Anime Review: The Legend of Legendary Heroes

When it comes to being in an adventure, everyone wants to be the hero, right? I mean, who wouldn’t want to plan out a grand adventure, kill some bad guys, and save the day? But what if your hero had the power to kill everyone, and you tried your best to keep that power from awakening? That’s what we seem to have here in the anime series The Legend of Legendary Heroes. I wouldn’t say it’s bad to have a power such as that, but keeping the power inside of you will be one hard task.

Today, I’m reviewing the series The Legend of Legendary Heroes brought to you by our friends at FUNimation. Will this series be any good or will after just a few episodes this series be a waste of time? That’s for me to know and you too soon find out.

The Legend of Legendary Heroes is a 24 episode series which follows the life of Ryner Lute, from a glimpse of his childhood up to his final task. So, who’s Ryner Lute, you ask? At the start of the series, he’s what we’d call a lazy fool at the Roland Empire Royal Magician’s Academy.  But little do his fellow classmates know, he has a hidden power within that could kill them without remorse. What do I mean by this? Think of it as a power that, if released, would allow him to kill everyone without reason and without feeling. I’d say that’s one bad “curse” to have put on you, even if you’re not sure why you have this power. One day, the Roland Empire is issued to go to war with the country Estabul, due to being attacked. Of course, everyone at the Academy is issued to go help with this war, but during the process Ryner Lute loses all his fellow classmates except for two. Why? Well you’ll need to watch the series to understand more, and of course I don’t want to spoil it for you fellow anime fans.

During that time the enemy captures both classmates, our main character Ryner Lute breaks loose and releases the rage that he never wanted to unleash into the world. In this world, this “power” is known as the Alpha Stigma, which causes the user to go berserk, lose their sanity, and kill anyone and everyone. Enough of the story so far, since this is where we’ll be starting the grand adventure with Ryner Lute.

How is the story for The Legend of Legendary Heroes? The story to The Legend of Legendary Heroes is quite an interesting one that deals with betrayal, adventure, trust, and even love at one point. To me I felt the overall story was good and very enjoyable. Throughout each episode you learned about our main character Ryner Lute and his companion Ferris Eris, who will be with him throughout the entire series. Who’s Ferris Eris? She’s a servant of the Roland Empire who’s tasked to help Ryner search for the Hero Relics. What are the Hero Relics? When you first watch the series you will learn of things that happened before man was first in the world. Did the series do well with being detailed? I’d say it did, but there were times I wanted more back story during some episodes to explain why some things were happening or why certain enemies are going after Ryner and the King of Roland. Why did I want more? During some episodes I caught myself wondering where this or that character came from and why this part of the story arose, but with a series such as this, getting to the point was the best choice.

Did the directors of the series do a great job with keeping the show as detailed as possible? I’d need to say yes, the directors did a good job with explaining each part of the story in great detail. Examples being where Ryner first learned about his power, the wars going on throughout the land, the other people Ryner and Ferris meet, and the overall story detail. Again, I was hoping for some side stories, but it never happened. Now, with any series there will be problems, and the one major issue that stood out above them all was the series ending, which to this day has me wanting to see a true ending rather than keeping it open for all viewers to guess on what might have happened next. Of course you can go to the books for the series and learn what happened but you never know…hopefully a Part 3 is on its way.

The graphics of the series were well done from start to end. Examples range from the massive battles with the characters using magic powers, giant enemies destroying the land, Ryner Lute going crazy and unleashing his power, and the war scenes you’ll see later in the series. The amount of detail that was put into the series was quite brilliant and I do give the artists a hand for not going over the top and making every part of the series one big battle. Keeping the art style simple for the viewers, detailed, and keeping the viewer entertained is one good feature. No viewer wants over the top scenes if the story is going to be somewhat short. If this series was much longer, I could see where the artist could go crazy on the gore, magical power usage, etc.

As for the audio of the series you can also tell a lot of work was put into making the series enjoyable, maybe even emotional if an episode triggers an emotion. It didn’t happen for me, but it’s there. Well, maybe I did go “aww” at a part or two but it’s very late in the series. The voice acting was very top-notch and as I’ve said in past reviews, one feature I keep an eye out for is the lips moving to the words being said on-screen. Throughout the series you can tell there were no issues with synching, such as the voice coming out before or after the lips moved. I also listened to the series in Japanese and read the subtitles, but I prefer English dubbed so that I can understand what I’m hearing.

Overall, I’d say this anime series is quite good, but due to the ending I felt as if it didn’t complete the series. I know some anime titles will leave an open ending to keep you guessing, but the way this title ended the series had me wanting more and for the story to be closed. Will FUNimation provide an ending such as that in the future? I doubt it, but we never know what will be announced. The series is detailed, straight to the point, and the art style throughout the series amazed me at times, as a fan of the fantasy genre. My final choice for the series is this is a must buy but for the price tag I’d wait for it to go down unless you’re buying the entire series. If you’re a fan of being in the past when there were kingdoms, magic, and wars, then by all means enjoy the amount of time you’ll be spending with this series.

The Legend of Legendary Heroes has been provided by FUNimation Entertainment for review purposes. For more information on the series or FUNimation, please visit their website.