Review of The Heroic Legend of Arslan

This is a unique series with many familiar elements. It’s set in a fantasy world that’s almost, but not quite, identical to ancient Persia. Arslan is the crown prince, and soon enough the rightful claimant to the throne of Pars. Despite being a fantasy setting the fantastical elements are kept to a minimum and the story is mainly about young Arslan learning how to rule. The series generally feels like a historical epic, with massive battle scenes and constant textural identification of characters and their ranks to keep up clear on what’s going on. The plot is that of high politics. Arslan has to figure outwhat actions to take to achieve his goals and also what battles to fight and when to fight them. It’s generally well done, although it can dawdle a bit on some fairly mundane issues. Fast pacing is not generally a virtue of this series. It spends the last twenty episodes or so not really getting Arslan any closer to his “capital” of Ecbatana. The series could have done with trimming off a few episodes. Battle scenes were awe-inspiring and well done. The scale of these battles and the tactics involved were sensible and well conceived. This is one of the few anime out there that can do epic well. While the personal side of combat is never forgotten, the large scale battles between nameless hordes is shown on a scale that few Japanese productions can achieve.

While there are clear heroes and villains, the goals and responsibilities are not so black and white, starting with the question of whether Arslan has the strongest claim to the throne or not. The evil Lusitanians have some good ideals, notably of freedom and equality, but are let down by a religious fanaticism that justifies anything. This is laid out early on by a Lusitanian soldier who comically goes on with noble sentiments about the equality of all mankind only to then express the view that heretics and nonbelievers are inherently inferior and must be purged. Alas, the religious beliefs are kept at that level of crazy and we get little nuance in the harsher end of that spectrum, to the point where Arslan can lecture people on religious tolerance in a particularly patronizing and simplistic way. The flip side of all this is that Pars is a slave-owning society who treats war captives barbarically. I thought they handled this idea far better, with Arslan’s confusion over why anyone could possibly object to slavery for the defeated feeling very genuine and his arguments that they should just submit and they’d be happy feeling suitably detached from any personal experience. In short, there’s good and bad things to be said about both sides.

The characters are probably the least interesting part of the series. Arslan himself is a caring, sweet guy. A bit too much of both to be frank. His most distinguishing character trait is his niceness. Daryun and Narsus (a transliteration error for Narses?) are his chief subordinates. Daryun is pure honorable unstoppable warrior, and his invulnerability reduces the tension of many of the more dangerous seeming battle scenes. Narsus is a bit more interesting. He’s essentially the chief strategist, a very Japanese position and probably the least Persian-influenced character here. He’s always right, which reduces the tension of battle scenes considerably. On the bright side, his obsession with his (abhorrent) artwork at least gives him a comic and human side.

There are other characters as well, though none of them have as important a role. Gieve is the typical cunning rogue, always trying to seduce or steal from somebody. Falangies is a priestess of Mithras and a great fighter. She probably has other character traits as well, though not many. Elam is Narsus’ page and fits into the slightly worshipful servant role. Etoile is about the only interesting side character for me. Etoile is a Lusitanian soldier with an honorable streak who likes Arslan (despite not knowing he’s Arslan) and has generally good ideals that come into conflict with the way the world works. Alas, there’s not much of a role for a character like that. Silver Mask is the antagonist. That’s really all that can be said about him. As might be gathered from the name he wears a mask to hide his identity, but when he takes it off we realize that (gasp) it’s someone we’ve never seen before. But I guess some of the other characters have. Seriously though, does nobody get suspicious of a guy wearing a mask? I feel like if he was on my side I’d find out who he was under that. People who hide their identities generally have a good reason.

As a fan of Persian history I found myself very interested in this series. It’s hard for me to judge how others will see it. Despite what people say it’s not really about the life of Cyrus the Great. While Arslan has some family similarities to Cyrus, the story as a whole draws from all over Persian history, particularly the Byzantine/Persian wars which are a strong influence for the presentation of the Lusitanians. Another influence for them is obviously the Crusades, with the religious crusade and immensely French names (Guy of Lusignan was the last king of Jerusalem). Sassanid (3rd-7th century AD) influences are more common than Achaemenid (6th-4th century BC) ones for the people of Pars (itself the ancient name for Fars, Iran). While we do get the capital of Ecbatana, we also get marzbans, Middle Persian names like Shapur, and powerful eastern nomad conglomerations. On the whole it works better than it should.