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Elemental Gelade


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ChronoBall X



Joined: 01 Nov 2006
Posts: 389
PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 10:26 pm Reply with quote
has anyone seen this yet or finished it?

as for me, I thought this was kind of interesting,while not the best thing ever,but pretty decent,for starters as for my first catchings of this Anime, first saw the English dub version of this episode on one of Newtype USA's Preview Dvds and I have to say, I like it so far, it's kind of like a mixture of Steampunk Sky pirates mixed with Shoujo/Fantasy, infact it kind of reminds me alot of that RPG on the gamecube from Sega called Skies of Arcadia

The characters in this Such as Coud Van, the mysteriouse Blue haired Girl Named Ren who's an Edel Raid" and my personal fav, the ultra Cute Cisqua,leader of the Arc Aile.

and Yuki Kajuki (composer of .hack//Sign and Madlax) is doing the soundtrack in this,while not her best yet and not quite as good as the soundtracks she does in the Bee Train Animes,but and sub-par.

but anyway, i'm currently watching the fansubs,because where I currently live right now,the English Dub is difficult for me to get ahold of.

so,what do you guys think of this Anime so far?
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Jarius



Joined: 18 May 2007
Posts: 39
PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 10:40 pm Reply with quote
i have seen this anime and i would say its a pretty decent anime however its quite predictable. How do i say that.

Probably there are quite a lot of anime that has somewhat of the same plot . Of course elementar gerad has its own uniqueness. On the whole show overall, only the last few episode are good, the rest are just alright to watch.

What i feel that the show is lacking is the individual character development department. Most is focus of the male and female protagonist and a few others and there isnt much to say for the rest of the characters even for the antagonists. If only is there is much involvement in character development the show would probably fare better.
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ChronoBall X



Joined: 01 Nov 2006
Posts: 389
PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2007 11:10 pm Reply with quote
Jarius wrote:
i have seen this anime and i would say its a pretty decent anime however its quite predictable. How do i say that.

Probably there are quite a lot of anime that has somewhat of the same plot . Of course elementar gerad has its own uniqueness. On the whole show overall, only the last few episode are good, the rest are just alright to watch.

What i feel that the show is lacking is the individual character development department. Most is focus of the male and female protagonist and a few others and there isnt much to say for the rest of the characters even for the antagonists. If only is there is much involvement in character development the show would probably fare better.


from what I heard, I heard that the Manga is quite different from the Anime and expands the story much farther.
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DuelLadyS



Joined: 17 Mar 2006
Posts: 1705
Location: WA state
PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 10:43 am Reply with quote
I own and have watched all of this show... it's not in any way a stand-out example of animation at its finest, or anything like that.

It is a pretty solid fantasy/adventure title (I'd drop the steampunk part, since once the airship crashes that element goes right along with it.). If you're like me and fell into anime in the latter half of the 90s, when fantasy anime about wandering adventurers (ala the Slayers) clogged the shelves, this is a nice way to re-live that era. It's also a good way to drag a friend into anime if they're into this kind of thing.

I personally liked the chunk of episodes with Viro. It shook up the stereotypical fantasy anime 'wandering weiros' dynamic a bit - granted, by throwing in the stereotypical shoujo anime 'romantic rival' dynamic. But it was still slightly unusual. (That, and a Viro/Cou set would allow me to do a matching cosplay with my BF, so I paid very close attention. Laughing )
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mistress_reebi



Joined: 07 Jan 2005
Posts: 735
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:00 am Reply with quote
I've seen some and it's definiately meant for a younger audience. I liked it, but I think I'd perfer it more if I were younger. The opening theme is amusing. I wouldn't say shôjo it's more of a shonen show.
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sizzlin_chiken



Joined: 21 Nov 2006
Posts: 69
Location: MN
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:25 am Reply with quote
I saw this a few months back. I don't hate but it could've been better. I like the characters a lot and Coud was pretty tight even though I thought he was an idiot at times. The story was pretty good and action was mediocre. The slight comic romance was goodspoiler[and they did get together at the end. They became sky pirates haha even Ren(was that the blue haired girl's name? I don't remember)]but yea this was a decent series.
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banas



Joined: 16 Mar 2007
Posts: 116
Location: In a house in a country in Southeast Asia..
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:24 am Reply with quote
I must say it was quite good, since I watched every episode (well, not all-I sometimes forget). The story's pretty good, with all the people turning into weapons, and Ren is so cute. Very Happy Haha...no...really, it's just fine. It's just that it's almost like every other anime where the girl has some special power and they're fighting for her and the guy comes to the rescue and the like. But then, it's really well-made.
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Kruszer



Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 7983
Location: Minnesota, USA
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 10:52 am Reply with quote
It looks somewhat interesting from the preview, haven't seen it though.

Oh and it's Yuki Kajiura.
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Irish Jack



Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Posts: 17
Location: St. Louis, MO
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:22 pm Reply with quote
I agree that it is a pretty good show, but it could have used a little more supporting character development.
It is still a pretty entertaining series to watch, if you get the chance.
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Randall Miyashiro



Joined: 12 Jun 2003
Posts: 2451
Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park
PostPosted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 5:32 pm Reply with quote
ChronoBall X wrote:
I like it so far, it's kind of like a mixture of Steampunk Sky pirates mixed with Shoujo/Fantasy, infact it kind of reminds me alot of that RPG on the gamecube from Sega called Skies of Arcadia


There is very little about the series that reminds me of shoujo. It is almost the definition of typical shounen anime. I was hoping for something more along the lines of Last Exile when I read the mini blurb on the DVD, but was rather disappointed. I noticed it shares the Geneon block on IATV with Law of Ueki, and would recommend either series if you are into shounen series.
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subforry



Joined: 28 Aug 2006
Posts: 21
Location: Hermosa Beach, CA
PostPosted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 11:43 am Reply with quote
I watched the whole series. It is an okay diversion. It is low key and very undemanding to watch. My biggest problem is that they had so many opportunities to address some interesting issues such as protection vs. imprisonment, corruption in government like organizations, are bad guys really evil, tools vs. partnerships, and actions based on profits or the need to do good deeds. But this show was clearly intended for a young audience.

The ending didn’t do it for me. spoiler[Maybe I am jaded on the “love conquers all” but I think the problem was that I didn’t really believe in the characters or their love for one another.]

The best episodes are the first few and the ones with Viro (close to the end).

[EDIT: spoiler[changed "concurs" to "conquers"]~Zalis]
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 6867
Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 1:02 pm Reply with quote
Seeing this thread inspired me to bite the bullet and finish the last 6 episodes. (Not in fansubs, though.)

When I first saw reviews of EG, I practically swore not to watch it ever, but since a friend of mine decided to collect the DVDs, I got the opportunity to see it on a "might as well" basis. My initial impression of EG remained the same at the end: that EG is a series that's more enjoyable for people who haven't seen a lot of anime than it is for "veterans" The reason for this is that veterans will find EG hard to watch without noticing all the elements that seem ripped off or borrowed from other series. For instance:

Guy meets mysterious girl with mysterious powers and vows to protect her: Outlaw Star (even shares the "girl in a box" idea), Chobits, DearS (girl with the same name!), Arc the Lad, This Ugly yet Beautiful World, maybe even a bit of Elfen Lied

Materializing weapons called up for battle: My-Hime, My-Otome, Scryed

Cou's character design: Fullmetal Alchemist's Edward Elrich

Ragtag band of wandering adventurers fight bad guys and try to make ends meet for food, lodging, etc.: Scrapped Princess, Slayers, Rune Soldier, Gokudo, Maze

Despite all that, I didn't find EG to be bad overall, though there were a few parts that were just awful, like Episode 15 spoiler[featuring that town that builds every building with a "crowning" stone on top that if destroyed will cause the whole building to collapse Rolling Eyes Fantasy world or not, why would anyone build anything like this? What are they, the Village of Architecture School Rejects?? Question] I did find some parts with side characters to be good, like the Viro arc as mentioned by subforry, and episode 8 spoiler[featuring Serena and her quest to find her old master. When she finds out about the time flow differential between humans and Edel Raids, and that her master is dead, her reaction is just heartbreaking.] In fact, that scene from Ep 8 gave me the idea for a thread that I haven't started yet. And the conversations in the early episodes during Cou's React training are just priceless -- I don't recall them exactly, but it's something like "Oh, you couldn't React with her?" "It's my first time; I was nervous!" Laughing

Unfortunately the animation only increases the "averageness" of EG, thanks to the fight scenes filled with stills and speedlines. Good colors and fantasy backgrounds, but not really enough to impress those who've seen a lot of this type of anime. Yuki Kajiura's music score is pretty good (Celtic/Irish feel), or at least not overpowering/sleep-inducing like in Noir and Madlax. And the English dub is a fine piece of work out of Ocean, whose dubs I generally don't like. (Or at least for me, "Ocean dub" is not the same mark of quality as it is for others.) Of course, it's still limited by the source material, but that's a problem of any dub unless it does a Ghost-Stories-esque overhaul. Still, it could easily be better than the Japanese performances, and managed to get in some good lines like "What was the deal with those ninjas on the pirate ship?" I'm still not sure why they added an "l" to change "Edel Raid" (ediru reido) to "Eldel Raid," and they took shortcuts on "Shichiko-houju" to make it "Shiko-hoji." If they're not going to bother to pronounce that term correctly, why leave it in Japanese at all when they could've just used "Rainbow Treasure" instead?

So overall, my take on EG is that it isn't bad, it's enjoyable enough in either language, it's got some unexpected good moments (and by "good" I mean "sad" Wink), and newcomers will probably have a better opinion on it than veterans, due to all its similarities to other series. I may pick it up as a boxed set in the future.
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xiaoxu



Joined: 24 Aug 2007
Posts: 21
PostPosted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:42 am Reply with quote
Hm....is EG recognised as Elemental Gelede or Elemental Gerad? I'm getting confused over the names here....

I think EG was an 'ok' anime.Aeverage fighting and the average romance with your average hero and...yeah...kinda average...One thing I do like though is the Edel Raid weapons...Especially Kuea and Rowen...so cool ^^
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 6867
Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 4:32 pm Reply with quote
"Elemental Gelade" is the official title for the Geneon release, because apparently there was some kind of copyright issue with the name "Gerad." I prefer "Elemental Gelade" over "Erementar Gerad" anyway. It's easier to say and it makes more sense.
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ChronoBall X



Joined: 01 Nov 2006
Posts: 389
PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:34 am Reply with quote
BTW everyone,just wanted to point out that the Elemental Gelade(or Erementar Gerad as called in japan) also spawned two japanese only video games.

One for the Gameboy Advance(GBA) which is an RPG mixed with dialouge text adventure and another one for Playstation 2(PS2) which is a 3-D fighting game simaliar to Street Fighter or the Naruto Clash of Ninjas games.

just wanted to point that out to everyone,just incase any die hard Elemental gelade fan is interested in importing those games.
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