Description
For the first time on Blu-ray!
Long ago, the advanced Tribe of Gold vanished from the vast universe. In the void left by their departure, the tyrannical Tribe of Silver ascended to rule, forcing mankind – the Iron Tribe – to the brink of extinction.
Now humanity wanders the cosmos in search of a savior. Prophesy has foretold of one who will labor for their freedoms, and on a planet of ruin, a champion is found. A feral boy named Age holds the destiny of their species in his hands and the untold power of the Tribe of Hero within.
Reviews
A great sci-fi spectacle that deserves more recognition
Having just watched the full series of Heroic Age in its Blu-ray incarnation (it was only just released this month), I must give it a very strong recommendation. Set in a world that essentially unites elements of Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and with explicit influence from Greek mythology, the show is an obvious choice for fans of sci-fi spectacle. Action fans will enjoy heavy-hitting, subwoofer friendly battles of often entertainingly absurd scale. If planets and even galaxies could run and hide, they'd be advised to in Heroic Age. But the show is also more than just bang and boom.
Political intrigue and emotional underpinnings of the battles are never far from mind. Many of the important players in the show are desperately looking for a way out of the violence and chaos, not reveling in it. Two of four primary tribes (species) in the series have been set to battle each other, many confused by the meaning of contractual obligations (Labors) set before them, or rather to individual powerful beings "assigned" to them. These two are the technologically sophisticated but blindly arrogant Silver Tribe, and the space-faring upstarts the Iron Tribe, our human race. The Golden tribe is the one each aspires to find but which has also set them into galactic conflict. The Bronze tribe is an insect-like tribe that works at the behest of whichever tribe has been granted control over them. In this case, that would be the Silver tribe which uses them as front-line fodder against the Iron Tribe.
Last but not in the slightest least, there are five dominant beings formerly of the Heroic tribe. Four of them are under the thumb of the Silver tribe due either to contract or threats against their related homeworlds. The fifth is within our titular hero, Age.
Age is a young man of straightforward innocence found alone on a planet by Princess Dhianeila and a group of human space-farers who quickly discover his true power when he transmutes into the powerful being Belcross (a "Nodos") to single-handedly smite a planetary invading force of the Bronze tribe.
With some comic relief early on as Age acclimates to his new-found friends, the show largely shifts to the aforementioned interstellar political wrangling and the mega-battles that usually ensue when not all players are interested in talking. As such, for those looking for much in the way of relationships and interpersonal drama, it is there but kept largely secondary in this grand conflict. There is some to be had such as whether the otherwise smart soldier Iolaous will ever see past his own dense infatuated loyalty to Dhianeila to recognize that her best friend and healer Aneasha is always there for him. But keep in mind that this is a show in which even Age himself becomes at times tertiary to the wider conflict.
As for the visual quality of the Blu-ray, the show is an upscale that benefits from great clarity of color and line and the constant and fast-paced action never suffers from compression issues. Importantly, with a rare exception such as in a disc 3 episode with excessive banding, the wide expanses of space otherwise manage to be held crystal clear.
Finally, the surround audio English track features universally solid voice acting and will rock your sound system during the many battles. The English voice cast especially excels over the Japanese interpretations of these animated creations in the cases of Christopher Sabat and Lydia Mackay. The former best defining the character of Karkinos and the latter of Prome O.
Good things come...
Much like Claymore and D. Gray-man, this is a fairly recent series I loved watching on rented DVDs, but held off on buying on the off-chance it would arrive on blu-ray. And here we are. The animation for this series is stunning, and I love the story. It's not without problems; sometimes the battles between the Nodos get a little redundant and tedious, and some of the main characters are downright unlikable. Even so, it adds some unique ideas to the space opera genre, and ends far more conclusively than some other series I could name. Recommended (though try a couple episodes before you drop the dough on the whole collection).
Excellent Series -- make sure your subwoofer is on
My wife was streaming this series from the Funimation site last week. It was a little blocky and the sound was not high fidelity, but it reminded me how much I liked it when I saw it a few years ago. Was a little hesitant buying it since I had now watched it twice -- very glad I did.
First nothing beats a professional translation; things that were murky in the first version I saw were crystal in this one.
Second the video is gorgeous. I was thinking HD was wasted on an abstract medium like anime. I was wrong, it matters.
Third the audio has impact. The 5.1 soundtrack is impressive. My subwoofer kicked-in a lot. The strong beat really helps with the emotional impact of the scene. It was like being deaf before. The score gets a little repetitious, but that could be due to having watched it three times.
Fourth the plot is good. It is like David Brin's Uplift Saga meets Gundam.
Fifth the dub, I normally prefer subtitles, but this time I liked the dub better. One of the voice actors was also in my favorite series (Irresponsible Captain Tylor).
Sixth the price, this is ridiculously cheap for a 26 episode series on blue-ray.
Anime
