Anime Review: Orphen

Review Orphen Written by Warpshadow Rating good

You know sometimes I feel like they don't make enough serious fantasy anime shows. If you feel the same way you might take Orphen for a spin since it doesn't try to be zany for once.

In a simple village there is a sorcerer named Orphen who is teaching a boy magic and generally lazing around. He has another plan involving a sword in a mansion though. While scouting the house one of the girls living there thinks he is a peeping tom. While trying to punish him a strange storm gathers and a monstrous dragon known as the Bloody August appears. Orphen calls the dragon Azalie but that is a name better suited to a woman than a dragon. Orphen's old colleagues in the tower of fang (where Orphen learned Magic) are out to get the dragon as well but they want to kill it and Orphen disagrees with that.

Orphen is a pretty nice fantasy anime show. While it does have some comedy (mostly in the form of Vulcan and Dortin) the manages to say serious making it a decent alternative to people sick of Slayers knock offs. The plot is interesting however it does take a while before it comes into full bloom making for some fairly uninteresting early episodes and some filler as well. The animation does look slightly dated (that seems to happen a lot in fantasy anime) but is generally good. Overall it is a decent show but not a great one.