Ranked #1379

Druaga no Tou: The Sword of Uruk

Tower of Druaga is a two-season anime (Aegis of Uruk - 1st season; Sword of Uruk - 2nd season) that isn’t anything spectacular, but manages to deliver great fun and enjoyment. Each season haves 12 episodes but season one has an extra episode, it’s an alternative version of the first episode. This is only funny stuff but explains some things so I recommend watching it.

Mainly I’m going to review Sword of Uruk but there are going to be some comparations and references to Aegis of Uruk so this could be considered the full anime review. Firstly I must say that I don’t usually watch this type of anime. This is the typical “save everyone” character (incredibly stupid at that) that has to save the world by defeating a great evil at the top of a tower. Pretty common story huh? Well don’t be fooled because the anime gets really interesting at the end of the first season and literally forces you quickly jump into the second one because you desperately want to know what happens next.

The story is set on a medieval/fantasy world that seems somehow modern. The events revolve around Jill, the main character, and his struggle to get to the top of the Tower Of Druaga. Those who climb the tower are called “climbers”, there are lots of climbers although the series focuses on some especifics groups of them. In Aegis of Uruk the characters will usually find themselves in really absurd and funny situations. In fact the 1st season doesn’t get serious ‘till the last 3 episodes. Sword of Uruk gets serious at the beginning and unfolds a story that is a lot more dramatic than Aegis of Uruk. It's a story full of hate and betrayal.

In Aegis of Uruk Jill is a rookie climbing for the first time. He thinks he is climbing to defeat the evil god Druaga but his brother (Neeba) has other plans. First Jill gets dismissed from his party and joins another one with very funny and important characters in it, Kaaya being the most important. At the end, when they reach the top another conflict unfolds and Neeba leaves alone joined by Kaaya. Sword of Uruk plotline unfolds six months after the events in Aegis of Uruk (3 years inside the tower due to some flow of time issues) the story is less funny and more serious, it concludes the anime for real. The battles are more fierce and the drama more intense. The objetive is basically the same: climb the tower again to reach another one (Mythical Tower) and defeat another evil being.

One thing to note is the pace in which the story develops. In Aegis of Uruk the story feels fast while the party climbs the shirines and gardens. In one episode they are on level two shirine and in the next one the party magically appears on level five. In Sword of Uruk the story is more paused and seems to be slower. It goes on in a more drama-oriented, detailed way. The story has it twists, almost all of them happening at the end of the first season and in the second season.

I was fooled when I first saw the Aegis of Uruk opening on the second episode. The opening has some amazing sequences that are really well done, but have nothing to do with the real anime, only some character behaviors are loyal to the anime plot. Sword of Uruk has some “nothing-to-do –with-the-anime” sequences as well. The two openings are just fun to watch and the design of every little thing is beautiful. Theese work like fanservice but at the same time indicate that the anime is far from serious, being it mostly a comedy.

Overall the anime looks good. The spaces are diverse and go from lively and beautiful to dark and scary. The main leads are very well detailed and very distinctive from each other. From Kaaya to Fatima the girls look gorgeous and really do make a diference from other animes girls. But some things like Jill’s armor and weapons are poorly detailed. On the first episode you see Jill with this huge shield, but after he leaves his first party he get’s to wield a really lame tiny shield. Another thing is the sword that he get’s from Kaaya: you only see it on the first season and them in the second season only in the last 3 episodes, and it isn’t anything special. I was hoping for a more powerful and mythical looking weapon (with some sort of power?) The only weapon I liked was the flame staff-gun that Fatima wields; it’s really awesome and original. The monsters are varied as well: they can be lame and simple looking or really ferocious and complex. I was as well dissapointed with Druaga’s looks.

As I said before the openings of boths seasons are just creative and beautiful. The singles that acompain the openings are really good as well. The music is completetly different from the one that is inputed during the anime. These are J-Pop songs that, after listening two or three times, become incredibly adictive. On the other hand the endings are slow and tranquil. So the basic formula: an agitated and fast opening to start up the action and to end up a light and somehow sad single to leave the animation on a nice mood.

The BMGs are really dramatic and have that medieval/legendary feeling. These give more drama to battles and more enjoyment to the, pretty random, humor moments. The sound quality is awesome and the BMG’s sound like taken out from a movie. The seiyuu cast is awesome as well and do irradiate each personality with their voices.

Everything is varied and fantastic in the world of The Tower of Druaga, the characters are no exception. In Aegis of Uruk there are a lot of interesting characters and in the Sword of Uruk you get to see all theese characters again and some new additions. Again the girls look awesome and sexy, Fatima being my favourite. Definitely I love Kaaya’s personality, she’s just weird and likes things that nobody else likes, she doesn’t get bothered by nothing and works really hard. On the other hand Fatima is an aggressive girl that gets bothered by practically anything but works hard as well. These two characters suffer a transformation after Aegis of Uruk ends. In Sword of Uruk Fatima starts up being a lay down and really quiet girl. Kaaya doesn’t show up too much until the last episodes but she seems sad and quiet as well.

But characters like Jill, suffers minimal changes. He starts up the second season sad and gloomy, but when he gets to know how to get where Kaaya and Neeba are he regains that irritating “save everyone” actitude. The problem is that he is indecisive and isn’t aware of anything at times. In my opinion a bad main character.

The main thing about secondary and other less important main leads is that they do have an important development and are not left alone. They do have important roles in the story development and one’s never kept wandering where a certain character is: they all participate and develop amanzingly well in the story.

At the end The Tower of Druaga is an enjoyable anime. It doesn’t have a strong story or great animation either but everything else make up for it. The anime has a big enjoyment factor: when you finish the first season you’ll quickly jump to the second one. And when you finish the second season you will end up loving the anime, mostly because of the relationships between the characters. I really enjoyed Tower of Druaga and I recommend everyone to watch this, you’ll get to laugh a bit, to experince sad moments and to, most impotantly, appreciate everything this world has to offer. read more

The Sword of Uruk diverges rather heavily from its prequel. Instead of "everyone happily going on a hiking trip", the story is centered more on betrayal and vengeance - PG style. Unfortunately, the animation quality hasn't improved much from season one, but they have finally stopped cramming in weaksauce CG like Gonzo's previous projects (ie. Druggynaut, BlAss-rater, etc.). Fans of season one are more likely to enjoy this due to the obvious reason of "sequel", but they are enough flashbacks to make season one optional.

Art: 7
Hokay, so its no longer a secret that Fatina is so bangin' hot and every man in Uruk wants to have her babies. But not even the Scarlett Johansson of Meskia can keep us entertained if all the fights in this show look like Street Fighter Alpha. Hell even Pokemon had more exciting battles. So... what I mean to say is don't expect any Soul Caliber from this show.

Sound: 7
Fairly catchy OP, although most of the attractiveness is in the form of a smokin' hot blonde mage (magess?). There's really not much to say about the sound, cuz honestly, who cares?

Character: 9
If there is one redeeming aspect of the Sword of Uruk, it would be the addition of new characters, as well as the expansion of previous ones. One gripe I had with season one was the shallow-ness of the entire cast. This just... happened, no one knew, no one asked, no one explained. This time around, there is some back-story to explain the reasons for the characters' actions in season one. As random as they may be, any explanation is better than no explanation. Jil forming a new party with Neeba's old comrades was a good move since it gave an opportunity for them to say things that they couldn't in season one.

Enjoyment: 10
To be honest, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed this show if it wasn't for Fatina. There must be something about that bangin' hot body that makes me laugh at all the lame gaffs in this show. For those of you who don't like hardcore, bloodthirsty, action animes I high recommend you to give this a look. Ditto for those of you with a soft spot for tsundere blondes.

And oh yea, Fatina is a hottie.
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Hmmmmmmmm, what to say about this anime. I thought it was "alright". Nothing compared to the first season, which I enjoyed WAY more. I'm gonna try to keep this spoiler free, but that may be hard to.

Story - 6
The story for ToD had POTENTIAL. But it lost it for me. Most of the episodes felt like a burden to watch, and I only watched cause I wanted to see the end. There's Jil and his friends climbing the tower, little girl with some back ground story following them, and then some things happen etc etc. But what I HATED about it was how DULL they made it all. It all seemed so familiar like I was watching the same episode over and over. And then when things do change up, it's some type of stupid plot twist. If you decide to watch the ending, you will see what I'm talking about.

Art-8
I liked the art, it was colorful, it was nice, and the action scenes were well done. But you know what kills a good fight scene? Crappy CG monster models. Seriously, that KILLED it for me. At first I thought "Oh, they trying to do more like they did with the Druaga fight from the first season". But it looked pretty stupid at most parts, and it rarely got better. May sound like I'm wailing on it, but to be truthfull, the CG was the only thing that bugged me besides the story plot.

Sound-9
I liked the voice acting and the action sounds were fitting. Never really much to talk about in this area.

Characters-10
Best part of the anime. The unique characters. To be honest, some of them just sucked, but than they decided to give us gold in the form of Fatina and Melt. My favorite thing about the whole show is how they all seemed to have their positions in the plot. This character is the nagger, this character is leader, this character is gonna be a bitch. Reminded me of an MMO. Real diverse, and filled with jerks.

Enjoyment-7
It was kinda hard to enjoy because of the story, but I still managed to give it a 7 (which stands for gooooooooood). It was dull and boring at some points, but than theres points where I thought to my self "this anime is worth my time" and in a way, it was. The jokes are funny, most of the actions scenes are well done, and the characters are well built. As long as you don't mind the CG monsters and the rather boring story line (Untill you get to the end. There you can decide if it was worth it all or not) this anime was good.

Overall, I rate this anime a 7. Worth my time, but wasn't all that great.
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What the hell happened?

Those four words generally sum up my disbelief at the second season. Granted I know this show isn't a beacon of comedy, I understand that but holy crow did they ever suck the humor out of this show, except for the third episode you may be hard-pressed to find any sort of humor in this season, it's like the creators decided no we're not going to include any comedy in this season. Without the comedy this show ultimately suffers, the pacing starts to slow the show down considerably and you feel like watching this show is almost like a chore instead of something you want to watch.

But I have to digress, the Voice acting is sharp, However, I think it's a shame Melt does not have as many lines as he did in the first one and thus the comedic factor is lost. The leads do a great job though but sometimes it feels as if they are sleep walking through the script.

Nothing bad to say about the animation, it's really gorgeous and it seems that reducing the amount of CGI helped the show for the better.

As for the new characters I have to say I was dissapointed, without trying to spoil anything I have to admit I was suprised with Henaro, I never saw that coming, that character was well done. Elevating Utu and Fatina to major characters helps the show out a lot, and it's great there is a new group this time instead of the previous group. The Four Coffin Knights were not interesting. I have to say I ended up caring for none of them including Mite.

So frankly I have to say that I wish GONZO had thought harder about how to write the Second Season because it felt rushed and at times incomplete.

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Tower of Druaga - the Sword of Uruk is the second season of the Tower of Druage series and continues where the first season ended.


The story begins six months after their fight against Druaga and the betrayal of Neeba and Kaaya. If you could say that the story in the first season wasn't very innovative , the story in the second season is even worse. It's so predictable that from the beginnig I already knew what was going to happen . As you probably guess , Jill and the rest of his friends are going to try to get to the Mythical Tower and see what happened to Neeba and Kaaya . And to get there they'll need a help of a small girl called Kai , who looks like Kaaya, only in small "format" :D. Also , many things happened in the last six months. King Gilgamesh became more cruel and didn't reward the climbers for killing Druaga. Instead he took all the glory for himself. Jill's party borke up . Kelb quit the army. Etc. Together with the small girl , the survivals of Neeba and Jill's party formed one party and started , again, their journey to the top of the tower , and in the same time , trying to escape from Uruk's army, led by Uragon and the new enemy party, lead by Gremica , a distant relative of Neeba.


In this sequel , some of the supporting characters from the first season , such as Fatina and Utu gained more airing time , but also some new characters appeared , like Henaro (who will join their party) , but also some new enemies , like Gremica and Uragon. As the story goes , you will find out Kaaya's and Neeba's reason for betraying their comrades , but also the goal from the new character in their party , Henaro.
Similar to the first season , the story will follow their journey (Jil's , Uragon, Neeba's and Gremica parties) to the top floor of the Mythical Tower . Unfortunately, there won't be many varieties of enemies , and it'll be focused on the fight between the parties and some other "guests" from the four boxes that Pazuz opened in the first season.


Jil is still the naive kind of guy who believes everything he's told and he forgives everyone no matter what they have done to him. There is a well known saying : "Fool me once, shame on you , fool me twice , shame of me". In his case , he has been fooled and betrayed by almost everyone , so I really don't know whom should he blame :D . But what's even worse he always find some way to forgive them.....
It's not related to the story , but I noticed that Kai has a very weird habit . She likes to stick the spoon in other people's butts (this is not a joke). Very weird . I guess it was meant to be fun , although I didn't found it fun at all .......
The other members of Jil's party are more normal , and not so naive as Jil , but since their goal is already known , there won't be many flashbacks on their past. Instead it'll focus more on the present and their fights against the enemy.


The animation is the same as in the first season , in other way , average. The music themes are almost the same , so U might get a bit bored from hearing the same melodies over and over again.


Finally, this anime deserves 7/10 . The main reason for that is that it was very predictable and from the beginning you knew what would happen . The other reason was the naivety of Jil , which really annoyed me . He got betrayed several times, but still he never learned anything from it , and got betrayed again and again. And what's worse , he easily forgave the people that betrayed him. Also , the fight's weren't so interesting as the ones in the first season . Although it has many flaws and it's predictable , you won't get bored by watching it . Especially if you like this kind of genre . read more

well I have to say if your a huge RPG or slash & hack fan , then your probably going to like this series.it is in essence one big long and entertaining dungeon crawl.
There are plenty of twists, betrayals and campy style humor and action to hold your attention through out, a few Boromir scenes as well , if you catch my drift.

Story. not bad , not great but not terrible either.

Art- also pretty good and yes , let it be said , that Fartina is one smoking hot mage babe.They got that part right.


sound- well done and well acted.

character- the second series , does a much Better job of developing the characters with back story and what have you but honestly not enough . This story could and should have been EPIC but unfortunately its not.

Enjoyment-yes i did , i really enjoyed the series and its fulfilling conclusion.It does drag a bit in places and what have you but with all that ,Its a an anmie worthy of your time. read more

For an anime based off an old video game, I'd have to say this did very well.

What drew me to this anime was the art!
I love it. The character colors and designs are nice to look at.

While this was a short series, it was very enjoyable. There was some outrageous humour, as seen in the booby trap episode-which was so bad in some of the hinted directions it went, but for someone who doesn't usually find dirty humour funny, I think I laughed a lot. My favourite in that episode was, however, the flat sprites.

Aside the humour:

YOu would not possibly have guessed, again, being it's some risky anime based off an old video game...that it would have lots of depth.

There is a lot of treachery and betrayal, as well as some much deeper human emotions that drive some of these characters. The motives you may not learn till the very last 5 minutes of the series, but they felt real to me (I tend to sink into character's a lot, so sometimes I take their viewpoints to understand them better).

I loved the opening themes of both seasons as well, they are quite catchy and fun.

I think some of the CG for the Druaga beast was a big awkward, maybe, but it made the monster feel more dramatic and "There".

Overall, I'd say this series was really great. It has a fair lot to surprise you with, given the original material, and became one of my favourite anime series within the first 2 episodes.

I enjoyed the star wars reference at the first episode as well...the goofy false episode that you shouldn't take seriously...I was very afraid how the story was going to go, but once the real story toke over, I was in :)

Also, because I'm not one who looks for flaws in any of my anime, I can't outright point out technical issues, because, the reason for watching is to ENJOY...so, go watch Druaga, and enjoy it! read more

Well just like some other people have said they made a decent sized gap from where they ended to where they are starting again. The new attitude of Fatina made me really happy when I noticed she calmed down and wasn't so prissy anymore. I extremely enjoyed the first season although I could have done without some of the comical satire they aired in the first two episodes. Overall I can see this anime going places. The artwork pleased me just as much as the first season as well as most of the other aspects of it.

I would definitely say give the anime a chance. It has excellent potential to glue viewers to their seats.

And obviously watch the first season before you try to watch this or you will have no idea what's going on :) read more

Tower of druaga is one of the animes which i like most.its a very good anime to pass your time and enjoy but its not as great as FMAB or death note.its consists of two seasons :'THE AEGIS OF URUK' and 'THE SWOARD OF URUK' which think makes this anime really interesting. '''STORY''' :i think this anime serios doesn't have a very good story rather it has such an unbelievable story which is full of twists.its totally unpredictable.you don't guess what will happen in the next episode.mainly 12 th episode of aegis of uruk was the worst.i was shocked to see its outcome.swoard of uruk is not as enjoyble an aegis of uruk but its not bad too.''MUSIC'':this anime has got great opening and ending songs.sound quality is also very nice.''ANIMATION'':Tower druaga has got great art and graphics qualities.i was really impressed.its doesn't matter anything to me how druaga look is.''CHARECTERS'':All the charecters of tower of druaga is attrative but jil's mentality should have'en much better.FATINA,KAAYA,KAI,KHUPA,NEEBA are very very good charecters to watch.amony all''FATINA'' is my favourite.'ENJOYMENT':I enojyed the tower of druaga very much.its does't matter how its story is all in all its tower of druaga is a great anime to watch.''OVERALL'':if you spend your time by watcìng'Tower of druaga' its not waste of time rather its an enjoyable anime.so everybody should watch this anime.its fun to watch.its deserves to get 9/10.ENJOY...... read more

Since Sword of Uruk is just a sequel to Aegis or Uruk I thought I'd save some time and include both of them in this review.

I'll get down to it Aegis of Uruk was mediocre at best, it started off great the first episode was just one cliche after the other thrown at you in a hilarious fashion. After that however the series just went downhill. In a hard to explain way it was just bad.
The story seems rushed, they switch from scene to scene ungracefully and it feels like there are parts missing in between it all.
The fight scenes are uninspired and just no fun to watch.
There are about 3 worthwhile episodes worth watching in the first season and thats just sad.The only thing that barely redeemed the Aegis or Uruk (and I mean barely) were the comedy segments, occasionally they'll get more then a slight chuckle out you.
The cliffhanger in the end however did draw me in mostly because I just wanted to see what would happen. But surprisingly the second season didn't disappoint.

The Sword of Uruk started off much better, but at this point the whole thing became really serious and it felt like a letdown compared to the first season.
Most of the issues present in Aegis or Uruk are here but are far less in number.
The fight scenes were a little better and continued to get better toward the end.
They filled in all the plot holes (at least as far as I can tell) but it dragged a bit towards the middle kinda making you want to just skip to the end, but dont worry it picks up.
Overall it was much better then the first Season and the end leaves you with a nice feeling inside. Id tell you just watch the second season but then you'd be missing out on a lot of story. Its a nice series overall but Id only recommend the whole thing if you are willing to put up with the failure that is the first 12 episodes.(excluding the first episode, My favorite ^.^) read more

Irony. Harsh or not, unbelievable or not, this word describes this season of Druaga perfectly. Normally I would be against such a broad generalization, but as I was writing the rest of the review, no matter how much I struggled, how much I fought against it, every respect of this season always came back to it, and in the end I had to relinquish all my hopes.

Even while holding true to this concept, don’t rush to judgments, Tower of Druaga: The Sword of Uruk is an overall enjoyable experience, and does indeed have strong points worth mentioning, this is undisputable. Instead the question about this season is how well a show that ends every string of events in contradiction with itself, can manage to remain entertaining despite its ups and downs.

Some traits of the first season are obviously carried here, but other than the introduction and the cast all the rest is pretty well hidden under layers and layers of “safe plot devices”, and all the drifting between genres that existed has been streamlined, but saying more here would make my first statement devoid of purpose, so I will hold the conclusion for when I am not specifically writing an introduction.

It is important to note that I will avoid repetition by rushing through some aspects that remained unchanged from the previous season, reading my other review before hand would be advised (but not mandatory).


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Story
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The main aim of a sequel is to move the plot forward, and in this respect Druaga delivers. The problem makes itself apparent when we start worrying about character development, dilemmas, and a few other crucial aspects that usually a good plot is compromised of, and these are all seldom scattered throughout the episodes, never shinning enough to make the predictive nature of this season go anywhere interesting. It hints otherwise every now and then, but ultimately it boils down to the safest way to create just enough attrition for the plot to not stagnate completely.

This is where the irony begins. If you watch the very first (and wonderful) episode of the first season and the very last one of the second season you will cringe and run away. Luckily this doesn’t happen right at first so you can enjoy the momentum quite well, and while it lasts details like the characters having no coherent reasoning behind any of their actions, the plot unfolding like it’s chained on trails with holes the size of canyons and expectations being crushed with every single dialogue line seems minor, and if you have happened to grow enough affection for the protagonists even reasonable.

At any rate, the story is one aspect that degraded from the first part of the show, and as awkward as it might be, they borrowed heavily from the worse aspects while leaving the bare minimum of the good ones. It is still enjoyable if you are looking to find out what happens with the characters, but without this previous emotional bound to them, I find it hard to believe anyone else would be able appreciate it as much.


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Art / Animation & Sound
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It’s is pretty much the same as the first one, strong character design, vivid colors and weak motion animation summarize it perfectly, including both the 2D and CGI aspects of it as well as the unevenness that plagued the first season. The sound also didn’t drop the bar below what we have seen before, with the possible exception of the intro song that I found to be marvelous (not to mention addictive), as well as the animation that accompanies it that is at the same time top quality and refreshing.

The main gripe here lies in the fact that the animation quality doesn’t follow the climax of the plot, in other words, non important sequences get bumped up in quality, while the decisive ones are plagued with out-of-context CGI, stock footage (tons of it) and stiff character motion, and the more the climax escalates the worse it gets, culminating on a terribly weak decisive battle, that is not only incredibly predictable, but thanks to the animation pretty dull as well.

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Characters
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The first season had the habit of performing drastic changes on character mid way thought it, but this is all long gone. Characters here start and finish at the same place going back two steps every time they move one forward. But perhaps this is not the best metaphor to describe it, since in reality they are so stagnant throughout the whole story, that from time to time the only noticeable difference from scene A to scene B, is in their dialogues and to whom they are talking to at the moment.

The outcome might be a bit iffy, but they try really hard (really Hard!) to make this as epic as possible. They throw in tragedies one after the other, make ground shaking battles at every opportunity with over proportioned explosions (including even atomic mushrooms!) and create the most awkward romantic interactions I have ever seen, just trying to raise the emotional relevance of everything, and the irony here is that they try so much so many different things, one end up getting in the way of the other instead of improving them overall.

They do attempt to give motivation to the enemies and feelings to the people that eventually die (something somewhat lacking in the first season), but since they have to share screen time with the six to seven main characters and still throw in detractions in the form of redundant characters that conveniently disappear from the plot, nude bath scenes for pure fanservice (tons and tons of them), and even a few remnants of humor from the last season, what we end up getting is an indecisive pile of expectations without much delivering.


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Enjoyment & Value
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As I said, it is unusual for me to be able to resume a season of a show in one word, but irony fits so perfectly in every aspect that I can’t help myself. This fact alone is bad, and if a characteristic like this was this abundantly present on the first season, I probably wouldn’t have got around watching the second one, but since it is not the case, the bonds with the cast helps us endure the bad times and enjoy the good ones out of reasonable proportion.

Tower of Druaga: The Sword of Uruk is a worthy sequel where it counts, and even if it loses some of the qualities the first part had, the remains still deliver a coherent follow up and an outcome adequate for the people that enjoyed the first season. Despite the fact that many (myself included) will have to forgive a few disappointments to truly enjoy it, it is still recommended for the ones that liked the first part. The characters still manage to remain interesting and this subjective asset alone holds our interest in the unfolding of the tale persistently, even if it might perish with the last blows dealt by the ending.
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