Thirty-odd minutes, and it spends every one of them on the thing most fantasy anime treats as decoration: the music actually is the magic. Hamel doesn't swing that absurd oversized violin, he plays it, and Raiel answers on piano, and the score is the combat system rather than something laid over the top of it. The setup is deliberately the oldest one in the book, kingdom, kidnapped princess, monster in a nearby castle, heavily guarded, and that's the joke. It knows you know, so it just gets to the good part faster and lets Flute and Sizer carry the comic timing while the orchestra does the heavy lifting. Fans who came to this after the TV series know exactly why this one matters. Here the animation can afford to move. Watch it with headphones on and the lights off.

Four travelers bound for a showdown with the Demon King pass through a small kingdom: Hamel the violinist, Raiel the pianist, Flute the magess, and Sizer, a female warrior. After they put down a monster that has been running wild, the king and queen welcome them as heroes and share their trouble. A monster in a castle close by has carried off their daughter. The four take on the job of freeing the princess and defeating her captor, only to find the castle under heavy guard. The film is a fantasy adventure with plenty of comedy along the way.