Enter a girl named Ora and her childhood friend Godric. Ora believes that Godric is the one spoken of in the prophecy. Or rather, she did before Godric was promptly killed in a horse-related accident. Still, while life may have thrown her a curveball, Ora is determined to follow the prophecy to find the chosen one. To this end, she recruits the help of a blacksmith named Kevin, along with a colorful cast of other characters they meet along the way. They will follow the prophecy, and outwit the vigils, for the good of Aaru.
I was first approached to review Carcerem by series creator, and the voice of Kevin, Shane Salk. I said yes, but my policy with serialized shows is that I need at least one complete season before I commit to a review. Season one of Carcerem is out in full, and so here we are. Shane is also the creators of the popular zombie apocalypse audio drama We're Alive. I know that We're Alive was a lot of people's introduction to the world do audio drama, but I am not one of those people. For me, it was Twilight Histories, The Truth, and 1865 that got me into audio drama. Haven't listen to We're Alive, mainly because of the length. To be fair, that's also why I have listen to Wolf 359. But hey, maybe someday I'll get around to it.
Let's start by with the strongest aspect of Carcerem: the all-star cast. There are a lot of professional actors, voice actors and screen actors, in the cast. We've got Grey Griffin, Rob Paulson, Maurice LaMarche, Jane Lynch, and Neil Flynn. Admittedly, I didn't spot most of them, despite them all having rather distinctive voices. Perhaps I should have been paying closer attention. Well, I noticed Neil right away, but I'll discuss his performance when we talk about the characters in just a bit. In hindsight, I do realize that I did recognize Maurice as the tournament announcer.
Okay, all well and good, but why am I bringing this up? Oh, these aren't just any voice actors. These are top-of-the-line voice actors. Grey Griffin has been in a bunch of stuff, but is most famous as Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Vicky from Fairly Odd Parents. Have you seen any American cartoon ever in the past twenty-odd years? Rob Paulson was probably in it. Among other things, he was Carl Wheezer from Jimmy Neutron, Pinky from Pinky and The Brain, Mark Chang from Fairly Odd Parents, and Donatello from the 2016 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. Among other things, Maurice was the other half of Pinky and The Brain, Father on Kids Next Door, and his Orson Well impression is so good he dubbed over the actor who played Wells in Ed Wood.
Jane Lynch was in Glee, a show I'm aware of but never watched. She's been in other things, but I know her as Sargent Calhoun from Wreck-It-Ralph. Neil Flynn has had plenty of live action roles; he was Mike Heck on The Middle, the janitor on Scrubs, and Cady's dad in Mean Girls. However, he has done some voice work as well. Off the top of my head, he was one of the actors who voiced X-R on Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, and he cameo as the janitor on Clone High.
Of course, the other voice actors in Carcerem aren't slouches either. Dana Power voices our lead character Ora. She really captures Ora's character development quite well. Ora goes from a wide-eyed idealist to someone more ground down world weary, but ultimately still willing to fight for what is right. Even Shane gets in on the fun by voicing Kevin. Kevin starts off as the somewhat bumbling comic relief sidekick to Ora, but as the series goes on, we see a different side of him. He becomes to rock Ora relies upon, and we learn that life has dealt him some blows as well.
I'd also like to take a moment to talk about the music. The soundtrack for the series largely consists of pseudo-medieval sounding music. Lots of flutes, trumpets and other woodworks, a heavy drumbeat, and the like. I particularly love the music that plays at the end of each episode over the credits. It is the sound of adventure in a fantasy land distilled, and I adore it. Of course, I also love the softer of flute music that play during more serious scenes. The music is very well composed.
Okay, so we've got a talent team of voice actors, and excellent music, so how is the writing and worldbuilding? When Shane first described Carcerem to me, he pitched it as The Princess Bride meets Game of Thrones. At the risk of sounding harsh, it failed to live up to that lofty pedigree by at least a mile. Now, in fairness, I wouldn’t say that the writing was terrible, I've certainly seen far worse. That having been said, it didn't exactly blow me away, or do anything that hasn't been done a hundred times before.
Aaru is a typical pseudo-medieval fantasy world. The history and culture aren't really dwelled upon for very long. It primarily just there as a place for adventures and quests to happen. We do at one point encounter a nomadic people that are vaguely similar to the Romany, but otherwise, the setting is just another vaguely medieval fantasy world. So, not much to write home about in that regard. Also, Aaru is the name of the afterlife in Egyptian Mythology, and as a mythology enthusiast, I'm of the opinion that maybe a better name could have been picked. Though, to be perfectly frank, I wonder if perhaps Generica would have been a better name.
It appeared that humans were the only sentient creatures for a while, but then we finally meet a gnome, so at least there's that. There are technically a few other sentient creatures, but we'll discuss that in a bit. Besides the Lusus Naturae, the primary monsters are the Risen, which are zombies in all but name. Well, Shane did make We're Alive, so I guess he's got to stay on-brand. Hey, I'm not complaining, I thought the zombies were a nice touch. We also encounter forest spirits called Wisps, which can be quite dangerous if you make them angry. And...that's about it as far as magical creatures go.
Now, strictly speaking you don't absolutely have to have meticulously detailed worldbuilding or a fully stocked menagerie when crafting a work of fantasy. However, you have to have something else to compensate for that. I'll give an example using three of my favorite fantasy audio dramas: The Two Princes, Absolutely No Adventures, and Alba Salix, Royal Physician. They all have worldbuilding very similar to that of Carcerem, but they also both have strong tongue-in-cheek elements, plenty of humor and irony, and don't play their premises completely straight. Carcerem plays it premise completely and utter straight almost to a fault. For a series that claims to be drawing inspiration from The Princess Bride, there is a distinct lack of self-awareness and wit. The dialogue isn’t bad, I've certainly seen worse, but it's not particularly snappy or witty either.
Well, the first couple episodes seemed to promise something along the lines of The Princess Bride. There's a fair bit of humor and sarcasm, and I especially loved the use of the narrator. After Godric kicked the bucket, however, these elements were promptly dropped, and the series became, to quote Sir Terry Pratchett, just another Standard Fantasy Product. I know Shane and the gang were going for the Game of Thrones feel, but they also failed at that. Carcerem is fairly tame compared to Game of Thrones. There is violence, as to be expected, but nothing particularly egregious. There also isn't much in the way of sexy stuff. Not that you need sex to be a good fantasy story, but if you compare yourself to Game of Thrones, that creates certain expectations.
Granted you don't have to be completely humorous or ironic. For example, Spice & Wolf, one of my favorite animes, is set in a world not too dissimilar to our world during the Late Medieval/Early Renaissance era. It's also a world with little to no magic. Its unique angle is that it focuses on the economics of the era, especially as they pertain to traveling merchants. The relationship between the two leads is very sweet, and the slower pace, compared to other fantasy anime, is actually quite refreshing at times. It also helps that one of the two leads is a very cute wolf goddess.
Okay, so let's talk characters. They are, let's be honest here, really more archetypes than proper characters. Ora is the wide-eyed sword-fighting hero girl who must confront a harsh world, and struggle to hold onto her ideals. Kevin is the emotionally supportive, but not very competent at fighting, sidekick. They meet a badass warrior woman named Formosa. Around the same time, they meet Isten, who presents himself as a great warrior, but is rather shifty and unscrupulous. He has his right-hand man Karras, who is loyal to a fault.
I kept thinking there was something familiar about Ora's name, but I couldn't think what. True, it does sound like the word aura, but no that wasn't it. Then I realized it. I had recently finished JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders when I first started listening to Carcerem. As such, I remembered how Jotaro's Stand, Star Platinum, always shouts "Ora! Ora! Ora!" whenever it fights. So, whenever anyone said Ora's name, I was always very tempted to shout "Ora! Ora! Ora!" because it was amusing to me.
I'd like to take this moment to say that I am very, very sorry for all the hordes of JoJo fans who will probably be descending on Carcerem after they see this. Seriously, I love JoJo, but the fans can get a little crazy sometimes. Seriously, they're like sharks in the water; they can smell a single mention of JoJo from a mile away. Okay, that was really more of a me think. However, I do have to ask, why named a character Formosa? Seriously, out of all the names, you pick the archaic name for Taiwan?
Anyway, let's talk about Vorlauf. He's the head of the Vigils. I must say, Neil Flynn gave an absolutely spectacular performance. Vorlauf starts of as a grumpy Mike Heck-esque character who just wants to do his job. Then comes the scene at the pub. Ora and the gang has just escaped, and Vorlauf is pumping the patrons for information. He corners one patron and slowly breaks the man's fingers one-by-one. To hear Neil speaking that Mike Heck voice, but as a cold blooded and sadistic torturer, made for quite the jarring contrast. And that's why the scene worked so well; it the first time we see Vorlauf's darker side.
Later in the series we get insight into why Vorlauf became a Vigil. Turns out, he was once like Ora, and believed in the prophecies. He even had a girlfriend who believed that he was the chosen one. However, she messed with magic too much and became corrupted. So, he had to kill her, and from that day forward he swore an oath against all things magic. In a way, he's a shadow archetype to Ora, showing what she might become if she makes the wrong choices. I guess what I liked about Vorlauf was that he felt like a fully realized character, rather than a cookie-cutter archetype.
In other particularly notable characters, there is Galan, one of the guardians of Carcerem. Magic can cause the physical forms of those who wield it to change. A tail here, a pair of wings there. As such, he's looks kind of like a monster, but he's a fairly friendly guy. He's in good spirits despite it all, though he is a bit scatterbrained at times. I really loved his dorky, somewhat socially awkward, but still endearing, personality.
Okay, so what is this Carcerem place exactly? Well, we don't find out til late in the first season. It was a city of magic users and heroes. Or rather it was. You see, I haven't been totally honest with you about the Lusus Naturae. There will be spoilers, so just down a couple paragraph if you don't want that.
Everyone who wants out gone? Then let's continue. So, what happens when you use too much magic at once? Why, you become a Lusus Naturae, of course! See, they weren't just random monsters, they were corrupted magic users. Okay, credit where it is due, I did not see that one coming. We started making unintentional JoJo references, and now we turned into Madoka Magica. And for Carcerem's third anime trick, it features a multi-episode tournament arc, just like any good shounen anime.
Okay, so clever twist there, but pity it was one of the few twists that caught me genuinely by surprise. The only other one was when Godric died. I mean, it was just so out of the blue, and was sudden, it caught me off guard. Though, that almost made it comical in a way.
Other than those two, however, the major twists and plot beats were incredibly predictable. Early into the season I reason that one of two things was going to happen. One, it would turn out that Ora was actually the chosen one, and that she had magic powers. Or two, it would turn out that the prophecy was wrong and that there was no chosen one. This would lead to a moral about working in the here and now to solve your problems, rather than waiting for all power men to descend from the sky and fix them for you. Wouldn't you know it, I was right on both counts.
And therein lies the central problem I have with Carcerem. If you’ve read any high fantasy novel ever, you’ve probably encountered the plot and characters of Carcerem in some form or another. It packed itself with some many tropes and archetypes it came across as downright cliché at times. It was billed as bold new step in the world of audio drama, but that billing turned out to be aspirational at absolute best.
The main selling point of Carcerem, besides the cast, seems to be the cinematic audio. While this is commendable, Carcerem is hardly unique in this regard. Just to name a few other audio dramas with cinematic audio we've got 1865, The Truth, Prototype World of Tomorrow, Timestorm, Moonface, The Two Princes, and pretty much everything Gen-Z Media makes.
A lot of people tell me that a We're Alive was pretty groundbreaking when it first came out. I don't know if that's true, but I'll give the benefit of the doubt and assume so. Unfortunately, the audio drama landscape has changed quite a bit since then. What worked back then isn't necessarily going to work now. I can't help but feel that Shane rested on his laurels here. That, or he didn't read enough fantasy books to realize the plot wasn't that unique.
Now, having said that, and despite its many flaws, I don't hate Carcerem. Maybe it's because I had to keep listening to it for this review, but it kind of grew on me. Granted, if I hadn't been doing this for a review, I probably would have dropped it like a hot potato after only a few episodes. Still, there's something undeniably charming about the performances of all the actors, and the sheer earnestness of it all. I always looked forward to Tuesday, because it meant a new episode of Carcerem. Not sure if I'm willing to stick with it for season two, but hey, at least there's that.
Also, though I don't understand it, there are plenty of people who greatly enjoy the Standard Fantasy Product type shows like Carcerem. They revel in all the tropes and archetypes. Like I said, I don't get it, but different strokes for different folks. Perhaps you are one of those people.
So, I think I've given you enough information to decide if Carcerem is something you'd be intersted in. If you're looking for something that breaks the mold, and does new stuff with high fantasy, then it's best to skip this one. If you're looking for fantasy not set in a pseudo-medieval world, also skip. But if you don't mind trope and archetypes, don't flinch at clichés, and perhaps are looking for something a bit more familiar, then Carcerem is the show for you. You know your tastes better than I do, so decide for yourself.
Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.
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