The other day I decided it was time I needed to watch an anime that wasn’t 2+ years old. I hopped online and randomly clicked “Blast of Tempest”. I didn’t even read what it was about, which is completely unlike me! I usually have to read descriptions and reviews before I taken an anime into consideration. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t read the lovely description that Crunchy Roll Provided: “The Kusaribe family is a family of sorcerers under the protection of the ‘Tree of Origins.’ Their princess, Hakaze Kusaribe, was the greatest sorceress of their family. But Samon Kusaribe, a member of their family seeking to resurrect the ‘Tree of World’s End,’ a tree that opposes the ‘Tree of Origins’ and controls the power of destruction, stuffs her into a barrel, and banishes her to a deserted island. From the deserted island, she sends a message out to sea, which is picked up by Mahiro Fuwa, a young boy who’s sworn vengeance upon the criminal who killed his little sister, Aika. Mahiro agrees to help Hakaze under the condition that she find Aika’s killer with her magic. But once Mahiro’s best friend and Aika’s lover, Yoshino Takigawa is rescued from danger, he too gets dragged into this tale of revenge.”
All I see is “Magic tree..blah blah blah”. I’ll give you the Holly version of this anime:
There’s this high school aged guy named Yoshino he and his good friend (Mahiro) hang out all the time, much so the dismay (or so it seeeeems) of Mahiro’s sister, Aika.
Mahiro randomly disappears and Yoshino has no idea where, and is now alone. Yoshino gets attacked by an undercover agent(?)/cop(?)/(volunteer government worker(?) who demands to know where Mahiro is. Yoshino claims he doesn’t know, government worker whips out gun, Yoshino still doesn’t know!!, government worker asks “then why are you at Mahiro’s family grave?!, then out of the sky (yes, the sky) Mahiro appears to save the day! 
But Mahiro is different now, he has magical powers! He’s come to avenge his sisters death! Oh? I forgot? Someone killed his sister Aika…DUN DUN DUNNN. But where did he acquire these magical powers? Oh..from this really powerful mage lady (Hakaze) who has been abandoned on an island by her super evil family member (Samon). They strike a deal to help each other out. Okay, sounds pretty simple. BUT! Something has happened to the whole town while Mahiro and Yoshino were hanging out at the grave. Everyone has turned into (iron..or stone..I forgot, but I’m gonna say iron), all because of Samon’s evil plan. This is where Mahiro’s part of the bargin comes into play, he must help Hakaze stop Samon from doing this to the whole wooorrrllddd, and now Yoshino is tagging along.
WHEW. I probably did not do the anime justice, but I gotta say, it got me interested. It’s dramatic, had a couple of twists (in the first episode!) and made me want to continue watching it. The art is really great and the violin music throughout the episode put a nice edge to it all. I really suggest you check this out and see if you like it as much as me. It is currently on simulcast on Crunchy Roll. 