Overall Review: Zetsuen no Tempest

Let's break most of the current stereotypes about anime, shall we?

Zetsuen no Tempest is a strange little creature of an anime. Even after just a mere seven years of being part of the anime community, I can sense something different about this series, something I've been missing ardently over the last few years without even being aware of it. It's not something we normally think about, the general trends of the industry that is, until something like this comes along and forces us to take a closer look.

There's no doubt that we are currently in the era of the slice of life series, the era of the romantic comedy and light novel adaptations that make up the majority of anime produced every season. Adventure and action are not gone, but there only ever seems to be a handful of them compared to everything else that goes on every twelve weeks or so. Yet this was not always the case; at least, when I started watching anime, things were the other way around. Everyone watched battle and adventure series first and comedies second, and grand projects on the scale of Zetsuen were not rare beasts to be gawked at. That doesn't mean those particular series were better than what we have now, but I do have to say that I miss the fantastical aspects of that time in my life, something anime had a large part in.

Even though that's the case, I still feel that Zetsuen isn't easily classified as a series referencing a past now gone or a show that's trying to bring that trend back. After all, this isn't exactly your conventional action series, seeing as it's at its most intense when no one moves an inch. This is its own experiment, its own production, and I'd be damned if I said I didn't love it.

On paper, Zetsuen probably doesn't sound all that appealing. It's a series so theatrical that it quotes Shakespeare in every episode, boasts an orchestral score, and utilizes every bit of Bones' intense dramatic flair, which, for some, is just a bit too over the top in theory. Even after trying the first few episodes out, this was a series I liked but didn't love; in fact, for the first half of the first season, I tended to forget it existed until I saw it updated every Thursday afternoon. It just wasn't something I particularly saw myself being excited to watch, even if it was a Bones production. Yet somehow, without my even noticing it, I found myself captivated little by little, to the point where this became one of my most anticipated series of the Fall and Winter seasons, second only to Shinsekai Yori .

Certainly, the flair is part of what distinguishes this series from its contemporaries, but there's much more to it than that. This is theatricality in all earnestness; it's not just a reference to Shakespeare and drama, it is a play, an opera, a performance in animated form that acknowledges this fact. It somehow manages to take itself deadly seriously while not taking itself seriously at all, and it is a tragedy and comedy in equal measures. It is grandiose and awe-inspiring, funny and tongue-in-cheek, and Bones through and through despite being a manga adaptation. In fact, I think this is a series that could only be brought to life by the Bones touch, because no other studio is as ridiculously fabulous and dramatic as they are, nor does anyone take flair so seriously. Presentation matters, and I think Bones gets that, though it's hard for them to find the perfect project to pull it off, and it seems that Zetsuen may just be exactly what they needed.

Even the themes are huge and all-encompassing. Fate, the role of individuals in the world, grief and coming to terms with tragedy; it's all in there and very much at the center of everything. From Aika to Mahiro to Hanemura, everyone has a role to play, a purpose to fill, but they're all still themselves, with their individual choices inducing a butterfly effect upon the entire planet. In fact, it's those individuals that hold the most power whether dead or alive. Aika's effect on Yoshino and Mahiro, Hakaze's unrequited love for Yoshino, even Hanemura's desire to save the world for the sake of winning his girlfriend back; the power of these relationships overcomes even the sway of reason and logic. One does not save the world for the saintly justification of saving humanity as a whole; one saves the world for their loved ones, because, as Hakaze so smugly points out, it's better to do something for someone rather than something.

The more I write and think about this series, the more I feel conflicted about letting it go. There's just nothing quite like this series, at least not in recent memory. It's not so much about the experience as a whole, but in the little moments where I was won over. Watching that four or five episode debate with Samon striking his sword and making priceless expressions... Hanemura proving himself the least foolish among a group of fools trying to figure out the identity of Yoshino's girlfriend... Jun trucking a suitcase of porn off to the final battle... Aika trolling Yoshino and Mahiro to the very end... There's just no way for me to put my feelings into words. It's like waving goodbye to some very dear friends, or, more appropriately, like watching the curtain come down on my favorite opera. Though I know objectively that the performance is over, my heart waits wistfully for the next time I'll be able to see this story unfold, and that, I think, marks just how special an experience it has been. You don't need perfection or new ideas to achieve a wonderful result, just some actors, a stage, and the ambition to pull it all together as dramatically as possible.