The demise of the flame of hope; Teardrop of Crystal episode 3 impression

Synopsis

The episode three for Legend of Mana Teardrop of crystal started with Inspector Boyd and our boy Shiloh headed toward the Goto Grottoes. In the temple of healing, Inspector Boyd met with the leader of the nuns who work on the temple and they immediately talked about the Sandra’s letter. The leader of the temple said that it was a possibility that Sandra targeted their sacred torch. The leader explained that once the soldier who got wounded after their fight with the faeries got healed by the nuns using the sacred torch. Shiloh asked the nuns’ leader if she knew a Jumi residing in Gato Grottoes. She told them that they never knew any Jumi in that city. Inspector Boyd wanted to inspect the sacred torch so later on, they headed to the torch chamber. In there, they met with a man wearing a reddish robe with a flaming motive named Ruben. He had a responsibility to light up the torch kept burning.

Why did all Jumis looks handsome& Pretty? is it because they are basically gemstones?

Inspector Boyd decided to do inspection to check the surrounding area while Shiloh headed to town to ask around about the Jumi. After a few stroll, Shiloh saw a jewelry store in the town and entered the place. Inside the store, someone was there analyzing the stone. The man who analyzed the jewelry said that the stone owner wasn’t there at the moment yet he knew a lot about jewelry. Shiloh asked whether he knew a thing about Jumi in town. His instant reply was whether Shiloh was looking for a Jumi core. Shiloh asked if the store got Jumi’s core to sell yet he told him that the core was very valuable and there was no possibility that the store had them. Shiloh later explained that he got Jumi friends that were looking for their tribe. Unfortunately, he got no clue about a Jumi whereabouts in the town.

Nicollo with different color palette  xD

After leaving the shop, Shiloh continued his search by asking the townspeople about the Jumi yet all of them said the same thing. They didn’t know any Jumi in the town. As he was looking for the place in the cave where the nuns producing a liquor called the blessing elixir he overheard some people having a conversation. He went to source of the voice and found a beautiful and fair maiden talking to a small fairy. The fairy noticed that someone was watching them and instantly hid behind the lady. Shiloh came out and introduced himself and he apologized if his appearance made the fairy afraid. The brown haired lady introduced herself as Serafina and she asked Shiloh about why he wandered in the cave. After explaining his intention to search for the liquor making place, Serafina guided him to reach the place. The first thing Shiloh did after meeting the nuns (who work making liquors) was asking them whether they know about a Jumi’s in Gato Grottoes. Once again, Shiloh had to accept disappointment since they too didn’t know anything about a Jumi.

Somehow it feels like a dating sim not an action RPG anime

Serafine asked Shiloh why did he searched for Jumi and he replied that he wanted to help his Jumi friends; Ruri and Shinju hime, finding their tribe. Meanwhile, they took some time to enjoy the local delicacy which was called the green ball bun. The Bun was look like a green ball which is a bit disgusting due to it had an insect leg on it, making it less appetizing. Although full with hesitation, Shiloh found it quite delicious. After another conversation regarding to how the Jumi looks like, Serafine suddenly mentioned that she had met a Jumi before. Shiloh instantly asked her where she met the Jumi. She mentioned the temple. Shiloh thanked Serafine, said his farewell and tried to get to the temple as soon as possible. The only person in the temple expect for the nuns was the flame keeper, Rubens. Just as he meets Rubens, Shiloh instantly asked Rubens if he was a Jumi. He wanted to stay with him to protect him from Sandra’s attack. Also, he asked Ruben to meet with his two friends Ruri and Shinju hime. Ruben was against the idea. He explained that once upon a time, Jumi’s people were gathering in a bejeweled city and they had their own leader. In some turn of event, the leader of the Jumi tribe; a princess who specifically could heal the other jumi, got kidnapped by one of the member and since then, they started to suspect one another as the kidnapper which in the end made them disbanded one by one. Ruben said that as long as they could not learn to trust completely, they would end up getting separated again in the end. So it would be the best for Shinju hime and Ruri to have each other rather than finding out other Jumis like him.

That's a reassuring word to say xD

Just as they talked suddenly a little sproutling came running into the room, crying. He was sobbing due to the terrible stomachache he had. There was another nun nearby who tried to ease the Sproutling pain’s. She told the Sproutling that the reason why his stomach was hurt was because of a Popo bug got inside his stomach. The Sproutling beg the Nun to cure him. Out of sudden, the nurse said that instead of giving him a medicine, it would be best if she just tore of his leaf and took the popo bug directly. Shiloh said that tearing a leaf from a sprouting may kill them and the little leaf people started to get scared because he didn’t want to die. The nun actually was quite serious with her words as she pinned the little leaf man to the floor. The nun commanded Rubens to tear off the sproutling leaf. She said that the all purpose medicine created from a sproutling could even cure a petrified person. She mentioned Ruben's sweetheart who turned into stone in city named Geo and asked him not to hesitate in order to cure her. Ruben asked why did she knew about his sweetheart condition. The nun just opened the veil from his mouth for a few second; revealing her face as Sandra.. and she offered him a knife to finish the job. Ruben's thought for a few second and then said that he could not do it. In the nick of time, Shiloh crashed himself to the nun and told the sprouting to run away fast (which the sproutling did right away). 

Sandra use roundhouse kick!..Its super effective!! 2 HP remaining

Enraged with Shiloh action, Sandra kicked Shiloh strong enough to push him and make his back crashed to the nearby wall. Sandra told Ruben that she was disappointed with Ruben's hesitancy to save his sweetheart. She walked closer to Ruben. As if frozen with the Jewel hunter aura, Ruben just paralyzed when she stabbed his stomach using the dagger. As Ruben fell to his knees, Sandra threatened him that if he didn't want anything happen to his core he had to cry. Feeling that it took so long, Sandra tore of Ruben core. It was a ruby stone etched to his chest and as he was dying, he said his sweetheart name one last time, Diona. Shiloh took Ruben's dying body to his arms. Before vanishing, he muttered that he wanted to meet her lover once more time. In the aftermath, Inspector Boyd came to the scene asking about what had just happened. Shiloh explained that Sandra just took Ruben's core and left the scene. Also, Shiloh asked the inspector to tell him should he got another case request that closely related to Sandra

Review

To be honest, I feel sleepy while watching this episode lol. The reason why I did not feel excited was due to the fact that I knew beforehand about Ruben’s fate here. It was obvious since the producer wanted to stay true to the original storyline, as the player of the game, there was no plot twist or sudden turn of event on it. The anime was like a role playing game in general; collect information, find the next event point, then went again to another point event, and then the character entered dungeon and fight monsters and bosses. However, the anime that I watched today only focused on the first and second part only. It focuses too much on plot and conversations which made it quite boring. In addition, it didn’t manage to up the tension into a more impactful moment.  Like when Ruben somehow found out that the person in front of him was Sandra. What did he do? He just standing there gasping like he just want to accept his fate as a sacrificial lion. There was no apparent emotion on it as well as any resistance. What about our boy Shiloh? After Sandra kicked him, he was just stay there and let the event happen before his eyes. He did try to save the little sprouting but when the real target of Sandra was in danger, he somehow just sat there unable to do anything.  The moment when Sandra took Ruben’s core was maybe the only part where this episode tried to redeem itself; the dead of one the Jumis.  

Fatality....Flawless Victory

SquareEnix used Ruben’s demise as the main reason why this anime (or the game to be exact) while  seem light and cheerful had a serious dark side on it.  It wanted to show the viewers that they mean business; anyone could die in this anime (input evil laugh here). However, they forget about us, the gamer who had played the original game. For us Rubens was just an emotionless NPC created to be sacrificed so that the plot would continue. If we follow the anime from the first episode, we barely know him. Even if we were a new viewer, his dead would bring little emotional impact for us. More so, we (the original players of the game) already saw them all (the Rubens events) before lol. We expected a gripping animation or else if they could not find any reason to change the story at least make it looks more entertaining. Add a bit of humor to make us laugh, make smart jokes, or if this should be tragedy, bring more emotion to the character. In a sense, this was a disappointing episode for me. In another area, this anime even tried to show a glimpse of Nicollo from the fairy’s word. But for what reason?. Technically this anime only focused on the Jumi’s arch of the game so the addition of Nicollo’s part was actually…unnecessary.  He was there just to fill the time slot lol. The teardrop crystal itself was actually the title of the Jumi’s arc episode finale in the game so.. Only Ruri and Shinju hime will have a decent focus on the anime. Neither Nicollo nor other Dominas’ town NPC would have significant importance to the main plot. The only important scene apart from Rubens losing his core this episode was the introduction of Serafina. It was important because she was technically the second Shiloh; which may provide another point of view from the second protagonist. Although she was more or less a female Shiloh in the original game, I heard that there was a manga adaptation in which she became Shiloh’s sister or something. Well that’s how this week episode concluded. I hope I didn’t feel sleepy again next week haha