Since no reviewer here seems to have read the original novels, I will try to my best: The Idhun Chronicles (or Memories from Idhun) is a fantasy trilogy, written by Laura Gallego (Spain). The original books are good, not perfect, but pretty good. But this adaptation is not worthy. It´s very difficult to explain, but I would say this is similar to the Avatar: the Last Airbender live action movie (the story is similar, but not quite. The characters are more or less the same, but at the same time they aren´t. It´s like all of the heart was taken away from this project). One of the worst parts is the voice acting: the author of the novels was originally involved with this series, she even casted a bunch of legendary voice actors for the show (the voice of Saitama in One Punch Man as the main character, professional voice actor Michelle Jenner (Hannah Philips in Toy Story) as the main female character... But the production company decided to fire all of them last minute, against the wishes of the author. And they casted a group of models, rookie actors and social media influencers instead (who never did any previous voice work), and it shows. Not only that, but this is the first animated product ever created by this production company. This not only lead to a lot of online controversy (since Laura Gallego was very open about her disappointment), but it also lowered the general quality of this show. My conclusion: You will only enjoy this show if you completely ignore the books, and you´re a BIG fantasy fan, but don´t think this represents the original story. There are a bunch of unique moments in the books that were slightly changed in this series, turning them into grey and generic (like the opening scene: I always thought the start of the first novel was pretty original, but in this series it was changed to the most generic main-character introduction ever). But to each his/her own.
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gabrielpenaledo11 January 2021
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ulrichbrodowsky13 September 2020If you don't like animation, this show is not for you. If you don't like storys written for children, this show is not for you. If you don't like shows getting somewhat bloody, this show is not for you. If you don't like fantasy, this show is not for you. And if you like all of the above? Then it's... okay. This show feels like it's made for children but somehow the creators thought the fights should be realistically brutal -- and didn't consider the consequences for the age limit (16 here in Germany). There are storys that look like they are for children, but aren't in a awesome way (e.g. Made in Abyss) but this is non of that. However, it has one thing going for it: It's fantasy. Not that it is particularly great, but if you really need a fantasy series and have no other left, you might give this one a try.
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snorre_fjellvang10 January 2021Its like a child story with adult elements (blood, sex, to much badly written conflicting feelings). But it has its interesting different elements, even if there somewhat badly written. Could have been great but lacks in good dialogues and incoherrent story. So far im half way trough season 2 episode 4, almost stoped watching it many times
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Lets start with the good. 1.Our protagonists often fail which makes the danger feel more real. When its good they fail because they are outmatched or the enemy did not fall for an obvious ploy, when its bad they fail because they overlooked something very simple. 2.In the second episode you see jack being unhappy about not being allowed to go into action yet despite having trained for 6 months and you can see everyones points of view. Not only are his feelings acknowledged by other characters, they make his value to them clear while not coddling him. bluntly put sometimes he will have nothing to contribute and he should wait for his moment. If this was any other show after a week of training he would have stolen one of the legendary swords, run of and gotten into trouble with the him saying that "I guess im not ready" and the mentor going "no you are ready" or some variation of this. There are few more atypical developments sprinkled here and there, It might seem silly giving show points for what it is not, especially since it has a mountain of other developments that are quite typical but I found this development refreshing. less so refreshing was what it ultimately amounted to but that is another story. 3. serpent soldiers remind me of serpent soldiers from other works and that invokes nostalgic memories of those works.
The bad. voice acting in Spanish felt hollow for the lack of a better word. Alsan especially sounded patronizing when he was meant to be sincerer. Shail is on the ok side of things when he does not have to use his non existent range. jack and his voice were a horrible match, I dont think there is single scene where his voice worked for me. I could swear in ep 5 around the 7:50 mark "yeet" is used as a sound effect, it was hilarious but also took me out of the moment. The show feels less like it was voice acted and more like it was dubbed over (if that makes sense).
My misplaced expectations. The summery reads "The day the three Suns and three Moons came together in alignment over Idhun, Ashran, the necromancer, seized power and the reign of the winged snakes started." I actually expected to see that, maybe even have Ashran be the protagonist.
Character design and animation. Character designs are acceptable but uninspired. animation is serviceable, except for some egregious moments, for example in ep 4 you have a fight with lizard troops that starts with 3 troop cutouts jump flying at the protagonists while being motionless in the air and the lizard battle does not get much better after that.
The cast and character motivations. With there being so few episodes, its understandable that we did not get much but I feel like key elements are missing. I do not care about the cast and even with more episodes I doubt this show can go beyond ok. 1.Jack wants revenge on Kirtash for killing his family and he has nowhere else to go. His anger helps deflect the guilt he feels for being the one who accidentally drew Kirtash's eye to his family. He is very fast learner(possibly chosen) and in ep 4 he pulls out the legendary of legendary swords. 2.Shail is a magic user who is more empathetic than Alsan but can also make hard choices. he teaches Victoria and wants to protect the last unicorn(it and a baby dragon somehow survived a homing destruction spell that got all others of its kind, a spell Ashran used to avoid a prophecy that a unicon and a dragon would stop his rule). I dont think anything is known about him as a person. also he is now dead (or more likely attack with 2 types of offensive magic somehow teleported him elsewhere) 3.Victoria is an earth born half mage who became a half by sometime in her life interacting with a unicorn. she has been hunted by Kirtash from time to time so she avoids making non magical friends to keep them out of line of fire. she is still going to school despite having had a train crash into her in the same area and she lives with her grandma who knows nothing about magic or what goes on in her life. Victoria wants to be a strong magic user like her favorite heroine from the legends and soon after its introduction she ends up getting heroines legendary lost staff, which was meant for her because it does not burn her (all legendary weapons that dont like their wielder, burn the wielder or otherwise cant be used). also she is 13!? 4.Alsan is a prince in exile, who is not very knowledgeable about the human world and likely only leaves their hideout for the missions. He wants to find all the refugees and unite them under his banner and the unicon/dragon. gets turned into a wolfman in ep 4 and that and angst over that becomes his personality. 5.Kirtash is an antagonist who hunts all the magical people(plus a unicon and a dragon as you find out in the 4th ep) of idhun who have escaped his boss. He has snake eyes that can suck out your soul and transfer your memories to him, even if you are in an astral form. He has hots for victoria and is the current prince or emperor of idhun(which you find out in ep 5). He loves his jacket and speaking in monotone!? 6.Elrion is the antagonist magic user who works with Kirtash because their boss told him so. He may or may not have wanted to be like Ashran. He turns Alsan into a wolfman and gets a book for kirtash, on that his contributions to the plot are finished and he is now dead.
note that I mostly told you about what happens to them or is around them but not about them as people. if I have not said it, assume that nothing more about the character exists (after 5 eps). Some of this might even sound grand to you but it often fails in execution, think of it like many titles of Daenerys Stormborn. I would not even call the story rushed, its like the show itself is just a summery of key plot points, a lot happens but non of it has impact on the viewer and in the end the fellowship is broken without ever having been really formed. -
RockStillLovingYou11 January 2021Binged the 10 episodes in one day. I was truly invested in the story for the first 5 episodes. The story was a bit rushed, of course, with so little episodes to explain everything that's happening and allow the audience to care about the characters and the plot. I've got to admit, I quite enjoyed the dynamic of these first 5. Characters were decent, plot was interesting, although from time to time poorly done. And yet, there's just something about the series that drew me in and I suppose that thing is the animation. Nothing spectacular or unseen before, but it just clicked for me. The other 5 episodes hold a bit too much drama for my taste and goddamn that love triangle. I don't get why there had to be one to drive the plot along and Victoria seems to just lead Jack along since she's constantly admitting her love for K. Dude, what's that for?! But, the communication between the characters was good since there were explanations given to both sides about the issues and about the feelings involved. The plot itself fell a bit flat since the focus was on the love story. Only the last episode is of some importance and moves the story along. And thank you for not having Shail dead.
I will definitely continue watching the series, yet I strongly encourage for people to watch the series back to back because otherwise the interest might be lost in time because of the somewhat dullness of the second part. -
michaelnomad12 September 2020Mediocre animation, bad voice acting by the main character, plot holes... and an ending that doesn't really wrap anything up. I'm not sure if the source material is better, but if it is, then the author must be fuming.
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I won't pretend to know much about the source material, but from what I've learned, it's not much better than this travesty of a show. This review is not well thought out or planned, I'm just remembering stuff as it comes because honestly this show doesn't deserve the minimal effort it would take to craft a well thought out review.
The pacing was badly done, with them jumping ahead by months regularly, yet there no real feeling of progress or anything changing. The characters were all dull, lackluster and the worst kind of Mary Sue/Gary Stu imaginable, especially Victoria.
Jack was whiny and infantile if the first five episodes and not much better in the second five. Victoria, however, was easily the most annoying character in the whole series. She's the very definition of a Mary Sue. She's Bella Swan and. Anastasia Steele in a high fantasy setting. Starts.out as a seemingly ordinary girl with some magical ability, yet by the 6th episode she's inexplicably the object of affection for the BBEG's son, Kirtash (the same guy who went around slaughtering all Idhunese, who openly admits over and over that he wants to kill her allies/friends and who also happens to be fused with the soul of a giant, winged, semi-divine flying snake... If it's not obvious, I'm rolling my eyes just recalling it). He loves her so very much, even though his Big Bad Daddy doesn't approve and orders him to kill her. The bulk of episodes 6-10 are spent on eyerollingly long, positively nauseating dialogues between Victoria and Kirtash about "do you really have feeling for you since you're...you know, a giant flying snake" "Of course I love you, my dearest, I'll protect you at all costs. But by the way...I'm going to kill your friends. One of whom you're also in love with in addition to me (Jack)". OR, it's Victoria whining to Jack about how horrible she is for loving Kirtash but being unable to help it and yet also having feelings for him and promising to protect him even as she runs off to lip lock with the giant serpent.
Jack and Kirtash have a natural animosity towards one another because, OH, by the way, Jack is actually a dragon, the LAST dragon (he's also a special GOLDEN dragon. Ooooh.....ahhhhh.... AMAZING. >_>;), and dragons have a natural aversion to the snake things of which Kirtash is one. I can't be bothered to remember what the snake things are called. Snec? Shec? Whatever. And of course, Jack loves Victoria so much that he doesn't even resent her for exchanging spit with the guy who aided in the murder of his parents. He just wants to kill Kirtash for hurting her, but oh wait, never mind, he realizes that Kirtash really, really loves her (for reasons I'll never get), so everything is peachy now, except for, you know, Jack and Kirtash hating one another. In the end they all rush to her rescue after she's captured by the BBEG because in the most unsurprising surprise ever, she's the missing last unicorn and at the end of this daringly obnoxious rescue scene, HURRAY, Kirtash joins the rebels. Happy day.
The worldbuilding and lore all take a backseat to the god awful love triangle that honestly needs to die in a fire. Immediately. It needs to be burnt to ash and then the ashes need to be burnt again until only the smallest atoms remain, then those atoms need to be scattered to the wind or, better yet, hurled into the sun to be completely annihilated and forgotten. And if what I know of the books is accurate, the love triangle would have only gotten more sickeningly convoluted and idiotic. Thank GOD this show was cancelled. Never bring it back. As for myself, I'll be doing my best to forget it ever existed. -
I enjoy fantasy stories, the concept is good but this series makes a common mistake on this genre of story, which is trying to create everything, all the details, too much epic and on the result you get a confusing plot that is boring and doesn't fill the holes. The art backgrounds were good designed and painted, but when it comes to the animation itself, a lot of scenes are very bad linked, the animation isn't much smooth and character's acting was very weak and lack of any charisma to make them likable / interesting , still far from any good anime made by Japanese's company. The story is very slow pace and filled with boring cliche teenage drama and almost no action. If you are looking for a good epic fantasy animation, I would recommend a title like Trollhunters instead of this one.
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secretengland13 September 2020I really like this show, but five episodes come on Netflix really!? It was just starting to get good, and bam it is over smh
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masinod12 September 2020I watched it all and all it was was an annoying slow moving horrific drama with little plot and no point. There was almost no action and the so called heros even after five episodes where just preteen crybabies and other then hold a so called heroic weapon did nothing of any importance. Just trash
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speedyavery9 January 2021Story is garbage, this was made by a person who had the brain of a teenage girl. The boy jake does not show real emotion if a girl that i liked had the audacity to kiss my parents murder i would kill them both and she is really ignorant this was something i was trying to watch cause i was bored but it got me pissed off and i didnt even want to watch it but i did so i could that trash off my continue watching
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Yahya_Adada13 January 2021Interesting story but poorly executed. Script is horrible and plot is rediculous.
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Lovely cartoon ruined by poor writing. Imagine having the most powerful staff and being tackled by a flip. Wtf? This could be beautiful.
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goodliffejaycob10 September 2020Can I just start out by saying I have not read books and have no prior bias for or against the show. There are 5 episodes on Netflix right now to watch and I watched them all in a row so I think I have a good idea of what is happening. Without spoilers I can say that it starts out kinda generic and jumbled up, characters say things and do the opposite, the main is like any other wimpy kid in an anime, he gets strong and beats the bad guy. The thing is the first 2 episodes don't go well at explaining what is happening but in criptic and difficulties to follow plot lines but those are outliers. Once you pass the first episode the third came in and I was hooked, the plot drew me in and by the time I got to the end I went to the next and the next. The main character Jack has to be one of the lesser characters while his supporting cast in the first 5 episodes are kinda mysterious as there plots evolve and you learn more, by the end if it you will want more as I did and I can't wait for the next part of this story to watch.
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I just created this account to write this, this anime is garbage. It looks like 15 years old depressed girl wrote its script, i cant believe i wasted my time on this, like what the hell is that love triangle, just why who thought this story would be a good idea, dont watch it if you dont want to get angry.
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Wulfio31 August 2021This must have been some twilight fanfic. Some potentially interesting world building in a high fantasy setting ruined by a nauseating love triangle written by what I can only assume is a woman with the mind of a 12 year old girl.
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motokokusanagi-7450611 March 2021Important Note: I haven't read the books, so take this with a grain of salt. Given there are a good few reviews here coming from the lovers of the books I decided I'll give them a read, but this is a review of the animated show and not the books.
The trailer had me interested for a while, I have a hard time getting into new anime (I'm very critical) but I decided to ultimately give this a try as Netflix would NOT stop shoving it in my face.
The first two episodes we establish Kirtash as a villain, with some other guy I can't be bothered to remember the name of, and we're introduced to our protagonists. This is fine. The pacing seemed fine until Episode 5- where it starts hinting at the son of the BBEG (I could see this trope a mile away) was developing feelings for Victoria.
Okay, cool, but... Why...? Why 5 episodes in? Each episode is 20 minutes with 5 episodes per part. On top of that, you have segments where timeskips are established and we're outright told that X months or Y years have passed. This happens several times, but it doesn't FEEL like that time passed and the entire thing feels horribly rushed and so poorly executed that they felt they needed to TELL us that time passed so it would excuse the utterly garbage pacing of the show.
Speaking of pacing; Kirtash started as an interesting albeit cliché character but got WORSE as the episodes progressed. Why did he become a famous singer? Why did he write a song about/for Victoria? That's cliché as hell and my friends and I all simultaneously yelled "OH NO" at that when I made them watch it with me because guess what guys, if I have to suffer so do you!
At the end of the day we couldn't watch much more of it, I dragged them through part 1 and we all quit at the same time. 3cringe5me. I came back to finish it off and see if it got better or worse, and it really only became tolerable.
The entire issue with this animated series is how badly paced it is. The entire thing feels like an early-mid 2010s roleplay plot some teens cooked up in a few hours because I'm assuming a lot of content was cut or condensed when it should not have been. The series may have been marginally better if it was paced a bit better. Perhaps the whole romance subplot could've waited until episode 8, and we could've seen the characters actually go on more adventures and improve/grow as they learned, or something to give the protagonists more depth.
But unfortunately that won't happen, since we're probably never getting a part 3 because the garbage pacing and writing utterly annihilated any chances this show had. -
e_camlidere12 September 2020I have watched all 5 eposides to make a critic.
Guys Don't watch it.
Producer spend a wonderful universe that can be a lot into nothing.
English dub is bad. It has a lot of meaningless boring drama in it(I love drama by the way). Explanations about universe are not good. And the plot... God sooooo bad i do not want to say another thing. Drawings are fine but can anyone explain to me why someone is keep showing in the same clothes (in this case school uniforms) if someone else is looking to kill / capture her...
I am very annoyed Netflix is just spending in bad projects.
Just cancel it. Useless. -
theo-9690922 December 2020Love the show. But does anyone know the name of the song in the season 1 trailer of Idhun Chronicles, been trying to find it for ages and it's driving me crazy.
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ambermichaeal13 September 2020So the thing is it's a good show, beautiful scenery and I love the animations, but it felt very rushed and unfinished. Only having 5 episodes really played into that. I wish we saw more development in the characters. I finished the show quickly and it felt very kiddish. Now I don't mind kid shows in fact I love plenty of them but being tv-14 and not having the more mature feeling I was hoping for was disappointing. This show had a lot of potential but it was wasted. Don't get me wrong it's not horrible but 5 episodes??? Anyways to wrap this up I don't recommend this show. I hate to say it but it was a waste of time. Shows I can recommend are The Hollow and the Dragon Prince!
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reyese-6906012 June 2021A senseless narrative, an inconsistent storyline, and a second season with a hyper-sexualized teenage cast. The only thing genuinely good about this show is Johnny Yong Bosch's performance as Kirtash.
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BoutTime1325 February 2021Good grief this show was pathetic and predictable. I've never hated a main character so much as the "whiny Jack" who is undoubtedly one of the dumbest idiots to ever be chosen as the hero of the show. If you like whiny, annoying, entitled, petulant babies who lack all reason and small shred of common sense, this show is perfect for you. I've watched many anime series and had to turn this off due to the sheer ridiculousness of how much I truly despised how weakly developed the characters were. Especially the main character who takes it to a whole new level and made it impossible to root for him when he constantly complains like an unthankful spoiled brat. What a complete waste and your time is better spent watching paint dry. What a complete dumpster fire and hope "whiny Jack" gets the beating he truly deserves. This is the first time I actually rooted for the bad guys to prevail. This anime is a dreadful streak mark in the pants of decent anime.
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gasparaguirre23 November 2020First I need to say I love idhun chronicles books so when they took out the serie I was super happy ,but then it took me everything good from watchin it,when kirthas and aslan are fighting they doesn't have light savers!!! Well i understand some people put 8 or more stars but if you read the books you guys will understand me
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sarahacvb12 September 2020I loved the series even though it has 5 episodes, but I really recommend watching it in the English dub.
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sisubalan1 October 2022Its a mess, full with plot holes and complicated choices. The flow of the animation didnt leave a great impression for me even after finishing both parts. Big fan of the animation style/drawing and the world building aspect. But lacking in action/adventure. Sound scores were pretty mediocre. Watched in english dubbed and it was really bad. Some bad choices on shail getting killed then brought back to alive, alsan/alexander being a victim of magic experiment gone bad on becoming generic werewolf, turning a cool headed ruthless kristaff/christian into a traitor all for his affection love to victoria, while jack being impulsive and jealous of christian & victoria hooking up in a very complicated love triangle, yikes. Literally all of them written of and potrayed bad. My huge disappointment on the way they turned victoria into an annoying character putting her in that complicated relationship with jack & christian. The worst part was that having a time skip that literally didnt give any changes to the main characters at all, except their appearances. Bad for netflix standard, not recommended. Glad it was cancelled.