絶園のテンペスト

ZETSUEN NO TEMPEST

ANIME

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
24
RELEASE
March 29, 2013
LENGTH
24 min

DESCRIPTION

One day, a sorceress princess was stuffed into a barrel and banished.

One day, a single girl was suddenly murdered, and the culprit still runs free.

And one day, a battle spanning time and space over magic and revenge began!

Sanity and madness, sense and intelligence, self-confidence and convictions.

The tragic tale of this irrational world starts now.

The Kusaribe family is a family of sorcerers under the protection of the "Tree of Origins". Their princess, Hakaze Kusaribe, was the greatest sorceress of their family. But Samon Kusaribe, a member of their family seeking to resurrect the "Tree of World's End", a tree that opposes the "Tree of Origins" and controls the power of destruction, stuffs her into a barrel, and banishes her to a deserted island. From the deserted island, she sends a message out to sea, which is picked up by Mahiro Fuwa, a young boy who's sworn vengeance upon the criminal who killed his little sister, Aika. Mahiro agrees to help Hakaze under the condition that she find Aika's killer with her magic. But once Mahiro's best friend and Aika's lover, Yoshino Takigawa is rescued from danger, he too gets dragged into this tale of revenge.

(Source: Aniplex USA)

CAST

Aika Fuwa
Kana Hanazawa
Hakaze Kusaribe
Miyuki Sawashiro
Yoshino Takigawa
Kouki Uchiyama
Mahiro Fuwa
Toshiyuki Toyonaga
Evangeline Yamamoto
Nana Mizuki
Samon Kusaribe
Rikiya Koyama
Natsumura Kusaribe
Junichi Suwabe
Megumu Hanemura
Yuuki Kaji
Tetsuma Kusaribe
Hiroyuki Yoshino
Takumi Hayakawa
Shintarou Asanuma
Junichirou Hoshimura
Hirofumi Nojima

EPISODES

Dubbed

| | |

RELATED TO ZETSUEN NO TEMPEST

MANGA ActionZetsuen no Tempest

REVIEWS

CaninnTurtle
79/100
Blast of Tempest is inconsistent, with a good initial premise and good main characters, but a mess of an overall plot.
Blast of Tempest is definitely one of the more difficult shows to put my feelings about it into words. On one hand, I loved the character growth of the two main boys, the mystery behind Aika's death, and some of the cool ideas thrown around. But then I look at the less attractive parts of Blast of Tempest, like the absolute detachment I had to most of the other characters, Hakaze included to some extent, the lack of what felt like a substantial plot, and lack of a central antagonist, which stems mostly from the back and forth between what's actually the point of the plot. When these two worlds collide in my mind, I struggle to decide whether I really liked Blast of Tempest or just thought it was standard with a complete lack of direction plot-wise. Maybe the Shakespearean motifs flew over my head more than I thought or there was a much bigger message that I missed, but I just couldn't get behind the premise of the main story at all. But lets shelf that discussion for now as I'll hit my opinions on the technical side of Blast of Tempest quickly before moving to the interesting bits of this review.

Visually, Blast of Tempest is no special creation. It has its basic style with very little impressive animation to back it up, which isn't a huge problem since the show isn't very action or movement oriented. If I had to throw a single word at the animation quality, I'd simply say: average, but since we're talking about an early 2010's show, I'm actually a little disappointed, though that may just be my overall opinion on the show since I don't really know where they could have improved. Aesthetically, I'd say that they did a good job capturing a unique style for the characters that count, especially Aika, who just embodies this exotic and mysteriously alluring design, which is the entire premise of her character so I'd say they really nailed that one. The rest of the cast feels more plain, but that may be my best girl bias talking, although I'd say that the other three main characters are at least distinct from the other billion anime that use similar archetypes.
(I mean just look at this absolute treasure.)
As far as sound design goes, again, super standard. There's nothing eye-popping (ear-popping?) about what this show does. Basic magic sounds, basic sounds, etc. Musically, Blast of Tempest is actually quite good. The first round of opening and ending songs are excellent, though they'd never place anywhere in my top 10. The following opening and ending songs in the second half are a bit lackluster, in my opinion, both visually and song-wise. The OST isn't super special, although the main theme is pretty good, especially when it's used towards the end to really drive home the emotions.

Favorite Character: Aika Fuwa

Aika single-handedly kept me interested in this show for probably 85% of the runtime. I think she reminded me so much of various other characters that I love with similar personalities (Senjougahara, primarily) that I was instantly drawn to her character, not only just with her personality but I fell in love with her design almost immediately too, there's just something about those bangs... Anyways, Aika dominates Blast of Tempest with her personality - and she's dead for the entire show. It's absolutely amazing what the author managed to do with her character while never actually using her directly in the plot. She's always influencing people's motivations through her strong influence on Yoshino and Mahiro, eventually even becoming a huge influence on Hakaze as well. I love the way that she's used in the story and I wish we had actually seen more of her and her incredible influence on the main trio.

I'll split up what I liked and didn't like about Blast of Tempest into two sections, starting with what I liked. First off, I loved the mystery of the show. You never had the answers until the end and, although the eventual reveal was somewhat disappointing due to the nature of the plot, it was still an excellently crafted mystery that kept you feeling like you were missing one crucial piece of the puzzle. I also liked the way that Yoshino and Mahiro went through fantastic character arcs. They were both made to face their flaws and their trauma and find their own path forward. It was really moving actually, watching the two of them connect, drift apart to face their own internal battles, come back together to face their differences, and eventually forge an even stronger bond because of it. Lastly, I liked the initial setup of the story, which made the show seem like it was about a murder mystery with urban fantasy as the backdrop to eventually uncovering the answers. This fell apart quickly due to the direction the plot went, but at first, I was all for it.

Now for my gripes, I felt like Blast of Tempest was trying to tell two stories at once. One about personal trauma and moving forward when a tragedy has struck and a boring magical plot about two deities that no one knows who's good or evil. This whole dual plot continues to the very end, where neither is effectively concluded because of the way both plot lines were handled. Both plots didn't get enough time to effectively tell their stories, which is a shame because I would have loved to see the trauma storyline dove into in a much deeper regard, but that may just be personal preference since I'm a huge fan of character-driven stories. Another problem I had was that the story felt like it was concluding around episode 8, then just kept finding ways to keep going. That's effectively how weak the overall plot was. It felt like the overall premise was limping to a conclusion because there was airtime to fill. Additionally, I'm not sure why the Tree of Genesis was even letting the Kusaribe mages use its power since they were trying to destroy it. Seems really suspect to me.

Overall, I did enjoy watching Blast of Tempest, if only for the characters and watching those sweet, sweet Yoshino and Aika scenes. I'd say that it's deserving of an 80, but I just had too many issues with the continuity and overall story. There are more positives and negatives, of course, but I'd say that these are the main few that I wanted to express. If what I described seemed at least a little interesting, then you can't go wrong with Blast of Tempest, but if any of those issues are big deals then they may hinder your enjoyment here. I'd still say it's worth it, but there's just so much untapped potential that will, unfortunately, remain untapped forever. I'd have loved to see these characters in an entirely different setting, to be completely honest. But, this is what we got and for what that's worth, I'd say it's pretty good.
Continue on AniList
jadugar
90/100
One of my unexpectedly favourite anime, which I enjoyed a lot along with the conclusion. An underrated masterpiece.
This is my first review, and I'll try and keep it short and to the point

I stumbled across this anime when I was randomly browsing an anime list to watch as I usually do. I expected not much to come out of it, and it would be some random thing I watch a few episodes of when I'm bored as usual. To my surprise, this genuinely became one of my favourite anime.

(spoilers ahead)

The Story

The plot, as I see it, is almost divided into two. And as I see it, most people like the first part but don't think that the second part makes sense when put together with the other one. While I can definitely understand this sentiment, I don't agree with it. I think that they both play into each other pretty well to produce a coherent, overall narrative.

The time is out of joint—O cursèd spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!

This is quoted from Hamlet throughout the anime, multiple times. It embodies the overarching theme of the show: chaos. This chaos is something that must be resolved, so that the world starts to be rational again. So that the time is no more out of joint.

Zetsuen No Tempest is a story about getting over your past experiences and traumas. Mahiro and Yoshino must get over the death of Fuwa Aika.

This is told parallelly with the story of the conflict between the two trees. In the start, it seems that one tree brings harmony and the other chaos, but as the show goes on, the true nature of the two are revealed along with the reason for them being there in the first place.

The mystery of Aika's death and the slow unravelling of the truth kept me interested and I was grasped by it throughout the entire show. This is developed alongside the revealling of the true nature of the two trees, the Tree of Exodus and the Tree of Genesis. In the conclusion, the two play into each other to create the final story. To finally solve the mysteries, and give answers. While I can't speak for the faithfulness to the source material, since I have not read it, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the ending.

Characters

Aika is the character which bridges everything. She bridges the past and the future, the tale of her death and the tale of saving the world through her death. She is the single most interesting and captivating throughout the series, yet, she doesn't even appear by herself much. It always seems like she says so little but the implications are big. Her beautiful character design and voice capture this very well, and amplify this portrayal of her.

The character development of Mahiro and Yoshino is definitely interesting as well, including the dynamic between them. I found them quite memorable. The only other character I found particualrly good is Hakaze, and honestly not much can be said about the other side characters.

Mahiro overcomes his trauma and the bond between them isn't broken when revealed that Yoshino was Aika's boyfriend. Yoshino however, only overcomes his past a bit later in the anime. In this aspect maybe I felt that the 24 episodes weren't enough to capture it, but also it worked just fine.

As another reviewer put it, the best way I could describe the character writing of this show is that

The characters in this show are written as if they were actors in a play

I completely agree with this statement, though I don't hold the opinion that this is a bad thing, as the other reviewer did. and it fits with its usage of quotations from different plays of Shakespeare. Speaking of which, for some reason I saw some reviewers complaining about this, but to me, this was one of the best parts of the show. In fact, even though I am not one to read classical literature or anything, this show made me want to read the plays Hamlet and Tempest.

Ultimately, I was very involved with the characters in this show.

Technical Aspects

The art style of this is anime is pretty pleasing, and the characters look very nice. I'll say that the fight scenes aren't anything very impressive, but they aren't an eyesore either. They get the job done just fine. The same can be said for the audio design, not particularly remarkable but works just fine.

The animation otherwise is very beautiful and I never felt like anything was 'cheaped out' on. The character design was also something that captivated me. Fuwa Aika left me in love with her beautiful design. The other characters also are very interesting, and nothing feels "copy pasted", like they do in some other anime that I've watched.

The show has its flaws though, don't get me wrong, it is by no means perfect, but it is coherent and good nevertheless.

That about concludes my review of this show. It's something that I think everyone should definitely give a watch, I can guarantee it's something you won't be disappointed by.
Continue on AniList
Gabi6
91/100
A bad way to end a diamond in the storm
Well, to start the review I inform you that I will divide it into two parts and I will be as brief as possible. This article contains spoilers because it is directed at the people who watch the anime. The first aspect to address is the waste of anime that we have to contemplate. Look, there is a great amount of anime in my back and all the level of potential that you will see in this anime is prematurely one of the best that I have seen nevera. The combination of the plot and the characters is extraordinary and, having in mind that it is about a not so recent anime, I can ensure that the audiovisual level is not bad. In all ways, what gives importance to the plot is the mystery and how the characters face it. Unfortunately, the way in which it is developed is so stressful, leaving many inconclusions that completely disappear all the potential. Above all, the thing that I haven't understood and in which the two protagonists have agreed is that Aika did not have to die and even more so that she remains perfect than that she could bé who kills the tree of genesis after having been revived with the help of Yoshino, Mahiro and the princess. In this way, the final relationship between Yoshino and the princess would not be necessarily forced on Yoshino's part. Mahiro would also have to give up the revenge and ultimately have a happy ending. I can't even understand why they are going to opt for an ending like this, because since they cross the barrier with the MP5 that you can imagine ending the way it did today. But their belief you that Aika can be saved although she commit suicide because of prefer her to the princess, a terrible mistake. It is likely that most people do not think this way because otherwise it would be poorly rated. It's also true that I gave it a 9.1 so it seems to be contradicting me. What I'm basing it on to give it such a high rating is that I was glued to the screen the whole time intrigued and wanting to believe that everything would go as it was supposed to. Far from reality it wasn't like that, but the quality of time was real.
On the other hand, as was to be expected, the Aika/Yoshino relationship is a pillar of the anime and, in the end, I believe that it is precipitated by a ravine, a fact that it was not necessary to sacrifice Aika for a better value of the public. During the anime I was thinking about whether the story favors Hamlet or The Tempest and faces the fate that ends like The Tempest without doubting a happy ending. A relationship with the background that you have with those two is so strange and valuable that if the ending Will not remain positive for both of them, It would bé annoying. Now a diamond ends up lost and forgotten in the storm...
Continue on AniList