C: "Xenosaga: The Animation"

[W00T!! My 100th post!! - Seiko]

Xenosaga was a trilogy of RPG games for the Playstation 2, though there were other games. Never did I anticipate Namco Bandai's RPG to spawn an anime, which wasn't bad in my opinion. Xenosaga: The Animation is basically an animated telling of the first game, titled Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht.

Those familiar with the game can omit this portion. The story deals with a group of characters that battle beings called Gnosis. Among these are Shion Uzuki and the creation KOS-MOS, just to name a few. During the adventures, they travel onboard the Woglinde, meet other characters known in-game, and deal with not only Gnosis, but the antagonist Albedo, related to Jr.

The anime in some ways remain faithful to the game itself, though there are changes that takes place. For starters, Cherenkov, who dies early in the game, is replaced by Lt. Virgil, due to dying earlier in the anime. Another notable trait of the anime is the inclusion of Shion's brother, Jin Uzuki, who serves a much larger role in the game's sequel, Xenosaga Episode II:Jenseits von Gut und Bose. He is portrayed in the anime as he is done in Episode II, while he is only seen in cameo of the first game. The anime last only 12 episodes, so it's pretty short, and at first it was licensed by ADV. However, as with 29 other titles under them, it was later picked up by Funimation after ADV became defunct. To this day, there are no talks of a succeeding title anime wise, while Xenosaga, in general, seemed to have stopped for good after the final game, Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra, was released. Shion is voiced by Stephanie Wittels (who did roles like Lilith of Venus Versus Virus), KOS-MOS by Luci Christian (Kaname Chidori of the Full Metal Panic! series), and Jin is voiced by Christohper Ayres (the current voice of Frieza for Dragon Ball Z Kai). Christohper Ayres is fellow voice actor, and elder brother, to Greg Ayres, who also serves a role in this. In this anime, Greg Ayres voices Gaignun Kukai Jr./Rubedo. It shouldn't be said, but the voices seen here isn't like that of the games. Just a little heads up.

As short as it is, it retains what we know about Episode I to an extent, and like Devil May Cry: The Animated Series, I feel as if the anime didn't botch up the namesake game. Xenosaga: The Animation gets a 7.8 of 10.