I hadn't intended this to be the week's post, but I came down with a nasty flu, and this was ready, so I'm doing it now.
In this newborn article series, I've already talked about The Apothecary Diaries and Blood-C. Now I'd like to highlight a series you may never have heard of at all. Zetsuen no Tempest (officially localised as Blast of Tempest) began life as a fantasy drama manga co-written by Kyo Shirodaira and Arihide Sano, and illustrated by Ren Saizaki. The same year the manga concluded, an anime television series was created by Studio Bones and adapted by Mari Okada.
The storyline is...something. The initial premise is that following the death of his adoptive sister Aika, Mahiro Fuwa finds himself allied with Hakaze Kusaribe, a member of a mage clan dedicated to the Tree of Genesis. That clan has splintered, with a large faction seeking to awaken the counterpart Tree of Exodus, which causes giant seeds to appear and wipe out nearby populations. Mahiro seeks out lead protagonist Yoshino Takegawa, a loner who was friends with himself and Fuwa. Since Fuwa was killed with magic, Yoshino and Mahiro ally with Hakaze to find Fuwa's killer, ending up caught in the plots surrounding the Tree of Genesis and its plan for the world.
That sounds like I've given away the whole plot, but I assure you I haven't. The plot takes lots of twists and turns, yet it's paced out fairly slowly. The core drama is how the three core characters--Yoshino, Mahiro and Hakaze--deal with the unfolding path of events and the truth behind the conflict of the Genesis and Exodus Trees. The magic system used here is robust and unique, with mages of the Tree of Genesis sacrificing pieces of modern technology to grant them charges of magic, which themselves have a strict limitation on what they can and can't do.
Technically the initial goal of Hakaze to retake control of her clan is resolved within the series' first half, but the plot continues well beyond that point and builds to a compelling finale that had my head spinning in a good way. There is some repetition of scenes and information here and there, especially in flashbacks, but the writing was good enough that the repetition didn't feel like a drag. Plus, with how overwhelming some of the plot can be, some reminders here and there are a good thing.
Perhaps what brought this series to mind for the next "My Anime Life" article is Overly Sarcastic Productions' Trope Talk video on "Haunting the Narrative". The character of Aika Fuwa, who is dead by the story's opening and only seen in flashback, is the definition of this trope. Her influence on the current narrative is profound, and we do get a good look at her personality and actions, but she never features in the present storyline. Her relationship with her secret lover Yoshino and adoptive brother Mahiro is complicated to say the least, and drives much of the character chemistry related to the two. She is also the sources of some humour, which can be sorely needed as this is otherwise a pretty serious and grim plot.
Last time I didn't feel the need to comment on the anime itself beyond narrative, but here I think it is appropriate. There are some parts of the story which, to be honest, can drag. I may find a verbal debate lasting two episodes interesting, but most would be bored to tears. The animation is engaging enough that some of the boring bits are tolerable, but it's the musical score by Michiru Oshima that forms the backbone of most scenes. A grand orchestral score, it's never used in the wrong place, and despite a surprisingly small number of tracks spread across twenty-four episodes I didn't get the feeling of "oh, this one again again", but instead "oh, I know what this scene is about".
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