Three steps, fight an honest fight
Two hearts, they can start a fire
One love is all I need in this life!
Two hearts, they can start a fire
One love is all I need in this life!
Deltora Quest is a fantasy series that also has as a mix of mystery, interactivity, horror, romance, action and adventure. The anime is an adaptation of the novels written by Australian author Emily Rodda. Like the books, it is quite Troperiffic.
The series has aired around the world, on The Hub in the US, on ABC3 in Australia, on Toonami Asia in Asian territories, as well as on TV in Italy, Pakistan, Turkey and New Zealand among other countries.
The anime exhibits the following tropes:
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Jasmine having green hair in the anime (she has black hair in the books), while Lief turned blond in all the adaptations and Barda is rocking a sweet black beard.
- Alas, Poor Villain:
- The fate of Thaegan and her children in the anime; in the books, it's usually more a case of And I Must Scream when a villain becomes sympathetic.
- Despite the fact that he is both cold and cruel, the anime-only character Sorcerer Oacus's death is surprisingly emotional, even if his last words are to curse the heroes. It seems he may have been as much a victim of the Shadow Lord's machinations (if not more so) as everybody else.
- Dain pretends to be this to get jump on Lief, even after he's proven he is a evil lying monster- twice.
- Animated Adaptation: Of the novels.
- Anime Theme Song: Only in the original version. The dub (predictably) uses an original instrumental theme with scenes from the original opening. Furthermore, the ending has been replaced completely.
- Ascended Extra: Neridah, Thaegan, Fallow, Dain and the Enigmatic... Bird.
- Avengers Assemble: All seven tribes are united again even the ones that are near extinct like Glock or were precious hostile like the Dread Gnomes.
- Bag of Kidnapping: In episode 24 the Grey Guards kidnap Prin the Kin with this method, planning to eat her later, but Lief Barda and Jasmine get bagged after the Rithmere games.
- Canon Foreigner: The sorcerer Oacus.
- A Child Shall Lead Them: Well, the heir takes the throne at about seventeen years of age.
- Crapsack World:
- Deltora. "It's like Deltora is the fictional equivalent of Australia or something".
- Made even worse by several years of the Shadow Lord's rule, as well as the fact that the gems are deliberately hidden in the most dangerous parts of the country.
- Damsel in Distress: Jasmine can look after herself for the most part and saves Lief and Barda a few times, but gets captured frequently in the later part of the series. Mostly giving Lief a invective to chase after her but that makes her a Faux Action Girl at worst.
- Neridah literally gets roped and bound in the Valley of the Lost but since she stole the diamond gem from the heroes, they aren't too fussed to save her.
- To be fair everybody gets captured at least once in the story.
- Devil in Plain Sight: Prandine, the chief adviser to the king, who is tall, pale, high-voiced and a long-fingered black robed creep. But young King Endon would never suspect his trusted adviser would do him in, much to his best friend, Jarred's, frustration. By the time Endon does believe his friend it's too late and the Shadow Lord has scattered the gems.
- Everyone thinks this of Doom (his name doesn't help), but he's a subversion as he truly is on the right side and father to Jasmine.
- Dain is pale, has no visible nose and has a backstory that sounds suspiciously made up. Plus when they enter Tora which dispels those with evil intentions the heroes fail to notice Dain is almost dying, and are actually shocked when he betrays them later.
- Doomed Hometown: The anime tried its damnedest to play this straight, utterly demolishing the palace and much of the surrounding city in the climactic battle. It also gets rebuilt very quickly.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Shadow Lord's appearance in the anime can best be described as "Darkrai seen through the eyes of Guillermo del Toro."
- ALL of Thaegan's children and a few of the Guardians.
- Farm Boy: Lief is a black smith's son from the slums of Del.
- Face–Heel Turn:
- Neridah acts sweet and innocent to Lief, so she can get the jump on him when they're fighting in the Rithmere games.
- Everyone suspects Doom to pull this (especially Jasmine), but after he proves to the heroes that he's completely innocent by the city of Tora, he soon becomes a trusted and close ally to our heroes.
- Dain, who acts sweet to the trio (especially to Jasmine) and is always hopeful and optimistic, even tricking Lief himself who wrongfully suspects he may be the heir to throne. But as soon as they hand the Belt to him... Dain lets out some cold laughter and reveals he's been a Double Agent, whom Lief is forced to kill in a surprisingly dark (yet awesome) fight with the Ol.
- Filler Arc: The anime (which adapted the first series) ran for sixty-five episodes. The books' plot finally ran out at episode fifty-two, and that included enough filler to make Thaegan into a recurring "boss"! Interestingly enough, Anime News Network reported that the Australian broadcast of the anime will consist of fifty-five episodes (52, plus the first three filler episodes). Meanwhile, only the first fifty-two have been seen in the U.S.. One wonders why they didn't just adapt the other two series.
- Foreshadowing: In a minor way in the anime, occasionally during bits of narration the show will cut to a picture of the belt as it should be, with the gems in the proper order. Pay enough attention and you might work out the whole use the gems to spell "Deltora" twist before the characters do.
- Also the fact that both Jasmine and Doom both have green hair, tan skin and fight with daggers should tip off the audience exactly the connection they have... They're father and daughter, duh!!!.
- Heel–Face Turn: Glock is a loud, violent jerk, but when they gather the seven tribes and seek his help, Glock lightens up and becomes a strong and valuable friend.
- Hostage-Handler Huddle: One episode is about when Barda, Lief and Jasmine are captured by Thaegan's Children. They decide to eat the trio, but (as Lief quickly points out) there are eleven of them and it would be pretty hard to divide three people with that many to feed. Two of the children knock out two others making the present company an nine. Through much talking, Lief manages to convince them that each child could have more food if there were only three of them. The Children quarrel and eventually it's decided that it would only be fair if there were three of them so each child could have one. A huge fight ensues, and when only three are left, they are easily convinced that it would be easier if there was only one of them, so they all fight to see who gets everything while the heroes escape.
- Interesting Situation Duel: Let's see, a battle atop some stairs, with an enormous drop on either side, a battle while standing on one of the Shadow Lord's Ak-Baba while being divebombed by another (while fighting Fallow), fighting while spelunking in a giant hive, not to mention some of Thaegan's duels.
- Lampshade Hanging: During one of their encounters, Jasmine leans on the fourth wall when she notes she's grown a bit tired of dueling with Thaegan.Jasmine: How many times do we have to fight her?
- Like an Old Married Couple: Lief and Jasmine bicker and fight like cats and dogs, failing to notice they have strong feelings for each other. Literally Everyone Can See It.
- Literal Cliffhanger: Neridah uses this as a fighting style or when Lief is fighting Dain and Fallow in the climax.
- Love Triangle: Lief, Jasmine and Dain, and Neridah when Dain isn't around. Thankfully it's put to a end when Dain turns out to be an evil shape shifting spy AKA an Ol, who subsequently melts after a fatal stab wound. Neridah dies later on in the books.
- Mooks: Grey Guards, who are a legitimate threat in the books but sliced up easily by the heroes in anime (almost to easy-mode degree).
- Only Sane Man: Jasmine in the episode involving Francoise and Barda the rest of the time.
- Playing with Fire: Oacus mainly uses fire-based spells.
- Power Crystal: All the gems, hell when monsters touch them they vaporize.
- The Quest: To find the seven gems and put them on the Belt of Deltora and give the Belt to heir to throne, this last part is harder than it needed to be since the heir is closer than you think.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Kree is a lovable black crow and Fili could pass as a Pokemon.
- Shapeshifting: The Ols can be anybody and Grade 3 Ols can be anything and are the top spies if the Shadow lords. The Ols are just non-threatening looking misty blobs with evil eyes, except Dain who is disturbingly fleshy and muddy-like.
- Running Gag: Barda at least has to be hit by the monster, get up dramatically, and beat them after some self-empowerment, Lief and Jasmine regularly argue with each other to disguise the fact they have feelings they can't express.
- Sadistic Choice: In the anime: Thaegan has captured our heroes and transported them into her Mirror of Fear. Lief fights with his Evil Twin, Barda fights against what he thought was Prandine, and a caged Jasmine is forced to solve a difficult puzzle or she will be dipped into searing hot water for the monsters' stew. Luckily, the Belt's Ruby shows him the way out of the mirror.
- Significant Anagram:
- Deltora is spelled with the first letters of the gems on the Belt of Deltora, arranged in the order King Adin the blacksmith managed to convince the Tribes to give him their Gems.
- Dain deliberately chose his name to trick everyone else into thinking he's the heir, since the name's an anagram of Adin. He also claims his mother's name was Rhans, which is an anagram of Sharn, queen at the time the Shadow Lord took over.
- So Proud of You: Anna says this to Jasmine when her spirit is momentarily drawn back by the topaz. Lief makes his father proud just before he dies and Barda see his mom again thanks to Topaz and gives him strength to do some badass beheading.
- Sorcerous Overlord: The Shadow lord fits this better than Evil Overlord alone since he is also a powerful sorcerer and infact derives much of his power from that fact.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Neridah at least until the filler episodes many fans wish she had died sooner like in the books.
- Swapped Roles: King Endon and Queen Sharn become Jarred and Anna of the Forge. While Jarred and Anna pretend to be Endon and Sharn and go into exile (doesn't end well).
- Tournament Arc: Rithmere games, expanded and up-sized from the books.
- Took A Levelin Badass Lief started off as cocky street kid and became monster slaying badass king. Jasmine was a lost little forest girl and ends up battle champion. And Barda in his youth failed to stop the Ak-Baba from taking the castle, but cut to sixteen years later and some Ak-Baba with missing heads.
- Tsundere Jasmine to Lief, Doom and Glock to everyone.
- Two Guys and a Girl: Lief, Barda and Jasmine work so well together slaying monsters and grabbing gems, The Shadow Lord hunts down any traveling trio.
- Villainous Crush:
- Thaegan has a soft spot for Lief.
- Neridah is a very downplayed version, she does try to get close to Lief, but it's always to get something from him.
- Dain, after he is proven to be evil his previous romantic encounters with Jasmine are suspect.
