The Heroic Legend of Arslan: Difference between revisions

'''''The Heroic Legend Ofof Arslan''''' (aka ''The Heroic Legend Of Arislan'' aka ''Arslan Senki'') is a series of fantasy novels written by author Yoshiki Tanaka with illustration by Yoshitaka Amano (Kadokawa) and Shinobu Tanno (Kobunsha) and published by Kadokawa Shoten then later Kobunsha. The series is currently on hiatus at 13 volumes; the first having been published in 1986 and the series not yet complete, although volume 7 marks a sort of halfway conclusion.

* [[Arrows Onon Fire]]: Used to lit an entire plain covered in oil.

* [[Bishounen]]: Every single male under 30, especially Arslan.

** [[Long -Haired Pretty Boy]]: Narsus, Gieve

* [[Coming of Age Story]]: For Arslan, at any rate.

* [[The Drifter]]: Gieve. A [[Wandering Minstrel]] with a [[Gray and Grey Morality]] who hates nobility and initially only joins Arslan's group because of Farangis and his own hatred against Lusitanians.

* [[Executive Meddling]] / [[Art Evolution]]: Aside of the [[Spell My Name Withwith an "S"]] incident mentioned below, the character designs changed between the first and second episodes. The designs in the first episode follow Amano Yoshitaka's beautiful artwork while from second episode onwards they're more indigenous to the style of Kamimura Sachiko. It's most obvious in case of Darun who, in the first episode, has sharp and dangerous looks, slanted eyes, and hair that tends to fall into his face. In the 2nd episode and afterwards his hair is less wild, and he has milder features with [[Good Eyes, Evil Eyes|rounded eyes]], giving him a more classic "good guy" look.

* [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]]: Pars is Persia, Lusitania is a mix of Macedonia and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Maryam is the Byzantine Empire, and Shindra is India.

** [[The Chick]]: Farangis, mostly by default since she's a [[Lady of War]].

* [[The Fundamentalist]]: Jon Bodan, High Priest of Lusitania.

* [[Hey, It's That Voice!]]

** At first Darun was only following his uncle's orders, Narsus joined because he found Arslan interesting, Farangis because she hated Lustianian religious fanaticism and Gieve because Farangis joined, and because he hated oppression of all kind.

* [[Spell My Name Withwith an "S"]]: And ''how''. To start with, originally the names of characters and places either came from Persian legends (Arslan, Farangis, Giv, etc.) or are native to various languages like Farsi, Hindi, Urdu (Daryun, Elam, Etwar, etc. Many places mentioned in the story, such as Ecbatana or Atropatene, actually exist or existed in real life). The person who translated the anime to English [[Did Not Do the Research]] and treated the names as if they were random fantasy names, hence Arislan, Pharangese, Darun, Gieve and so on. The most jarring decision was turning Etwar/Ester into Etoile/Estelle, despite the very obvious ancient Middle-Eastern type setting. And ''then'' for the last two episodes of the OVA [[Executive Meddling]] happened on the Japanese side, and the spelling and pronunciation of the names were changed for all major characters, turning Arislan, Darun, Narsus, Pharangese, and Gieve into Arslan, Darun, Narcasse, Farangis, and Guibu.

* [[Surrounded Byby Idiots]]: Guiscar of Lusitania, who actually runs the kingdom in place of his utterly incompetent brother.

{{quote| '''Darun:''' (to a prisoner) "Start talking or I'll have [Narsus] paint your portrait. And nobody wants that."}}