Ah, Dragon Crisis. The title is a little strange considering the fact that the phrase itself is only used once in the series, and it's never really explained when mentioned. For me to find an anime about anthropomorphic human-like people usually means that I'll watch it, to some extent. Whatever the case, onto the review.
Story (6.47/10): Story...isn't exactly Dragon Crisis's strong suit. The beginning is very Angel Beats-esque, where the audience, and the main character are thrown into these set of circumstances without any explanation whatsoever for the sake of moving the plot. Usually, unless there's the mystery element to ... the story that the main character tries to find out, I will drop it without hesitation. (Good exposition is something I like) Though it was a bit strange to be thrown into this random scenario, I was still rather intrigued, and still continued watching.
As the series went on, however, I felt that it was really arc heavy. The 12 episode run is very clearly split into separate arcs, that detail the main character, Ryuuji, helping out random girls that he literally just met, only to have them be sucked into his mini harem by the end of the series. It was kind of awkward for me to watch, and it felt quite side-story like, seeing as how the series immediately jumped to a new idea, and even new characters, making the old ones drop off the face of the earth. (For a few episodes that is.)
The story in the end was still somewhat generic, with the anthropomorphic twist on some of the girls, leading up to a really, really, really cheesy ending that you may like, if you're into that kind of thing. Overall, the story of Dragon Crisis was watchable, at the very least. It's not extraordinary by any means, but it is a good in its own way, like Dog days.
Character (5.87/10): Character development is a key factor for an anime's success. Without proper development of the characters, with good pacing, the anime can fall flat on its face without a second's notice. The characters weren't bad, but they weren't fantastic.
Ryuuji, our main protagonist, is our run of the mill, nice guy, overpowered main protagonist character, who meets a young girl via coming out of a suitcase, (yes, you read that right), and promptly takes care of her by basically raising her as his daughter, sort of. While he does have some redeeming qualities, such as getting the most possible development in this show, as well as being the main protagonist, I find him rather dull and lacking. He doesn't really seem to have a personality of his own, rather, gets influenced by people around him to get sucked into the situations he ends up in, like contemplating shit at the end of the series for what he's done. We've all seen this kind of anime troupe before, so there's not really much to explain beyond that.
Rose, as the aforementioned Dragon, of this series, is...a child. That's really all I need to say. She loves Ryuuji, (way too obviously expressed), and that's pretty much it for about 9 or so episodes. Towards the end, however, she gets this sort of, what I feel, unneeded development through some magical bullshit, that makes the show kind of stupid towards the end. Though I personally liked Rose's character due to how adorable and awesome she could be at times, I wasn't fully happy with how she herself turned out over the course of the series.
The side character cast is filled to the brim with overused troupes that I could go on and on about. (like right now). Let's see...comic relief/best friend character, big breasted fanservice, the shy girl, the shy girl's best friend that tries to hook up said shy girl with main character, the crazy scientist, the tsundere girl who's also a fox (My personal favorite), overly flamboyant looking main antagonist, and the parents that seems to never exist. None of these characters get any development whatsoever, and some of them appear so late, that I even question why they were implemented in the first place. (There's even one guy that's like a marvel villain rip-off. WTF Japan?)
Art and Sound (7.48/10): The art itself is pretty pleasing to look at, actually. It's quite clear what style they were going for, and it's easy to distinguish who is what race in this series. I quite enjoyed it, since none of the characters looked particularly bad, and none of the animation was jarring to look at. Actually, the fight scenes looked pretty good and fluid. (Especially when mystical, dragon energy is involved.)
The sound is actually pretty good. The OP was a rather interesting sounding one, starting off as a generic shounen song, with these really quiet and soft parts that actually made it somewhat worth listening to. It wasn't the greatest song the world, but it was quite enjoyable to watch and listen to. The ED was the OP's contrast, featuring a rather bubbly song that I felt didn't fit in all too well with the show's idea. It was good, but it felt a little weird. The mood fillers of the series were actually somewhat good, as they sounded like some effort was put into it.
Personal Enjoyment (6.46/10): With the combination of a somewhat generic, arcic story, generic characters, and above average music and art, all combined with Rie's role as Rose, (I'm sure the majority of people are familiar with her work), Dragon Crisis was a mix of fun and confusion. They didn't really explain the supernatural part of the show too well, as the idea of the "Lost Precious's" weren't explained too in-depth as I would've wanted it to be in. There was also a backstory that was mentioned MANY times throughout the series, that never seemed to get any explanation, which really was a big put-off, since the series already didn't explain much of anything. Massive story holes aside, Dragon Crisis was an interesting enough show for me to keep watching, and I was entertained while watching this, so it does get a plus for that. By no means is this a show everyone must watch, god no, but it does help kill time when you want it to. Besides, a fire dragon with blonde hair, in the body of what looks to be a 10 year old, kicking ass? What's not to love?
Overall Score: 6.75/10
Alternative Titles Synonyms: Dragon Crisis! Japanese: ドラゴンクライシス! Information Type: TV Episodes: 12 Status: Finished Airing Aired: Jan 11, 2011 to Mar 29, 2011 Premiered: Winter 2011 Broadcast: Mondays at 01:30 (JST) Licensors: None found, add some Studios: Studio Deen Source: Light novel Duration: 23 min. per ep. Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older Statistics Score: 6.621 (scored by 88,020 users) 1 indicates a . Ranked: #63192 2 based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #1365 Members: 172,729 Favorites: 284 Available AtResources |
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