Spoiler Warning: This article includes spoilers up to Episode 4 of the series as it greatly helps in the understanding parts of this episode

Introduction

I initially decided against writing about The Legend of the Legendary Heroes as I was underwhelmed when I watched this episode, and thought it was an enjoyable but unremarkable anime. Having watched a few more episodes though my impression of the series has changed much for the better and it now one of my favourite fantasy anime series, and knowing what is actually going on has also increased my enjoyment of the first episode.

Episode Summary and Analysis

(Opening Narration) We learn that in the past countless monsters existed that threatened to destroy the world. Then legendary heroes appeared with greater power who defeated the monsters. If their relics could be found they would have great value. As to whether they existed or not Alpha Stigma will enlighten us.

Events then cut to the main protagonist Ryner Lute using his magic to read attacking soldiers magic and use it against them. The soldiers realise Ryner has Alpha Stigma and the commanding officer orders his soldiers to stop using magic and asks Ryner if he has come to steal their magic and if Roland wants a war with Nelpha.

Ferris Eris then appears and responds by saying that is not the case insulting Ryner in the process. The commanding officer takes no notice and orders his soldiers to attack while Ryner protests that they are just looking for relics of the hero in Nelpha. Ferris quickly disarms the nearest soldiers causing them to retreat, then turns her attention to Ryner asking him if he understands the concept of a covert operation and warns him not to tell anyone about their mission. As they leave the area an unknown woman (Milk Callaud) watches them from a tree.

While I had a few complaints about later parts of the episode, I thought that the opening was fairly effective and established quickly that Ferris and Ryner where on a hunt for ancient relics that heroes once used. Having watched a few more episodes the comments about stealing magic also make sense as it appears that each country has its own unique way of performing magic or unique spells so Ryner being a spy would make sense from a rival nations standpoint given that Alpha Stigma enables him to analyse and copy new magic.

A little later Ryner and Ferris are at a tea house with Ferris enjoying the shops dango’s. In reponse to Ryner’s complaints Ferris reminds him that he wrote the report that caused them to be sent on the mission. The shopkeeper then appears and asks them if they are from Roland and not to be concerned as she isn’t bothered as she is a fan of the new king of Roland Sion Astal.

In response to the complements Ferris claims Sion is a heartless monster who holds dango’s to ransom and Ryner agrees saying he likes to work his best friend to the bone dumping this job on him. Ferris and Ryner then bond in their “dislike” of the King.

When I first saw this scene I was mildly put off the anime as I assumed Ferris was a mad woman. I then thought that perhaps the anime would be about Ferris and Ryner collecting relics to stop the evil but beloved King Sion, however the following scenes established that Sion is anything but an evil king.

All this changed however, after I watched the fourth episode as everything Ryner and Ferris talked about the king was the truth as Ryner is being forced to work against his will when he would rather be napping in jail, and Sion (albeit via Ferris’ brother) is threatening to destroy Ferris’ favourite dango store if she doesn’t help Ryner on his quest to find the relics.

One thing that did bug me about the scene on second viewing is that the shop keeper states it has been 2 years since Sion became king in a revolution in Roland, however it also appears that Ryner and Ferris have only recently set out on their journey. If this is the case it would imply that Sion kept Ryner locked up for the majority of his reign to date as Ryner was in jail for no more than 3 years going from the age of the jail wardens daughter at the start and end of Ryner’s captivity in the fourth episode and I have a hard time believing Sion would keep Ryner locked up once he became king.

The lack of information regarding how Sion became king does not help in resolving this matter though hopefully the next few episodes will help establish when this episode falls in continuity as it is also possible that they spent time in Roland researching before setting out or encountered false leads before the first relic encounter in this episode.

In Roland Sion is travelling in a carriage amidst a cheering crowd with people thinking the kingdom is in good hands. Back at the palace Sion deals with the aftermath of a flood and with the day to day problems of the nation.

As two of his (young) advisors have a friendly squabble, Sion is handed a report from a Nelpha squadron and its mentioned that “they” are still wandering the nations border.  Sion then wonders what those two are doing.

This scene was a fairly effective way of establishing that Ferris and Ryner where not being serious with their complaints about Sion being a monster and that he is a popular and apparently fair king. One question I do have is who the Nelpha Squadron is referring to. The most likely option is this is a spy report and its referring to the soldiers Ryner and Ferris defeated at the start of the episode, however it is also possible it is referring to Milk’s squadron though that does not make sense given her mission or is actually a report from Ryner and Ferris themselves.

Another thing I noted was that there was a cameo appearance of a blue haired character (unsure of gender) from the opening credits in the street scene watching from an alleyway, which will undoubtedly be revealed to have greater significance in subsequent episodes. If normal dramatic conventions apply to the character then they will either be a threat to Sion or watching from the shadows to protect him from as an yet unrevealed threat.

Back in Nelpha Ryner and Ferris have reached the ruins where they believe the relic is being kept. The entrance is sealed and Ryner starts to use his alpha stigma to remove the magic keeping the door closed, Ferris gets bored and decides to slice it open. As they enter the ruin, the woman from earlier (Milk) is seen accompanied by some soldiers.

In the ruins Ryner is dealing with traps and thinks it is too much effort, in response to the complains Ferris states that he wont put much effort in unless stalking women or kidnapping little girls is involved, and Ryner wonders when he has ever done any of that.

The stalking woman (Milk) with her squad has followed them into the ruins and unwittingly sets of a trap near Ryner, this causes a chain reaction of events leading to her (the woman) and Ryner being washed away.

The light hearted tone of the episode continues with Ferris deciding to take the easy option when it comes to entering ruins on a treasure hunt. There is then some banter about Ryner being a sex fiend which makes more sense after episode 4 when it becomes clear that possibly due to hearing about what Ryner did for Kiefer, Ferris thinks that Ryner is a sex maniac. It could also just be her way of dealing with someone she would not normally want to be with.

I do suspect however, that Ryner will either have to stalk a woman and/or kidnap a little girl later on in the series or be revealed to have already done so albeit in an “innocent” or twisted fashion. By this I mean that since as demonstrated later in this episode and in the series, nobles have a tendency to view people as possessions I would not put it past Ryner to rescue a little girl and have it viewed as kidnapping by the nobles involved.

Back in Roland a teenage boy attacks a coach bearing Count Klausberr’s crest in order to save his sister Eslina who had been kidnapped by the count that morning. It turns out that Sion is in the carriage and the boy is thrown off the carriage just after he realises it’s the wrong person and prepares himself for death.

After he explains himself to Sion’s guard Claugh who he thinks will kill him Sion emerges from the carriage and asks him if he is prepared to abandon his sister and give up. The boy is shocked when he realises it was the “Hero King” who he had attacked and Sion tells him he will change this corrupt world which the boy takes to mean that Sion will help him get his sister back.

If there was ever any doubt about Sion’s true nature following the Ferris and Ryner diatribe against him, this and a later scene prove that Sion at least has a strong facade of standing up for the weak when he gives new hope to Eslina’s brother. This is more remarkable when it is remembered that he had just attacked Sion’s coach.

While I dont think Eslina or her brother will be seen again except perhaps in a cameo in Sion’s palace, this scene is an important first indication of just how bad the nobility of Roland can be when we learn a noble has kidnapped Eslina and it just gets worse when we learn what the intention was later on.

Back in the ruins Ryner complains to a medallion wearing Ferris about the situation and wonders who the woman in front of him is. The woman who had been following them is Milk Callaud, the leader of the Roland Taboo Breaker Pursuit Squadron.

She claims she is there to bring them back as he is recognised as a taboo breaker as he acquired Roland’s magic and left without permission. While she is explaining all this and not paying attention Ryner and Ferris continue deeper into the ruins. In response to this Milk attacks Ryner with a spell which he counters with Ease. An increasingly hysterical Milk then begs Ryner to come back with her as he can still get off easy.

Milks attitude makes Ferris think that she is one of Ryner’s victims who he cast away after toying with them. An embarrassed Milk denies this and gets ready to attack again when a Giant Golem materialises and starts to attack her. Milk is then rescued by a member of her squad who carries her out of harms way. The Golem then proceeds to destroy the ruins and everyone exits the remains.

Outside Ryner can’t analyse the Golem with his Alpha Stigma and thinks it must be a hero’s relic. Ryner cant find a weakness and he and Ferris are forced to run for their lives as the Golem attacks them with beams.

This is quite an interesting scene in hindsight as it makes no sense for Milk’s squadron to be chasing Ryner as a taboo breaker given that they are acting under the King’s orders. This then raises the question of who sent her squadron and why. Even though Milk knows Ryner (according to wikipedia she is a childhood friend) I doubt she is acting on her own even if she is a “victim of Ryner” like Kiefer could be considered to be.

Given what we know up to the end of episode 4, the most likely options I can think of are firstly that Sion is having a little fun with Ryner knowing that he and Ferris could deal with the squad in a non lethal fashion if need be and also gives Sion plausible deniability if Ryner and Ferris are captured on their mission. The second option I can think of is that one of the rival nobles (possibly the one talking to Ryner in jail in Episode 3) is trying to undermine Sion by capturing or killing Ryner as part of some political scheme or just simple revenge.

If you look at Ferris carefully at the start of the scene, it can also be seen that she has picked up a medallion at some point, unfortunately I think this should have actually been shown rather than talked about as it is very easy to miss and makes the eventual revelation about it being a relic come accross even more strongly as Deus ex Machina than it should.

At Klausberr Manor Eslina is reunited with her brother thanks to Sion, and it turns out she was abducted because she and her brother where orphans and because Count Klausberr wanted to give Sion a “freshly plucked flower” to do with as he wished. Sion bemoans the fact that he does not yet have the power to deal with the corruption of people like Klausberr and talks to him with a smile on his face while thinking he is scum.

At the destroyed ruins, Ryner and Ferris realise there is no way to deal with the rampaging relic and decide to leave it for someone else to clean up. At that point Ryner notices the jewel Ferris had picked up and warns her it could be another relic at which point responds to the Rampaging Relic by turning into energy and heading into the sky before causing a massive beam to attack the other relic. This however is not enough to destroy it and they both run away from the scene.

There is then a flashback of when Sion first asked Ryner to help him become King and change everything making it into a world he once desired. Before it moves to a scene of a corpse strewn battlefield with Sion standing next to a crying woman (Kiefer) and Ryner standing in the distance.

On second viewing I found the dialog between Count Klausberr and Sion quite chilling as I realised the full extent of what he was talking about as it appears that “the freshly plucked flower” is Eslina and the Count had left her to the Kings whim which meant if Sion wanted to he could have tortured, raped and murdered her with no one batting an eyelid. I do wonder what Sion would have done if he had not run into her brother, assuming he is genuine then I suspect he would have freed her or taken her with him but the downside to that and also what he does in this episode is that it just encourages the nobility to give him similar “gifts”. One thing the scene does do well is firmly establish that their is at least an element of the nobility of Roland that needs to be purged if the nation is to be truly free.

The other thing I noted is that while on initial viewing I had not really paid that much attention to the dialog Sion scenes as I thought the series was a fairly light fantasy comedy in part because of the name of the series and the Ryner-Ferris interaction just how dark the Sion scenes are, making previous comments I made about the tone of this episode being different to that of later episodes incorrect.

Moving to the ruins scene this establishes that Ryner and Ferris are more than capable of leaving a place in a mess they created and I would not be surprised if them running away from a rampaging relic becomes a common motif of the series. The other thing that the epilogue does is to hint that the next episode will be a flash back which is confirmed in the next episode preview.

Closing Thoughts

Having all of or part of the first episode be set part way through the series is always a risky affair which can backfire on you badly. Sadly, much like the first episode of Yuko Wakaru Gendai Mahou which is also set part way through the series, this is the case for the first episode of The Legend of the Legendary Heroes albeit for different reasons.

The reason the time skip in Yuko Wakaru Gendai Mahou failed was that it was not clear it was set part way through the series, in part due to it being a time travel episode leading to viewing confusion until the series caught up. While confusion is again an issue the type of confusion is different. On initial viewing as the Ryner scenes had been fairly light hearted I was not paying close attention to the dialog in the Sion scenes and just though that Sion had helped a brother and sister be reunited and not thought of the full implications. This also meant I was not expecting the very dark tone of Episode 3. When the scene is paid attention to though, it makes some of the darkness of later episodes less unexpected, if still surprising when it occurs.

The other confusing aspect was the diatribe against Sion from Ryner and Ferris. On initial viewing it appeared that Ferris was a mad dango obsessed woman making things up about Sion or being serious in a light hearted way about the “Hero King” actually being a mask and Sion being evil. Once you understand what is going on though it makes a lot more sense since her dango’s are under threat and making the diatribe with Ryner friendly banter against a friend who is using them.

Having watched up to Episode 4, I feel that this episode works better as a fourth episode than a first (position may change depending on events of later episodes) as we now know where the characters are coming from and the scenes with Sion establish that while he is now King there are still major internal problems to be dealt with. As a first episode though it is likely to be quite off putting as it gives a wrong impression of some of the characters and I found I did not truly appreciate the episode until I had a better understanding of characters and events.

Episode Rating

For a change I am giving this two ratings, one rating for when I initially viewed the episode and after watching a few episodes as this greatly changed my perception of the characters and parts of the episode.

Intitial Viewing: 6/10 – I thought it was an enjoyable fantasy comedy but its main characters where too far fetched and potentially insane and overall fairly average

Rewatch Post Episode 4: 8/10 – I now recognise the hints of darkness to come and appreciate where the main characters are coming from making their actions and conversation