Blast of Tempest - Complete Collection (Zetsuen No Tempest) (2012)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	More…-Textless Opening Song x 2 More…-Textless Closing Song x 2 Trailer-Series trailer Trailer-x 11 for other anime releases
Rating
Year Of Production	2012
Running Time	562:52 (Case: 600)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (4)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Tatsuya Abe
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Kouki Uchiyama Toshiyuki Toyanaga Miyuki Sawashiro Kana Hanazawa Rikiya Koyama Nana Mizuki Hiroyuki Yoshino
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	?	Music	Michiru Oshima

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, during the end credits of episode 24.

"The time is out of joint
O, cursed spite
That ever I was born to set it right" Hamlet

     The Kusaribe family are a clan of magicians, using the power and energy of the godlike Tree of Genesis to control and manage the internal logic of the world and ensure the world’s equilibrium. The most powerful member of the clan, and the mage of the Tree of Genesis, is princess Hakaze (Miyuki Sawashiro) but when her brother Samon (Rikiya Koyama) starts the ritual that will revive the opposing Tree of Exodus and awaken something terrible that should never be, Hakaze loses the power struggle within the clan, is trapped by Samon in a barrel and marooned on a remote island unable to use her magic. Hakaze is, however, able to place a message and a wooden doll into a bottle and float it away from the island. The bottle is found by Mahiro (Toshiyuki Toyanaga), a teenage boy who is grieving over the unsolved murder of his sister Aika (Kana Hanazawa) a year previously. Able to communicate via the wooden dolls, Mahiro makes a pact with Hakaze; he will aid her against Samon if she will use her magic to find the killer of his sister.

     Using her voice through the doll and talismans she left behind Hakaze is able to give Mahiro limited magical powers. Mahiro is joined by his best friend Yoshino (Kouki Uchiyama), who unbeknown to Mahiro was Aika’s boyfriend before she was murdered. Hunted by members of the Kusaribe clan, including the spear carrying Natsumura (Junichi Suwabe) and Tetsuma (Hiroyuki Yoshino), as well as government agent Evangeline Yamamoto (Nana Mizuki), Mahiro and Yoshino race against time as Samon’s ritual to revive the Tree of Exodus brings about the emergence from the earth of the tree’s giant fruit which create chaos in the cities, including a virus of sorts that turns humans and animals into metal. And when Mahiro discovers that the murderer of his sister was a member of the Kusaribe clan, his quest for revenge become even more personal.

     Episode 12 of Blast of Tempest climaxes with a massive Japanese army, navy and air force assault upon Samon’s headquarters where the ritual to revive the Tree of Exodus is reaching its conclusion, the rescue of Hakaze from her entrapment, the reawakening of both trees and the death of some of the main characters. Episode 13 recommences some months later. The Tree of Genesis has encircled the world, controlling everything and creating peace by the simple expedient of killing and absorbing about a quarter of the Earth’s population, as well as anyone who starts a conflict. Deserts have bloomed, polluted areas made productive and climate change reversed. But there are those who brindle at the control, and there is, out there, a mage of the Tree of Exodus who could rival Hakaze’s powers. Mahiro still has to find Aika’s murderer and, to complicate things further, Hakaze has fallen in love with Yoshino, which may affect her judgement.

     Blast of Tempest (Zetsuen No Tempest) also titled Blast of Tempest: The Civilization Blaster is based on a manga. This is an anime which is ambitious and epic in every way right from the first episode; the plot is a battle for the survival of civilization that brings in magic, time paradoxes, predetermination and coincidence, alien intelligence, a mystery, a love story, godlike trees, obsession and revenge while utilising quotes from Shakespeare, specifically Hamlet andThe Tempest. Some episodes are very dialogue heavy, with discussions about time paradoxes, logic and illogic that will make your head spin. The anime also borrows elements of its plot from both Hamlet and The Tempest; as more than one character points out, both are plays about revenge, although the endings are the direct opposite of each other. Finally, the orchestral score (which in itself is unusual in anime) by Michiru Oshima is Wagnerian in its intensity while the animation itself is gorgeous with intense, vibrant colours and solid lines.

     The main characters are also unusual. Mahiro is dangerous and unreasonable, uncaring about the fate of civilization and completely obsessed with taking revenge upon his sister’s killer. Before Aika’s death Mahiro had been overprotective of his sister, which hints at a darker secret that is only later revealed and which is one of the reasons Aika and Yoshino kept their relationship a secret. There is also an animosity between Mahiro and Hakaze: while they derive mutual benefit from working together, they have different agendas and neither is entirely trustworthy. Is Hakaze’s point of view necessarily reliable, or is she as much a danger to the world as Samon believes. Where does the neutral, but enigmatic, Junichiro (Hirofumi Nojima) really stand? Yoshino throughout is the voice of balance and reason; he is our point of entry into this complex and chaotic world of magic and mages and his relationship with Hakaze becomes more involved as the series progresses.

     For the first 8 or 9 episodes Blast of Tempest is action packed, intriguing, complex anime. From there it tends to get bogged down with cerebral, and somewhat pretentious, dialogue and musings about time, logic and destiny that probably worked better as manga as it tends to stop the anime action in its tracks. After the explosive climax to episode 12, the second set of episodes are less complex and feature far less action, as enemies have become friends, and there is also an emphasis on teenage love! The episode that reveals the details of the death of Aika, and the reasons behind it, kicks off the action again leading to final battle to determine the fate of the world.

     While some parts of Blast of Tempest become bogged down in head-splitting paradoxes and discussions on fate and logic, it is a beautiful looking anime with vibrant colours and strong detail. The 24 episodes aired on Japanese TV between October 2012 and March 2013. Blast of Tempest – Complete Collection contains all 24 episodes on four DVDs.

Video

     This is a rich, beautiful anime presentation. The lines are strong and detail excellent. The colours, such as the greens and blues of Hakaze’s island, are deep and vibrant while, in contrast, modern urban Japan is duller with shades of grey, although some sunsets are spectacular. Reds and yellows during explosions and conflict are bright, the sunflowers, cherry blossoms and snow looks spectacular! Blacks are rock solid and shadow detail very good.

     I did not notice any marks or artefacts.

     American English subtitles are in a clear yellow font. The subtitles are not burnt in so they can be removed for Japanese speakers. I noticed a minor error at 78:42 (episode 4) “I did use to avoid him” but otherwise they were error free.

    The layer changes on Disc 1 and Disc 4 were not noticeable, on Disc 2 layer change resulted in a slight pause (83:13 during episode 10) and on Disc 3 a pause at a scene change (91:55 during episode 16).

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The only audio option is Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 at 224 Kbps; in other words there is no English dub. Personally I don’t think this is a problem although others might.

     The audio is surround encoded so the rears featured music, some effects such as helicopter engines and explosions, and ambient sound including wind and rain. Dialogue was clear and the sub-woofer did add some depth to explosions, music and fireworks.

     The beautiful orchestral score by Michiru Oshima is truly epic, and on occasion almost Wagnerian, in its intensity. Indeed, on occasions it seemed to overwhelm the dialogue.

     It is anime so lip synchronisation is approximate.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     Discs 1 and 3 contain only episodes. The extras, such as they are, appear on Disc 2 and 4.

Disc 2

Textless Opening Song (1:28)

     The opening song without the credits.

Textless Closing Song (1:28)

     The closing song without the credits.

Trailers

     Trailers for Haganai Season One Collection (1:43), Eureka 7 AO Collection 1 (2:01), Cowboy Bebop Remastered Sessions Collection 1 (1:37), Blue Exorcist Vol. 1 (1:36) and Appleseed XIII Series Collection (2:05).

Disc 4

Textless Opening Song (1:28)

     The new opening song without the credits.

Textless Closing Song (1:28)

     The new closing song without the credits.

Blast of Tempest Trailer (1:47)

     The Madman trailer for the DVD.

Trailers

     Trailers for Patlabor The Mobile Police TV Series Collection 1 (1:57), Fairy Tale The Movie: Phoenix Priestess (1:40), Good Luck Girl! Binbogami Gai! The Complete Series (1:09), Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere Season 1 Collection (1:43), Haganai Season One Collection (1:43) and Heaven’s Lost Property The Angeloid of Clockwork (1:09).

     Our local DVD release of Blast of Tempest is the only version available with the entire series in one package. Both Region 1 US and Region 2 UK provide the series in two parts (and also only have the Japanese original language), while Region 2 Japan gets a whole lot of individual episodes on DVD and Blu-ray (none of which are English friendly). For the complete collection, buy Region 4.

     Blast of Tempest is an ambitious and complex anime postulating a battle for the survival of civilization involving death, magic, time paradoxes, predetermination and coincidence, alien intelligence, a mystery, a love story, obsession, revenge, godlike trees and Shakespeare. That it does not quite pull it off due to some overly talky episodes does not negate the effort put into series or the ideas.

     The video is spectacular and the audio good. The extras are very limited but are the same as are available elsewhere.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall