Anime Overview/Reviews: The Legend of Condor Hero

Title: The Legend of Condor Hero
Release Date: 2001
Genre: Wuxia
Director: Takagi Jun, Hayakawa Keiji, Annou Masami
Writer: Jin Yong
Creator: Jin Yong
Number of Episodes: 78
Studio: Nippon, Jade

Overview

A 13 year old yan'gor is brought to a Taoist temple by a famous martial artist named Gua, whom is his adopted father, and sworn brother of Yangor's late father. Gua thought it best to send him to this temple, so he can learn martial arts, since no one would teach him back home, and he was always getting in fights with Gua's students. Gua has a lot of respect for the Taoist monks at the Temple, and even Yangor's father trained there, but aside from the abbot, Gua's close friend, the monks there are no more then bullies, which Yangor's rebellious nature only makes worse. On top of that, the monks put in charge of Yangor, have no intention of ever teaching Yangor martial arts, all they do is have him rememberize theories(which without seeing the corresponding pictures/stances to such, can't be fully understood).

Meanwhile when he's not being overseen, he sneaks off into the woods below(which is home to the Tomb sct), to more or less blow off steam. While walking in the woods one day near the Tomb, he sees a woman clearly upto no good going near the tomb(the tomb sect, including the Dragon Lade whom resides there being so revered, Yangor decides to trail the ominous woman to see what's up, however he gets spotted, and then struck by poisoned needles while trying to flee. While running away from the tomb, and the poison spreading, he happens to come across a odd martial artist, whom is willing to show him a technique to get rid of the poison, as well as teach Yangor his secret martial arts technique. One day at the Temple, the students are to demonstrate(in a sparing fassion) what they have learned. During such, Yangor's supposed master starts beating up on him, claiming that's not how he was tought(which mind you, he was tought nothing), and while not yet a master of a technique he learned from the wondering martial artist, he unconsciously to protect him self, pulled off the technique, seriously injuring his supposed master.

The monks chase him(It's very much a torch, and pitch fork affair), he more or less falls off the mountain, into the woods below, and while the monks are searching for him, he is saved by a elderly woman whom is a member of the Tomb Sect. The elderly woman takes him into the Tomb(which men are strictly forbidden to enter) to treat his wounds. The Dragon Lady(while understanding why the elderly woman did such) claims that now that his wounds are healed, he must be immediately brought back to the temple. Hearing the story of what happened from Yangor, the elderly woman says, at very least you should return to the temple to see if the monk you hurt is dead or not, and due to Yangor being nervous, the elderly woman decides to escort him there, so she can help explain the situation.

On arrival, and even though it ends up that the hurt monk is recovering well, all the monks there seem to want, is to bully/beatup on Yangor. Seeing this the elderly woman decides that she can't leave him here, she'll just have to beg the Dragon Lady to accept him. However while leaving, and trying to protect Yangor, the elderly woman is fatally injured by one of the monks. The Dragon Lady shows up, grabs both the elderly lady, and Yangor, then escapes back to the Tomb. While the elderly woman is on her death bed, she makes one request, that the Dragon Lady accepts Yangor into the sect. As It's her friends dying request, the Dragon lady does so. Eventually Yangor, and the Dragon Lady fall in love, with many tribulations, and the world, nay the universe seemingly trying to get in their way, when all they want, is to spend their lives together, they are pulled into a quest, to find a way to live their lives peacefully, which in such a turbulent time, is anything but a easy ordeal.

Personal Opinion

Just wow, this anime easily has one of the greatest stories in the history of anime, It's also as true to the wuxia genre as can be. It's really like watching a Live Action wuxia series, the only difference is, this just happens to be a animated version, the storyboarding, scene execution, dialog, genre aspects, ect are handled exactly how they would be in the live action variants of the genre. The romance aspect is undebateably one of the top 2 best in all of anime(It's too hard to decide if it should be #1 or #2 however, due to the fact that the stories are so radically different from one another). It easily has one of the best drama aspects as well, and possibly thee most complex/dynamic character designs in the history of anime. Even the secondary characters are very well, fully developed characters. Also much like live action wuxia characters, despite the huge cast of characters with contrasting personalities, it somehow still manages to all work together(this is no doubt due to the unique story telling method that wuxia stories use, you'll never see this much diversity between char types, and this many different types of characters in a single series, work this well in any other type of genre). The soundtrack is pretty good, plus the opening, and is what you would expect for such a series. It has a awesome martial arts aspect(possibly the best in all of anime), and the fights there are(note: only 30-40% of all the martial arts in this anime, involves actual fight scenes), are really, really, good.

The one bad thing about the usual outcome of wuxia series, is more times then not(like 60-70% of the time), not only is the story its self tragic, but the series usually ends on a bitter sweet, tragic note as well. However I am ecstatic to say, this one actually has a good, happy ending, which due to all the sad, tragic moments that go on during this story, is a very good thing.

It's pretty unbelieveable that such a anime was made back in 01(long before the drama movement in the anime industry), and even more so, that It's not only a completed series, but handled by a studio you would never expect to even make a normal drama anime, nevermind a full blown wuxia series.

If you like historic dramas, Romances, anime with great character development/depth to the story being told or martial arts, this anime is a must watch.

It's a extremely story driven anime, so if "all" you want is mad action, this probally Isn't the anime for you.

Note on publication/creation: I now know why such a anime exists/came to being, and I thought people would find it interesting.

Nippon was initially contracted to make this anime, and Jade played more of a helper/finishing touch role. Now here's where things get interesting, Jade animation Isn't even a anime company, It's a Chinese company known to localize western animated movies/shows over there.

Well it turns out, that Jade Animation is actually a substity/part of TVB, the very same Chinese company that created the live action version of the series. No doubt Jade was a big consultant for the anime, afterall this anime proves that for sure(who better to make a anime version of a wuxia series, then the company that makes/publishes many of the live action wuxia series in the first place.

Oh it gets even better, after season 1, Jade completely takes over, with having Nippon just handle the character design art, and since all 3 seasons of the anime were published by TAI SENG of all people(the leading publisher of Chinese TV shows, being released outside of China), it not selling well in Japan, didn't prevent the release elseware(however it may be the reason why only the first season got dubbed, they were probally banking on the Japanese sales, to pay for the English dubbing).

I find this refreshing lol, the Japanese market being treated as the secondary market, I love China Well anyway, not only does this explain how such a high quality drama anime was even made back then in the first place, but also why it not selling in Japan, didn't stop the creation of this anime(didn't even slow it down infact, all 3 seasons were made between 01, and 02).