For anyone who enjoys JRPGs, they have undoubtedly heard the name Atelier Ryza talked about at some point. So it’s not really a surprise with some JRPG stories starting to get anime adaptations that Atelier Ryza was one of the front runners. It is definitely one of the more chill JRPGs, but also doesn’t have the most robust story to make it wildly popular either. While it has some interesting gameplay mechanics, it honestly has a story that is kind of perfect for slice of life fantasy anime.
But the question is – is the Atelier Ryza anime like the game?
You may think that the anime changes a lot of Atelier Ryza to make it more of a fantasy slice of life anime, but the truth is that Atelier Ryza is actually a pretty slice of life game. It’s not a Harvest Moon-type affair where you farm and live a happy life, but its not the standard JRPG story where you start out saving cats and end up slaying gods either. Instead, many moments of combat in the game come from Ryza just trying to gather ingredients for alchemy.
While the Atelier Ryza anime covers the major events of the game, even sometimes being shot-for-shot or word-for-word, the Atelier Ryza anime takes quite a few liberties when it comes to changing things.
Some of the things it changes are pretty standard for game-to-anime. Telling a story in a game where it must balance story with gamplay is different than telling a story in anime. So some changes are expected, but the Atelier Ryza anime also makes some arbitrary changes too. They don’t change the story, but they aren’t like how they happened in the game either.
For example:
- In the first episode, Ryza and her friends save Klaudia in the woods from slimes that they promptly run away from.
- In the game, Ryza and her friends save Klaudia in the woods from a pixie whose ass you swiftly beat.
It’s the same, but different. This is an instance of changing the scene because it wanted you to have some combat in the game whereas the anime didn’t need to do that.
To be honest, I think a number of the changes that the Atelier Ryza anime makes do come from making a better anime out of a game whose main story is often paused for hours and hours of just picking flowers.
Finally, while you may be thinking that the Atelier Ryza anime is lingering a bit too frequently on Ryza’s thighs for lewdness – you spend the entire game starting at those thighs while running around. If anything, they toned down certain things, like Lila’s bust size. Atelier Ryza is actually kind of “innocently erotic” when it comes to some of its female characters, so it is no surprise that the anime plays it up a bit.
