© 1996 Nintendo / KSS
Release in North America by A.D.V Films
60 Minutes
English Dubbed VSHFE/001D $19.95
English Subtitled VHSFE/001S $24.95

Set in "a time before time," FIRE EMBLEM chronicles the struggle of Prince Mars and his Aritian Knights as they fight to free his kingdom and the surrounding lands from the evil Durhuan forces. This title is based on the Nintendo game FIRE EMBLEM - SECRET OF CREST.
It starts off with Mars and Sheita, a Princess from a neighboring kingdom, doing the medieval equivalent of hanging out at the mall; meaning they're hanging out listening to a minstrel and then going to the marketplace. Mars isn't paying enough attention to Sheita, so she starts acting petulant and whiny. If I were Mars, I'd find a new princess to hang out with.
Mars has a flashback to when he was younger and his father wanted him to kill a deer so that he could become the strong future king. When Mars refuses, the King says that he needs to do it so he can become strong because Aritia's future depends on it. Apparently, the kingdom has problems with invading deer. But seriously, this was a hard lesson for Mars to learn. But then the invading begins, and Mars's father the King is killed tragically (but predictably) by the enemy. So Mars and his Aritian Knights set out to rid the world of this evil.
In the second episode, Mars's group frees a town populated by people speaking with bad Scottish accents. Too bad they didn't free them from the bad voice acting. After they liberate the town, a girl with a French accent (apparently she lives on the other side of town) offers them a place to stay. Meanwhile, Mars and his crew get embroiled in a mission to free the town's priestess, who was captured by local ruffians. And then there's this mysterious swordsman who joins the ruffians for his own reasons.
The overall quality of the art is nice. The character designs are clean and distinct, and the animation itself is of good quality. The music is not that great but it does help at certain points to add atmosphere.
The worst part of this anime is the dubbing. Aside from the population speaking a mishmash of random accents (Scottish, French, etc.), there are the voices for the Aritian Knights themselves. Their leader Mars sounds flat, uninspired, and not at all like a leader. Sheita is whiny and annoying. As for the rest of the Knights, each is given a "unique" voice style, presumably to help give them character. There are two handsome Knights; one speaks with an exaggerated, stereotypical lisp, while the other is the most normal of the bunch. There is a large, strong guy with the requisite deep voice. And most annoying of all is the young archer, whose voice sounds like the acne-scarred teenager from THE SIMPSONS whose voice is always cracking. Fortunately, he doesn't have many lines. The narrator, too, seems to be trying too hard, as he bellows out the narration. All in all, I probably would have liked the subtitle of this video better.
The adventures of Mars and his men will continue, as the second episode on the tape ended with them setting out to continue their quest against the Durhuan forces. But how interested will viewers be? Overall this title is average—an average story with lots of predictable elements and characters, some nice animation, and unfortunately, some really distracting dubbing.