Zetsuen no Tempest

 aka Blast of Tempest

Number of Episodes: 24

What Wikipedia says: "The story revolves around Mahiro Fuwa, a teenager whose sister was mysteriously murdered one year before, and his friend Yoshino Takigawa. Mahiro is contacted by Hakaze Kusaribe, the leader of the Kusaribe clan who was left stranded on an unknown deserted island by her followers, and agrees to help Hakaze in exchange for her help to find out the culprit for the death of his family. Upon learning of his friend's intentions, Yoshino joins him on his quest to stand against the Kusaribe clan who intends to awaken the "Tree of Exodus" whose power can bring ruin to the entire world. 

Several dialogues and plot elements in Zetsuen no Tempest pay homage to two works of William Shakespeare, Hamlet and The Tempest, which are two stories about retribution, albeit with completely opposing outcomes."

KoanMan says: Logic, magic, and really powerful trees. This series is an interesting tale of two average high school friends, Yoshino Takigawa and Mahiro Fuwa, that find themselves tormented by the murder of Aika Fuwa. Events then escalate from normal to holocaust as magic is used as a weapon in the war between two trees representing opposing philosophies on human civilization and its future. The boys are quickly introduced to Hakaze Kusaribe, the princess Mage of the Tree of Genesis.

There is a lot of time for characters to develop, although most characters have an unusual quirk somewhere in their make-up which adds a little light-hearted fun to proceedings.

Logic is a central pillar of the story, and besides magic, mostly holds up. Dialogue is important, with one discussion spanning several episodes. It is so well done, KoanMan barely realised until 3 episodes into this conversation that it was one conversation. The pace is a little on and off, and the story is a little disjointed, although overall the story ebbs and flows well. Plot is convoluted though does follow a solid central direction.

How About the Music? Music is OK, with opening and closing credits music quite average, however, the inclusion at times of selected classical music pieces added greatly to the mood. This was not consistent enough throughout the series for KoanMan and this could have been a stand-out feature if done well.
Special mention goes to Michiru Oshima for his orchestral arrangement of Beethoven's "Tempest (mvt 3)" - fantastic. 

Overall Grade: KoanMan liked this series, and it gets extra marks for keeping interest throughout some very long blocks of dialogue. Zetsuen no Tempest gets a B. 

Addendum (by tTPO): Both tTPO and Mrs tTPO like this series a lot. The long slabs of adversarial dialogue taking place in small areas that punctuated the series had more ebbs and flows than many many more physical fights and as such made a refreshing change for the medium. It really did reflect the theatrical themes on which the story was based. The plot was complex without being too complex or self indulgent and the only letdown for tTPO was the inevitability of main conclusion which was not bad by any means, but given the excellent journey to get there was just not quite as good. 

Blast of Tempest gets a B from us too.