In Creation Games

The second of the Halo Legends anime shorts to be shown via Halo Waypoint is The Duel. I liked the first anime which was The Babysitter but The Duel is great. It tells the story of how the name of the Arbiter came to be a shameful title through showing us what happened to the last Elite with the title before it became dishonourable. This is all down to Fal, the Arbiter of this time period, who refuses to put his faith in the covenant and refuses their beliefs. Production I.G. is behind this one and have made Ghost in Shell and Batman: Gotham Knight among many other projects beforehand.

I really liked the visuals in this episode as it was smoothly animated and had a hand drawn look to it. It works very well in context to the actual story and events and doesn’t feel out of place at all. Since this is a more action focused story, the smoothness and stylish look makes for some very exciting action sequences. The battles just keep on getting bigger and bigger as it goes on, with the battle before the duel itself being fantastic. Elites like energy swords so there are plenty of up close battles with some very fluid acrobatics thrown into the mix.

The plot itself is interesting for the most part. Like I said, it’s more action focused than anything but it’s still nice to get more of an insight towards the events regarding how the shameful title of Arbiter came to be. It then goes on to be a tale of revenge which, in turn, leads to battle and fight scenes galore. Most of the characters are uninteresting but they are used to set the scene and let viewers understanding what’s going on. The only character that I liked was Fal, but that’s more to do with his really badass looking armour.

Unlike the Babysitter, there was a distinct lack of references to the games. Due to the time period it would be hard to implement though so it’s obviously acceptable. This, however, allowed it to focus entirely on being enjoyable and to do its own thing. It did use some Halo music but it didn’t use much.

Some Halo fans may be annoyed at some parts though. The Elites were always known to have split mouths which wouldn’t open like Humans but in The Duel, their mouths aren’t split. It’s only a minor complaint but I imagine some Halo fanatics may be annoyed.

The Duel is a nice addition to Halo Legends. The animation and visuals are superb which will please anime fans but it also gives fans some more back story regarding the events of the time. The characters may not be the most interesting but the fight scenes are top notch and should please most Halo fans.