In the second half of Heroic Age, the war between the Iron and Silver tribes is continuing to escalate. After the early victories of the first half, Deianeira’s brothers are feeling secure with having their own Nodos to fight for them. With the idiot brothers at the command, the Iron Tribe is led into an endless succession of battles to reclaim their own planet and the home planet of the Bronze Tribe before charging head long into the Silver Tribe. The Iron Tribe will fight battle after battle with both the Bronze and Silver tribes while all the while wondering what they are truly fighting for and who are they really fighting against.

Meanwhile the five Nodos continue their deadly fight in every star system and asteroid belt they can find. Driving them into frenzies, the fight between the Nodos will serve as the catalyst for understanding their roles in the plan of the Golden Tribe. But when the Princess shares a moment with the Silver Tribe, a new mission will be born and the true destinies of all will be made clear.

Good and the Bad

Since episode one, Heroic Age has never tried to be anything that it’s not. Playing precisely to the genre, it has had a very clear story it wanted to tell and has created a convincing world to travel within. It’s just a shame that the way that you have to see this convincing world throughout the second half is as a battlefield. A constant feature of episodes in the second half, the battle scenes here will continue to an almost tedious point within the series. Naturally there are down moments through as the story moves forward slowly but the focus will always remain on the action.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing however. The battles throughout this series have continually looked very well put together with character artwork that stands out against the background while the close up action is still a constantly well paced addition. After awhile though, it does start to get a little tedious. The humans have blown up another planet; let’s see what the brothers can as the next something you have to get through to get to the next bit of plot development.

Once you got past the action and into the substance, Heroic Age continues to tell a very strong story. Rich with themes about meaningless wars that have no clear purpose and fighting blindly without knowing your enemy, the dialogue does a wonderful job of keeping this idea alive throughout the second half. Halfway through the second half after the Iron Tribe is ordered to destroy a planet, it’s the soldier Iolaus who has one of the strongest reactions to what had been done. Creating a steady stream for others to share in the idea kept it alive all the way through to the finale.

Strong as it is, Heroic Age is not perfect in its execution. Throughout the second half, the Nodos and Heroic Tribe are possibly the most confusing aspect to the series. Constantly working on figuring out their roles in the plan of the Golden Tribe, the audience has their work cut out for them with these characters. Learning all of their names is easy enough, but then there is remembering which one turns into which Nodos. But there are also five Nodos who have each undertaken twelve labors. Luckily audience members don’t have to know all twelve labors of each Nodos though they do need to know that some of their labors contradict the labors of others. Yes, in the end it will all make sense and become much clearer. But until that moment of clarity, this is a terribly confusing plot thread that could have been made much simpler.

Music

Using a full orchestra score, the music composed by Naoki Sato is one of the better parts of this series. Creating a number of haunting string tracks, the funereal score in episode eighteen is wonderfully placed and is followed just a few episodes later by the string theme accompanying the princess and Iolaus getting ready to teleport. That’s not to say that the soundtrack is entirely quiet. Remaining true to the genre, the brass themes that accompany warp jumps and ships exploding in battle sound exactly like you would imagine they would.

Dub vs. Sub

After listening to the first half almost entirely in its dub, I alternated my listening between the Japanese and English tracks for this set. Listening to both tracks, it was easy to be pulled into the performances from either side. However the Japanese track has a much greater range of emotions from its cast. While the English cast always seemed to carry the standard ‘we’re doomed’ panic or ‘we can do it because we have Belcross/Princess’ extremes, it was the quiet moments where the difference was the most apparent. As the higher members of the Iron Tribe begin to have their doubts, the tones always sounded like the same flat tone used throughout. This wasn’t always the case though. In episode eighteen, Ioalus has a strong monologue delivered by Joel McDonald while Deianeira sounded great from both Caitlin Glass and Yui Ishikawa.  

Extras

Clean animations on disc 2

Overall

Heroic Age is a series that I may not have watched if I hadn’t seen a little bit of it earlier in the year. Giving fans of the genre the story and action and they crave, Heroic Age remained a well put together, visually pleasing space drama all the way to the finale. While this has never been a series that I was truly excited to watch. Having finally finished it, I would pass this title on to the sci-fi crowd I know or even just the ones with a passing interesting. Telling a story that can appeal to fans across the lines, Heroic Age is worth watching all the way through.

I don't actually have anything to say here, I just love how stupid he looks ^_^