By Jason Venter | 07-16-2012 | 11:00AM
A trailer for a new anime based on BioWare's immensely-popular Mass Effect series made it's debut at San Diego Comic-Con. As sci-fi trailers often do, this one begins with a view of space, which a narrator aptly dubs “the endless abyss.”
“No one can know what lurks in its darkness,” the narrator quickly says as comets crash against the surface of a barren planet and a grimacing, beastly warrior lifts a gun toward the heavens. “But every time man explores the unknown, he ends up at war with whatever he finds.”
You might think that would discourage exploration, but apparently that’s not the case. The trailer next shows warriors gathered around a lizard-like creature, guns raised, and text prepares you for a story from the writer of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
From there, the trailer takes a more human approach. A man looks into a cabinet, finds ammunition, and then loads it into his rifle’s chamber.
“Where there’s war,” the narrator adds gruffly, “there are soldiers. And where there are soldiers, you’ll find heroes.”
It’s time for more credentials from there; the trailer next notes that this new animated effort is being handled by the studio responsible for the anime hit Ghost in the Shell.
Mass Effect: Paragon Lost, as the anime is called, is “the highly-anticipated prequel to Mass Effect 3.”
“Let’s get something straight,” the narrator says, in case he left anything unclear. “You ladies may be well-trained special forces, but you haven’t done squat. Today, you will do something great or you will die trying. It’s like Commander Shepard said: nothing is ever simple.”
So that’s the trailer’s twist: the narrator was actually an officer, and he was talking to soldiers, not some consumer on the Internet who might be contemplating a preorder. How’s that for complex? The general probably was referencing something else, though. On November 13th, the day the anime is scheduled to arrive in stores on Blu-ray and DVD, you’ll have the chance to find out what it was.
