Oct/0826
Tales Of The Abyss 02: It’s A Trap!
Breaking news: I'm gay for this man.
Part of Luke's annoying characteristic stems from him being more ignorant than your average country bumpkin, though it's understandable in the former's case as he has been kept under strict supervision ever since the kidnapping incident. It does however make for good comedy as it tends to land him in heaps of trouble, as demonstrated here where he helps himself to an apple without paying for it.
There he is, in the flesh! Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you Jade Curtiss, the bespectacled pillar of fabulous and sex! This is the first time I've listened to his original Japanese voice, and I'm more than elated knowing it's handled well in the hands of Takehito Koyasu, whom you might recognize as To Love-Ru's Zastin and Mu Flaga from Gundam SEED.
One of these characters I want to take home and do all sorts of nasty things to. The other is Anise, Fon Master Ion's bodyguard and member of the Order of Lorelei. Having authority as the church's biggest pimp, Ion vouches for Luke's innocence with proof that something else was responsible for the theft of food in the village.
Chances are, if you have a diary or, to keep up with the times, own a personal blog, you're doing it to share your experiences with others, among other reasons. In Luke's case however, it's to keep tabs on all the major events of his life to ensure he never loses them to amnesia again(and to nicely summarize the end of each chapter in game). His display of frailty would make one feel sorry for him. Almost.
And what's with the excessive blushing?!! I know someone's happy to see Luke going dere-dere like nobody's business, but it totally clashes with his character as an arrogant brat! Never mind that now, it's time for some leveling and sidequests!
These low level mobs are about to find out the hard way that Ion-chan is not an easy rape meal despite looking the part of a weak bodied and delicious shouta.
Tales of the Abyss can't call itself a J-RPG if it didn't include some needlessly cute furry animals that needs rescuing.
Far more adorable however, is seeing how Tear reacts to them. Behind her mostly level headed exterior is someone with a penchant for all things cute. The fact that she tries to hide her feelings of adoration towards them adds to her charming personality even further. HNNNNNNNNNNNNG~!
The monstrosity standing before you is revealed to be the root of Luke's woes as it inadvertently triggered a fire in another part of the forest, causing the carnivorous inhabitants there to hunt these creatures down for food. In exchange the aggressors are provided with the stolen food from the village.
And before you can say new party member, Mieu, as that flying hybrid between a rabbit and some marsupial is known, has to join Luke to "negotiate" with the monsters it wronged in the first place. Our hero does something right for once and shows that beast its rightful place, which may probably anger animal rights groups.
Because the party has been skimping on random battles, they reach their first obligatory boss fight unprepared and subsequently get their asses kicked.
Who better to bail these whippersnappers out then the best offensive magic user, who is conveniently 20+ levels higher than your entire party at that point in time? Out of the Liger's den and straight into another set of predicaments, our heroes are placed under arrest for suspicion of being related to the Seventh Fonon reaction(the one that got both Luke and Tear over to this continent)
Shin Says
With a couple hours of gameplay compressed into about 50 minutes of animation, with no signs of major story elements being sacrificed, the show is thankfully on a right track. Even if Luke felt out of character with his over dere-dereness, everyone else is as I remembered, especially Jade, who retains his sharp wit and sarcastic nature. Can't wait for the God Generals to make an appearance next episode, especially the sexy gun wielding Legretta!
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Follow Me!
October 9th, 2008
Never having played the game before, i did not know Ion was a trap :((((((
“One of these characters I want to take home and do all sorts of nasty things to. The other is Anise, Fon Master Ion’s bodyguard and member of the Order of Lorelei.”
Can i take them both home???
Cokematic’s last blog post..Taiga roll time
October 9th, 2008
Jade screams out…
MICHHHHHEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!
All he needs to do is say “Luke-hime, that scowl ruins a pretty face like yours.”
I can already feel the H-doujinshi.
October 9th, 2008
@Cokematic
After seeing much fanart of Ion getting it on with a certain character(not saying who as it’s a major spoiler) while I was playing the game, I also could not believe Ion was a trap. Since if I did, I would have fapped twice as hard.
@Di Gi Kazune
Guess what, I recall Jade saying something like that in one of the skits later on!
But sadly, most of the yaoi stuff I’ve seen involves Luke and that other redhead you see in the OP, so good luck finding some on Jade x Luke. 
October 9th, 2008
HOLY.
Jade DOES scream Michel. However, as a fujoshi, for some reason it makes me feel weird to see anyone else with Luke other than Tear. … EXCEPT for Guy. I think I can accept Guy x Luke. I hope this is what you were talking about Shin.
Lols, I thought OLD GEEZER CHIEFTAIN Mieu was cuter than that Mieu.
Hoshi’s last blog post..Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka
October 9th, 2008
“Breaking news: I’m gay for this man.”
shin, we know you will hump anything with two legs (even four legs I bet) there is nothing new about that…
“One of these characters I want to take home and do all sorts of nasty things to. The other is Anise, Fon Master Ion’s bodyguard and member of the Order of Lorelei”
…I wish my imagination wasnt so vivid…
October 9th, 2008
I thought Fon Master Ion would be the one you’ll go for
… and then I read whole post 
.
“…I wish my imagination wasnt so vivid…”
ditto.
FFVIIKnight’s last blog post..Dear Shin…
October 9th, 2008
“I also could not believe Ion was a trap. Since if I did, I would have fapped twice as hard. ”
I wanna gouge my eyes…
October 9th, 2008
Oh, for heaven’s sake Shin, you can stop hiding it – we all know you’re gay, period. No need to say ‘I am gay for this man’ – you’re gay for almost any man. ;)
Needs more Tear going ‘moeeeeeee’ though.
October 9th, 2008
Shin is gay for anyone with a healthy dose of FABULOUS or Shoutas. Nothing new here.
Moe Tear is adorable.
Setsuna-san’s last blog post..Spice and Wolf II Announced.
October 9th, 2008
Don’t worry, Everyone’s gay for Jade, even the girls. Not to mention Ion and Anise are awesome unto themselves — though I fear for your unhealthy relationship with Ion. XD;;
I unfortunately found Mieu to be unbearably cute without the overly high-pitched enlish voice. I love the “desu no” at the end of his sentences~
Wait, wasn’t Jade 45 or something when he joins you against the Liger? Then that would be 30-40 something levels more than Luke and Tear…Unless I’m imagining things. I haven’t played Abyss for about 8 months now, so my memory might be off a bit.
October 9th, 2008
“Oh, for heaven’s sake Shin, you can stop hiding it – we all know you’re gay, period. No need to say ‘I am gay for this man’ – you’re gay for almost any man.”
he was hiding it??? he is not doing a good job of it…
October 9th, 2008
I’m back, baby!
No crash like an OS crash, that’s what I say. I got it fixed a couple days ago, but it’s taking me a while to get caught back up. Will be reading, and commenting on, the entries that I missed. (And @ Shin, I intended to post this right after my FMA comment, but homework reared it’s ugly head. I like philosophy, but do I really need this much work? 
And who is your new avatar? Anyway, it’s good to be back on the interwebs. I missed your wacky humor;)
October 9th, 2008
I had images of Admiral Ackbar swimming through my brain at the title (which would make sense since he’s amphibious.)
I agree with Cokematic; why take one when you can have two for twice the jail time!
October 9th, 2008
Why are there 6-7 groups subbing TotA but literally 0 subbing Kurogane no Linebarrels?
Aoshi’s last blog post..May’n LIVE at AFA008, Suntec City
October 9th, 2008
The moral of this episode is…
Go and spend xyz hours beating up lower level enemies and level up first BEFORE you go suicidally adventuring into the unknown. Macross has the correct idea: ALWAYS go exploring with a fucking huge fleet as you don’t know when the varuta/vajra/meltandi/etc2 will pop up and try to beat humanity back into extinction. (And alway bring along an idol just in case too.)
October 10th, 2008
I guess this story is not going to surprise you in anyway since you have played the game but you are still going to watch it because of the emotional investment that you have placed in the game.
The Sojourner’s last blog post..Macross Ace Frontier- PSP
October 10th, 2008
Everyone is gay for Jade. He’s by far the best male character in a Tales of game. Such cynicism, sarcasm, so poisonous…
October 10th, 2008
Jade may not be as FAAAAAABULOUS as a certain prince of Britannia, but he makes up for it with pure devilishness & that glasses pushing action.
October 10th, 2008
@Hoshi
Except that Jade has that charm that only a man in his advanced years has, but I guess if Michel is still alive, he’d probably grow up to be like Jade. Heh, believe me when I say Guy’s going to be involved with Luke A LOT later in the story.
Yeah, I guess the chieftain was cuter with his large eyebrows(?) and all. 
@EvilDevil
HEY! I’ve not stooped so low as to wanting to hump something with 4 legs…yet. Have you seen centaur girls lately…?
@FFVIIKnight
Ion’s delicious and all but he doesn’t stick around long enough to make an impression. Jade on the other hand, makes me wet everytime he opens his mouth.
@Haesslich
Sir, I’ll have you know that I have strict requirements when it comes to being homo over!
Don’t worry about more Tear blushing though, there will be more soon enough. 
@Setsuna
Exactly! It’s not my fault the guys here are so dreamy!
@Miken
Ion should have been a playable character.
Oh, you’re probably right with the level thing; I keep associating it with a figure that’s close to his age or something. Been more than a year since I last touched it. 
@westrim
Okaeri! I was wondering why I didn’t see you respond to any of my Code Geass posts.
Her name’s Index and she’s from To Aru Majutsu Index, a show which I intend to keep watching just for her. 
I probably need not mention about traps since 2 in every 5 anime these days have at least one, and they tend to be the best characters of their respective shows. 
@Aoshi
Well, probably 8-10 already by the time I posted this but yeah, I didn’t think this would be the oversubbed show of the season. I guess no one’s doing Linebarrel because there are Gonzo subs already?
@Di Gi Kazune
Luke doesn’t have the charisma to recruit that many into his entourage unlike the main character from Suikoden.
@Sojourner
Yup, I would have probably brushed this aside as just another game to anime adaptation had I not played the original, too.
@Amon
Well, guess I have the reassurance of knowing I’m not out of place in admitting my love for Jade.
@Rogerslick
There can only be one Lelouch.
October 10th, 2008
@Shin
“HEY! I’ve not stooped so low as to wanting to hump something with 4 legs…yet. Have you seen centaur girls lately…?”
yes… yes i have…
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/wp-content/gallery/living-with-monster-girl/living-with-centaur.jpg
tell me you dont wanna ride that…
October 10th, 2008
What can I say? I found Luke to be really irritating, so much that I wanted to kill him of slowly in the game when he´s like this.
But his caring nature shines trough even better here.
Loveable Tears is loveable. I really like her and just wow.
EvilDevil: centaurgirls eh? I wouldn´t mind riding one. Riding isn´t that much trouble. The trouble comes if you want to mate with her… what she´s expecting and what she´ll get is out of our league to describe and compare :p
manga’s last blog post..Bayonetta – DMC gone girly?
October 11th, 2008
I’m expecting more unh~ from tear with her “Tottemo Kawaii!~ desu” reaction, and as far as I’m concerned Luke’s is I think is intelligent than with his stupidity on the game, of course, I never thought that Luke would be blushing!!! I sort to think he doesn’t know how to blush or feel anything with his comrades, well I have to say I’m pretty sure in the middle of the story they’ll pity luke and I’m looking out for that. And as for Jade and Ion, trap power with them.
tflops’s last blog post..Tokyo’s WonFestival ‘09 Cancelled
October 11th, 2008
ITS A TRAP!!!1 XD
Kairu Ishimaru’s last blog post..Fall 2008 Anime
October 13th, 2008
@EvilDevil
That’s the one I was talking about! Ride her? No way! I’d let her ride me instead, if you get my drift.
@manga
I love to hate Luke, because he’s somewhat adorable being a prick.
@tflops
Probably due to hardware limitations of the PS2, we were unable to capture the nuances of Luke’s expression during those moments.
@Kairu
I’d hit it.
October 14th, 2008
I’ll leave this here
http://xs432.xs.to/xs432/08422/s575.jpg
August 31st, 2009
I watching now.
It is great.
By the way… My alias is Shin as well…
:)