Tales of Symphonia OVA

On June 20, 2006, Namco announced an official OVA (anime) for Tales of Symphonia, divided into four episodes. The first episode is planned to come out in stores in Japan on June 8, 2007, the second on August 10; the release dates of the third and fourth episodes have yet to be announced. It will be directed by Haruo Tonosaki (director of 2x2=Shinobuden) and feature character designs by Akira Matsushima (Rurouni Kenshin OVAs.)

OVA Stands for Original Video Animation and it is sometimes used, perhaps inappropriately, to refer to any extremely short anime series or special regardless of its release format. So this would explain the Ultimate Hellsing OVAs and the four episodes of ToS (how long are these episodes? I hope one hour each).

I do wonder if the original director and artist who did the video game intro will have any part in the four episodes. I'll be honest, when I first played that game, I thought that all the cutscenes were going to be in anime...but sadly I only ended up with 2-3 pure anime cutscenes (the rest were CGI). So without any further adieu, here's the first trailer to Tales of Symphonia OVA

Now after doing a little snooping around on their official website, I've found out something: The cast only consists five out of the original nine characters. It seems that only Lloyd, Collet, Genius, Raine, and Kratos will be the main cast. Any news about the remaining four characters (Sheena, Zelos, Presea, Regal) being a part of the anime have yet to be said, but I think everyone would appreciate it if they made at least one small cameo. If you truly think about it, in the game, the remaining four really didn't make a big difference the the game's storyline after all. Sheena was an antagonist in the beginning and near the end she was the one who made a pact with the spirits. Zelos was the Chosen One from Tethe'alla, so he's somewhat important, but if the anime decides Kratos to be a good guy to the very end (and have Zelos be the one who double crosses the team) then there really won't be a problem, but just strong chances of seeing a cameo. Presea and Regal are side quest storyline characters really and weren't really necessary in the very end.

Can any one of you people think of how not introducing any one of those characters truly change the storyline? Of course we have to take into account that they've only introduced those five characters because those are the only ones going to be shown in the first two episodes. The third and fourth? Who knows what happens. But considering they are calling these four entries as episodes and not movies, all we can really can expect/assume is have them be 60 minutes or less. But I also have to think "How can they cram a video game that took dozens of hours to complete down to four?" I think it's quite obvious that some characters and storylines will be lost in the way (there will be a lot of fast forwards like "3 weeks later"). Of course, that may be the case unless the company is secretly making an actual Tales of Symphonia OVA series that takes place after the four episodes/movies (that is if these four videos don't explain everything that happens in the game). I think that would be an excellent idea indeed!

One more question to pose to all of you ToS fans: Are there certain scenes that you'd love to see in the videos? Give me your ideas, thoughts, and opinions on the whole matter. Speaking of scenes, please enjoy this pictures from scenes taken from the trailer.