Toki no Daichi: Hana no Oukoku no Majo is an OVA from the late 90s based off of a manga. It's from Magic Bus. That's right. The studio that gave us Mad Bull 34, Dragoon & Phantom Yuusha Densetsu. That's not a good sign. But let's give it a try. Story: The tale takes place in a fantasy world where a trio of adventurers is searching for information about the deadly dragon, Diablos. Only to find themselves embroiled in a country's conflict involving an attempted coup. The biggest problem with the narrative is just that it's kind of standard. The whole plot to usurp thethrone, the sealed evil. All of it has been done before, done since and done better. And this series brings nothing new to it.
I can give it some credit with handling all its standard content competently enough. And for having some decent foreshadowing.
Characters:
There are four major characters in this. Jendo, Kai, Izayoi and Princess Freya. The problem is with Izayoi. He's basically everything that's wrong with child characters. He contributes nothing of real value to the party or to the narrative. He makes stupid decisions that cause problems for everyone and then the writing tries to vindicate him for everything and act like he's being treated too harshly whenever someone brings up the fact that his poor decisions are causing problems. You also have to wonder why he's even travelling with the others. He's blatantly too young for the situation and he's clearly not actually doing anything to help when trouble hits. If anything, he's a detriment.
Most of the characters are just kind of dull. Jendo is the only one I really see any potential in from this little story arc. She has some complexity and a back story that has some compelling ideas to it. She even does the most in battle with Izayoi contributing nothing and Kai & Freya doing very little.
Art:
The artwork and animation aren't particularly good but they aren't bad either. It kind of looks like they were trying to go with a Fantasy RPG look but they didn't have any strong original ideas for it so they went the safe route.
Sound:
The acting is pretty good, actually. Ogata Megumi, Seki Tomokazu, Kurata Masayo and the others all deliver pretty strong performances. I also do quite like the music. It's pretty effective and just sounds nice.
Ho-yay:
There isn't any.
Areas of Improvement:
1. Have a point for your characters. First off, let's assume Izayoi has some reason to exist in the manga and it just isn't a part of this little story arc. Let's give this that much credit solely for the sake of argument. It's still a pretty serious problem that he seemingly has no purpose here. You can't assume every single viewer has read the manga. It's especially important in a situation like this where you have a child character tagging along on a dangerous journey for no apparent reason.
2. Let's talk about consequences. Part of the reason child characters like Izayoi are so grating and obnoxious is due to the lack of consequences they experience. This kid literally almost gets one of his companions killed because he's stupid and the only character who doesn't immediately make excuses for him and act like he did nothing wrong is Jendo. Which is another reason she's the best character. He doesn't even get scolded for his carelessness or have any kind of introspective moment where he has to face the reality that he almost got his companion killed.
3. Moving beyond clichés. The problem with a work like this that just plays every trope straight is that those tropes are going to be familiar to anyone who knows the genre. Which makes you lose a lot of intrigue and makes the work overly predictable. Some subversion or original twists would have been welcome.
Final Thoughts:
This anime isn't particularly good. It relies too much on clichés and features a really annoying child character. That being said, it is the most competent anime I've seen Magic Bus produce. It's got some strong elements and there's actual potential here. Overall, it was actually okay. I'm giving it a 6/10.