Halo Legends

Halo Legends is an anime-styled series of seven short films. It was Financed by Halo franchise overseer 343 Industries, while the collection of films in Halo Legends were developed by six Japanese production houses including Bones, Casio Entertainment, Production I.G., Studio 4°C, and Toei Animation. Shinji Aramaki, creator of various other anime productions, also assisted with the project as creative director.

Halo Legends was distributed by Warner Bros. and released onto standard DVD and Blu-Ray on February 16, 2010. And on February 9, the Halo Legends Original Soundtrack was released. Some of the episodes were briefly distributed on Halo Waypoint before the release of the DVD.

Background and development

"It's a wildly varied genre, but anime creators do things with weapons and vehicles and technology nobody else does and that marries very well with Halo. It's amazing to see some of the new stuff they're introducing and how neatly it maps to the visual aesthetics in the Halo universe"

— Frank O'Connor, Creative Director of 343 Industries.

Halo Legends had origins in the 2006 Marvel Comics tie-in, The Halo Graphic Novel; Frank O'Connor said that the idea of an anime compilation existed for years before there was momentum for the project. Wanting to tell smaller stories in a different format than video games and novels and in different art styles, Frank O'Connor said that anime was a natural fit. An additional consideration was that 343 Industries felt that the Japanese style of narrative fit the stories well. Most of the animation studios Microsoft approached were available for the project. Most studios were "afraid" of creating their own stories, even if they were familiar with the series, so O'Connor sent them possible story treatments. Microsoft was deeply involved in making sure story details were correct and writing the scripts for the stories, Frank O'Connor estimated that 50% of the dialogue in the final products were verbatim from the original scripts. While all the stories save Odd One Out are considered canon, Frank O'Connor noted that some discrepancies were the cause of artistic interpretation.

The animation studios were given wide latitude in their presentation. In developing their stories and styles, the anime studios were supplied with access to Halo Story Bible and art assets.

One of the artistic styles that is the most radical departure from traditional animation styles is featured within The Duel, which employs a filter that makes every cell look as though it was hand painted by watercolors. His goal that he was aiming for in this project was, "to make audiences understand there should be other styles of animation beyond the existing two primary kinds of animation presented – precisely cel-drawing 2D style and CG 3D style. I wanted to show that creators are not limited, that they have many options for different (animation) styles to create stories."

Voice recording was done by Seraphim Digital in Houston, TX.

Films

Producer	Name	Description	Poster
Bones	Prototype	Taking place during the Battle of Algolis, Prototype tells the story of a Marine who, despite orders to destroy an advanced prototype armor, uses the suit to buy time for civilians evacuating from the planet.
Casio Entertainment	The Package	A CGI-film taking place during a SPARTAN-II raid on a Covenant Assault Carrier using Booster Frames to recover "the package".
Production I.G.	The Duel	Taking place long before the Human-Covenant War, The Duel tells the story of an Arbiter, Fal 'Chavamee, who refuses to accept the Covenant Religion.
Bee Train Production I.G.	Homecoming	Focused on the tragedies involving the SPARTAN-II recruitment in 2517, and the SPARTANs coming to terms with their origins.
Studio 4°C	Origins	An expansive history of the 100,000 year long Halo universe. It is comprised of two parts.
Studio 4˚C	The Babysitter	A story about the rivalry between the SPARTAN-II Commandos and the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers as they're sent to Covenant-controlled world to assassinate a Covenant San 'Shyuum.
Toei Animation	Odd One Out	A non-canon and satirical interpretation of the Halo universe featuring SPARTAN-1337.

Release and reception

Halo Legends was originally to be released on February 9, 2010, but its launch was pushed back a week to February 16. The compilation comes in three different retail packages: a standard DVD release with all the episodes, a two-disc special-edition which contains additional commentary, and the Blu-ray Disc edition, featuring the special-edition features and a summary of the Halo storyline. The film's United States premiere was held at the AMC Metreon in San Francisco on February 10, with the companion soundtrack released by Sumthing Distribution the day previous.

Reception to Legends was mixed. IGN UK wrote that while the decision to merge Halo and Japanese anime seemed an odd choice, "Halo Legends proves a successful—if uneven—attempt to fuse these two universes, and will certainly prove essential viewing for those with more than a passing interest in Bungie's seminal shooters." IGN US said that the short films "prove surprisingly accessible to sci-fi fans in general," and that the collection was "well worth" the time. Game Informer said that Halo Legends would appeal to story-interested fans of the franchise, not those who cared about multiplayer gameplay.

Based on Rentrak and Home Media Magazine numbers, Legends ranked second and fourth in Blu-ray Disc and DVD sales, respectively, during its first week of sales in the United States. It also ranked seventh in Blu-ray Disc rankings in Japan. In its second week it dropped off the US Blu-ray Disc Top 20 charts, and slipped to tenth for DVD sales. According to The-Numbers.com, Legends sold $2.56 million worth of merchandise or 168,000 DVDs its first week. Total sales have reached $8.27 million.

Gallery

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  Artwork for the Halo Legends Blu-Ray and DVD.

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  Artwork for the Halo Legends DVD.