The Legend of the Legendary Heroes

Despite the campy title and some satirical levity/comic relief, this anime series serves up a mostly serious game-of-thrones narrative. Young, idealistic King Sion of Roland wants to reform his realm—putting an end to a cruel aristocracy and their wars and treacheries. Among other unusual allies, Sion recruits orphan Ryner Lute, an indolent youth whose callow slacker façade conceals the fact that he carries the dreaded alpha stigma, a devastating form of combat magic he can hardly control. Sion sends Ryner and Ferris—a beautiful, blonde, snack-obsessed she-devil of a swordswoman—on a mission to recover strategic magical “hero relics.” Meanwhile, the monarch tries to sort out enemies, anti-monarchists, and intriguers in his own court and abroad (one character in the mix is a Snape-esque bad guy who may be a good guy—or not). The Legend of the Legendary Heroes feels like a combination of separate stories: Sion and his Byzantine statesmanship on one hand, and the comic/violent bickering of odd couple Ryner (his English-dub catchphrase: “This sucks!”) and Ferris on the other. Sometimes the mix works, sometimes it doesn't, and this episode cycle ends with little if any of the story threads resolved. On the plus side, however, the animation by studio Zexcs is often striking. Compiling the first 13 episodes in a dual-language set, rated TV-14, extras include episode commentaries. A strong optional purchase. [Note: The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Part 2 is also newly available.] (C. Cassady)