watching it for the label, while also
2: Keeping the storytelling format interesting to the viewers who've never played the game.
And I feel this anime has managed a balance between the two that you rarely see in any kind of adaptation. I give my feedback on the two points separately below, in order.
If you want to know how well it adapts the story:
Tales of the Abyss runs a story very much similar to what the game-players will remember while leaving out only the most minor of details…
Read at the sourceShemyaza
As someone who had played the original game long before watching the anime, I say the adaptation is rather bad. Indeed the plot did not go under any major changes, no important events present in the game was removed while some scenes not shown in the games are not bad(some are anime-original, while some are taken from official anthology). What is terrible is how battles are carried out. The anime took the word 'random battle encounter' in the game too literally, it is a 'battle encounter' and the event, along with the feeling it gives is 'random'. In the game you would not really care if all animals and monsters in the area would suddenly join forces with its natural predator or prey to prioritize killing you and your party for exactly zero reason since in game you would want to fight a gr…
Read at the sourceCueTheMusic
Tales of the abyss was based off of a game of the same name. I haven't played the game before, so I will not be able to tell you whether or not it followed the original storyline, or how different the graphics are, but only the overall enjoyability of it.
It is an exciting adventure that really pulls you in. The main character, Luke Fon Fabre goes through an epic journey where he learns what it means to depend on others and have all others depend on him. And as cliche as it may sound, he learns what it truly means to be alive.
The story was interesting because everything fits together in the end. Things that we thought we knew and understood in the beginning turn out other than expected. The overall journey and the characters' evolution was enjoyable. This is not to say that the story was…
Read at the sourceLavenderKiwi
First i will mention that this series is not my favorite nor my least favorite in anyway and ill give you the reasons through this review i hope i can help you =)..
~Story~
I rather enjoyed the story but was disapointed with the ending and i will try to tell you why without giving anything away. I found that the ending was a bad one because through the series the story built up alot of relationships and then when you get to the end its like the author just kind wrote it really quick and dropped it so i found that abit boring and dull but the start was very good i enjoyed it alot and i also enjoyed the plot line and well once again i dont wanna give away anything but its a very interesting story that makes you think about how you should live your life.
~characters~
I found the main male pro…
Read at the sourceJustJuice
This is just my general interpretation of how I understood the anime.
Tales of the Abyss
T.V Series: 26 Episodes
Anime Director: Kenji Kodama
Plot:
Tales of the abyss is a fairy tale set in a magical world governed by Fonstones, otherwise known as the “Score”. The plot of the series mainly focuses on the “Score” and how our heroines contend with seemingly impossible obstacles to prevent its alteration. In order to achieve this and maintain the order of the “Score”, they must face off against foes that they once looked up to as family. The task is not easily realized, as matters of the heart arise to challenge their course of action. Despite the heart aching challenges that stand poised to thwart their progression, our heroines were able to find solace in the bond they share with one an…
Read at the sourcenamidaful
As this review should be about the Anime and not about the Game (which I have not played), I could not avoid rating it with 10. I completed watching it about 1 week ago and I never quite got it out of my mind. And it really is the first time, I cannot stop thinking about an ordinary Anime. The music is good, the Animation very neat, the story complex but that is far from enough for earning a 10. However, this Anime has at least 3 very good points that make it outstanding.
First of all: the characters. This is the first and only Anime I know with a real anti-hero. In the first episodes I was frustrated by Lukes childish behavior. I almost wanted to punch him several times or even hoped, he would just leave the Anime. I have never been so dissatisfied with a hero and that is, in fact, an a…
Read at the sourceGoldeneyeuro
Now, I should mention first that I have not played the Tales of the Abyss video game on which this anime is based. Despite that, I found it a great series to watch, with excellent characters and character development, brilliantly animated scenes, spectacular artwork, and a well-paced excellent story.
The story starts out slowly, but each character gives the viewer an immediate impression when introduced and one quickly develops feelings towards him or her, whether good or bad. Each character is developed to the fullest extent, with detailed backstories, distinct personalities, personal motivation and conflicts, and excellent designs. You can truly feel the conflicts they experience, and the depth they get into is truly spectacular. The antagonists are as well-developed as the protagonists…
Read at the sourceD5
Overall, this anime would fit the bill as "mediocre". False hope, plus the excellent experiences with the Tales of xxx franchise (e.g. Tales of Phantasia fan-translations on SNES and PlayStation) kept me interested... but the operative word was "false".
I won't summarize the story, or explain why it was "dreadful" for me. Rather, I'll tell you why I hate this: there was potential for greatness, but from the very beginning, major details ruined it.
Annoying characters, huge plot holes, directing which seemed to not take itself seriously, personalities which are easily interchangeable, and no sense of "suspended disbelief".
Nothing in this anime was worth the time it took to make it. Somewhere, early in the design process, a competent director and editor were misplaced with writers who…
Read at the sourceTakarian
Tales of the Abyss was originally developed by Namco for the Playstation 2 and released on the 10th anniversary of the “Tales” series. The anime first aired 3. Of October 2008 and it’s the fourth installment of the “Tales” series to be adapted into an anime. I liked the game a lot and thought I should review the anime for the users on MAL.
In the review below I’ve tried to include an objective opinion of both the fan treats and possible faults that a game adaption poses to viewers, who haven’t played the game. To this end a section called “Compared to the game” can be found later on in the review.
Story
Tales of the Abyss’ storyline has a balanced amount of both good and bad points. The main storyline is interesting, but is highly dependent on long tiring explanations of terms like “fono…
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