HALO LEGENDS

DESCRIPTION

CAST

REVIEWS

• 

  ChillLaChill

  70/100
  Halo Legends” mixes highs and lows, offering standout segments but generally serving fans rather than newcomers.

  Halo Legends marked one of my initial forays into the Halo universe, although my experience with the series was limited to a few segments of the original game and its third installment. The idea of merging this iconic video game with anime was intriguing, and while the anthology series had promise, its execution fell short of expectations. As an anthology, it resembles works like Animatrix and Neo Tokyo, with varying impacts based on individual expectations.

  Origins
  The first episode, Origins, attempts to introduce newcomers to Halo's expansive lore by covering the Forerunners, the Flood, and the epic conflicts that shaped the series. However, for those unfamiliar with the universe, the presentation is both muddled and overwhelming. Even as someone well-versed in the games, I found the episode's effort to convey complex lore through static narration and limited animation more confusing than enlightening. While the animation quality was adequate, the storytelling fell short in engaging or educating effectively.

  The Duel
  The Duel, directed by Mamoru Oshii and animated by Production I.G., centers on the Arbiter’s internal struggle with the Covenant’s religious doctrine. Despite the impressive pedigree behind this project, the episode didn’t quite land for me. The watercolor animation style was visually striking but ultimately lacked engagement. The premise, an homage to samurai movies, was intriguing but didn’t resonate deeply, leaving the episode feeling dull and skippable.

  Homecoming
  Homecoming emerges as one of the anthology’s highlights. This dark and compelling story follows a girl who, after being abducted into the Spartan program, discovers that a doppelgänger has replaced her. The animation, once again handled by Production I.G., was impressive, and the narrative was gripping. However, like other entries, it didn’t delve deeply into Halo lore, with the books offering a richer exploration of the universe.

  Odd One Out
  Odd One Out stands out as the weakest installment. Its blend of Dragon Ball Z-style action with Halo elements felt out of place and almost parodic. This episode contributed little to the overarching Halo narrative and felt more like an oddity than a meaningful addition to the series.

  Prototype
  Prototype depicts the early Spartan-II operations as marines defend a facility from the Covenant. Although action-packed, it lacked substance and failed to provide new insights or depth, serving more as a visual spectacle than a meaningful story.

  The Babysitter
  The Babysitter is arguably the best episode in Halo Legends. It excellently portrays the tension between ODSTs and Spartans, featuring a unique animation style that resonates well. It also includes subtle details that fans of the series will appreciate, making it a standout segment in the anthology.

  The Package
  The final episode, The Package, is visually impressive but narratively thin. While its style is enjoyable, the story is simplistic and does not contribute much beyond aesthetic appeal. This episode highlights the series' tendency toward style over substance.

  Overall, Halo Legends offers an entertaining viewing experience for established fans of the franchise. However, it falls short for those seeking a deeper understanding of the Halo universe. The series provides a unique anime perspective on the franchise, but the inconsistent quality of episodes and limited lore expansion make it more of a novelty for fans rather than an essential addition to the Halo canon. Ironically, the most memorable part of the collection for me was the teaser trailer for Halo: Reach that preceded the anthology, reminding me of the simpler times when I first committed to the Halo series.

  Continue on AniList
• 

  NyoDesu

  80/100
  A Legendarily Underrated Loveletter to Halo Fans

  [SPOILERS FOR BOTH THIS ONA AND BITS OF HALO 1-ODST IN THIS REVIEW, OF COURSE!]
  

  The Narrative(s) & Characters:
  

  Considering this an ONA based on the franchise, it bounces off of everything that was out at the time (Halo 1, 2, 3, Wars, and ODST) and expands on really Of the in-universe lore for all of the factions we've seen. The Spartans, ODST, Flood, Covenant, and Brutes all get some time in the spotlight here and it's all genuinely informative as a fan and is presented excellently. Each episode focuses on something different (except the first two, which is a two-parter, the last episode was split-off too, but not where I watched it) and covers various time periods and locations throughout the series from various pre-established and original characters. The pre-established things work well with the new ones, which is how it should be, and the fact Japanese studios are handling a Western property like this one, they do a great job in staying faithful to what may or may not be seen in the series (though there are some liberties certainly taken here and there.)

  The characters are all pretty great, though some are more fleshed out than others. It's surprising to me how much I got to care for a lot of them given the episodes are so criminally short. Their designs are...definitely more anime-esque than your typical characters, but they work well in the context of this series. I specifically want to highlight Ghost in 'Prototype' and the ODST group in 'The Babysitter', they're especially great. They've got signature UNSC charm that the soldiers in the actual games do and it made me really appreciate them. It's just a shame we don't get to see more of these characters because again...how short these episodes are.

  The Visual & Sound Design:
  

  Well, given this IS an anime of a Western property (an adaptation, I suppose? Though not a direct one), I must say the art for this series is quite nice. The episodes vary in style and some pretty well-known studios like Bones, Toei, and Production I.G. worked on this series, so it's no wonder that even now most of it still holds up super well. Episode 3 has a very interesting watercolor style that I believe is meant to reference imperial Japanese-styled art, which I think is quite charming, even if it may be distracting and not their cup of tea to some. I personally think the various styles help in giving each episode its own signature flare and atmosphere and I would say it works effectively in doing so.

  I will say that it's not perfect, though, it has aged a little. The CGI in some places is a bit noticeable (though Episode 8 I will say holds up superbly and I respect the visual style it's going for in matching the CGI cutscenes scene in the Anniversary versions of 1 & 2 as well as Halo Wars 1) and I did find it odd in some of the places they used it where they could've drawn things out instead and had in some episodes (though then again, various studios handled this series, so I suppose it's a per-studio basis on what they do and don't draw.) The characters look slightly rough in some cases, especially when a lot is going on on screen. However, to give it credit for what it is, a lot of it is quite nice and the characters all look on-model to the series and the new additions don't stick out all the much visually compared to everything else.

  The Sound Design is stellar! Bringing back the music of Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori who have made some of the most iconic compositions out there along with the new artists Yasuharu Takanashi, Naoyuki Hiroko, and Tetsuya Takahashi, they all knock it out of the park. It all fits superbly well in terms of fitting with the signature sound of the series. It's mostly orchestral this time around, but it's all very consistently high-quality works and the amount of tracks composed for such a short series is quite impressive. The voice acting is also quite solid. I watched the first episode in both English and Japanese to compare and while I personally prefer the dub for the sake of being more accurate to the games, the Japanese Subs are perfectly fine too, and do offer a different Halo-watching experience.

  The Verdict:
  

  Halo Legends is certainly not for everyone and I would personally only recommend it to those who are SUPER into the series like myself and want to explore more about the series. I myself have been going through the series and have been trying to soak up as much lore on it as I can to really see how creative it can get. As a personal recommendation from me, if you ARE a fan and don't mind the fact that it's so short (which is probably my only complaint with this series), absolutely give it a watch! I think it's worth watching just for its novelty alone. That...and if I'm not mistaken it's all canon, so hey, if you're someone who wants to know as much canon stuff about your favorite series as I do, it's a must-watch!

  Continue on AniList
• 

  MegaTheRealOne

  70/100
  If Halo Was Made for Weebs

  (Originally Reviewed on Serializd)

  For the longest time throughout my life I have been a massive fan of the Halo franchise, the staple franchise from Microsoft's series of Xbox consoles that focuses on one man taking down an entire alien race threatening to destroy all of humanity, with there sometimes being some friends along the way to help you accomplish that task. It is a simple enough premise nowadays, especially for that of a first-person shooter, but it was one that worked perfectly back in 2001 and has helped keep the series going strong all the way to this day, with plenty of mainline titles, spin-offs, side games, and LOTS of merchandise helping it become a staple of video game history as a whole, and while I wouldn't say all of the series is perfect by any means, a lot of them still hold up wonderfully to this day and are really fun to play, whether by yourself or with friends to go through with you either in the campaigns of the MANY multiplayer modes. However, with all of that being said, despite how much I do love Halo and how much it has been a part of my life for, I myself have actually never taken the time to check out any of the other media that has been made for the series, such as the books, TV shows or what have you, with the only thing I have checked out that's close to Halo being Red vs. Blue, even though that pretty much became its own separate entity by the end of the show. Either way, it always weirded me out, considering how much I do love and appreciate this series, so I figured I would go ahead and give the other media this series has gotten a chance, and instead of taking the suicidal route of checking out the Paramount+ Halo show, I decided to go ahead and take a look at one of the shows that released long before that one, Halo Legends.

  I already knew going into this show was gonna be an interesting experience, not only because of the fact that the show was animated, which just feels weird for a franchise like Halo to have in a way, but also with the way that this show is structured. For those of you who don't know, instead of being a regular kind of Halo show that you would see placed with all the other video game TV shows out there, this series essentially acts as the Animatrix for the Halo franchise: it consists of a bunch of different animated shorts, all being made by different anime companies, all of which tell different stories from the Halo universe to either expand upon it or to explore several points in the series history that hadn't been properly tackled yet. It does feel a little weird to have a series like this done for a series like Halo, as unlike with The Matrix, it doesn't feel that open-ended to where you could pretty much do anything with it and make it work, to where you could do whatever you want with it for a short, but at the same time, I do really like this format, so I was still excited to check this out nonetheless, and I'm glad that I did check it out, as it was pretty dang good. I wouldn't say that it was quite perfect, as some of the shorts aren't as great as others and it does have several problems that do hold it back at the end of the day, but for what it is, it is a pretty good collection of stories from the Halo universe that show off the talents behind all of these studios and all of the different possibilities that they have for stories to tell here that are mostly great to watch play out.

  Like with The Animatrix, this isn't necessarily a piece of media that I can cover regularly, seeing as how it is a bunch of separate shorts placed together, so I will just go over each short individually one by one to go ahead and give my general thoughts on them and how they stack up against the other shorts in the bunch. Sounds good?.......... you can't reply to this, seeing as you all are from the future, but fuck it, we are doing it anyway! Although, unfortunetly for us, we have to start at a low point for all of the shorts, because this series starts out with what I think are the worst episodes of the whole package, "Origins I & II". As you could probably guess from the title, these shorts pretty much consist of retellings of the origins of the Halo storyline, precisely how this world came to be, what kind of threats they had to deal with, how the Covenant and humanity ended up at war with each other, all of that sort of shit, which is all being narrated out by Cortona the entire time, and while I like this idea for an episode on paper, in execution, it really isn't anything all that special. That's not to say that these are bad shorts whatsoever, because they both give a lot of detail about the backstory to this universe, all coupled with some great visuals and animation to go along with it, but the problem is that most of the stuff that we do here from these shorts are things that we already know, at least, if you are one who is very familiar with the Halo series itself. To illustrate what I mean, compare these shorts to similar shorts that can be found in The Animatrix known as "The Second Renaissance". Both of these shorts pretty much do the exact same thing as this one, detailing the origins of The Matrix and how all this came to be in the first place, but what makes these shorts work much better in comparison is that we barely know anything about The Matrix universe at this point in the series's history, and the movies certainly don't tell you that much about it either beyond what you need to know, which makes all of this so much more interesting to watch play out, while also being aided by the stellar animation and story at hand. Don't get me wrong, neither of these shorts are bad whatsoever, and if you are one who may not be that familiar with Halo themselves, it does a great job at introducing you to this universe and what's going on in it, but for me, it just wasn't really anything that memorable or interesting.

  Thankfully though, things only got more interesting from there with the help of the next short, "The Dual", one that takes a sharp turn away from what Origins was doing and tells us the tale of a tribe of Elites, banished from the Covenant due to disobeying orders from the Prophets, and now living out their lives while trying to survive the main fleet, with it focusing primarily on this one Elite that gets in a duel with another Elite for killing his wife. All of this is told to us and shown to us in an excellent way, not only thanks to the unique art style when compared to every other short in this series, but also with some pretty great storytelling, some incredibly solid voice acting, and action that isn't anything too amazing, but provides for some exciting sequences to watch play out too. The only real problem that I have with this short would be that the animation is, admittedly, not good at all, where the models for all of the characters not only look very outdated and awkward, but also the movements can be incredibly stiff and rigid when in motion, even if it is better in some sequences, but none of that ruins for what is an incredibly solid short that we have here. And things continue to be really solid from there with the next short, "Homecoming", one that details several soldiers that were picked for Spartan training escaping from their captivity, only to flee back to their homes and discover that, in the time that they have been gone, they have been completely replaced, being cloned and placed in modern society almost as if they had never been kidnapped in the first place, leading to the main girl killing her clone and going back to fight for the Spartans until dying on the battlefield. This short brings up a point that you never really do think about when playing the games: we are told about the Spartan program and the fucked up ways they bring in civilians, sometimes even children, into this program to raise them, train them, and mold them specifically for war, but we never think about how that effects the real world, and what the UNSC does to hide all of that, and this short sheds some light on that in a really interesting way that does make for a very intriguing watch all the way throughout. Sure, the art style and animation may not be that great, but it is definitely one of the most interesting shorts of the bunch that you can watch, and it is one that still holds up very well to this day.

  However, on the complete opposite side of that spectrum, we have quite possibly the oddest piece of media in not just this show, but even the entire franchise in general, "Odd One Out", a short that details a Spartan falling down onto a planet full of these.... cavemen kids that ride dinosaurs, and he has to engage in a fight with this big monkey thing sent down by a Prophet that acts like a Saturday morning cartoon villain, and then the... parents of the cavemen children also show up and get into a fight with the monkey thing too like its all one big episode of Dragon Ball Z, and it was at this point in the short where I asked to myself "What the fuck am I watching right now?". As you could probably tell just from reading that, this is the weirdest and most different short of the entire bunch, not even feeling like it properly fits in with the Halo universe and having a tone that is a lot more comedic in nature then everything else, but you know what? I kind of like it.... maybe? Yes, it is very weird and it is definitely not really as good as most of the rest of the shorts that we have here, but I do appreciate how different it is and how it can be pretty fun to watch play out all the way to the end, if you don't mind how weird it is. And hey, it's even made by Toei Animation too, so that's pretty cool. But hey, if you are one who would rather stick to the traditional kind of Halo stories, then that's fine by me, as the next short known as "Prototype" has got you covered there. This is a short that details a group of soldiers going to destroy this giant robot mech suit thing that the Covenant have taken for themselves, and one solider known as Ghost takes the opportunity to use it to eliminate all Covenant forces to help his team get out of there, as a way to make up for watching his teammate die in front of him three years prior. It is a short that definitely fits more in line for Halo, having plenty of the elements that you would expect from this kind of story while also having plenty of interesting bits and moments spliced in-between, such as the flashbacks that show what happened to Ghost and the giant mech suit action on display that was great to see when compared to everything else. Honestly though, I think this may just be one of my least favorite shorts of the package, not because I hated it or anything, of course not, but more so because it sort of just feels pretty bland and standard, nothing to get too excited about despite how well put-together it is at the end of the day, but for what it's worth, it is still an incredibly solid short through and through.

  And now we have come upon the homestretch, ladies and gentlemen, as we are now entering the second-to-last short of the bunch, "The Babysitter", a short where a solider for the marines goes with this team of soldiers and a Spartan to assassinate one of the Prophets, with this main solider in particular acting as a "babysitter" unit, being there to replace the Spartan and take care of the job himself if something ever happened to them. This is yet another short that really isn't anything too majorly special, as this is the kind of story you see all of the time with these kinds of series, but it is one that is also told extremely well, and it does get you to care a lot about whatever is happening and what these characters are going through during this entire mission, even if there isn't really much else to say about it. And finally, there is the last short of the bunch, "The Package", which is the short that probably fits the closest in with the main Halo series over any of the other shorts we have seen in this series. It follows a mission led by Master Chief to infiltrate a Covenant ship in order to save Captain Halsey from getting captured, all complete with spaceship battles, plenty of gunfire, some sick-ass moves, and plenty of stakes being involved in a mission like this. Once again, this is one of the lesser shorts of this bunch, but it is one that does have a lot going for it, what with the action being pretty frequent and exciting to watch, and the action itself being incredibly good, having plenty of great moments to be seen with fast movement going on all the time, just to keep the energy up and to keep the viewer entertained. The only problem with this all, however, is that not only is the animation not really all that good, but the voice acting is also somehow terrible! Seriously, I don't know what it is with this short, but every single voice actor in this, no matter what role they are playing, does a terrible job with the material they are given, which makes the whole thing harder to watch, even if they weren't given too much material to the point where it would make me wanna die.

  But anyway, with that, that is all of the shorts that can be found in this series, and as you could tell, we have somewhat of a mixed bag here. There are some pretty great shorts to be found in here, but there are also some that generally aren't really anything too special, which make them stand out more compared to some of the greater ones, despite the show as a whole not really having a bad short out of the bunch, which is great to see for a series like this, especially since I do remember not liking some shorts from The Animatrix all too much. Which speaking of, I think as a whole, the only real problem that this show has over anything else is just the nature of the set-up that we have here. When you have a bunch of shorts being made by a bunch of different companies that all fall under the same topic, you are obviously going to get a lot of different results, and each one may not live up to the standards of the others, and that is especially the case with this show, to where at the end of the day, I would happily come back to this series to watch "The Dual" or "The Babysitter" again, but I wouldn't really be missing out on much if I never saw "Origins Part I & II" or "Odd One Out" ever again. Of course, again, that doesn't make any of these shorts bad in the slightest, but it is just something to keep in mind whenever you check out the show for yourself.

  Overall, despite the somewhat fluctuating quality between all of the shorts and some dated elements to be found in pretty much all of them, Halo Legends is still a really solid collection of a bunch of really good shorts that were all very neat to check out after knowing about it for so long, and I had a really good time with it, what with seeing all of the different styles and stories that these shorts have to tell, the different themes and aspects about the Halo universe that are explored and expanded upon further beyond the games, having generally high production values seen throughout a lot of the shorts, and being quite the treat for those that are huge fans of the franchise themselves and want to get everything they can out of it. I would definitely recommend it for those that are big fans of the Halo series, as well as those who are fans of these kinds of shows and anthology stuff in general, because while not every short in this collection may be a slam dunk, there are just enough interesting elements and fun stories that are told here that make it worth checking out, which is more then enough for me at the end of the day. And hey, if anything else, it is certainly a better alternative then checking out the Paramount+ show, am I right?!.......... alright, you know what, maybe I shouldn't be making fun of that show too much. After all, I myself have never seen it, so I can't really make fun of it properly without knowing that much about it........... even though it is REALLY funny to do so.

  Continue on AniList

SIMILAR ANIMES YOU MAY LIKE

• ONA

  ActionStar Wars: Visions
• OVA

  ActionAnimatrix
• MOVIE

  AdventureMEMORIES
• ONA

  ActionCyberpunk: Edgerunners
• MOVIE

  AdventureMeikyuu Monogatari
• MOVIE

  ActionChiisana Eiyuu: Kani to Tamago to Toumei Ningen
• OVA

  ActionBatman: Gotham Knight