The introduction of the land of Mana?? The Legend of Mana; Teardrop of Crystal episode one impression

I  was surprised when finding out about the existence of Legend of Mana anime. As a gamer that spent my teenager’s day during 90s, I played most of the Playstation’s Role playing games notably those made by Squaresoft (now Squareenix). Just few months ago, the remake of Legend of Mana was published for newer consoles and before long, the anime adaptation also made it first airing. With high expectation, I waited and watched the first episode of this anime yesterday. The anime adaptation had a specific name “Teardrop of crystal” and from the opening animation, I could see that the anime will feature both of the Male hero and the female heroines. In the original game, we could only choose one gender and both of them were considered as one single person (with different gender of course). Before giving my thought about this first episode, let’s see what the storyline of the first episode is. LET’S GO

This little cacti basically notes the protagonist's game progress

The anime started with the scene with Shiloh (the male protagonist) falling from the sky. He terriefied with his falling situation until suddenly he was engulfed in bubble and a voice told him to stay calm. He met the Elf lady like being whose telling him to rest assure. For those of you who had not played the original game, she was not just an ordinary elf-lady. Actually she is the Mana Goddess; notably the one who creates the balance of the world. Unlike the original game, she didn’t tell Shiloh that the Mana Tree is dying. She only mentioned to Shiloh that she was the embodiment of love and she was waiting for Shiloh to deliver other people wishes to her. The next morning, Shiloh wake up in his home; feeling a weird sensation as the dream about the meeting with the Goddess kept repeating from time to time. In the next scene, he went downstairs and he met the two small magicians (they are a twin named Bud and Corona in this anime) who happened to wreak havoc in the village some days earlier came to meet him. They called him master and asked him to teach them magic. However, he declined because he was not a magician so he could teach them nothing although at the end he let them to stay on is house.

Two little mischief maker turned into a team party member ingame

The scene moves to the introduction of the characters including the anthropomorphic leaf like creature (sproutling), a talking tree named Trent and later on the cute little monsters that Shiloh kept as pets. After picking tomatoes, Shiloh asked the two little magicians to help him feeding the pets while he would go to Domina town in order to share the harvest with the townsfolk. While in the town, Shiloh overheard the town onion guards; Duelle shouting to a person in a green cloak. He asked his name but only got a silent treatment from him. Later on he told Shiloh that the man in green cloak asked him to find someone so he suggested that he searched the tavern. Suddenly there’s a shouting inside the tavern. The man forcefully asked the tavern’s bar maid; Rachel about his partner whereabouts. Rachel frightened because she didn’t really know the whereabouts of the person mentioned; however, the man kept pressuring him. Duelle challenged the man (who in this anime using his Japanese given name Ruri instead of Elazul) to a one on one duel. Surprisingly, the little knight could handle him using a foot swipe and he was instantly taken down. After calming down, Ruri explained that he was looking for his missing partner. His partner was named Shinju (Pearl) and he could only felt her faint presence in the tavern.

"I am not a dancing little man yo...this was my sweeping move"

Shiloh continues to meet with Nouvelle a bird like creature to whom he would give his harvest. Nouvelle explained that Shiloh had already living with them for the past ten years and he told Shiloh that he was given a freedom to pursue what he likes. When Shiloh exited from the building, Ruri already waited for him. He asked Shiloh to help him finding Shinju and he wanted to apologize to Rachel for his harsh behavior earlier. In the next scene, we saw the protagonist, Ruri, Duelle in Rachel’s house. Rachel understood about Ruri condition and accepted his apology. However, she still had not had a slightest clue regarding to his partner whereabouts. The only thing she could do at that moment was to give the artifact for them. It was a green jade looking stone and just when Ruri touched the stone, suddenly an image of Mekiv cave appeared to them and it crushed just after the cave manifested. Knowing that the artifact might lead them to Shinju, Ruri, Shiloh and Duelle headed to the monster infested cave (which later only Ruri and Shiloh entered to the cave due to Duelle going back for having other business).

 

For a supporting character Rachel looks pretty waifuable xD

Review

I knew that for some viewers, Legend of Mana might be a bit slow and boring due to how simple it first episode is. It was more like an introductory animation of the world of Mana and even if it had a bit of conflict, it was resolved rather quickly and without too much emotion or impact on it. The reason was because it tried to stay true to the original game and maintaining the storytelling of the original game instead of jumping directly into a battle themed anime. For the first episode, in my humble opinion, Teardrop of crystal was a bit disappointing. If we look at the game story, it was possible for the Squareenix to animate the battle between Shiloh and the two magicians. Yet, they opted to simplify the scene and told the viewers about the event using only few animated scenes which they could do better. In addition, I thought the first episode would end with the boss fight with Ruri and Shiloh defeating the big boss yeti like creature which resides in the cavern. In contrast, it ended with the heroes entering the cave in a rescue mission to find Shinju; which means that the pacing was even slower than my imagination.

"Waifu battle? Im not gonna lose to some side character am I?"  (Pearl 2022)

The anime’s positive vibe was from its willingness to stay true to its root making it felt like nostalgia for the fans. Like when it incorporates the use of its original soundtrack in the town of Domina. The players of the game would instantly recognize the tune. The coloring of the protagonist’s home also looks identical to the ones we saw on the video game remakes. It’s colorful and the attention of detail was amazing. The way they portrayed the characters also shows that they used a decent budget for this anime. Not to mention that in this anime we could see how pretty Rachel actually looks like (compared to when we saw her in game lol).Maybe the reason why I felt that the first episode was lacking was due to the fact that I already playing the game before. Therefore, I already expected what’s going to happen, or who was the character that he will meet at Domina. Meanwhile, newer viewer of the anime may excite about what’s going to happen next because at the same time, the ending for the first episode is kind of a cliffhanger. They may expected the first action themed adventure yet the anime postponed it for the next episode. I am not happy with this episode but still had high hopes for this anime

: p