Anime: Arc the Lad

Animation

The animation for this looked rather cheap. There was not much movement and the "powers" and special effects were cheaply done.

Sound

I don't really even remember the music. I guess it wasn't particularly good or bad.

Story

The story is fairly typical. It is told well for the first half and does draw you in. I don't get too picky with originality because every story is similar to one or another. The story is your basic adventure story, with no real twists or turns.

Character

Despite the fact that this anime is called Arc the Lad, I cared very little for Arc, and he did not play a big part in this anime. It mostly centers around Elk, a boy with fire ability. The character of Elk develops really well and you grow to truly care about him and his struggles. I did not really care for any of the other characters.

Value

It was worth seeing once, but there is no rewatch value. The crappy animation is not worth sitting through twice once you know what happens.

Enjoyment

Despite its flaws, I did enjoy watching it once. I will never watch it again, but it is worth seeing once.

If the word 'cliche' didn't exist, then this series would've invented it.

The animation looks good, a bit aged but nothing bad. Or aged ... rather plain. Compared to the series Bee Train has done (Noir, Hack//Sign), it does look familiar, but although it looks good in other series, it's only mediocre here. Good enough to enjoy, but it lacks the spirit and atmosphere the other Bee Train series have, which is probably caused by the plain storyline.

The opening song fits the series really well and the various BGM is also fitting for the series. Sometimes it reminded me of those old Final Fantasy BGM, which means that they're at least remarkable enough to realize that they're present.
The voiceactor for Elk is probably the worst of them, since he doesn't have a captivating voice, but appears rather dull and uninspired (just like the entire series).
The dub on the other hand has only people who have a dull voice, which makes it painfully clear that the English dub consists only of people who are reading a script without seeing the scenes, since none of them has the passion to create a voice to fit the character.
Although the dialogues might be quite boring, cliche and sometimes just plain dumb, the Japanese voiceactors at least appear to show the characters' emotions, which does make the anime bearable. But even a veteran as Horie Yui isn't really able to put down a good feeling for Lieza due to the character. Unfortunately, the English dub misses that part as well, with the worst job done by the voiceactor for Lieza who isn't even slightly able to put down a decent voice with emotion.

If there is one word to describe this series, it would be cliche or perhaps uncreative. There are absolutely no surprises and everyone and everything is really clear from the start as soon as you see them. Still, if you like fantasy, you might appreciate it after all. The storytelling is very simple, but even though it's so damn cliche, it's not really boring since it has enough to offer in story and pace. And the pace is pretty well done, which isn't too fast but also not too slow in progress.
The only problem is that it annoys a lot because the story is so predictable that you're only waiting for it to happen. And usually it happens in the least interesting way.

But if the story was already cliche, then the characters were even worse; a girl on the run from a horrible organisation and a hero tormented with a past in that same organisation meet up, well - that's probably the entire character design they made for them. The success rules state that the girl has to be a soft, sweet girl who gets attached to the strong hero, while the hero has to be strong and cool to protect the girl. Indeed, it works. But the characters are not likeable, nor are they realistic since it's all so perfectly made that it's hard to believe that they're actual characters. But if only 2 characters were like that it was bearable - but it isn't; all characters in this series are made according to the success rule, which makes them flatter than flat, even though they get enough development. In the end, you'll remember them as much as you would remember 'n Sync after 10 years: "Oh .. a boys band .." but that'll be all you know since they have no charm or anything to make you like them.
It's just too bad that all their dialogues, emotions and actions are so predictable and stupid throughout the entire series that it becomes annoying.

Note that the DVD doesn't contain any suffixes, so no -san or -chan additions.
0% creativity, 0% originality, so if you want to see something else, please do so. Because everything you see in this series is already shown before, and probably even better.