Unnamed Memory

Web Serial Novel by Furumiya Kuji, adapted into a Light Novel and, as of last week, an anime series. Work page at Unnamed Memory.

Basic premise: Prince of fantasy kingdom got cursed by a witch, under circumstances presumably to be later elaborated, so that any woman he impregnates will die of it. He goes to see a different witch, who grants a wish from anyone who reaches her living quarters at the top of a tower, for help. She can't break the curse herself, but she might be able to find a woman strong enough to handle it—to which the prince suggests she do it herself.

Understandably, she balks, and they negotiate down to her coming to live in his castle for a year as court mage, during which she'll try to break the curse, and he'll attempt to woo her properly.

It was recommended to me on the Reign of the Seven Spellblades wiki Discord (they're both Dengeki Bunko series). I'm not 100% sold on it yet because Prince Oscar's behavior in this episode edged a little too close to Abduction Is Love, but I've historically been a sucker for a good romance storyline so I'll give it a shot.

Edited by StarSword on Apr 16th 2024 at 8:22:41 AM

Definitely wary of Oscar, too. He's forceful, and not in a good way.

Oh, Oscar is gonna be divisive for sure. I honestly hope that aspect of him is toned down a little, especially in a couple scenes later on… Tinasha’s slightly dorky side of the romance is genuinely sweet though.

Having read the first 3 volumes of the LN, I must say I love the author’s ability to create atmospheres and immerse you in the characters’ feelings. Hope the anime nails that at least. I also appreciate that this is Tinasha’s story first and foremost, with Oscar being mostly a support (in what I’ve read at least).

I wonder if they’re gonna keep the last chapter of volume 3, though, because "Protagonist accidentally erases his entire timeline and himself with it" would be an awkward note to end the series on if there’s no season 2.

Edited by Lyendith on Apr 16th 2024 at 12:21:44 PM

Oof, looks like this adaptation is gonna be pretty damn compressed.

Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing, there’s definitely some fat to trim in the novels, but speeding through the whole magic beast fight robs it of its weight and stakes, I feel.

There are a few nice sakuga moments though, brief as they are.

I’m pleasantly surprised some of those spells looked as good as they did.

For what it’s worth, I don’t think the second episode felt too rushed, though I wish there was more downtime to let Oscar and Tinasha bounce off each other before Tinasha went off to fight the beast. We were missing some emotional weight in that scene where Oscar decided to leave things to Tinasha.

Speaking of Oscar, might be because the focus wasn’t on him, but he hasn’t been that bad. There was a glimmer of affection in his latest marriage proposal. I can’t blame him, Tinasha was so cool riding that dragon.

Edited by fillerdude on Apr 16th 2024 at 10:14:33 AM

I'm definitely liking Oscar better in the second episode than the first. Still a little stalker-ish but he's showing that he's not just in this for himself: he's trying to be The Good King, and siring an heir is, admittedly, part of the job.

There’s three sides to Oscar: the brave and responsible ruler, the smitten young man who cares and worries for Tinasha, and the forceful jerk. I have some hope that this adaptation will downplay the last one.

If they’re going the Compressed Adaptation route, there’s a good chance most of the focus will be on Tinasha’s story anyway.

In episode 3, we meet Tinasha’s very peculiar friend. And see once again that Tinasha doesn’t fuck around when she’s pissed. That dream sequence was brief but pretty tense, I must say. And I don’t want to know when or how Lucrezia extracted Oscar’s semen. Also, the plot thickens with the appearance of an antagonist.

So, in the end it seems like they’re adapting one book chapter per episode… They just skip all the ones that aren’t strictly necessary to the plot (chapter 2 and 3 last time, chapter 5 this time).

I feel that episode 3 shows the downside of this approach though. The trust, mistrust and mutual apologies between Oscar and Tinasha feel more confusing when we’ve barely seen them spend any time together… Removing the "unnecessary" chapters also means we lose a lot of the smaller moments that flesh out the caracters and their feelings.

Edited by Lyendith on Apr 23rd 2024 at 7:52:54 PM

Yuuup, I definitely felt like Oscar and Tinasha had grown closer offscreen. Sucks to miss out on those smaller moments. Regardless, Tinasha is cute and damn, she straight up had Oscar snap her neck in his dream.

Not really a fan of Lucrezia, but I suppose we needed a witch to act like the force of chaos people fear them for.

Yeah, that's gotta be traumatic. I figured out where that was going pretty quick, but it was still brutal.

Also, Tinasha's voice actress started to sound familiar to me so I looked it up. Atsumi Tanezaki, she's been in a bunch of anime I've watched, including playing Frieren, Chise Hatori, and Rio Futaba. Still not entirely certain which one I was recognizing her from, though.

Edited by StarSword on Apr 24th 2024 at 1:18:49 PM

…Goddammit, how did I not notice Tinasha's voice was Frieren? >.> It makes so much sense too!

Plus she's Chise too, so she kinda gets a lot of long-lived spellcaster roles

I got interested enough to buy the first several volumes of the novels. Just finished volume 1, and I see what y'all were saying about him having three sides. He really is just bound and determined to make Tinasha his queen, and I'm not thrilled about seeing a certain scene towards the end animated.

Yeah, that's the one I'm thinking of.

Edited by StarSword on Apr 28th 2024 at 2:15:17 PM

If we’re thinking about the same scene, there’d be an easy way to make it less creepy: fuse it with the one where Tinasha’s sleeping on a chair and Oscar takes her to the bed − that would trigger her panick attack and he’d have to use the anti-magic bracelet to stop it. This way the setup would be kept without making Oscar look like a complete asshole.

That’s the only way I can see that scene work anyway.

Edited by Lyendith on Apr 28th 2024 at 5:07:12 PM

Episode 4: Damn, time is flying. Already half a year? I guess Tinasha and Oscar got closer during the training?

Wonder why Miralys is at the palace. Presumably the guy who killed her partner is the king of Cuscull, unless I misread that entire exchange.

You didn’t misread. I liked that last scene, it’s appropriately brutal.

Nice to see Tinasha’s more mischievous side in this episode.

A bit hilarious how the beginning is like "we ain’t got no budget to animate this fight so we’ll have the characters sum it up instead" lol. The training part kinda downplays how much Tinasha kicks Oscar’s ass, but it’s fine.

Another thing the anime downplays is Oscar’s… Oscarness, which is mostly a good thing, although it also makes him somewhat flatter as a character.

Well, when Oscar put his hands on Tinasha’s hip, she didn’t flinch at all and her subsequent dismissal seemed to be implying that Oscar’s done similar stuff offscreen.

In any case, I think I’m happier with a flatter, cocky Oscar than a forceful Oscar. And yes Tinasha is a cutie.

Edited by fillerdude on Apr 30th 2024 at 11:37:13 AM

I have to admit, I'm amused that her new strategy for dealing with Oscar's handsyness is to just not react to it on the notion that he's basically trolling her at this point.