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Friday, December 18, 2009

DVD Review: Lively dragons ruined by confusing story



The first part of "Dragonaut" falls apart with an overload of substories, main characters and lots of explosions.

To be fair, "Dragonaut" has a very simple plot which can be summarized in a single paragraph. Pluto's moon is sending dragons to destroy our planet. Our only hope is the Dragonauts, who pilot dragons born on the Earth.

Within this story is a whole slew of subplots. The main story focuses on Jin, a teenage boy who survived a horrible shuttle crash with an asteroid object. Two years later, he runs away from home and almost dies. He gets saved by Toa, a pink-haired girl who can transform into a dragon.

Many groups, including the ISDA and the Guillard New Emirates, want to capture Toa. Thus, Toa tries to keep Jin away from her, so he doesn't know about her destructive past. Of course, Jin can't let that happen, because he's in love with her.

Thus, the story should have played out in a basic fashion. However, the massive number of characters and subplots pile up to make one of the most complicated stories ever heard in an anime.

For starters, the ISDA owns a bunch of dragons. However, these dragons can transform into an anthropomorphic human form, with a special character name. Oh, and there's some special dragons known as the originals, who crash-landed on the Earth to do something with dragon eggs.

By the time a new species of neo-original dragons arrive on Earth, you won't even want to bother trying to understand it all. Nearly every character finds a way to double-cross their friend, forcing the anime to enter a mega apocalyptic sequence with explosions, evil factions, vengeful dragons and a whole slew of arch-rivals who want to ruin the world.


The series had immense potential. It started with a bunch of flashy, aerial fist-fights, transforming dragons and a love story. The girls looked unbelievably sexy, with ridiculously big breasts and curvaceous bodies. The main characters even had a clean look, wearing surfer-style clothes.

However, this is ultimately all that the series has. Part one of "Dragonaut" starts off as a fresh, exciting action series, but it winds down into an extremely convoluted plot that only truly dedicated fans would figure out. "Dragonauts" disappoints everyone with a lame script and a storyline with too many snags.

Image courtesy of randomc.animeblogger.net

Monday, December 14, 2009

There will be blood. Buckets of it.

I was going to finish up with Dragonaut, but then I remembered that I haven't finished watching "Baccano!" yet. The box set of "Baccano!" will be released on Dec. 30, in time for the post-New Year's sales.

The series is an incredible one, based around the conversations in-between fighting fatal battles with knives, guns and explosives. If my final article doesn't slow down my schedule, I should finish watching the anime sometime tomorrow.

So look forward to a review of one of the bloodiest series ever made.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Missing the Daily 49er

Well, it looks like I'm finished with the Daily 49er. I already miss working with everyone.

I'm probably going to update this blog more often, now that I have more free time. Breaking up with one of my favorite papers in the world is hard to do. I've labored with countless numbers of great people on the Daily 49er staff.

I love putting stories on paper. Electronic journalism just isn't as rewarding as the effort put into publishing literature in print. There's so much to enjoy about producing these pieces of precious paper every day.

Anyhow, I wish my staff members the best of luck as I venture into the real world. Geez, reality bites.