Anime Review: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel – Northern War
English Title: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel – Northern War
Japanese Title: The Legend of Heroes 閃の軌跡 Northern War
Director(s): Sato Hidekazu
Screenwriter(s): Ryoga Hideki, Emura Mao
Studio: Tatsunoko Production
Released: 2023
Runtime: 12 episodes, ~24m each.
Starring: Koichi Makoto, Sarah Emi Bridcutt, Ono Yuuki, Nakamura Yuuichi
Set in the popular Trails of Cold Steel RPG series made by Nihon Falcom, the story follows a North Ambrian soldier, Lavi, as the country deals with internal and external threats. This anime is set before Trails of Cold Steel III (2017). I have not played the games so this review is of the anime only.
Lavian “Lavi” Winslet is a 15-year-old soldier who belongs to the elite unit called the Northern Jaegers. North Ambria suffered some cataclysm a few years ago which brought about a sort of revolution. Its “heroes” have since passed away except for one and Lavi is the granddaughter of one of the dead ones.
Whilst North Ambria is limping along, the neighboring Erebonian Empire is in a healthier state in addition to being bigger and more powerful. They have recently annexed a neighboring country.
North Ambria sees the Erebonian Empire as a threat and has learnt that they have a “hero” who pilots a big, powerful mech. Lavi, along with Iseria, Talion and Martin the commander, are tasked with finding this hero. The first half of the series follows their recon mission in Erebonian territory.
The recon mission is not a bad idea but it is crude as it is basically the team going sightseeing and not very good at being undercover, the narrative clumsily crossing over into the slice-of-life genre with small doses of comedy.
Showing the Erebonian Empire through the eyes of Lavi and her team is understandable as North Ambria is not in the best state. It simplistically shows that the “enemy” country is not necessarily worse than your country since Erebonia seems to be well-developed and their citizens happy.
Meanwhile, there are political maneuvers in North Ambria between the military factions and the officials as well as by the Erebonian Empire. Whilst this is apparent from the beginning, the shift from the recon mission to this conflict is clumsy at best.
Visually, the designs are a deliberate mix of sci-fi and fantasy. For example, the soldiers’ armor and mecha are partly sci-fi and partly inspired by European aesthetics of the late 19th century and early 20th century and there are also monsters. Unfortunately, the monsters are a bad mix of sci-fi and fantasy but the other elements are not bad.
The execution, however, is cheap. The look is clean, not because it is polished but because it is oversimplistic. Details and graduations are lacking in almost everything in most shots.
Lavi is almost a dude in a girl’s body, the “cool chick” who takes everything too seriously. Granted, North Ambria is not in a good state and there is, to be fair, more emphasis on her firearm skills and tactical awareness. But even accepting the genre, there are instances when she has unrealistic strength and speed (especially when she is merely 15). She also follows the typical arc of “hero opening up to being helped by others”.
The other characters all follow templates, which is fine in itself but most of them are too simplistic. For example, the North Ambriam officials are blatantly stupid, whilst Talion and Martin follow the “Are they traitors?” arc.
Iseria is the token older-than-the-main-character-but-still-young woman. She is also the “easygoing and lighthearted chick” in contrast to Lavi. Whilst her casual positivity is appreciated, this is pushed too hard such that she can be annoying.
Despite the visual weaknesses, the voice acting is solid, limited by how the characters are written. In this way, the series comes across as better than it really is.
Whilst there is nothing outright wrong with the sound mix, the sound designs are generally too simplistic. It sounds the way it looks, it’s there because something needs to be there but that’s it.
The score composed by Ito Tsubasa contains the usual synth-orchestra with occasional bursts of video-game metal. It arguably is what it is meant to be, functional given the genre and action. It is appreciated that it is not loud in the mix to avoid drawing excessive attention to itself. But given the genre, there is an excuse to be more grand just to bring the whole production up a notch.
Overall, the plotting is crude and clumsy even if the premise is interesting enough, including political intrigue. It is clear there is richness in this fictional universe and it is appreciated that it avoids getting bogged down with chunky expositions which would be particularly annoying for viewers who are familiar with the games.
However, the richness and details do not always come through in the anime. Also, whilst the mix of sci-fi and fantasy elements may work in a game, it is not convincing here. In short, it may work well in a game but needs better execution as anime.
Be sure to subscribe to our mailing list so you get each new Opinyun that comes out!
Comments