After finishing the first two video games in the Trails in the Sky series, it was a pleasant surprise to find an anime based on it. It has two parts of about 40 minutes each, and I tend to call it a movie, even though it technically is a mini-series. Watching it soon after the game was a fantastic experience, and it became one of my favourite anime movies.
The anime begins with a short, narrated introduction to the world, followed by a music video where the characters are shown, to the song Silver Will, Golden Wings, which always hypes me up with its enthusiastic melody and lyrics like:
"You make me feel my will silver
Do believe me, all my heart"
The story is almost exclusively from the first two thirds of the second game, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC. It follows the game, but of course in a compressed way and with a few critical changes, considering that it is a very long game compressed into an 80 minute anime.
This means that it doesn't have a conclusive end, but it is a good thing that it does not spoil the last part of the game. There will still be spoilers of course, which should be considered if you are looking to play the remakes of the games, starting to come out in 2025.
The anime also does not have the character introductions and story from the first game. I wish it had one or two more episodes, to make it more grounded, or show more of the detective work. Considering that the audience would be microscopic anyway, there was probably no motivation to spend more on it. The many nice details in how the locations and action is presented still implies that a lot of effort was put into the project.
The action starts in a terrible way at the worst possible point in time, with some dramatic scenes that we are thrown into without build-up. This continues to be a structural flaw throughout the anime, where many new characters show up without a proper introduction, because they are already known by the other characters, and are near to the end of their arcs. Imagine if the first appearance of Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars was the scene where Darth Vader says "I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan. We meet again, at last."
This creates a jarring experience of catching up, where we barely have time to learn about each character until next one appears. The worst example is the Sky Bandits, who are never explained, so prior knowledge is necessary to understand why they are even there. Only one character was introduced in a proper way, because it was unknown to the others present at the location.
Aside from that, the characters are correctly depicted and feel familiar from the games. The main character Estelle is well animated and voiced to get almost the correct personality. A couple of other characters are also missing a few important lines of dialogue.
Action scenes are faithful to the game, with recognizable spells and mechanics, that are sometimes called by name, and sometimes left as Easter eggs. One fight is particularly impressive, and has also given rise to a meme about Estelle being kicked by an antagonist.
After that, the high points are the drama, background revelation, and development of some of the antagonists, with emotional scenes. The slower pace and better flow makes it more and more immersive and enjoyable.
Worth mentioning are also the Easter eggs. For example the idyllic scene with the sheep crossing the road outside Elmo village.
Given the lack of backstory for characters, it is unclear if the anime can be recommended to non-players. Maybe the fantastic music by itself can make it worth watching.
