Tales of Zestiria the X

Legends talk about a Shepherd who can bring peace between seraphim and humans, and Sorey has spent his life chasing that idea. He studies old texts and digs through ruined sites to learn what made the legend stick. When he and his childhood friend and seraphim companion Mikleo come across a mysterious girl in those ruins, the old stories start to play out around them. The series follows Sorey as he accepts a strange destiny tied to the Shepherd myth, meets allies and opponents, and handles the political and spiritual tensions that rise as people and seraphim collide. It keeps the focus on relationships and moral choices rather than hiding big revelations.

Released in 2016 and created by Hikaru Kondô, the show adapts the Tales of Zestiria video game. The main Japanese voice cast includes Ryohei Kimura as Sorey, Ryota Osaka as Mikleo, Ai Kayano as the mysterious girl, Kenichi Ogata as Jiji, and Takehito Koyasu as Lunarre.

The series didn’t win major industry awards or rack up prominent nominations, but it got noticed within the anime community and among fans of the video game franchise for bringing the game’s characters and settings to the small screen.

Within the broader fanbase the anime helped revitalize interest in the Tales franchise outside gaming circles. It inspired fan art, cosplay, and online discussion about how faithfully an adaptation can represent a game’s story, and it tied into debates over how game narratives translate to episodic animation.

Critical and audience response has been mixed to positive, reflected in an average rating around 7.1 out of 10 from viewers. Praise often centers on the worldbuilding, character chemistry, and visual style, while criticism points to uneven pacing and moments where the adaptation trims or reshapes game material. Major themes include friendship, leadership, coexistence between species, and the responsibilities that come with power.