Meru hevun
Tags: fantasy

Plot synopsis:
Ginta Toramizu is a 14-year-old junior high student from Tokyo who is portrayed as a typical video game geek and underachieving student who is a fan of fairy tales. One day and without warning, he finds himself summoned to the mysterious world of MÄR-Heaven which he has only seen before in his dreams and in his mother's books. In this fairy tale world, Ginta's physical weakness is replaced with superior physical strength, incredible stamina and endurance, and being able to see without his glasses.
Upon meeting a mysterious 16-year-old witch named Dorothy, Ginta is introduced to the powerful magical accessories and weapons called "ÄRM" (pronounced air-um). Dorothy plans to steal the mysterious ÄRM Babbo from a trap-guarded cave, and brings Ginta along to assist her, intrigued by his unusual strength and abilities. Babbo is revealed to be an extremely special and unique ÄRM, as he possesses a will of his own and the ability to speak. Displeased with the fact that Babbo is so cumbersome, Dorothy gives Babbo to Ginta instead taking the guardian arm that guarded the chest, departing with a warning that others will try to steal Babbo from him.
He continues on a journey of discovery, reveling in this new world. When he encounters the farmer Jack and his mother who are troubled by two werewolf brothers, he finds that he misses the real world. Ginta resolves to find a way to reach home while enjoying as much of MÄR as he can along the way with Jack journeying with him.
However, it is not long before Ginta learns that the world of MÄR-Heaven is not as peaceful as it seems when he is attacked by thieves wishing to steal Babbo. Upon meeting Alviss (who summoned him to MÄR-Heaven using a ÄRM known as the Gate Keeper Clown), he learns of the sinister "Chess Pieces" and how they had tried to take over MÄR-Heaven six years earlier. Alviss reveals that he summoned Ginta in order to gain assistance from an "other-worlder" in the upcoming war, as was done previously, and that Babbo originally belonged to one of the knights of the Chess Pieces.
Gaining both allies and enemies, the series follows Ginta as he opposes the Chess Pieces led by Chess Piece King Orb, Queen Diana and her servant Phantom.
=== MÄR Omega ===
The story started 6 years after the second War Games, about Kai, the adoptive son of an ÄRM smith from Harnau City in MÄR Heaven, who idolizes Ginta and Babbo for defeating Phantom at the end of the 2nd War Games. He always wants a good ÄRM for himself, which is often ridiculed by others since Kai possesses no potential whatsoever of magic power, much to his personal dislike, since at the time throughout MÄR-Heaven ÄRMs are already in wide use (especially a new type called fake ÄRMs, activated without the need of magic power), and Kai himself inherited a magic stone from his dead parents, a memento highly suggested his family's relation to the sorcerer kingdom Kaldea.
When Kai was delivering ÄRMs to another city, he walked past a mountain and suddenly got attacked by a remnant of the Chess Pieces. While searching for cover from the Chess Pieces's wind Nature ÄRM, Kai jumped into a pond and woke up the most unthinkable underwater resident - Babbo. Using the ÄRM Kai defeated the Chess Piece, one amazing yet inexplicable feat: how was he, a normal boy, be able to fight with the ÄRM up til then wieldable to only two persons, both warriors of legend, Ginta and Phantom.
Leaving the question hanging, the two returned to Kai's city, only to find themselves in an even tighter situation: among those who came to admire Babbo, there are Kai's fake ÄRM user friends, and they were all out to take Babbo - to bring it to a sinister mysterious figure who was watching them the whole time. When the emergency arose, Kai had no choice but to resort to his last option - put the magic stone he owned into Babbo, and forth reborn to the world of MÄR-Heaven the most powerful Guardian recognized, Gargoyle.
Gargoyle easily defeated the guardians and returned their owners' consciousness, but then it was Kai's turn to face trouble with his ÄRM: he lost contact with Babbo inside Gargoyle, and the monster would have ravaged the whole town if not for the timely restraint from Alviss with his familiar 13 Totem Poles attack, allowing Kai enough time to regain synchronization with Babbo, returning him to normal.
Saving everyone no time to ponder on what had happened, the Cross Guard's young warrior's unexpected arrival brought an even more unexpected truth: those fake ÄRM all used so at their own ease didn't, indeed, require a proper amount of magic power from the users, but it sucked from them a worse fuel - their life energy, and through that, their minds could be controlled like a puppet dancing to death. It has not yet been revealed to why people used the fake ÄRMs or who made the fake ÄRM, however, as the one controlling everyone took a sudden desperate move to seal the town except Alviss, Kai, Babbo and Kai's female friend Elise, introducing himself. Although he was easily defeated by Kai and Alviss, the town couldn't be returned, and for that they had to consult Kaldea -birthplace of all ÄRMs and magic users.
In Kaldea, they were welcomed by Dorothy and a new male character named Inga into the Grand Elder's palace. All answers for their questions were ready, coming down to a legend descending the magic kingdom for 300 years: the fake ÄRMs were not actually the work of many sorcerers, but rather only one's - the dark magician with infamy for his experiments of human mind manipulation, went by the name of Unwetter. Babbo - the Elder of Kaldea in his time - confronted the man and succeeded in consigning him and his malicious creations into oblivion, just before Babbo himself died, transferring his soul into the ÄRM and erasing every memory related to that accident. It's unknown for the Grand Elder himself, however, as to why the supposedly sealed fake ÄRMs were once again spread throughout MÄR-Heaven now, how the supposedly dead Unwetter could be revived, and what purpose would be served with the claiming of Babbo. Either way, until these riddles could be solved, Babbo would be taken into custody, which of course met with Kai's disagreement.
Relented, the wizard postponed the deal with Babbo... only if Kai could prove himself worthy of wielding it, inside Dorothy's training Dimension ÄRM with Inga's witness. They were not disappointed, however, as when facing with the danger of death, Kai suddenly unleashed all his dormant magic power - which was so powerful that it did not only confirm his relation to the magic kingdom, but also suggested a direct blood connection to Babbo. No sooner had they discovered that than the fake ÄRM users presented themselves before Caldia, to continue the accomplishment of their objective: take Babbo back to their master Unwetter.
Kai and crew are able to fight them back with the assistance of Inga. Inga is a descendant of Unwetter and by following Caldia's law he must seek Unwetter out and kill him. Kai then finds out that he truly is a descendant of Babbo. Kai, Inga, and Elise all volunteer to go and find Babbo's magic stones which would restore his memories of the Grand Elder who fought fake Arms and Unwetter 300 years prior to the story. The three are sent to Luberia to start their quest where they are to be helped by Nanashi (Dorothy says she'll help).
Kai beats Atmos and saves MÄR-Heaven.

Review: Underrated Shonen Series. I know there are people who'll say this show is unoriginal and dosen't do anything new or ground breaking or exciting, but the problem with anime is that there's so much different anime and manga out there that it's hard for a any show to stick out unless it's so big name or some new trending show like Mob psycho 100 or Twin star twin star exorcists, witch both of those are great but there do exist anime that is good just get shoved of as unoriginal and meh because critics don't want to be bothered with having to review them because they don't do anything new. However it's not also something new that makes your show stand out it's the execution of it and Mar dose good execution. Ginta, Babbo and the rag-tag group of friends they team up with and fight along side with are interesting, enjoyable and have their share of funny moments, the animations is pretty good, The music isn't anything super duper but it's pleasant, the plot has charming and is very fitting for this kind of show and the fight scenes are cool. I really like the ARMs witch is the weapons the use to fight in this show, they require the users own energy to use their special magic attacks and are ranked by class like holy Arms, dimension ARMS, Darkness ARMS and so on, It's kind of like the NEN chart From Hunter X Hunter. I will say the tournament battle arc does drag on but they change locations on where they fight witch really helps for any tournament arc and I do have to complain about the use of CGI but it's not as bad as say Kirby right back at ya. Over all I enjoyed MÄR Heaven and if your interested in checking out underrated anime I say check it out! And check out the Sequel manga Mar Omega.. I could have thought this crap out myself.... If I could live with the shame. The only thing this show did right was make the main character likable, but when episode 2 comes around you stop caring about him. He is some normal daydreaming nerd like you or me and GUESS WHAT!? he gets transported though a portal to a magic world that he will have to save! 0o0o0o0o0o0o0oh! They also try to blend CGI with it, but it just looks terrible. That is the same mistake that Justice league Unlimited made. The character designs are extremely unoriginal. Its like the person who was creating it thought to himself: "The more spikes we add to his head, the better the character will be." The plot is trite and predictable.. Eh, it's not great.... As someone whose Saturday nights revolve around Toonami and Adult Swim, I found myself watching this whenever I had a chance. "MÄR", or "Märchen Awakens Romance", is an anime cartoon which follows the adventures of a young, hyperactive daydreamer named Ginta who is suddenly swept into a fantasy realm known as MÄR and finds himself in the middle of the conflict between good and evil. Since the Toonami broadcast of this show was cancelled early on, I can only review it by the first fifth or eighth or however much of the actual length this show was.The overall plot is something every fantasy nut dreams of; hopeless geek ends up in another world where he gains superhuman strength, speed, senses, and the ability to "go ghost!" (that last one might be a different show). This is explained by the relative lack of gravity that MÄR has, although his improved sight and newfound ability to ditch his glasses and still somehow see is never really given an explanation. He then befriends a talking ball and chain named "Babbo" who proclaims himself a gentleman, which provides a certain level of comic relief, but nothing that anyone past the age of 13 would really start guffawing over.The main conflict of the show revolves around a sort of "civilized war" between Ginta and his random fellow adventurers and their evil counterparts, the Legion of Doom...I mean, the "Chess Pieces." This includes a tournament where the heroes and villains are pitted one-on-one, and whoever has the most powerful "aura" seems to win. Their weapons of choice? The ubiquitous mystical items known as "ARM" (pronounced "air-mmm") which can only be activated and used through...guess what?...proper training.The show might've had potential here in the States if the plot hadn't been so-so. Once it became clear that the combat would revolve around the characters' "mystical energy" and their ability in channeling that energy, it started to seem like a lame rip-off of Dragon Ball Z. All of the weird lights with none of the excitement. It would have been different if the characters seemed to MOVE every once in a while, but the action and the animation make "Yu-Gi-Oh!" feel like Dragon Ball Z on overdrive. (I know this having been hooked on Yu-Gi-Oh for some time.) The music seesaws between some royal ballroom piano and a lot of frenetic metal, and the effect is that the background music is sometimes overwhelming, or otherwise simply not right for the scene. I liked the eerie mix of classical and electric guitar they played to introduce the Chess Pieces, though. It made for some good "evil" music and it's still kinda stuck in my head.The animation is probably the key point to this show's downfall. A lot of it is CGI, which gives it an overall cheaper look, especially when the characters summon new creatures and objects. Once again, I contrast it with Yu-Gi-Oh, which, despite revolving around a card game, still took a great deal of strength from the animation of its characters (not to mention the Duels) and only a minimal use of CGI (the shadow realm looks so creepy, OMG is it bubbling?!).Highlight: Ginta saving the girl of his dreams from the bad guysor at least, the "MÄR" version of the girl of his dreams, who turns out to be a princess. It hints at MÄR being a parallel universe, which brings to mind one question: If I were to journey to MÄR, could I room with myself and re-enact "The Prince and the Pauper"? Final ruling: Not well-animated or written or anything that will change your life, but it's good for a lazy night in.