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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
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[series:4804#628] | ||||||
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(Five episodes watched): Trying to track down the origins of this show has been confusing. Is it a 16 episode ONA released in 2022? Or has it been re-released, in some form, in 2024? Or is this season two? The synopsis at MyAnimeList, attached to the 2022 version, did not exactly match episode one that I watched. Is it based on a novel, a videogame, or both? It seems to be of Chinese origin and ANN will have nothing to do with it. Whatever the case may be, episode one made me LOL twice which is something most out-and-out comedy anime can't do even once. The show seems to have a definite style and storytelling skill which most anime lack. The characters seem to have, well, character. I don't know if the full premise will make much sense--the key will probably be convincing us that Dragons really could exist, or at least not being so unconvincing that we cannot take it seriously. But episode one of DR has passed its first test: I intend to watch episode two. As if the fantastic Cassel College wasn't mind-blowing enough, Lu finds himself in the midst of a vicious battle between gun armed students while being given a tour by professor Guderian. I was pretty sure that this mayhem must be a game rather than real, but it was pretty realistic. At any rate this had nothing to do with Dragons and I wondered what the point of it was. Again, Lu hears a voice from some strange person that turns him briefly into an awesome fighter himself (though this only alienates practically everyone on both sides of this campus feud). We learn that the college president's strategy to fight Dragons is to find a superhero, and Lu might be the person he has been looking for. I had been wanting to learn more about this supposed war with Dragons but episode two seemed to be trying a little too hard to be cool and outlandish. In episode three I found myself wondering if traditional type dragons--fearsome flying reptiles that can breathe fire--would ever show up. We learn that almost all of the students have some dragon blood (if I understood correctly). How did that happen? Maybe I haven't been paying close enough attention to the details, but the amount of attention I pay is usually in direct proportion to the amount of entertainment I get in return. There's something about a White and a Black Dragon 'Emperor', whatever exactly that means. One of the Emperors goes by the name of 'Norton', of all things. But one thing I cannot deny is that the jokes continue to be good--I got more laughs out of this episode than I usually do out of an episode of a pure comedy anime. I started watching episode four, but quickly became so confused and frustrated that I shelved it for the time being. Something about the ruins of an underwater city, and an infant who has pure Dragon blood and can act as a 'Key' (his/her name) to some passageway to someplace, and lots of fancy but meaningless terminology. I wished that this scene would be over and we could return to Mingfei, because it was making my head hurt. It makes no sense whatsoever to me but I fear the series as a whole will crash and burn if I don't understand it. The next day I watched the rest. Some strange boy keeps appearing to Mingfei and giving him important premonitions--one of them may save the divers investigating the sunken city. Who is this person and what does this have to do with Dragons? I watched episode five but it was the straw which broke the camel's back. This show makes no sense whatsoever. The flying vessel that the divers descended from is attacked by some sort of swimming monster (an aquatic Dragon?), and saves itself by some trick involving a dam (which I must have missed while reading subtitles and didn't feel was worth rewatching), but several characters are precisely picked off by Dragon attacks, all to save some brass orb that the divers had recovered--I felt that I had lost all track of what the ---- was going on and didn't want to have to make the effort to figure it all out. Perhaps it was a mistake to go off on this elaborate mission which main character Mingfei isn't directly involved in. I don't sense that adequate clues are being dropped to enable me to make sense of where the story is going. Weird stuff just happens, and I guess if I can't grasp it nobody is going to help me. I decided to quit watching this show. It occasionally has good jokes (inbetween the action scenes) and the animation is good, but the plot makes me want to beat my head against a wall. Last updated Wednesday, May 29 2024. Created Sunday, April 21 2024. | ||||||||
