spoiler alert, as usual
It's your usual shounen. But it's also romance and fantasy. So it's a story about a young boy who travels in a different world, fights enemies, makes friends and falls in love. Be ready to see lots of silly things. Shounen as genre is not for you, 30-year-old manager, or even you, university student in his early twenties.
story and characters
Once upon a time in another world there were flying ships. Made of wood.
and like, I'll guide you to the end of the Earth! Oops, it was not Earth but another world. So, they unite and do something like
but then another bad guy comes, or stop, can he really be bad having such appearance? Oh he can. He's SUCH a BAD_GUY OHHHH
And the enemies are all like
And then our characters have to deal with many troubles. The story tries to look more serious than it is, so we have several unnecessary deaths, and our Hero is like
But then they gain the remaining strength and defeat the big boss. And their enemies are like
And except for those characters that were created only to die artistically, all the others are like
And then after some time they fly in the sky together. Which is essentially a very heartwarming, happy end. Like I said, I don't like it when the adventure ends and they 'live happily ever after'. This kind of ending is much better for me. Oh, wait. Did you think, after seeing all these ironical descriptions, that I hate this anime?
Now you see what kind of story EG is. Does it mean it's bad? Nope. I'm just warning you. It's extremely silly, naive, plain and usual. Did I like it? Yes, a lot. Why? Exactly for those things that most people would probably dislike. It's not the case when people say 'this and this was bad, but instead that and that was good', no. It's the case when people say 'it was so mediocre' or 'it could not happen that way'. And my friend +Арагорн Араторнович said 'shut up and watch'. You don't want all laws of physics maintained here. You don't want credible stories. You want flying ships. You want red or blue hair. You want loli-girls with big eyes. You want magical swords and non-human creatures. You want Medieval Europe villages mixed with Ancient Greece clothes and oriental fighting styles and and 19th century Europe progress.
The story was obviously changed to meet the requirements of a TV series. Some episodes were such obvious fillers you would probably want to skip them, but I did not. I don't know why, but even those parts were enjoyable.
The humour was not original or new, but hey, it's 2004. It was the trend those times.
music
Now for the main attraction. In 2000s Yuki Kajiura was still young and fresh and her music was good. Just in case you want to ask me, I think her latest melodies repeat and resemble one another too much. However, in early 2000s she was still able to write a decent OST with several melodies that can be easily taken for listening as independent tracks. The only minus point for this OST is that not all melodies that were used in the anime were issued on CDs, even though there is an OST album and a special album, too. Like I said to my friend when I started watching, guess who is the composer here if I hear pseudo-Latin lyrics laid on pseudo-gothic chorals?
The OPED songs were not as good, since they were very plain. I would not say they were bad, though, since they belong to the category 'nice to listen when you watch the show'. And just in case you want to know, savage genius' song 'ameagari' was used in episode 15 as a background song. It's a coupling song for 'Forever', the opening.
graphics
It was mid-00s. Anime was becoming better and better, the visual side of it, too.
However, there was still no money for creating absolutely-every-frame-beautifully-decorated. Most moving objects were created simply but nicely. In my mind, it's better than 'kuro to kin to hirakanai kagi' that I looked through the other day, where you will see clear sparkling images with no faults, but won't find anything except for hard fanservice for female fans.
'Gelade' also did not let any slack in design. The clothes were all elaborate and nice, even though simple, and so were interiors. Name the style? =)
voice acting
While art was becoming more and more expensive-looking, voice acting in 00s began to slightly decrease its gorgeousness. Outstanding seiyuus of 90s were giving up their place to new seiyuus, but some of them were not worse than their seniors. 00s were rich in young promising actors. If 'Gelade' is not an eye-candy for you, than it will for sure become an ear candy. Have some Ishida Akira, Ueda Yuji and Ogata Megumi, multiply them by Toriumi Kousuke, Okiayu Ryotaro, Kugimiya Rie, Suwabe Junichi and many others. My discovery of the year is Saito Kimiko. Her low voice was making me tremble with excitement. Another seiyuu that I did not know before is Hanba Tomoe. Her performance was very good. The main heroine voiced by Takahashi Mikako was good. Kuea's Suzuki Naoko was so good it's a big trouble she does not do many anime roles. And even Mizuki Nana whom I basically dislike previously did a very, very good job. That's good that some of them are still active. I'm afraid of times when they will move to an elder category and will have to be replaced with younger ones.
Or you could say that I am simply grumbling because 00s was the period of my youth. Well, that's true.
conclusion
Yuriko Kaida's and Yuri Kasahara's voices have never spoiled an anime. Bizarre vehicles and strange swords, magic crystals and mysterious people, but more than that, journeys to another towns, to another continents... Yesterday one of my friends told us she's really intending to spend at least half a year in India... but I'm not as brave as her, and Valcione is not India, so I think I'm glad to have travelled to another world with 'Elemental Gelade' team.
The humour was not original or new, but hey, it's 2004. It was the trend those times.
music
Now for the main attraction. In 2000s Yuki Kajiura was still young and fresh and her music was good. Just in case you want to ask me, I think her latest melodies repeat and resemble one another too much. However, in early 2000s she was still able to write a decent OST with several melodies that can be easily taken for listening as independent tracks. The only minus point for this OST is that not all melodies that were used in the anime were issued on CDs, even though there is an OST album and a special album, too. Like I said to my friend when I started watching, guess who is the composer here if I hear pseudo-Latin lyrics laid on pseudo-gothic chorals?
The OPED songs were not as good, since they were very plain. I would not say they were bad, though, since they belong to the category 'nice to listen when you watch the show'. And just in case you want to know, savage genius' song 'ameagari' was used in episode 15 as a background song. It's a coupling song for 'Forever', the opening.
graphics
It was mid-00s. Anime was becoming better and better, the visual side of it, too.
'Gelade' also did not let any slack in design. The clothes were all elaborate and nice, even though simple, and so were interiors. Name the style? =)
voice acting
While art was becoming more and more expensive-looking, voice acting in 00s began to slightly decrease its gorgeousness. Outstanding seiyuus of 90s were giving up their place to new seiyuus, but some of them were not worse than their seniors. 00s were rich in young promising actors. If 'Gelade' is not an eye-candy for you, than it will for sure become an ear candy. Have some Ishida Akira, Ueda Yuji and Ogata Megumi, multiply them by Toriumi Kousuke, Okiayu Ryotaro, Kugimiya Rie, Suwabe Junichi and many others. My discovery of the year is Saito Kimiko. Her low voice was making me tremble with excitement. Another seiyuu that I did not know before is Hanba Tomoe. Her performance was very good. The main heroine voiced by Takahashi Mikako was good. Kuea's Suzuki Naoko was so good it's a big trouble she does not do many anime roles. And even Mizuki Nana whom I basically dislike previously did a very, very good job. That's good that some of them are still active. I'm afraid of times when they will move to an elder category and will have to be replaced with younger ones.
Or you could say that I am simply grumbling because 00s was the period of my youth. Well, that's true.
conclusion
Yuriko Kaida's and Yuri Kasahara's voices have never spoiled an anime. Bizarre vehicles and strange swords, magic crystals and mysterious people, but more than that, journeys to another towns, to another continents... Yesterday one of my friends told us she's really intending to spend at least half a year in India... but I'm not as brave as her, and Valcione is not India, so I think I'm glad to have travelled to another world with 'Elemental Gelade' team.
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