Arion

Arion is a decent action adventure story. Its loosely based on characters from the Greek myths - however their Godly status has been reduced and they appear more like mere mortals with kingly status. Few actually exercise their inherent powers which was annoying.

This is kind of disappointing given the nature of animation - which is well-suited to grand stories - everything has been taken down a notch, leaving some characters (such as Heracles) resembling mere shadows of their reputations.

There's some very slight nudity and some semi-violent scenes (and the incestuous desires of some characters is more than hinted at) so it may not be suitable for the little ones, but compared to most anime its rather tame.

The background artwork is very nice, and the musical score (by Joe Hisaishi) is excellent. The animation on the whole is okay, rather limited in the big fight scenes involving lots of soldiers (which is to be expected) but better than most TV series. I was disappointed by the character designs. Arion, Lesphina and Apollo are fine but most of the others are lacking...

I looked it up at my local rental store because I was amazed they actually carried it given its "rare" reputation, and it was also rated amongst Helen McCarthy's top ten in an old anime encyclopedia. I wasn't all that impressed, but enjoyed it, and it might be worth a look if you're interested in the unique subject matter (something rarely seen outside of the Harryhausen epics).

I gave it a 6 out of 10, considering that the downright life-changing Castle in The Sky released the same year, this one doesn't really compare. However, it gets points for being pretty entertaining and unique... and the Hisaishi score.