Elemental Gelade

Synopsis:

Set in the fantasy world of Guardia, our story takes place in some unknown time as we see young Red Lynx sky pirate Coud Van Giruet (or just Coud) about to embark on another raid for treasure. However, the rest of the crew isn't so fond of having Coud tag along since he tends to act before thinking which causes more trouble for than the Red Lynx than any enemy that they face. Excluded from the recent raid Coud decides to check out the teams most recent plunder in the store room and finds a coffin. Curious, he takes a closer look and see that it contains a young girl with a huge jewel that is just laying on top of her seemingly lifeless body. Well, since no one is looking, Coud decides to take a closer look at the jewel but when he removes it the girl awakens and her first words she says to him after an awkward moment of silence is "I hate all humans." then slowly walks away. As Coud is about to go after her the ship is suddenly attacked by some unknown military force determined to take the girl they found away, but for some unknown reason Coud decides to protect this strange girl named Reverie Metherlence from everyone. When Coud and Reverie are both backed into a corner during the fight she reveals her true identity as an Elemental Gelade, a living weapon, and fuses with Coud as a giant sword on his right arm. After a lengthy fight Coud learns that Reverie (or Ren) wants nothing more than to find her homeland, with a smile on his face Coud says he promises to help her no matter what it takes.


Reviewer: Endosanity
Number of episodes watched: 26


Review:

I'll admit, when I first started watching this anime I was really put off by the animation and the somewhat lame setting it started with. But, when the shows saving grace, Ren, hit the screen I felt like I was slapped in the face as what I was watching was telling me "take another look..." and her character made me sit up and pay more attention and watch Elemental Gelade from a new angle. From the very first episode this series will actually present you with two stories that walk hand in hand very well from beginning to end one being the overall story about the gelades as humanoid weapons and then the other about relationship of Coud and Ren. But at one point the main story starts to get overshadowed by their mysterious romance and at you'll start losing focus on the main story and start finding yourself going from episode to episode wondering what will happen with Ren and Coud instead.

But you know what? This won't bother you in the least because this fantasy style romance is so well paced that it's what really makes this series unique in it's own way. It's interesting to watch Ren cope with feelings even though she doesn't know what they are and Coud accepts Ren as a person and not a weapon of power and the difference in species doesn't affect him at all.

Although the overall story is a bit weak and the animation kind of dated looking, the extremely powerful romance presented here more than makes up for everything. When it's all said and done you'll get complete closure that might even leave a smile on your face. Recommended to watch at least once if anything, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Elemental Gelade (opening)

Recommendation:|Above Average|

Media type: DVD
From: Geneon/FUNimation
Spoken languages: English;Japanese
Subtitles: English