Tales of Symphonia: Tethe’alla Hen Review

Literally crossing the dimension into another world just to save a girl. Need more men like Llyod

Why hello thar. I actually dropped this series from Metanorn because I was too laaazzzyy to do this, but I changed my mind after watching the first OVA of the third installment. I keep forgetting that this show needs more love. Actually, I’m doing this just for the third installment. And I’ll be doing short summaries because there’s no way I’m going to go into great details of all four episodes in one post. NU-UH.

Episode 1

We get a glimpse of Tethe’alla and Miko, Zelos, before team Llyod arrives. After some bad dream about the murder he witnessed when he was small, Zelos awakens only to be found surrounded with enemies. Interestingly, the strongest of them is the one with shackles. Not long after that, team Llyod arrives in the middle of the town with a little accident of Colette going berserk. Thanks to Zelos, team Llyod is unharmed and allowed to find the way to return Colette into a human. The king sees the benefit of this because the mana from Tethe’alla won’t flow to Sylvarant if Colette is turned back into human, since Colette is not an angel yet (when a miko turns into an angel, the mana would flow from the opposite world into the miko’s world, making the miko’s world flourished with mana).

Team Llyod (plus Zelos to supervise them) arrives in the village where Altessa lives, the only dwarf who knows how to heal those who are affected by Angel Toxicosis (what Colette has). Unfortunately, Altessa decided to smash (ouch) his own hands so that the Cruxis won’t use him. Thanks to this reckless behavior of his though, Altessa can’t heal Presea, another one of Cruxis’s failed experiment who suffers from Angel Toxicosis. Seeing Llyod’s dedication, Altessa is willing to teach Llyod the making of Key Crest – the jewel that can stop Angel Toxicosis. As team Llyod tries to find the ore for Key Crest, suddenly Kratos appears… But now with his boss Yggdrasill. Meanwhile, in Altessa’s house, Zelos is seen talking with Yggdrasill’s minion!?

Episode 2

Outside the house, Zelos finds the shackled bishie, who was the richest man in Tethe’alla named Regal Bryant, looking at him, ready to fight Zelos again (which he accepted of course). Stalker.  Oh well, he was defeated by Zelos anyway. Meanwhile, team Llyod tries to fight Yggrdasil but is unsuccessful since Yggrdasil stops the flow time (Reality Marble!) and takes Colette away, while team Llyod is frozen in their own positions. Llyod determines to create the Key Crest, and he succeeds in doing that. Thanks to the Key Crest, Presea regains her heart back but not without tragedy. Regal reveals the truth to Presea: her sister, Presea’s only relative, is dead, killed by Regal. Enraged, Presea takes matter her own hands and tries to kill Regal.

Now this is funny. Suddenly Alicia’s ghost (Presea’s sister) comes out from her own memento, and tells the untold truth to Presea. Just like Presea, Alicia was bought by the Cruxis for the experiment and just like Presea, the experiment failed. Regal, who was Alicia’s lover, heard about Altessa but was too late – Alicia’s Exsphere went out of control, and she became a monster. While her consciousness was still there, Alicia told Regal to kill her, which Regal did. Alicia’s ghost compels Regal and Presea to “live for themselves from now on” and disappears. After hearing about Llyod’s mother (who changed into a monster just like Alicia), Regal and Presea decide to join Llyod’s group to recover Colette back. Team Llyod finds out that it was the Pope who sent Regal to kill Zelos, but that’s not important. What’s important right now is that Yuan appears out of nowhere in front of Shea when she arrived to Mizuho, her village.

Episode 3

Yuan came to Mizuho because he needed Sheena’s help. Colette is imprisoned in the Dragon’s Nest, which somehow had Unlimited Lightning Works around it. A pact with Volt, the Summon Spirit of lightning, is necessary, and Sheena is the only one who can do that. It is revealed then that Sheena tried to form a pact once but was unsuccessful, causing the death of her comrades and making her shunned by the villagers. Sheena (with team Llyod) tries to form a pact again but still can’t understand Volt. Turns out that Volt was speaking in ancient language, something Sheena doesn’t know. It’s like speaking Chinese to an Indian. Anyhow, Sheena was distracted because her current comrades were struck by Volt, and Corrine sacrificed her/him(?)self to protect Sheena. Although depressed over Corrine’s death, Sheena fights Volt again thanks to the encouragement of her friends. Llyod defeats Volt, and Sheena forms a pact with Volt.

Thanks to the pact with Volt, the Renegades and team Llyod are not harmed by the lightning during their assault to Dragon’s Nest. While the others are busy with the dragons, Yuan and Llyod land on the Dragon’s Nest to defeat Kratos. They met the old angel who’s using Colette’s mana for his Mana Cannon, but Kratos arrives, giving the old angel his chance to escape. Suddenly Yuan points his sword to Llyod, threatening Kratos that he will kill Kratos’s son if Kratos won’t release the Origin’s seal.

Episode 4

Shortest summary of this post While Llyod savors the time slowly as realization hits him, Sheena and the rest try to release Colette from that Mana Cannon thingy, which only ends up with Sheena making it worse. Go figure. Llyod mentally can’t take the truth about Kratos and became confused because of that, but Zelos’s and Kratos’s words (and Colette’s too yes I DON’T KNOW HOW THAT CAN HAPPEN) helped Llyod to recover. Llyod and his friends leave Kratos with Yuan so that Llyod can save Colette. The situation was not in favor of Llyod’s group at first, but in the end, the old angel was killed by Zelos, and Llyod’s Key Crest helped Colette to regain her heart and emotion again. Yippi!

It’s not the end though. Cruxis is not defeated yet, and team Llyod hasn’t merged the two worlds yet. Llyod wants to meet Kratos once more to resolve the problem between the two of them, and Zelos is seen talking with Yggdrasill’s minion. While Genis and his sister are on their way back home, they find an injured handsome blonde bishie named…Mithos. Why is this cliffhanger? Because the next thing they show is the ancient picture of the hero of the war named Mithos, along with the goddess Martel and a mysterious tree between them.

Extra Worlds:

Mahou Shoujo Colette is transforming in public!

FANSERVICE WOHOOOOO

It seems that Brock’s Vulpix is lost in Tethe’alla

CENSORED KISS… WHAT IS THIS?!

If I were Kratos, I would stare at my own reflection too

Opening & Endings:

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I am happy and satisfied with the sequel of Sylvarant. It is definitely better from the prequel in so many ways. The animation is great, as usual. Not the best in fighting scenes of course, but it is definitely sharper and smoother than the prequel. It is understandable though, since this was made four to five years after the prequel. But there’s another reason. Want to know? Because it’s UFOTABLE BABY! Ufotable never fail to impress me with the improvements they make over time. Geneon Universal Entertainment has nothing to do with this series anymore, which is a definitely plus for me. The OP/ED song of Sylvarant is nothing compared to the OP/ED of Tethe’alla Hen. Seriously, Shikata Akiko’s voice is FABULOUS, and her songs don’t sound the same. Don’t. Even. Try. To. Compare. Her. To. ALI. PROJECT.  Frontier Works is still involved with this somehow, but I’m not going to give the creator of Hakuouki much credit. No, I don’t like Hakuouki. Bottom line is I’m happy with how ufotable handled the animation for Tethe’alla Hen.

The same goes for the story. The mood in this series drastically changed from the prequel, and it was definitely surprising. Unlike Sylvarant, Tethe’alla Hen will keep you awake at every moment.  I really don’t get how the prequel can be so boring and uninteresting, considering that both the prequel and the sequel have similar plot and setting. The pacing of the story is well done, there was not a moment wasted in every episode. Each scene will somehow emotionally shake you with the tiny details they have in the scene (such as that scene where Sheena visited the grave; she was ignored, and her flower can be seen lying on the ground scattered). If that’s not the case, you’ll be swept away with the background music that will make the tragic scene more tragic or the merry scene merrier. I actually cried when Presea found out about Alicia’s death and when Sheena was ignored at the graveyard. SO MUCH HATE.

Unfortunately, I laughed at lots of scenes too. Seriously, a ghost!? It was a sad scene, but I can’t help laughing at the irrationality of Alicia’s ghost. And to be honest, I don’t like the whole ghost and voices-inside-your-head thingy. Not that I mind the miracle aspect of anime, but somehow using Alicia’s ghost and Colette’s voice (when she’s CAPTURED  INSIDE THE MANA CANNON) gave the impression as if they’re using them as means of last resort to resolve the unresolved ones. Now, when a game-adaption anime is giving that kind of impression, there is only one conclusion: the anime is not following the game.

This is what I don’t get from all of these game-adaption anime. The plot is, obviously, one of the factors of the game’s recognition. So why would you change something that important? It will leave lots of holes in the anime’s storyline. I have examples already. Until now, it is not explained why Collete’s group was attacked by the rasta half-elf in Sylvarant. If Llyod was found with his mother dying and father nowhere to be seen, how did Llyod’s stepfather (the dwarf who found him) know that the one who killed Llyod’s mother is Kratos (Llyod’s father)? And if the anime is not following the game, how will it end up? I don’t know how ufotable is going to cover all the holes in the plot, but let’s hope they can pull it off in the last two OVA. If they’re planning to stick with the game, that is.

About anaaga

Have read 418 BL manga and continuing.