Ryza, Ryza, Ryza… there’s a reason I always have to mention when I bring it up that Atelier is a fairly venerable series with many editions and nearly as many protagonists, and that would be because it got a huge signal boost from the game (and later, games – plural) featuring Reisalin Stout, aka Ryza, as the main protagonist. It was darn near impossible for a long while to escape seeing or hearing anything about her, and even now that her trilogy is probably complete and Atelier looks to go on to new protagonists, she’s probably who folks are going to think about as synonymous with the series for a long while. Everybody loves Ryza… or at least, her thighs.
Yeah. I’m not going to sugarcoat this: starting out looking from outside, it really felt like Atelier Ryza’s buzz was more or less all down to its leading lady’s design. Previous Atelier protagonists would probably be considered conventionally attractive, but leads like Rorona, Sophie, Escha, and Ayesha tended to be more on the cute end – which makes sense for a series that does give a lot more love to a light-hearted and fluffy slice of life side of things than your average JRPG and thus is probably targeting, if not a female demographic, at least a more balanced one. While by all accounts the Ryza games do stay more or less in the Atelier lane in terms of their content, it’s clear that a fair effort was made have her provide at least a wee bit more passive fanservice than her predecessors.
But honestly? Nothing precludes a good-looking character or fan-art darling from being a well-written character and part of a good story. If you don’t have firsthand knowledge of My Dress-up Darling you might still know Marin Kitagawa for her looks. If you haven’t watched Spice and Wolf you might only know Holo for the fact that she’s introduced in a disrobed state – which isn’t even particularly indicative of how she’s treated in the show as a whole.
As big as Ryza got, I was willing to credit that there might be more to her than just looks. I’ve found that to usually, but not always, be the case. So, has she got the winning personality and engaging plot to drag her anime version out of the comfy doldrums of mediocrity, or is this just going to be Escha & Logy but tempting me to repeat jokes from Bunny Girl Senpai, specifically the “I want them to sandwich me” meme?
So, we begin with Ryza giving herself the traditional Disney princess opening – she’s an ordinary girl dreaming of more. To be fair, rather than leaving it at that we actually see her in her normal life, and how she is a poor fit both for the farming work that her father loves and her mother is offended at her dislike of as well as her isolationist island home that traditionally allows neither outsiders to enter nor citizens to leave.
Thus, Ryza’s story is galvanized when she hears of one of those traditions being broken thanks to a foreign merchant coming to set up shop on the island. Ryza decides to gather her friends and head out to the opposite shore while that’s going on. They manage despite her lack of planning and, once there, run into the merchant’s daughter, Klaudia, who is also afflicted with the wanderlust. In terms of getting her back to her dad (and their own selves back home) however, things don’t look so good and they wander basically aimlessly until they’re found and rescued by a pair hired by Klaudia’s dad: The alchemist Empel and his bodyguard Lila. This is Ryza’s first encounter with alchemy, and she’s quite clearly enchanted.
Indeed, it seems Ryza and both her friends have requests. Ryza, of course, wants to become an alchemist. Her tough guy friend, Lent, wants to learn to fight from Lila, while her nerdy friend, Tao, wants to be able to read the books passed down in his family, which Empel seems able to do. At first, Empel (who just wants to investigate the ruins of a fallen kingdom) isn’t amenable, but the books seem to hold enough interest that it gets Lent and Tao their wishes. Ryza, however, needs to pass a test of aptitude. She does with flying colors, finding a specific herb in good time and managing an alchemical synthesis after watching it done, but I like that we both actually saw the test and that it wasn’t the 1000% overwhelming pass, just a mortal sort of really good that she pulled off to become an Alchemist.
This is where the first, if double-length, episode ends. As I often do, I’m going to take a moment to talk about the common traits at this juncture. First and foremost for this, the animation.
Most of this show looks very much “nothing special” in terms of its actual animation quality, but it’s at least on the better end of that. There are more details in the environments and backgrounds and more care put into the motions than a really cheap show, or even than there were in Escha & Logy, which already didn’t look bad
The direction, on the other hand, reminds me a good deal of Vividred Operation. And that’s not a bad thing. Vividred was a gorgeous show, ultimately in part because the direction was very skilled, knowing when to cut between close-ups, mid-shots, long-shots, and different angles in order to frame a scene and make it look cool. It just also happened to use that skill to deploy fanservice. Which, in Vividred, ran a little dubious. Atelier Ryza isn’t on the same level as Vividred, but compared to Escha & Logy, it does come off as having a more skilled and creative person or persons at the helm. They just also clearly knew what Ryza was famous for – the number of shots that begin with, end on, or simply are close-ups of Ryza’s thighs and crotch are extremely noticeable, and some compositions that are similarly technically adept yet questionable of content will also give the time of day to her rear end and not insignificant chest as well. Since the non-fanservice shots being less genius than Vividred come hand in hand with the fanservice being of a character who is at least drawn as a woman rather than a tween, I’ll take it.
If you have any doubt that the creators knew what they were doing, like you think I’m just sitting up and taking note of normal shots because I was primed to look for it when it was Reisalin Stout… I think the Opening and end credits have me covered.
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? IS THIS NOT WHY YOU ARE HERE?
We also get a repeatedly recut sequence of Ryza synthesizing a new item that’s basically done like a magical girl transformation (with full fanservice), but that’s not quite as triumphantly obvious.
One thing that’s noticeable in Episode 1 in terms of the story, though, is that the island village is not quite as romanticized as pastoral towns often are. Sure, it seems like a decent place and most people are pretty nice, but compared to the perfect little villages of near-saints in Escha & Logy or Management of a Novice Alchemist, Ryza’s world feels a lot more grounded.
I don’t think Ryza’s parents are bad our out to get her, but they’re not shown in this romantic light either. Ryza’s dad is trying to be kind to her, but clearly doesn’t get it. Ryza’s mom cracks down on her – like a fairly normal mom, but she does it all the same. She’s got plenty of friends and many of the townsfolk are friendly, but even above and beyond the long-suffering but reasonable guards we’re introduced to some bullies apparent and an affable but overly self-important water baron who most of the other characters seem to resent.
The fact that Atelier Ryza isn’t allergic to conflict gives hope that it might have a little more meat to the plot (and I don’t mean the P.L.O.T.) than it’s nearest competitors. But to find out whether or not it delivers on that hope, we need to go onward.
However, even with that, Ryza is still a pretty sedate show. We get the occasional monster encounter, but it’s pretty much just a big training arc for Ryza and her friends. The halfway point introduces a particularly strange monster that has Empel and Lila spooked, which would seem to hint to something more, but before we can really do anything with that we need multiple episodes to formally add Klaudia to the party over her reasonably protective dad’s objections.
The last of these challenges causes the party (and their bully/rival group) to encounter a dragon. It spares them after a magic rock attracting it to the area is accidentally broken, but the presence of a flying dragon is a big deal. Meanwhile, Empel and Lila consider taking on the mystery monster that was seen before, seeming to consider it (without explaining it in the least) as the root of all these woes.
The village gets a team of would-be dragon-slayers together, which doesn’t initially include Ryza and co, but does include those bullies I mentioned… who it seems like the gang has a much more complicated relationship with. It’s clear that the decision-maker of the two, Bos, really hates Ryza and her friends for some reason and won’t accept them no matter what they do, while also having this extreme prideful need to prove himself. But at the same time, it’s pointed out that they were friends in the past, and Ryza especially (to a lesser extent Tao and Lent) is a little hung up and would prefer to mend that bridge.
Thus, the gang decides to go after the hunting party, gearing up as best they can, getting pretty good moments where the relationships with their parents are critical (except Tao, whose parents we don’t actually see), and then heading out with a plan to take a shortcut that requires some magic, or at least alchemy, to get through.
In the ruined castle where the dragon lairs, they find the magic rocks that command it, and none too soon as the hunters arrive and get beaten in the first strafe. Be honest, you knew the NPC team wasn’t going to do anything. Thus, Ryza, Lent, Tao, and Klaudia face off against a big scary flying dragon
Credit where it’s due, the choreography for the dragon fight is pretty decent. You understand what’s going on most of the time, there’s the basic dynamism you need, and it largely avoids falling into the “turn based combat” writing style, at least without a reason like the thing flying off and turning around for another pass or being stunned for a moment. It doesn’t go down trivially, either, taking an arrow to the eye, being grounded by Tao’s clever use of those magic rocks, slashed in the neck by Lent with the sword his sour drunkard father actually let him borrow in his own grumpy way, and then finished off with a bomb in the mouth from Ryza.
Thus, the day is saved and our team are now recognized dragon slayers, and worthy adventurers who get a heroes’ homecoming.
And if you’re thinking that sounds like a great mid-boss, like we should now follow up on that weird mystery monster (revealed to properly be called a Philuscha) that was super built up (the Dragon, supposedly, was summoned just to fight it off, and Empel and Lila are concerned with that creature instead)… sorry, the dragon dies in episode 11 of 12. The final episode is basically consumed by a completely irrelevant shaggy dog story of a childish treasure-hunt.
It’s clear what’s going on here. Unlike Escha & Logy, which felt like it resolved its main conflict, Ryza barely introduces it. If you want to know more about the Philuscha and the like, you’ve got to play the games.
And for the purposes of reviewing the show, that doesn’t matter. How does Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout The Animation stand on its own?
Well, Thighs/10, but let’s set that aside for a moment. As one could expect, the nearest comparisons are the other Atelier anime, and Management of a Novice Alchemist. I actually think the latter might be more similar in scope and feel to Ryza. Our hero here isn’t quite as overpowered, and it feels like her story is more grounded… as much of it as there is. The dragon was, to be fair, a pretty decent climax – similar to the big salamander in Management. Even if it is clearly only a mid-boss.
As it stands, Ryza is a very comfy sort of show with light action. It’s mostly training arc, starting our hero out at pure nothing and getting to the point where she and her friends can at least stand on their own two feet with, mostly, the respect of their peers. As arcs go, that’s not bad. It feels very low stakes, again except for the mysterious enemy that’s never properly addressed.
Where the show really shines is in giving people emotional arcs. In Escha & Logy they threw new irrelevant scenarios at us so much that it was a little tough to get invested at times, even if not totally so. In Management, there was some work done with the lead and her friends but it was pretty archetypical. Here, the interesting parts of the show are, weirdly enough, seeing the kids relate to their parents especially and their peers and authority figures in general. It makes Ryza’s journey feel much more meaningful knowing how her mom and dad are, and that she still has to deal with them on a daily basis. Lent’s strained relationship with his drunkard of a father helps keep him from just being the generic party tank. Klaudia’s father’s protective nature carries several episodes; it’s clear that he and his daughter do love each other and that each wants to do right by the other, but at the same time Klaudia has her own dreams she needs to pursue.
Because the characters feel more human, you end up caring about them more, and they’re ultimately more memorable. And this extends to their web of support. Not all of the townsfolk NPCs but at least the Water Baron, his son Bos, the guard captain, and so on… they’re either at least a little rounded or at least interesting enough to watch. Well, those might be strong words for Bos, but by the end it feels like the story is going somewhere with him.
Add in that the art, even aside from the heavily present fanservice shots, is on the brighter end of average, and Ryza is in my mind the best of these comfy light action alchemist shows… if not by a whole lot. My rating for it is B-, and while I would recommend it, I think the unfinished nature of the plot means that just going straight for the games might be more worthwhile if you’re really interested, rather than slightly interested.
