Endride Part 1 (Review)

By: RogueSymbiote

Shun Asanaga is fascinated by rocks and gems. Super exciting... I know...He immerses himself into their deep colors and imagines worlds that may be contained within. As Shun and his mother wait for his father to return home from work, he loses his patience and sets off to retrieve the absent parent. He enters his father's office and discovers an intriguing gem behind a glass display. While admiring the crystal, lights begin to flash around him and Shun is transported to a foreign land.

Story Arc

Our young hero finds himself in a dungeon, with only a single prisoner behind bars. The confused inmate informs Shun that he needs to hide before the guards find him. He is too slow and the king's guard confronts the disoriented traveler. Right as the guards are about to attack, a sword materializes from Shun's chest and he strikes at his attackers. With a powerful swing, he knocks back all of the king's men and releases the prisoner. The prisoner introduces himself as Emilio and the pair make their escape from the castle dungeon. Shun soon learns that Emilio is the Prince of this land known as Endora and that he has been transported to a world beneath the one he knows. Emilio refers to Shun as someone from the surface and explains how their two worlds once coexisted, but have since cut ties.Emilio educates Shun that the sword he was able to materialize previously is in fact a warp relic. Many beings in the land of Endora have the ability to call on these warp relics to fight and defend. The two young men are soon joined by Alicia, a girl with a living warp relic in the form of a pseudo dragon. Emilio reveals that he was thrown into the dungeon for attempting to murder the king who is actually his uncle. He believes that King Delzaine killed the previous king, Emilio's father. Injustices have spread throughout the land of Endora under King Delzaine's rule. Shun agrees to help Emilio confront his uncle in exchange for help returning to the surface.

Shun, Emilio and Alicia are soon joined by a group of rebels know as the Ignauts. Their leader, Demetrio, knows that their small group is no match for the King's army and seek the help of the Zoozians. The Zoozians are a race of anthropomorphic beings with animal like features. While many Zoozians were treated as lower class beings and cast away from modern society, the king has employed a sect of powerful Zoozians as members of his military. Demetrio knows that without the help of the ostracized Zoozian people, they will fail to remove the king from power.The ragtag army of rebels slowly gains momentum and makes their way to confront King Delzaine. Demetrio insists that Emilio speak with his uncle before attempting to kill him. Emilio is conflicted by the promise he made to avenge his father. All is not as it seems when the rebel militia encounters the king and his men. Betrayal, lies and deceit come to light during the final confrontation. What will become of these heroes and Endora?

Part 1 Review

I'm not going to lie, I am not a fan of this series. It is riddled with plot holes and lazy writing. I was even bored writing the overview so I apologize if you were too. Let me talk about the few redeeming qualities about the series and then I'll reveal the reasons for my distaste of the series. The warp relics are an interesting concept. These weapons can take on many forms including living beings. They can also evolve and gain power as the owner of the relic grows. One character in particular stood out to me that that would be Mischa, the child assassin. Orphans are targeted, taken, trained and brainwashed into becoming mindless assassins with incredible power. Mischa was order to murder Emilio, but is confronted by Demetrio, who then proceeds to release Mischa from her brainwashing. The young assassin joins the team and is obsessed with protecting Demetrio and does not hide her desire to kill anyone who threatens his wellbeing. Her comments at times are quite funny.

Now for the real reason you kept reading this article, why it's so bad. Like I mentioned before, this series is poorly written and has more holes than something that has a lot of freaking holes. So many things happen that have no buildup, no payoff and no reasoning. There's an attempt to display character motivations, but most of them are either pointless or unrealistic. The entire series is based around Emilio hating his uncle for killing his father even though he didn't see the murder or even talk to Delzaine about what happened to his father... Pretty sure Emilio thinks Delzaine killed his dad because he overheard some castle servants say so... some solid story telling right there. Part 1 probably could have been completely eliminated by having a simple conversation! One character betrays the group for a pointless reason, completely contradicting a previous scene and then 2 seconds later decides they're all best friends again... POINTLESS PLOT LINE!!! The Zoozian designs could have been better as many of them look like Digimon and Power Ranger villains had mutated babies. The finale to Part 1 is infuriating as nothing is reveled, no answers are given and Emilio for some unbeknownst reason no longer hates his uncle. Overall, I feel dumber for having watched this series.

Box Set Review

The Blu-ray/DVD combo pack comes with the first 12 episodes that make up Part 1 of the series. Extras include trailers and textless songs. If you like rocks and stories with characters that do things for no particular reason, hit up the online Funimation shop to pick up your copy right here. Or better yet, read about another series I have recently reviewed and buy that one. Literally. Any other one.