Story - 5
When I said 'SUPER SENTAI' inspired I really meant it; dagwon's story feels like its been flat out ripped off of a toku series. With a mysterious alien empire led by Ark seijin invading earth, its up to a group of teenagers with attitude (literally) En, Kai, Shin, Yoku, and Ryu recruited by brave seijin to save the world from destruction. If you're familiar with toku or even power rangers this set up should sound very familiar to you. Whilst the is pretty predictable; with new mechas, team members, gained along the way, resulting in more villians revealing themselves from the shadows and some casualties in the main cast, dagwon isn't at all groundbreaking in terms of its story and what i deem the weakest element of the series.
Art - 6
From the designs of the mecha alone, Dagwon probably has some of my favourite designs in the whole brave series (particularly 'Shadow dagwon' and 'Dagfire'). With the legend himself kunio okawara credited as the main mechanical designer, the blocky, bulk look of the robots with some bright popping colours to go along with them, the mecha of dagwon are excellent in my opinion. The henshin suits/devices of the dagwon members aren't of anything to note really, however the actual character designs are another story.
Compared to previous series entries, dagwon seems to have opted for a more realistic and plain design for its main cast of characters compared to a more stylized and cartoony look seen in the likes of Goldran or Might gaine. Aparently with the young females of its time, and that definetly shows in the character designs, with the more 'Bishounen' aesthetic for the main cast, its non my cup of tea, but it certainly isn't bad. The consistency of the designs vary between, but i genuinely felt like it looked pretty flat and dull, atleast untill around ep 37, where there is a sudden upgrade in art and animation which was certainly a treat.
Sound/OST - 6
Getting the sound design out the way first, it wasn't anything bad or that special, with nothing really standing out in that department in my opinion. The actual OST was ok, it doesn't have many stand out tracks (except for the OP and ED), and wasn't too memorable so I'll say it was probably the second weakest element of the series.
Characters - 7
By far the strongest element of the series, Dagwon's characters are very entertaining; the chemistry between the main dagwon members is pretty good, as they really develop into a team who can rely on one another in the most dire of situations (with the expected quarreling along the way). The auxilary mecha in this one did have some personality though, with gunkid and Lian get some good focus and a satisfying conclusion to their story arc. My favourite member overall was probably ryu, as he was pretty cool whenever he showed up along with ninja skills. My least favourite was probably Geki, as he was kind of annoying and definetly had my least favourite mech/design (however I did feel bad for when he didn't end up with maria in the end).
The rest of the reccuring cast is nothing worth mentioning except for the ark seijin villan (who was pretty generic, and there's not much to say as we really didn't get a backstory for him and the villan trio later down the line) and maybeMaria and her little brother sometimes getting saved by the dagwon team, but other then that weren't that significant and maria especially was annoying and just hanged around the leader En alot.
Overall - 7
Dagwon definetly isn't my favourite entry in the brave series, but it has alot to like in it and those strengths really do help to raise its overall score to a 7 (because otherwise it would have been a 6.5 at best). Some strong characters and great mecha design, dagwon is highly recommended to big fans of mecha, tokusatsu or just big fans or just brave series completionists. Otherwise...i dunno....it was aparently popular with bishounen fans i guess...
