The lost princess; The Legend of Mana The Teardrop Crystal episode 2 impression

Synopsis

Following last week episode,  The Heroes went inside Mekiv Cave to find Ruri partner Shinju. Siloh somehow got separated with Ruri inside the Mekiv cave and with a bit of luck he met with Shinjoh directly. She was a wandering alone inside the cave and from the looks of it, she had a problem with finding direction. Just as she walked a bit, some skeleton monster surrounding her. Fortunately Shiloh was already spotted her before so after watching her got surrounded by monsters, he could instantly obliterate them. After small greeting, Shiloh told Shinju about her partner Ruri and how they planned to find her inside the castle. However, at that moment, he was still looking for the missing Ruri and Shinju had not meet  him yet either. Just as our protagonists searched for Ruri, Shinju (who had a terrible sense of direction) wandered on her own again. Our little princess even walked too deep in the cave and meet directly with Du'inke; the monster that looks like a gigantic Yeti holding a giant club. The funny thing was, since she was naïve, she even asked the Du'inke about her friends whereabout Lol.

A standard Rider Kick used to save the Lost damsel in distress

Back to Shiloh, after being separated with Shinju, he meet again with Ruri who had just slaying some cave monsters. As they talked, they heard Du'inke's roar and instantly went to the source of the voice knowing that Shinju might be around there. They finally encounter the giant Yetti and soon after the fight started. Both Shiloh and Ruri used their best skills to conquer Du'inke but it proved to be stronger than they thought. At one occasion, Du'inke managed to grab Shinju and it enraged Ruri which made him charged bluntly to the monster only to get swatted like a fly. Shiloh Grab the falling Shinju-Hime and took her near to the injured Ruri. Knowing that only him remained, Shiloh tried his best to fight Du'inke alone yet even at his best, he still lose and got struck by the heavy club. When all hope seems lost,  suddenly a light just fill the place and Du'inke got swallowed by the blinding light. An image of a girl holding a spear appeared on the screen and the next thing we know, Du'inke was no more.

You only need to open a google map and you're PERFECT XD

The Three of them took some time to talk about their situation. Both Shinju and Ruri were actually a Jumi. Jumi is a gemstone which evolved into a human being or like what Ruri said a Gem Tribe. Ruri's Stone Core was based on Lapis Lazuli while Shinju was based on a White Pearl. They started a journey to find another their tribe and for as long as they know, they still had not found another Jumi. Before parting way, Shinju gave Shiloh an artifact that looks like a flame inside a crystal for a token of gratitude after saving her life. Before going home, Shiloh met with Domina's town people including Rachele, Duelle, Rachel's father (Mark), Cappela and Diddle (two of the town street performers).  At the beginning they asked whether Ruri had found his partner or not. Later, They told Shiloh to stay away from the Jumis because there was a saying that crying for Jumi might turn people into stone and their tears might cause a terrible storm. Shiloh said that the rumor was not proved yet so he didn't know if it's real or not.

The not so mysterious girl

During the night, Shiloh was sitting in his bed contemplating about what the townsfolk had said to him. Despite their warning regarding to Jumi, he still considered both Ruri and Shinju-hime as his precious friends and should anything happened to them, he would still shed tears even though crying might turn him into a stone. As he looked through the room's window, he noticed the merchant Nicollo and Inspector Boyd talking near his home. Still wearing his pajamas, he walked to them asking about what they were doing at late night. Nicollo instantly greeted him as his merchant buddy although Shiloh dislike that calling. Actually, during his earlier adventure, Nicollo just scam Shiloh for 300 loucre (the money currency in legend of mana). Nicollo who didn't want to refund the money instantly run away leaving both of them. Inspector Boyd then told Shiloh that he got a job from Healing temple of Gatto Grottoes. It  jewel hunter named Sandra sent a notification letter that she intended to steal the flame of hope from the temple. It was still unknown about the thing called the flame of hope..Is it a torch? or is it a Jumi?. One important thing was that Sandra the Jewel hunter also planned to hunt the tribe of Gem (Jumi). Knowing that his friends might be in danger, Shiloh decided that he would accompany Inspector Boyd to Gato Grottoes later.

Review

A decent episode from the second episode which at least give us some action although in my opinion, the effect was not really spectacular too see. I found Shinju-hime looks pretty cute in this anime adaptation and her way of kept saying Shiloh oni sama (Brother)was endearing. For the image of a lady holding a spear, it was actually the real form of Shinju-hime which we know as Lady Blackpearl. Unlike the Shinju that we know, Lady Blackpearl is a confidence person and very much a contrast of Shinju-hime's personality. In short, it was the real Shinju-hime that responsible for the killing of Du'inke(while her clumsy and naïve persona unconscious). What disappointed me was Square once again didn't animate the lady BlackPearl when she appeared and obliterated the giant Yetti and only showed her for a few second. I think for the gamer of the legend of Mana, her identity doesn't need to be concealed because we already know lol. Even if you look closely, the mysterious lady truly looks very identical to Shinju-hime except her gem were black instead of white. Still, since not all of the viewers might play the game before, SquareEnix and Warner brother of Japan decided to kept her BlackPearl persona hidden (for a while)

Never trust a merchant especially if he said he take no profit. Or calling u Buddy LOL

The story was started to get serious since I know about what's going to happen next in Gato Grottoes. However, since some of you might not have played the game, I thought it would be wise to kept the spoiler away for now. For this episode, I thought that the animation of the character was good yet the battle animation could still be better in my opinion. The fact that they also added character like Nicollo inside means that they didn't forget about him but maybe he would only have fewer role due to the focus of the anime was for the other characters like Shinju and Ruri. I am curious.. not about the plot actually (cos I already know xD) but about how well they could animate the next episode.