The Idhun Chronicles (Memorias de Idhún) is the Animated Adaptation of Laura Gallego's The Idhún's Memories young-adult book trilogy produced by Zeppelin TV for Netflix.
In Silkeborg, Denmark, Jack comes home to find his parents murdered and the perpetrators, a young warrior and a sorcerer, hiding in the house waiting for him. He is saved by another warrior and a wizard, who take him away to Limbhad, a magical world where time has stopped and is always night and a place where he should be safe from the pursuers. A young girl named Victoria explains to him that his parents hailed from the world of Idhun, where three years earlier a necromancer named Ashran seized power, and he's hell-bent on finding and destroying all Idhunites who fled to Earth, sending out the two villains from earlier, Kirtash and Elrion, to do so.
To combat the threat, Jack will have to master his own powers under the watch of the two men who saved his life, warrior Alsan and wizard Shail, in order to join the Resistance against Ashran.
The first season, consisting of five episodes, premiered on Netflix on September 10, 2020; the second (and final) one was released to little fanfare on January 8, 2021.
Tropes seen on this show:
- Animesque: The character and background design is heavily influenced by anime, to the point of the series being considered by some Netflix's first Spanish-born anime.
- Doesn't Like Guns: Alsan prefers to fight with his sword rather than with a gun because he considers that there is no honor in killing an enemy from a distance.
- The Faceless: Chris Tara, Victoria's new favorite singer, is only known for his music at first. He apparently chooses to remain off the grid for as long as possible, not giving any interviews and avoiding involvement in any tabloid-worthy scandal. To Victoria's shock, when she attends Tara's first ever concert in Seattle while her companions search for Kirtash in the building, the mysterious singer turns out to be Kirtash himself.
- Half-Human Hybrid:
- Alsan becomes a half-wolf hybrid as a result of a failed necromancy experiment by Elrion.
- Jack, Victoria and Kirtash are perfect hybrids, as their bodies are inhabited by both their human souls and, respectively, the souls of Yandrak, the last dragon, Lunnaris, the last unicorn, and a shek. Of the three, only Jack hasn't yet mastered his transformation into his non-human form by the series finale.
- The Heavy: Kirtash and Elrion effectively serve as Ashran's co-heavies, as they handle most of his dirty work killing dissidents, and the necromancer himself gets very little screen time.
- Limited Animation: The series's animation feels pretty chunky and recycled on the first episodes.
- The Magic Goes Away: After Ashran's astral conjunction wiped out the dragons and most of the unicorns in Idhun, magic isn't entirely gone from Idhun, but definitely on its last legs.
- Meaningful Name: Kirtash says that his name means "snake" in a variation of Ancient Idhunian. Makes sense when we learn later on that he is a human-shek (winged serpent) hybrid.
- The Night That Never Ends: Time is stopped in Limbhad, and it is perpetually nighttime there.
- Oh, My Gods!: Shail and Alsan occasionally exclaim "Sacred Irial!".
- Only the Chosen May Wield: A legendary sword is mentioned to work this way, as Alsan claims it burns his hands if he so much as touches it. The chosen one turns out to be Jack.
- Power Incontinence: When he was unable to control his fire powers (not even knowing they were powers), Jack nearly burned down his bedroom by accident during a nightmare.
- Reign of Terror: The winged snakes, Kirtash and Elrion enforce Ashran's tyranny over Idhun, wiping out the dragons and unicorns that were the source of the land's magic and killing any user of magic that does not bow down to the necromancer (even hunting down those who fled to Earth).
- Sadistic Choice: After luring the Resistance into a trap, Kirtash forces the Resistance to choose between handing him the Staff of Ayshel or watching Alsan die.
- Scarily Competent Tracker: Kirtash and Elrion can follow any little hint of magic on Earth to lead them to their next target.
- Setting Update: The show is implied to take place in the late 2010s, due to the presence of smartphones used by Earth characters... which were nowhere to be found in the original book, published in 2004.
- Stage Names: Kirtash uses the stage name Chris Tara during his short-lived music career.
- Translation Convention: After Victoria notices that Jack can't speak the Idhunian language, she gives him an amulet that translates everything so that he can understand. From that point on, all of the dialogue is in Spanish (well, or the language of the dub you're watching), including that of Alsan, who was explicitly established as only speaking Idhunian.
- We Can Rule Together: Kirtash makes this offer to Victoria after the two fight each other. She refuses.
- Why Can't I Hate You?: Kirtash and Victoria find themselves attracted to each other in spite of being on opposite sides in the war for Idhun, and Kirtash having been tasked with killing Victoria, who has conflicted feelings for him and Jack, and can't bring herself to get rid of him either.Victoria: Why can't I kill you?
Kirtash: That's curious. I was going to ask you the same question. - You Have Failed Me: Increasingly frustrated with Elrion's mistakes and disobedience, Kirtash kills him in the season 1 finale.
