Tales of Symphonia: The Animation

Tales of Symphonia: The Animation is an eight-part OVA series based around the plot from Tales of Symphonia. Official Japanese Site: http://ova-tos.com/

Plot
Two worlds exist, both unaware of the existence of the other. In order for one world to flourish, the other will have to perish. On the perishing world, a Chosen one is send on a journey to restore that world's mana by awakening the Spirits and becoming an angel. Colette Brunel, the Chosen of Sylvarant, sets out on her journey accompanied by her best friends Lloyd Irving and Genis Sage. As they travel further they meet more friends and even more enemies, while they learn more and more about the truth behind the World Regeneration.

Release
Tales of Symphonia: The Animation are special DVD only releases. The first four episodes of ToS: The Animation, were released in Japan in 2007 on June 08, August 10, Ocotober 24, and December 21. These four episodes cover the part the game that occurs in Sylvarant. The next four episodes in the series, ToS: The Animation: Tethe'alla Episode were released on March 25, May 26, and September 23 of 2010, and February 25 of 2011. The last installment, ToS: The Animation: The United World Episode, is currently being worked on, with the first episode in this production being released on November 23, 2011.

Episodes

 * Note: The following are not summaries these are showing the differences between Tales of Symphonia the video game and the animation.

Episode 1

 * Lloyd gives Colette a pendant at the very beginning of the OVA as a birthday present. In the game, he does not finish the pendant in time, so he gives it to her at a much later point.
 * Colette is already at the Martel Temple prior to the Oracle. In the game, Colette is in the Iselia schoolhouse before she sneaks out to the temple with Lloyd and Genis.
 * Raine allows Genis and Lloyd to go with her to the temple to check up on Colette, but in the game, she orders everyone to stay in the classroom.
 * In the game, Botta makes an appearance at Iselia's Temple of Martel. The OVA suggests that he does not appear at the building. Botta makes his initial appearance in episode 4, although he does not make a contribution to the storyline.
 * Kratos is presumably hired by the priests before the beginning of the OVA to assist in Colette's journey. In the game, Kratos is just a wandering mercenary who was hastily hired to compensate the deaths of Colette's original escort.
 * In the OVA, Genis does not get spanked by Raine in Martel Temple, nor does Lloyd get kicked by her.
 * In the animation, it is shown that Kratos does not have an Exsphere equipped, whereas in the game he does.
 * There is no mention of Marble in the OVA.
 * Unlike in the game, the angel Remiel does not purport to be Colette's true father. This is one of the many subplots that were omitted from the OVA to significantly cut down time.
 * A Desian soldier, spying on the Martel Temple skirmish, sees Lloyd using his Exsphere, which causes the Desians to attack Iselia. In the game, the attack is provoked when Genis and Lloyd violate the non-aggression treaty between Iselia and the Desians by trespassing at the Iselia Human Ranch.
 * The non-aggression treaty is mentioned in the OVA by Genis, though only once.
 * Dirk joins the battle after Iselia is set ablaze in the OVA. Lloyd battles instead of the mutated Marble, while Dirk fights the Desian forces. In the game, Dirk made no known contribution to the prevention of Iselia's attack.
 * Forcystus is severely wounded, if not killed, by a ray of light that bursts forth from Lloyd's Exsphere. In the game, he is injured by Marble's self-sacrifice. Lloyd also does not battle Forcystus until a later point in the plot.
 * In the game, Lloyd and Genis are banished from Iselia, following the incident with Forcystus. There is no evidence of such a banishment in the OVA.
 * Lloyd's pet, Noishe, makes a minor appearance in a stable at Dirk's house in the OVA. In the game, Noishe plays a more important role, allowing the player to ride him across the world.
 * The Exsphere is only used in times of desperation; it is treated like a terrible power that shouldn't be used. In the game, the Exsphere is active as long as it is equipped; it is treated as a power-enhancer (though only for this episode, in the next ones it's treated as a power enhancer).
 * In the OVA Dirk, Lloyd, and the others act as if they don't know what an Exsphere is, merely calling it a gem, in the game Dirk, Lloyd, and the others know exactly what an exsphere is, though only after having been to human ranches.
 * Phaidra, Colette's grandmother, is never mentioned in the animation, nor is she seen at Martel Temple. She can be seen, however, in the crowd of villagers during the razing of Iselia.

Episode 2

 * It can be implied that some desert village was destroyed before Colette and the others arrived there.
 * Lloyd and Genis manage to catch up with the Chosen's party. In the game, Lloyd is captured and taken to the Renegade base. Lloyd is eventually rescued and reunited with the rest of the party.
 * Yuan has not appeared in the animation yet, whereas in the game, Lloyd encounters him in the Renegade base before being reunited with the rest of the party.
 * There is no evidence of events that take place in Izoold and Palmacosta in the game occurring in the animation.
 * The party's first encounter with Sheena is not at the Ossa Trail, but at the Balacruf Mausoleum. In the game, this is actually their second encounter, and this encounter may also occur outside of the Tower of Mana or on Thoda island, depending on the path the player had chosen.
 * Zelos meets with Sheena by a lake in Tethe'alla to discuss her mission of assassinating Colette, but he does not attempt to intervene. He is later seen at Meltokio Castle, proclaiming that he knew Sheena didn't have the guts to kill Sylvarant's Chosen.
 * Sheena's initial appearance was at Palmacosta to assassinate Colette in her sleep. Unlike the OVA, she first appeared as a clumsy assassin at the Ossa Trail in the game.
 * The party apparently heads straight to the Balacruf Mausoleum without visiting Asgard and defeating the false Summon Spirit of Wind. In the game, this was necessary in order to enter the mausoleum.
 * Magnius is confronted in the Balacruf Mausoleum. In the game, he is confronted long before this in the first initial visits to Palmacosta, where he invades the town because the Governor-General has been reluctant to send him tribute. The Desians are never encountered in the Balacruf Mausoleum, and possibly not in any other of the Seals.
 * Magnius is not confronted and killed, like in the game; instead, he is defeated when he surrounds the Balacruf Mausoleum with Desians. At this point, Colette sings a mysterious angel song that weakens (or perhaps kills) Magnius' soldiers. As such, the party never meets him in battle.
 * Sheena guides the party out through an underground sewer beneath Balacruf Mausoleum. She subsequently attacks the party in a more secluded area of the sewer. This sewer does not exist in the game.
 * One detail included in the animation is that Colette does not fight the Seal guardians (she is protected by Raine instead). In the game, Colette is required to be in the party during these battles.
 * The animation begins taking the so-called "hard path" in the game, which is the route that has Balacruf Mausoleum before the Palmacosta region events.
 * In the animation, Magnius is shown in the Asgard region, outside the Balacruf Mausoleum. In the game, however, he appears in the Palmacosta region.
 * In the animation, they take a rather large Gallion over to Palmacosta, whereas in the game they take a small boat that they can all barely fit on.

Episode 3

 * In the OVA, Lloyd finds out that Colette has lost her senses when she is holding the cup and singing; in the game, Lloyd tricks Colette with a hot cup of coffee to find out that she cannot feel things.
 * In the game, the party decides to steal Desian uniforms in order to sneak into the Asgard Human Ranch. This does not occur in the OVA.
 * Lloyd duels Kvar in a hall at the Asgard Human Ranch in which prisoners are getting their Exspheres harvested. In the game, this hall does not exist; instead, the humans are processed through assembly lines and machines, ending in box-like containers.
 * Kratos kills Kvar by stabbing him; in the game, Lloyd and Kratos fight together to defeat the Grand Cardinal. In addition, Kratos merely stabs Kvar once; in the game, he strikes Kvar no fewer than three times.
 * There is no mention of the Tower of Mana, for it says in the episode that the Seal of Water is the final seal.
 * Lloyd finds out about Colette losing her voice when they are alone. In the game, the party finds out immediately after leaving the Tower of Mana.
 * Sheena's Shikigami (Guardian) transported Lloyd and the group away from the Human Ranch in the game, whereas it slaughtered the Desians when they were caught in the courtyard in the animation.
 * Sheena did not remain with the party in the animation.
 * Lloyd had his Exsphere to battle the Water Seal's guardian in the game; due to an internal conflict about whether using his Exsphere was ethical, Lloyd did not use it to battle the Seal's guardian in the animation.
 * In the animation, there is a boat at the dock of Thoda Geyser. There is no mention of the washtubs that appear in the game.
 * In the animation, there is no referance to Kvar's base as a ranch, it is simply called Asgard base.
 * In the game, Rodyle gloats to a dead Kvar as the ranch is about to be destroyed. In the animation, Rodyle and Pronyma are both watching the Asgard ranch get destroyed from a nearby cliff.

Episode 4

 * In the animation, the party acquires money from the local church to pay for the dragon ride to the Tower of Salvation; in the game, the dragon ride is free.
 * Lloyd takes back the pendant he gave to Colette before their journey began. This does not happen in the game, as Lloyd gives her the pendant much later.
 * Lloyd does not know of the existence of Tethe'alla before the Tower of Salvation in the animation. Even so, he chooses Colette's life over the Regeneration. In the game, he cannot bear to lose Colette and initially attempts to convince her not to complete the regeneration.
 * In the game, Lloyd meets Yuan in the Renegades' Base; in the animation, Lloyd, Raine, and Genis meet him in a forest near the Tower of Salvation, disguised as a Renegade soldier.
 * In the OVA, Kratos and Colette leave the night before to go to the Tower of Salvation without telling Lloyd or the others. In the game, everyone leaves at the same time, although Kratos and Colette arrive first.
 * Instead of battling Lloyd, Genis, Raine, and Sheena (as he does in the game), Kratos duels with Yuan outside of the Tower of Salvation.
 * In the animation, the interior of the Tower of Salvation is a giant pillar with a transparent blue staircase circling it, leading up to the main altar. In the game, a narrow pass suspended in endless, luminescent space leads the way to a teleporter directly to the altar.
 * In the game, Raine realizes that the hundreds of floating coffins around them contain the corpses of every Chosen before Colette. There is no mention of this in the animation, despite the coffins being present.
 * Mithos Yggdrasill does not descend from Derris-Kharlan, so Lloyd's party remains unaware of his existence.
 * When Colette loses her spirit in the game, her angel wings are visible, her Cruxis Crystal turns grey, and her eyes are red. When she loses her spirit in the OVA, she is floating in midair, her eyes become cloudy, and her Cruxis Crystal is still red.
 * The fight with Remiel begins when he is attacked by Genis and Raine; in the game, Lloyd provokes the fight.
 * Yuan kills Remiel in the OVA after Lloyd is knocked unconscious by falling debris; in the game, Remiel dies from the wounds Lloyd's party inflicted during their battle.
 * In the game, a spiteful Kratos lets Remiel die from his wounds. In the animation, he expresses his displeasure when he discovers that Yuan has killed him.
 * In the game, Lloyd is knocked unconscious by Mithos Yggdrasill; in the animation he is hit by falling debris while attempting to save Colette.
 * In the game Lloyd is sent flying into a pillar, knocking it down, which leads to a stunning revelation later on; this doesn't happen in the animation.
 * In the animation, Sheena mysteriously vanishes after the destruction of the Asgard Human Ranch; she only reunites with Lloyd's group in the Renegades' Base. This does not happen in the game, as Sheena is already with the party.
 * While preparing the Rheairds for transportation, Sheena reveals Tethe'alla's existence. The game reveals this fact much earlier, before the group reaches Luin.
 * At the end of the episode, Regal is shown looking up at the sky near some mountains. In the game, Regal would have still been in prison at this point.
 * At the end of the episode, Presea is shown without a Key Crest. Although she has one in the game, it is not made from the correct material.
 * In the game, Yuan is very discreet about ever being seen by Kratos, instead using Botta to indirectly act as he switches the mana flows in the Desians' Human Ranches; in the OVA, Botta is never seen to leave the Renegade Base, and Yuan openly shows his face and fights directly with Cruxis.
 * Because Yuan is very clearly defined as an anti-Cruxis element in the OVA, it is presumable that he has already publicly betrayed Mithos.

Episode 5

 * Zelos Wilder fights Regal Bryant and the bandits on top of the Cathedral in Meltokio, while in the video game Regal is not introduced until the party enters the Meltokio Sewers.
 * In the animation the party lands in the middle of Meltokio and are surrounded by Papal Knights, while in the video game the party crash lands in the Fooji Mountains.
 * Colette attempts to perform Judgment in the middle of Meltokio attempting to destroy the city, while in the video game this never happened.
 * The party goes to Meltokio Palace to speak to king without sneaking in, the video game storyline provided the party sneaking in with Presea Combatir.
 * Sheena accompanies the party when they meet with the King of Tethe'alla, Although in the video game she leaves with party to go report to Mizuho elders.
 * The King of Tethe'alla seems to have not to been poisoned like in the video game.
 * The events of Sybak are skipped and the party goes to the events in Ozette.
 * The party visits the dwarf Altessa in the anime to find a way to heal Colette, in the game the party visited Altessa to find a way to heal Presea from the effects of her Exsphere.
 * The party meets Presea at Altessa's House instead of meeting her in Meltokio.
 * The procedure of Presea getting her Exsphere is more explained in flashbacks.
 * The main objective to go to Toize Valley Mine is changed to find a cure for both Colette and Presea, while in the video game the party goes there to find a cure for Presea only.
 * During the events of the Toize Valley Mine Altessa accompanies the party.
 * The party encounters Kratos at the mines, while in the video game this did not happen.
 * Due to the fact the party does not meet Yggdrasil at the Tower of Salvation, the party meets him at the Toize Valle Mines after Lloyd battles Kratos.

Episode 6

 * Zelos fights Regal in front of Altessa's House while Lloyd and the others are at the Toize Valley Mine.
 * Flashback scenes are used to explain Regal's past one scene takes place at Princess Hilda's birthday party to explain young Zelos' first encounter with Regal, Alicia's time at Altimira, Alicia's murder, and Regal's court case after killing Alicia Combatir.
 * While in the game Regal agreed to help the Pope of Tethe'alla in order to be set freed, but in the anime he helps the Pope to save a false Presea from being killed by the Papal Knights.
 * The Pope of Tethe'alla has no intentions of killing the King of Meltokio like in the game, but he plans to kill Zelos in attempt to take over the church.
 * The entire party battles Yggdrasil at the Toize Valley Mine, but loses when Yggdrasil uses the Time Stop arte on the entire party except Colette.
 * Yggdrasil kidnaps Colette at the Toize Valley Mines, despite the fact he doesn't kidnap her successfully until the final stages of the game.
 * Sheena finds the Inhibitor Ore and gives it to Lloyd to make a Key Crest for both Colette and Presea, while she goes to find Colette.
 * The events taking place in Meltokio Sewers, Ozette, and Altimira have been fused to take place at Altessa's House.
 * Regal meets Presea at Altessa's House instead.
 * Vharley has been removed from the story entirely and Rodyle is the one who took Alicia away for Exphere experimentation.
 * Presea's father has been buried before the events of the anime, taking out the scene where the party find him decomposing on his bed.
 * Regal reveals that he is Alicia's murderer to Presea after she regains her senses.
 * Presea fights Regal to avenge Alicia's murder.
 * Regal carries Alicia's Cruxis Crystal a momento, this causes Alicia spirit to appear before Presea to stop her from killing Regal.
 * Yuan and Botta meet Sheena at Mizuho to give her information on where to find Colette.

Episode 7

 * The events of of Tethe'alla Renegade Base have been deleted, the Renegades ally themselves with the party.
 * Yuan and Botta are with the party during the meeting with Tiga in Mizuho.
 * Yuan tells them to make a pact with Volt so they will be able to use the Rheairds. In the game it was Kratos who told them to do this.
 * Corrine and Lloyd have conversation about Sheena's past, this did not occur in the game.
 * Yuan and Botta occopany the party to the Temple of Lightning, this did not occur in the game.
 * Rodyle's Dragon's Nest in the anime is his base of operation, in the orginal game it was the Remote Island Human Ranch.
 * Kratos is working with Rodyle, this did not occur since Rodyle was traitor and Kratos was loyal to Mithos.
 * During Sheena's flashbacks about meeting Corrine there are certain differences.
 * Sheena did not kill the scientists experimenting on Corrine.
 * Corrine was not made in Meltokio Elemental Research Institute in the anime.
 * During the attack at Dragon's Nest, the Renegades work with the party.
 * Yuan and Lloyd are the only ones to get into the base, this did not occur in the game.

Ending
The ending to the Tales of Symphonia animation features several of the game's main characters in a short scene constructed entirely from clay.

Opening theme
ALMATERIA Performed by: Eri Kawai Lyrics: Eri Kawai Composers: Lunaria Arranger: Tatsuya Nishiwaki

Ending theme
Negai (願い) Performed by: Kaori Hikita Lyrics: tomo Composers: Tatsuya Nishiwaki Arranger: Tatsuya Nishiwaki

Insert theme
Uchi e Kaerou (うちへ帰ろう) Performed by: Nana Mizuki Lyrics: Ikuko Ebata Composer: Ikuko Ebata Arrangers: Toshimichi Isoe and Ikuko Ebata

Opening Theme 2
Tenkuu no Canaria (天空のカナリア) Performed by: Nana Mizuki Lyrics: Hibiki Composer: Yuusuke Katou Arranger: Yuusuke Katou

Ending Theme 2
Inori no Kanata (祈りの彼方) Performed by: Akiko Shikata Lyrics: Noriko Mitose Composer: Akiko Shikata Arranger: Akiko Shikata