Winter 2022 First Impressions – Fantasia Sango: Realm of Legends

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Taiwanese RPG

Episode Summary: As a nation finds itself on the decline at on the cusp of war, the people find themselves vulnerable to attack from a much more supernatural force. The wangliang, vengeful spirits that prey upon the darkness in people’s hearts, begin to multiply and wreak havoc among the populace, and only warriors with very special skills are able to fight against their powerful dark magic. Unfortunately the 6th unit, which was comprised of such people, was wiped out under mysterious circumstances.

As the situation becomes more dire, the need for the 6th unit grows as well, and four warriors are chosen to comprise the group: Ying Ji, who can cast spells using ink magic, Xun Qiao, whose music draws forth the wangliang, Ding Yan, who has some connection to the former 6th unit, and Xiao Ling, who is a Gui Zhan – a warrior who draws power from the wangliangs’ miasma. Working together they help dispel a wangliang from a village who’s been singlehandedly defending his village from invasion, and the group gets a first-hand taste of the power wielded by a Gui Zhan.

Impressions: Sometimes a little bit of knowledge of another language can make things complicated. This series, based on a Taiwanese property, is translated into English using what I assume are the Chinese-language names of the characters, but because the series is dubbed into Japanese for this release, whenever someone’s name or a piece of recognizable jargon is used, my brain locks onto the Japanese translation instead. Thus the wangliang are “mouryou” (goblins) and everyone’s names are decidedly more Japanese. It doesn’t help that some of the websites I use to help keep track of character names are using the Japanese translations rather than what the official Funimation subtitles are using. It’s difficult to know what to do in these circumstances. This is definitely a “me” problem.

That aside, this episode is a pretty average, unremarkable start to a fantasy series. One storytelling method that really bothers me is the tendency for story crafters to tell stories by having things just happen to the characters in a sequence. This episode has very little rising action; instead, the characters just kind of encounter one-another while the big titty lady who orders them around tells them that they need to team up with one another and reform the 6th regiment and fight demons. There seems to be a prior relationship between Ying ji and Xun Qiao, but that isn’t explored. Ding Yan obviously has some trauma related to whatever happened to the previous 6th unit, but that isn’t elaborated upon and is even kind of treated as a joke. There’s a talking tea caddy who serves as a mascot character – what is its deal? There are a lot of unanswered questions hanging in the air, and not in the fun, intriguing, compelling way.

I think the implication here is that prior familiarity is expected and required. This can sometimes be a failing of media based on prior source material – its intended audience is an existing fandom and nobody else. Yet, looking at just anime from this season, there are series based on light novels, manga, and games, and I’d argue that many if not most of them do a decent job of providing enough of a foothold for noobs. In this case, though, there’s a double level of unfamiliarity – a game that I’ve never played in a language I’m not really acquainted with – that adds an extra burden.

Ultimately, Fantasia Sango is just sort of indistinguishable from a lot of fantasy series. It seems more concerned with magic and jargon than it does with characterization or narrative construction. I suspect it might be slightly more enjoyable for people who can fill in its gaps with their own prior gaming experience.

Pros: Probably unsurprisingly, I think the most enjoyable part of this episode is the battle against the village man who’s possessed by a wangliang. It’s a “brain shut off” moment during which the various characters can just be cool and show off their special magic powers. The coolest is probably Xiao Ling, whose ability to siphon off demon powers and utilize them as her own is honestly pretty bad ass.

I find the mechanism by which the wangliang “infect” humans to be a potentially interesting thing to explore. I think the most emotionally resonant moment this episode can claim is when the village man explains the endless burden of responsibility he’s felt while trying to defend his village, and how that responsibility has chipped away at his emotional defenses. I definitely think it’s an idea that many of us can relate to (even if not exactly 1:1).

Cons: The production values overall just aren’t very good, and it’s kind of disappointing because I think a silly fantasy action series always benefits from some fun battle scene animation. I think the major issue is that everything feels very “flat;” the special-effects/compositing also doesn’t do enough to manage any heavy lifting. And one personal annoyance I have is how the women’s breasts are rendered from the front – in a couple of instances where bare cleavage is shown, the breasts appear as one singular “loaf” with a shadow at the top used to delineate the two halves. It’s just… a strange stylistic choice.

Content Warnings: Fantasy violence (mild). Body horror (mild).

Would I Watch More? – I didn’t find this episode compelling at all, and I doubt there’d be much for me if I watched further.