In Memoria

> Note: In Memoria was actually the pilot episode (0) of the webseries, however is referred to by Mathieu as Episode 1.
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## Summary

Achilles Watson and other members of a group called "Mana's Elite" is summoned into battle as an old enemy makes a comeback, attempting to destroy the magical core of the planet, known as the sphere of life.

## Plot Points

Narration to introduce the characters and the world.

Achilles is called to battle by Alec and Dyol with a little more exposition, brief Misty's dad cameo

We then cut to the battlefield where Flora, Maxim, Krissy, Mack, Suling, Socrates, Michelle and Vince are already there.

Vince breaks Krissy's leg

Flora and Maxim pass out from over-exertion

Achilles, Alec and Dyol arrive on the battlefield and save Mack

Michelle is killed by Vince

Achilles and Alec throw Vince into the sphere of life

Mana comes out and asks them to leave, informing everyone it is impossible to revive Michelle.

Alex leaves for the hospital with the injured party members (mentioned only)

Dyol and Achilles lament, Socrates takes the other blackbird and leaves with Michelle's body.

25 year timeskip

We are introduced to Tom Watson, Achilles' son as he's getting ready for school.

Misty makes a breif cameo also

A preview of the next episode is shown just after the credits, in which we see Noemi for the first time.

## Production

The first episode "In Memoria" was created by Studio Izune, an amateur freelance studio with members scattered across the world. Misty Chronexia (Mathieu Brunelle) was approached by Studio Izune to animate a full webseries in exchange for his promotion and fundraising through his patreon. Approximately $60,000 USD was the budget for the pilot episode and the production timeline was approx. 10 months.

During this time two teaser trailers were produced, one as an announcement video and the second as an opening theme which was eventually scrapped and not used in the final show.

"In Memoria" was plagued by production issues from the start with Izune having terrible management and unfair distribution of resources, with some animators working without pay while others barely contributed at all. This resulted in the inconsistent visuals of the final product, with scenes morphing into completely different art styles and in the case of one infamous scene (Michelle's Death) the animation was never finished at all with only the rough sketch coloured in.

There was also Mathieu's side of things as producer where he expressed difficulty in finding appropriate voice actors. As a native french speaker it was also a problem for translating some of the lines of dialogue into english which resulted in some of the clunky dialogue. Some lines were even taken straight from the english translation of the novel such as;

"Mana, the goddess of energy? She's a goddess, we don't know how she'll react"

Viewers also felt that there was too much exposition and the plot was hap-hazard with the 25 year timeskip especially confusing for the majority of the audience who had not read the novel prior. Mathieu mentioned he had chosen the prequel for the first episode because "A New Generation" would have been too dialogue heavy and 'boring'.