Halo Anime? Well, Not Exactly
The episodes of Halo Legends are directed and written by five different Japanese animation studios including several talents like Daisuke Nishio, Hideki Futamura, Hiroshi Yamazaki, and Koji Sawai. American Creative Director Frank O’Connor and Writer Joseph Staten also pitched in. The result are seven animated episodes that begin with the origin of the Halo universe. The episodes are: Origins, Origins II, The Duel, Homecoming, Odd One Out, Prototype, The Babysitter, and The Package.
For someone like me who blitzed through the first two Halos with a friend years ago (and hasn’t played since), has never played Halo 3, but played through Halo: ODST last year, the Origin episodes were especially interesting. Both Origin episodes are narrated by the AI that befriends Master Chief in the games. As she talks, we learn about the Forerunners, and dark future of humanity along with the struggles with the Flood and the Covenant. These two episodes are a logical and nicely done foundation. These are animated in what I would call a traditional style of anime — although I’m no expert in the genre.
Episode three, The Duel, is my favorite primarily due to the style of animation. Directed by Hiroshi Yamazaki, the visual style of The Duel is at first odd, but then very quickly intriguing. The first thought that came to my mind was that the episode looked like a moving water color painting, something I can’t say I’ve seen before; it’s beautiful. As for the story, it too is good — the story of the Covenant’s Arbiter is the focal point here.
Homecoming uses flashbacks to tell the story of a marine who was part of the SPARTAN-II program. There’s nothing outright wrong with this episode, but it didn’t really capture my attention. The next episode, Odd One Out, is definitely the odd one out as far as this collection of episodes go. It plays out like a typical Japanese anime, similar to what I’ve seen (which is very little) of Dragonball. Expect fast paced, huge battles with some strange humor in this story that follows a Spartan known as 1337. In Prototype, Ghost (a marine) violates orders from above to rescue his squad. The Babysitter features some ODSTs who are sent in to snipe a Prophet. Finally, The Package features Master Chief doing battle with the Covenant to retrieve some precious cargo.
Halo on my PS3
I have to admit it was ironic to be doing anything Halo on my PS3. Anyway, the Halo Legends Blu-ray is nicely done in terms of presentation. The box art, to start with, is neat and will catch your eye. A glossy finish makes it really stand out. The menu system is clean and functional, and the actual quality of the video is great. The variety of animation that you’ll see — classic anime, water color, and 3D CG — is lovely, and they all look sharp and fluid. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is great too, and while some dedicated fans might not care for some of the voice acting, I didn’t find any fault with it. Fans of the series will also no doubt recognize some classic Halo theme music.
As for extra features, there are a few. These include:
-Trailers – There are trailers for Halo: Reach and Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths.
-Audio Commentary with Frank O’Connor (Franchise Development Director – 343 Studios/ Microsoft Game Studios) and Joseph Chou (Halo Legends Producer – J-Spec Pictures).
-Halo: Gaming Evolved (21m, HD) – This basically plays out like a long promo for the Halo series, but it’s worth a watch. In it, a variety of industry insiders talk about Halo: Combat Evolved and its importance to gaming. IGN editors, Ken Lobb with Microsoft, people from 343 Studios, and many others all chime in to talk about Halo and the Halo games.
-Halo: The Story So Far (23m, HD) – Lots of footage from Halo Legends is shown as another large group of industry insiders talks about the Halo universe and where things are at right now in the canon of the video games.
-Making of Halo Legends (54m, HD) – Each episode has a ‘making of’ feature and the total of all seven of these is about fifty-four minutes. In these, behind the scenes footage is shown during the creation process of the episodes of Legends. I’m always a fan of these ‘unscripted’ making of features whereby viewers get a peek at the inner workings of a studio.
To the summary…
