Ranked #1385

Druaga no Tou: The Aegis of Uruk

Its really hard to tell where GONZO is going with Druaga. The first episode of Druaga is the funniest (and probably the best) first episode of any anime I have seen. It starts off with an RPG-style party (a sword user, an archer, etc) with the aim of climbing the Tower of Druaga to defeat the evil Lord Druaga There was me thinking 'Oh no, the lame shounen of this season', however that all changed quickly. The rest of the episode is about the protagonist's (Jil) journey to climb to the top, and the comic manor it all happened. The not-so-slapstick comedy in this anime has been somewhat refreshing and different to anything I've seen before, which is the reason for the 10 for enjoyment.

However, this actually turned out to be a dream, and from episode 2, it became more serious. The rest of the series continues the party's journey to the top, with less jokes along the way, but ones that will make you uncontrollably laugh nevertheless. Sometimes there are really hilarious episodes, and sometimes more sober-sided ones, which is why I can't really tell where this series is going and why I have given a 7 for story (sometimes the serious episodes aren't that interesting).

The art is average for this day and age, and likewise with the music (though the opening is very misleading as it shows the characters in modern school uniform, when this is set in medieval-ish times - though this raises the theory that these people could be playing an RPG all this time, like .hack, as it is very game-like with the parties, monsters, maps/levels and the different classes). I do however, like the characters in Druaga; there are no lame characters (the shy one, the overly-clever one) and its epically good there's no 'the-useless-one' of the party; they all seem to have a purpose.

All in all, a very amusing, but peculiar, anime which is showing good potential. I just hope it doesn't end with the 'power of love' saving the world. read more

I am sorry to say that this anime has been quite confusing, and I couldn't predict anything. Not like I must have control to enjoy something, but without having some solid ground, you don't know where GONZO's gonna throw you next. The series started out brilliantly, but as it went on, it felt like GONZO split up its team into sections. "OK, you make episode 4, and I'll make episode 5, and..." yeah, you get it. You can feel the disconnection between episodes, and GONZO is having a hard time finding the fine balance between comedy and serious plot movement that makes sense. However, it wasn't horrible and not worth watching at all, and it seems GONZO's gonna try this again with a new season next year.

STORY: 6/10

Not the most inventive thing you've ever heard of. A guy wants to be the hero, his old team rejects him, he finds a new team, and whoopee you can guess from there. Although the story has a nice twist at the end, it hardly makes up for the stereotypical plotline. What makes things even worse is that the plot is executed by underdeveloped characters that you have a hard time connecting with, and part of that is the tiny 12 episodes that GONZO attemted to cram their huge ideas into. If they had about 26 episodes for this anime instead of 12, I bet we would see some huge improvements.

ART: 8/10

The art was actually pretty good. I really enjoyed the occasional 3D moment, it really fleshed out the anime more. The character designs were unique as well (in terms of looks, not emotions) so not much else to say here.

SOUND: 7/10

Nothing fabulous. OP and ED were ok, and no in-anime music struck me as amazing. it just... it fit what it was going with, like anime music and sound should.

CHARACTER: 6/10

Here's the one I wanted to talk about. I can see that these characters have a lot of great emotions and ideas packed into them, but 12 episodes is simply not enough for such a complicated web of people. I didn't know much about any character at the end, and I felt almost like they didn't earn what they got. Instead, it felt like GONZO was pushing the characters to the end so that it could meet this 12 episode limit. It just feels like something is missing, and that probably has to do with the confusion of where this series is actually going. The characters rarely start an episode where they ended previously, and... well, I blame it on the 12 episode limit again...

ENJOYMENT: 7/10

Not much to say here. Let me put it this way: I always watch 4 anime episodes a night, sometimes 5, and I always watch them in order of worst to last. Druaga was almost always one of the first ones. It's hard to enjoy it when you don't know where its going, or what the characters really think. I am very confused right now about Kaaya's stand on things, but hopefully we'll learn more next season.

OVERALL: 7/10

I've been beating on this anime a lot, because I feel that Druaga is lacking something. I couldn't connect with the characters very well, the plot was cliche, it just wasn't there. It's still an enjoyable anime, though, and I suggest viewing the first few episodes and seeing how you like it. read more