Dragonaut: The Resonance

Dragonauts is another anime done by Gonzo. This show shows some promise, but due to certain presentation of its characters and style, it pretty much falls back quite a bit.

Story: The beginning of the show starts off with a young Kamashina Jin as he witnesses his family's deaths as their space shuttle gets blown to bits by a mysterious falling object from space. The main plot then follows an older Kamashina Jin as he gets thrust into a world of government secrets concerning "dragons", envoys sent by a living asteroid... thing called Thanatos floating around the remains of Pluto. Enter the Dragonauts, an elite team ... of humans paired up with their own artificially born Dragon. Jin and the Dragonauts are on opposing sides at first, but a government conspiracy eventually leads them to the same objective. The plot progresses at a fair pace and even has a nice short timeskip to compliment its mid-climax.

Art: The character designs are done by the very same man who did the designs for Witchblade... so you can definitely expect lots of women with unnatural proportioned bodies. The show also makes use of CGI for its dragon battles. The CGI is not very good looking as it clashes with its 2D counterpart if you even dare to compare them. The dragons themselves all have unique looks to them but it is hard to determine if the dragons are suppose to be organic beings or some kind of bio-mecha. Other than that, the art is decent except for weird proportioned women but you can never forget Sieglinde's 6th finger. Good job, Gonzo.

Sound: The music in the show is nothing special. All the tracks are not memorable enough. There are your generic suspenseful themes and romance themes and of course your action themes. I can't even write anything about it since I forgot what music the show even had.

Character: Never has a show made me hate so many characters before. I will say that the main characters have their fair share of development but the supporting characters don't shine much.

Jin is one of those "I-don't-want-to-fight-anymore" guys that does nothing but tries to talk his way out of life and death situations and Kazuki is one of those annoying cretins that just keeps coming back to kill our beloved hero blind to the fact that he's a complete asshole. I hate Kazuki as much as I hate Kururugi Suzaku. Other than that, everybody just seems... completely flat.

Enjoyment/Overall: I had hoped this show redeemed itself constantly especially through its character department but is still fairly disappointed. If you focus solely on the story, you might enjoy it some but other than that, everything else just completely ruins a potentially decent shounen show.

This show had a lot going for it: good clean animation, a range of interesting-looking characters, a reasonable story line...and dragons (because we all love dragons...well, I do)
The problems arise because all, or at least most, of this potential disappears due to a lack of following through.
The characters reveal themselves to be pretty detestable. I said they were interesting-looking, but once they started opening their mouths, well, that's a different matter. The only ones I didn't hate or at least dislike were the ones that never really had enough airtime for me to build up a dislike for them. They were mostly flat and underdeveloped ... and just plain irritating, although nowhere near as irritating as the protagonists, who just seemed to be very very stupid. Jin and Toa couldn't see beyond how besotted they were with each other (which got really boring really fast), Kazuki couldn't get over his personal (and somewhat jarringly over-the-top) vendetta against Jin, and Gio took most of the series to figure out that three really does make a crowd (admittedly when realisation did eventually dawn on him he proceeded to instigate the highlight of the series by: blowing stuff up - lots of stuff.)
The animation was the other thing that really annoyed me. It was fine, there were no real problems with it - until the CG dragons came along (the CG looked very out of place amongst the otherwise perfectly fine artwork), closely followed by massively over-endowed ladies (as in serious spinal injury type bosoms).
The only thing that stood out for me above the rest was the music. It was a little generic, but I still enjoyed some of the themes.
Overall it was a bit disappointing to say the least, but if you happen to want to watch something with the single intent of picking holes in it and laughing at it, then this is right up your street.

Disappointing. One word to describe this series. The anime starts of well, drawing the attention of the viewers only to let us down in the end. Or should I say, from the second episode.

Story: Well, the idea of humans and dragons co-existing with each other really caught my attention. It manages to hold on to it, until everything went downhill, badly. The beginning gives the viewer a fresh feel of what to expect in the series, with an interesting plot to keep us entertained. It starts of with the protagonist being stuck on a space shuttle that is destine to be doomed, but the ... story doesn't the focus on that, but focuses on the love between a dragon and a human. It may sound pretty nice at first, but trust me; Dragonaut isn't very nice - not nice at all. The producers throw in a bunch of romance elements in the show, which was (mentioned by another reviewer) great in the beginning, which soon became very annoying and repetitive throughout the anime. The ending, sorry to say didn't end so well, and hopefully a second season won't be thrown in.

Art: Now, when I first watched the first episode, the animation was great. The CG didn't really fit in with the 2D animation but it was still enjoyable. However, like I said, that was the first episode. When the show continues on, the animation seemed butchered. Also, this may be added as a fan service, but why the oversized breasts? If this was meant to be fan service, I don't seem to see the service in it.

Sound: Watching how bad this anime was, I even forgot how the sound goes, however the sound was not off-tune or neither was catchy. The background music wasn't anything special, the OP and ED are at a reasonable standard. I would probably suggest that you would watch the OP 25 times than watch this rubbish.

Character: I must say, all the characters a pretty different from each other. The cast has a vast amount of characters ranging with different personalities. However, most of them are cliché characters; characters we seen from numerous animes. All the characters all have an impact on me, they all piss me off. Kazumi, Jin, Gio, Asim, yes all of them all play a good role in annoying the viewer.

Enjoyment: Enjoyment? No, not this anime. The only thing I enjoyed was seeing the show end. I can't say much more than this, I enjoyed the first couple of episodes which had me watching for more, however like I said, and like other reviewers have said, this anime does not deliver.

Overall: This anime seem to have a promising start, with great CG and pretty decent animation. This is one anime you don't want to watch. If you have already seen all of it, I suggest you give a pat on your back - you really do deserve it.

Story:
The story starts off really giving you feel of a "saving the world" type of story. There's these people called Dragonauts who pilot dragons and are trying to save the world from Thanatos. However, this plot basically gets thrown to the side as the love story between Jin, a human (not a Dragonaut,) and Toa (a dragon.) The romance between them is okay in the beginning, but it quickly becomes so annoying and bothersome. Also, the huge twist in the plot that occurs like a little past half way through the series was a pretty dumb idea.

Art:
The artwork and animation is okay, but what really ... just completely ruins it is the CG animation that they use for the dragons. I personally just don't even like CG, but I can usually tolerate it. However, this I couldn't tolerate very well. The dragons just looked so out place and too weird. It really would've been better if they just were normally animated, not CG animated.

Sound:
The OP and EDs are fine I guess. There's appropriate tunes for the series, so I can't complain there. However, the background isn't all that. I mean, it's not horrible, but they probably could've done a little better with it.

Character:
Character...oh man, what a disaster. Just like the story, it starts out okay. When you first see the Dragonauts they seem pretty cool and all, and Jin doesn't seem too bad, as well as Toa. However, this quickly changes as well. Jin and Toa and their relationship becomes so lame. Kazuki, Jin's best friend from years ago, who now wants to murder him, becomes possibly the number one most annoying anime character in history, and the other characters really just have no depth to them at all. However, I can't really complain about the character designs too much. Oh wait...yes I can. More than 75% of the females in the show had boobs bigger than Africa. Don't get more wrong, big boobies are great, but this show just kinda ruined it. You'll se what I mean if you watch the show.

Enjoyment:
The series starts off pretty enjoyable with some pretty decent action and all. However, all too quickly does it start to bore the viewer as it begins to revolve solely around Jin and Toa's horrible relationship and undying love for one another. It just gets so tiresome to watch after a while.

Like said in other reviews... it started off good then went downhill from episode 2... seemingly like its saying I'm getting worse... stay with me... it was a decent story to begin with... but the horrible CG just ruined it 4 me.....

story:
overall it was a nice story....if not typical... but hey... how many ways is there to make this kind of genre... anyways it started out good... but as it progressed it became diluted with plot holes and things that seemed just thrown in here and there... overall it just didn't add up for me... in the end it was the characters that seem ... flat and each episode didn't seem to line up in terms of development... mainly with the main characters Jin and Toa... from their first meeting they in love and the rest of the time its just repeating the same scene over and over from my perspective....

art:
the art was very nice for me... nicely drawn characters and backgrounds... but when the CG comes in close your eyes because its like throwing water over a beautiful water painting... the CG is just horrible compared to the other animation.... in itself the CG isn't bad.. but when its added to this show it becomes an eyesore... i generally skipped through the CG scenes because it just seems like it doesn't fit.... if the battle scenes were drawn in regular animation it would have been much more enjoyable...

sound:
I don't generally care much for op's and endings because generally they have nothing to do with the story or anything else for that matter....but generally speaking the sound was good except for the generic sounds during the CG battles... the background music was nice during serious scenes but the flat characters seemed to ruin it...

character:
only thing i will say here is the characters were horrible..from the first few episodes i expected the characters to grow and develop along with the story... well i was madly mistaken.... from the first time they are introduced... nearly all of them never change from the first 10 seconds... i found that rather annoying....

enjoyment:
the first half was very enjoyable... the a rather UN-enjoyable plot twist and time skip.... then it's down hill from there and you almost have to force yourself to keep watching... if you like this type of genre than by all means give it a try and you might find it very enjoyable overall....myself i enjoy anime based on the characters...

overall:
overall this is a great show if you like this kind of genre... as for me i like shows based on characters and the interactions of them.... so this show for me only gets a 6 overall... don't get me wrong... for its genre it was a good... as for overall taste its very lacking in ways of character and romance and such....

if you like then genre then by all means give it a try because you are probably going to enjoy it... but if you are looking for great characters and romance and a good overall plot... this show isn't for you... and don't waste your time.....

This story is about a boy who survived a shuttle accident that was caused by creatures known as dragons killing his family and how he came to love the dragon that caused the accident and their attempt to change the world.

The story is unique to some extent, but it has the typical save the world theme in a futuristic soceity where doom is approaching. It emphasizes on the meaning of sestiny and fate and how they differ, where one can be changed while the other cannot. It is somewhat interesting but i just didnt feel compelled to like it that much.

The art was quite good, ... i like the art, it is different from the usual animes that i watched, so nothing bad on that account.

The songs were quite ok. I think the songs did have some effect in the mood of the story though it was not so evident. Nothing special here either.

The characters were fairly good in that they did not only focus on one or two characters but even the supporting chracters had fairly significant roles to play all the way to the end of the show. There is some internal conflict that the characters have and this brings out the themes of the story and i find it quite meaningful because you have the characters questioning the meaning of love and life and all.

I enjoyed the anime in that it contained a lot of meaning, though the story was not very entertaining the messages it tried to convey were deep and that was what i liked about the anime. Besides that there was a decent amount of romance which i personally take to.

Its a show that i would not promote that enthusiastically but i would still say give it a try cause you never know, it is quite dramatic and has a lot of meaning so its a decent anime.

What's to say? This anime tries to take itself seriously.

But it can't. Because the characters have such massively large jugs that it's like a professor trying to lecture on the role of genocide in 20th century geopolitics while dressed in garters and a pink thong.

Jin is the main character. He and his buddy want to go into space. But then Jin's dad, a shuttle pilot, knocks back a few and kills the entire crew of a shuttle. Or maybe some geese do it. I dunno.

Jin's buddy, and most of earth, understandably hates him for this. Because he surived this crash (he was saved by ... a dragon or something) which killed the crew and his loli sister. Jin then becomes chased by a girl who turns into a dragon, finds himself a very manly and totally not gay dragon called Gio (and takes this totally not gay and manly dragon from his buddy who now hates him). This all happens very fast and inexplicably and you're left wondering how and why he is now flying around in a manly dragon chasing after the least endowed female lead in the show.

But back to the premise: you have these Dragonauts. People who have these totally not gay relationships with same sex human avatars which turn into giant dragons that like shoot missiles and stuff. (Except for the loli, she has a butler dragon)

There are bad guys led by Garnet MacLaine, perhaps the most memorable anime character in memory (redundant?) because her massive tits and ass are BOTH hanging out and jiggling to their own pre-ordained and separate centres of rotation.

It's hypnotic.

Garnet wants to take the dragons for her own organization, because they can't make a bond with them the way Jin did. But mostly she just jiggles about.

I couldn't watch this. There's not a shred of originality or premise in the first few episodes. Just giant tits and mecha dragons.

I seriously dont know what lots of people have against this anime, its great and very underestimated. I guess maybe the CGI animation they do on the dragons really doesn't suit their taste and it ruins the whole series for them.

Story
This series is shounen and romance geared, if its the mecha or the action you are mostly interested in this is not for you.
Basicly this series mixes some half-baked action(I'm not saying the action is bad its just not the focus and is pretty rare in occurance) and some deep character designs, development and an overall shallow plot.
The thing with this series is that ... while the main plot is not so great they focus on character depth and the sub characters story is often being told while the main story is progressing but is at most time more interesting then the main plot.

Art
I really like the art, I dont really like the CGI lets just say it doesn't bother me.
The only thing is.... Huge bouncing boobies kind of buggs me, there's some in this series.. But be not alarmed its not close to the over-the-top ecchi shows.... I found it annoying but bearable. Aside from this "issue" the animation is top notch nice looking and smooth.

Sound
Great intro song, quite decent outro and the background music is there, very plain but not bad.

Character
The characters in this series are very interesting atleast most of them, there are some exceptions but there are lots of characters that will really surprise you in this series. You never know whats going to happen with them, they develop and change just when you thought you knew them and at most times in a totaly logical way but no way near the usual archtypes.

Enjoyment
Its fun, to not really know what is going to happen next, to not really know what a character is going to do. Its so refreshing compared to other shounen anime where the character archtypes are so predictable its silly. Its basicly like this, instead of looking forward to and wondering how they are going to beat enemy boss, you're sitting there wondering what's going to happen before they meet the boss.

Overall
Surprising action packed romantic shounen series, what's not to love? The originality of this series is really impressive!

As one blogger wrote, "Dragonaut should be called a classic of bad anime for our own time". This particular blogger acually had the iron will to finish the series whereas I on the other hand HAD to drop it after ep8, and for that he has my respect. The matter of fact is just writing this review brings back the back memories and horrors. There are many things wrong with this series but I'll just list a few:

1. I know today's anime community is filled with otakus but the boob size is just bizzare.

2. Love on first sight is probably the most romantic thing on ... this planet, at least according to some people, but when Jin is willing to sacrifice himself for someone who killed his parents and whom he never even met, one has to wonder whether it was really love or is he just dying for sex.

3. Watch Dragonaut and take the wildest ride in your life. First you stay on earth and develop a crush on a dragon, then you FLY TO THE MOOOOOON....to take a bath with the dragon. On your way back to earth, the GONZO staff will help you learn the difference between fake dragons and real dragons. Then you drop the series.

There comes a time when a great industry has it's couple of falling moments. Dragonaut being this heap that comes from Gonzo, in an horrible reek of bad stench.


Story:

Plot holes, plot holes, plot holes, oh the humanity! The story around this of course sets itself up in a future aspect, but never thoroughly goes into any detail of why that is. Eventually this gets worse with repetitiveness. It seems Gonzo had wanted to play with the beautiful art design as an distraction for all the amount of loopholes the stories situations provide. The introduction has a great start for the first 2 episodes, but ... fall utterly, and (I put huge emphasis on this) flat face down with all the cliches. It goes in the sense of one character going to one spot, leaving, and then coming back to a different place with the exact same background/environment only for the character to acknowledge it as a separate place, not to mention bringing up events that have been nowhere near close to be noted in the past to be subjected to horrible director writing skills. The story did have it's very very small times where it kept itself up high, but tripped,and failed disgustingly later.

Art:

One of the two saving factor for this anime was the great character designs by Gonzo. Their high quality,top notch animation never inconsisted to fall short of what good reputation Gonzo has. Although the downside is Most if not all female character I saw had huge breasts( enough to cause spinal injuries, and burst out in their entire) it went far enough to give a young 12 year old a pair even. :/


Sound:

Originally I played off a episode first sub then to dub, and in the end they both had their ups, and downs. Justin Pate's performance seems off throughout casual scenes, while Daisuke Ono just sound like he got tired for the most part. The opening, and ending are very nice, and come to fit somewhat well for the series, the soundtrack is okay, but a bit self reliant on repeated notes that ironically give it a great tone for their well chosen scenes.


Characters:

Cliche city, how I wished this wouldn't have to come to this. Character personalities? Pfft, what of them? 3/4 of the entire cast make 180 turns out off their original presented personality that it completely blows development aside. The typical romance of calling each others names for the entire series becomes so incoherent you want to listen to an Inuyasha, and Kagome monologue. Other characters tht have compete loyalty to another in the beginning of the series of solemn protection begin to doubt who they are. (Despite proclaiming well in the past they've made me mind up) While another goes from loving to out of the ball park begging his so called hated friend to save his other.To top it all off only the supporting cast practically get anything in short of solid character personalities In short very,very,very,very badly done by Gonzo, and the director.


Enjoyment: Obviously i've dropped this series short in, but aside that I can't say there weren't times that I did enjoy it. The first 2 episodes set up a great premise if handled better would've made, a MUCH better piece of work from Gonzo. However in the result of it all I was entirely disgusted with how this anime was soon handled, never have I encountered such a horrible dialogue and slow paced plot in the face of Gonzo, or any anime i've seen thus far.


Overall: I give this series a 4 based on a very sad reason of the side details, not the plot, or characters that make an anime what it is, I utterly hated how Gonzo executed this series in a "Great cover, low value" kind of way. I enjoyed the great character designs that made characters beautiful, but that it from being focused on that in attire made sick with fervor of how it could have been if handled in a much better way. In short I geuss I could saw this was a bigger disappointment to me than any anime i've seen.


On a side note i'd really like to reflect on why Funimation got this series again? Ugh.

Prologue:
This is a review, I'm considering most of you know the plot/characters so I won't delve into details in those parts! Oh and this is my first review, therefore people, please be soft on the flaming!

Ok, as many of you can see, lots of other reviews have said this anime was something that seemed to be a waste of their time until the last few episodes. Personally, I would agree the Characters are pretty pathetic and they just keep repeating the same lines over and over again. HOLD ON! That doesn't mean this anime is a total trainwreck!

Story:
I personally found the story to be ... mediocre to great range...some of you might get confused cuz a lot of people relate the story and the characters together in their review.

Art:
Also, I found the attention to the detail in the art pretty well done...i mean it is a bit outrageous for all the girls except Akira to have exaggerated breast sizes, but otherwise the art was superb! Definitely one of the best art I have seen in an anime for quite some time. I'm guessing all those Hena-Ojisans will be drooling after seeling Garnet...kukuku

Sound:
I couldn't believe how much the soundtrack was an influence to this anime! Dragonaut's soundtrack and opening/closing were all very fitting to this anime. I really enjoyed the music and could not be more pleased with it

Character:
As I had mentioned before, the characters ARE pretty pathetic. Aside from the redundant lines they keep repeating, I think there is still a spark of depth in them, therefore I wasn't too harsh on the rating...

Enjoyment:
Well people before this review have said that after the first 1/3rd of the anime, it'll get pretty interesting. BULLSEYE! It was so correct as I felt like I was soooo confused at the first 6-7 episodes at least. After the initial introduction to the series, I finally caught on to the storyline and found this anime immensely enjoyable. I was so touched by this anime I couldn't get it off my mind (thanks to Toa). I certainly wished I existed in this anime and could be a Dragonaut...ah all those great womanly assets...kukuku

Overall:
If you hadn't read what I had babbled above, this anime I think, deserves more than an 8, had it not been for the stupid character line repetitions. This anime had me sucked in around the 10th episode and i couldn't even click the "pause" button without intense hesitation! Well I guess this kinda sums it up cuz averaging out the scores...I have to leave it at a solid 8...I feel so sad it's over now and I just wish there's a sequel to this or just an OVA to show Jin and Toa's life.

It's a story as old as time, a boy falls in love with a girl, who then turns out to be a dragon spaceship but he decides to still fuck the said spaceship.

Anyways, story is crap, characters are crap and no amount of alcohol will make this any close to being watchable. it is an absurd setting and honestly is the most idiotic nonsense of an anime ever.

The female protagonist here killed the male protagonist's family for fun while the "mother" wants to destroy the earth. The music in this anime isn't well though out and the characters are moronic and annoying. The only hope ... is for them to be all sent into the sun.

2/5

This anime is not for me. It started out a little weird, but passed the 3 episode test. It would be watchable except for 2 huge sticking points, for me.

Sticking Point 1) Implausible Fan Service. This is more of an annoyance and able to be overlooked, but two characters are REALLY overdone. I love T&A as much as the next guy, but this was just so ridiculous as to be distracting. (It's Garnet and Machina.)

Sticking Point 2) Plot Holes the size of Optimus Prime. This was the deal breaker and made me drop the show after ep 8. There's a point where ... the MC chases his love interest to the moon, repeating over and over, that he's going to figure out what's going on (and hopefully explain it to the audience). This never happens. The writing is *bad*.

BONUS Minor issue 3) The conflict between the MC and his best friend is really forced. Either someone is literally insane or the writers are just doing a bad job. I'm betting on the latter.

Seriously, there only needed to be about 10 to 20% more exposition at a couple of key points and it would have been so much better.

the show dragonaut is an amazing shows that offers a great story line and animation. its about a boy and a girl that falls in love but its not one of those show thats all about love it more on the lines of the show eureka seven.
if you've ever seen the show eureka seven you'll know what im tallking about.
most shows end like it started but dragonaut is not one of those. the show starts off where it ended which is one of the great things about the show.
dragonaut is one of those shows that only comes around once in a few years.
like i ... said before the show offers a verity of stuff like love, romance, slice of life, and just plane out fun. the best part about dragonaut is that many main characters fall in love not just one. which brings me to my next point. the show also talks about other peoples life and how they came about.
you'll love this show like many others

if you need more info just join my club [dragonaut fan club] and just ask me any thing you want and ill tell you

So far there have been some very contradictory reviews for this show. For those that said it was so bad they had to stop watching I couldn't accept their assessments. In order to give a good review you have to finish what you start.

Episodes 1-7: There seems to be a very light-hearted element in which this series finds itself. It frequently flash-backs which starts to get irritating, yet the flashbacks do help to flesh out characters. The show is obviously trying to be serious and whimsical at the same time. For those that are into a dark anime (i.e. Claymore) this will not be ... your cup of tea. It seems to bridge the gap between dark subject matter and some of the more cartoonish anime. The show has its moments where it shines though. The voice acting is superb. The CGI is kinda awkward, but you get used to it after the first 3 episodes. Many have said that the series goes downhill after episode 2, but actually episode 7 is one of the strongest moments. The opening scene is classic with the deadpan commander having to near with his all girl bridge crew, ala Macross, and the episode fleshes out the characters. More to follow in my future reviews. My main negative though has to be the fact that the animation of some of the female characters is ridiculous. The breasts are just irritating beyond the point of sanity. Luckily, with the exception of one, this is not something that you have to see all to often among the main characters.

Having just watched this series I think some people have given the show a rather bad score. Personal taste differ, and the CG scene were pretty fail but I rather enjoyed the show as a whole. As in any Anime there are always spots where it's not so everyones liking, but to be rates as low as it is on some post is rather harsh.

I've noted some people feel there was a lack in character development, and to some small extent there were area's of improvment especially around the romance interest on the two main characters ToA and Jin. they had a thing from the ... start and unlike many series they didn't dodge it w/ the shy looks and not being open about it, but even after much time together and "I love you's" I found it a little anoying to be blushing at a kiss in public in the later part of the story lol.

Outside of that it's difficult to write much w/o giving away to much. I find with character development the best part is drawing your own conclusions and often thats based on who each person is. Give it a shot and see what you think, it's not going to be some weak protagonist who wets himself and becomes some godlike person at the end, but they are definatly there, and in a what that really fits I think with the story.

The story itself spans several years and the majority of the episodes start w/ a brief flashback up to 15 years before the main story before the opening credits to fill in on some of the history. The arc of the series is on a decent pace, and there are a few twist that I didn't expect to see, but again no spoilers.

Sound for the most part was on par with what I expected, but again the CG was pretty bad. It almost looks like they were running some outdated software even though the series is 2007. Luckily there isn't much CG outside the dragon battles which there are plenty of, but it's not enough to make you want to go emo rage.

All in all I liked the series and it's worth taking a look at.

Dragonaut: The Resonance: An amazing and emotional anime that will have you laughing or crying.

Story: The touching story of Jin Kamishina and dragons from a distant world. When humans meet these dragons, they go through what is called a Resonance, an emotional and physical bonding between the two. I found the story bringing tears to my eyes on several occasions. On the other hand, there are a few parts where there are events going on that make you kind of confused.

Art: Beautiful, outstanding artwork. Kudos to Satoshi Kinoshita for the original work.

Sound: Emotions were definately a main componant of the scoring. But, I found some ... character voices unfitting for the person. For on example, we have Yuko Goto as the very mature Machina.

Character: The characters all had unique and amazing styles and relationships, making it easy to fall in love with the characters.

Enjoyment: This show is very hard not to enjoy. As I have said earlier, this show has brought me to tears several times. And with me, that usually means there is a strong connection between myself and the characters.

Overall: Current wish: One more season of Dragonaut!

There are not many ways to say how I feel about this show. It is just bad, plain and simple. I watched all the way to the end, hoping that it would I would enjoy the final as it 'could' (false hope) finsh off the series with something memorable. On a side note, at the ending credits of the show, the subbers that did the show wrote a message along the lines of "You made it to the end, wow congrates, not many can do that!". Just by looking at the characters, you can tell who will die saving their "partner" and who the evil ... guy will be in the end. At the time of writing this review, I cannot remember anyone of the names. When something happens like that, it can only mean one thing, that they didnt do any character develop.
One thing postive about it was that they started the show off without failing, you know, guy chases after girl. This is what I call a "99% chance you can't fail" and even then they get a C-.

To finsh off this bad review of a bad show (they go hand in hand, don't you think?) I will reccommend this show to people who want to stop watching anime and maybe a bottle of bleach to drink if they want the memories to fade away.

I don't believe this is that popular of an anime (pfcht, cause it sucked) because I would have never even known about it if didn't pop up on the side of Youtube.

Personally for me, the first few episodes of the anime wasn't that bad. The plot was moderate, it wasn't anything fan-girl worthy but not down-right atrocious (like Diabolik Lovers, holy sh*t) right off the bat. I even managed to make it up to ep 12.
I watched this a looonng way back but I can still remember why it left a gi-hugic stain in my browser history: the skja;la;j;JF;Lkjdf;jsf!!! (╬￣皿￣)凸 ... characters. In the beginning the two main characters aren't all that bad but then, BUT THEN, the whole romance between them quickly became stale, more stale than the expired, unwanted loaf of bread all the way in the back of the shelves at your local grocery story. The plot pretty much just shifted to this moldy-bread romance and it became so unbearably bland and crappy that I simply couldn't and thus it was dropped.

Maybe I've said this before but I have this theory about [modern] anime. That it's become such a commodity now. These production companies just churn them out at such a fast pace they don't care too much about the actual quality. It's like McDonald's popping out Big Macs, the product is there, it's completed and the presentation certainly looks nice.......but there's no real value. Dragonaut would be such an example of this “anime fast food” phenomenon: it has a nice looking cast, decent artistic representation, it satisfies on a very superficial level with it's quick and easy character templates and fan-service, but there is no ... real substance to this series. Each of these elements are a dime a dozen, pick up any anime title now-a-days and you can find all of these same characteristics in those titles as well and at least [with a lot of them] they have a better, more cohesive concept resulting in a nice, consistent story that leaves a lasting impression on the viewer. Now eventhough Dragonaut DOESN'T do this, the show isn't a complete waste...like I said before, the art is quite nice, there's enough hot-looking characters to suit everyone's tastes and the story is moderately entertaining.

Nothing new with the art and animation. Everything is as it should be....for the most part. Everything is drawn nicely, lot's of CG used for the dragons and the fight scenes. I dunno. I know we are in a new era with animation but I just would rather be WOW'ed with regular 2D animation which I know the Japanese are VERY good at this anyway. CG is like the “auto-tune” of the animation world. They care so much more about the CG fight scenes than they cared about the human combat scenes...and it certainly showed. The human figures looked rushed, they were all kinds of stretched and distorted looking when they were fighting.

I loved the music of this series, especially the two ending songs and I think it fits the series just fine. I watched the series in English dub. They did a fine job....no complaints there.

Let's talk about the romantic elements of the story first since that's what this series is primarily about. I find it very irritating [not to mention unbelievable] this relationship between Toa and Jin. Within like, the first 2 episodes Toa goes out of her way to find this guy, Jin. She's rescues him a couple of times and in the next instant they're holding hands and sucking face. And all this while, no reason has been given as to WHY she's pursuing him.......OK fine, the viewer is just kinda forced to go along with this for a couple of episodes but then she suddenly flips the script and she hauls ass. WTF? Suddenly they “just can't be together” even though just a while ago they were holding hands, sucking face and swearing not to part with each other? That whole relationship is a sham! It's absolutely ludicrous to think two people are just going to fall so deeply for each other without knowing absolutely ZILCH about each other. But not only do they know nothing about each other....the viewer is in the dark as well, except to know that Jin is in some kind of depression over his family's death and she's a dragon. Yet we are to believe these two love each other? On what basis? Where is the commonality? Where is the explanation?

But the romance between Jin and Toa isn't the only spontaneous element in this series, most everything seems simply brought about by the seemingly arbitrary emotions from one character or another. Some seem to love for no reason while others want to hate and destroy for no [or for some very flimsy] reason. Why was Asim so devious as he was or why Baumgarde is so bitchy as she was except to perhaps keep the story going? Same for poor Kazuki, whom everyone basically ignores, even his supposed best friend....but how does that turn you into a homicidal maniac? You don't need a psychology degree to know personalities can't just do a 180 like that, you either had those feelings lying dormant in your psyche or you've experienced some SERIOUS TRAUMA to make you flip a switch like that, I'm talking stuff like rape, child abuse, watching a friend or loved one get killed in front of you. Not just cuz your supposed best-friend left your hi-5 hanging in the air like a dork or cuz he took your very hot-looking boyfriend [um….I meant “dragon”] that you keep obsessing over.

To me it's quite apparent the story is heavily reliant on emotions: obviously the emotions from the characters but also the [expected] emotions from the viewer. Another such example of how this series relied heavily on an emotional response from viewers is how they constantly held off on the explanations with the hopes of a big payoff with all these great big revelations near the ending. Which in my opinion backfired, I think more people would have enjoyed this series if they had weeded out some of these transparent plot devices, emotional tactics and surprise revelations and actually worked on developing the characters a bit more, they might have appeared more credible and then we would have genuinely been more emotionally attached to them.

Yes, the characters are attractive! All of them have nice fit bodies....even the old people which made me wonder if the artist was even capable of drawing any other body-type, like fat people. Not that I'm complaining too much, they made sure they catered to everyone. Whether you're into males or females, fair-skinned or deep tanned, flat-chested to A-Cup to M-[as in mutant freak]-Cup breasts, from the subservient to the bitchy loli-types, and of course my favorite...the bishies. Yes, they made sure to cover a wide range of fetishes very likely to appeal to a wide range of people and get a large fanbase. But mixing all of these character types together doesn't gaurantee you'll draw a lot of viewers or that the show will be successful. Actually it's likely to have the opposite effect because certain characters correspond to certain specific genres of anime and if you take them out of that context or try to mix sub-genres of anime you'll wind up with a clusterfuck....as is the case here.
You have characters that take themselves and the situation they're in quite seriously but yet we have large breasts bouncing everywhere so it's sexy moment and not so serious anymore but then we've also got light-hearted slapstick people in the mix...so now it's a comedic moment and maybe sexy too but not serious anymore? None of which I took seriously anyway because I dunno too many people that handle crises by going to a hot spa and I eventhough it's an anime I still expect soldiers to look the part....especially military officials, that one chic who's supposed to be a “MAJOR” looked more like a pornstar and pole-dancer in my opinion. Hard for me to take you as a serious military killing machine with your ass in a g-string and thigh-high hooker boots.

So my verdict is: lots of eye-candy, nice looking characters but the story itself is unoriginal and irregularly paced. Way too many random and haphazard emotions running amok....and the finale was tremendously anticlimactic.....but again, the character are very hot!