Metal Armor Dragonar

Original Title: 機甲戦記ドラグナー (Kikou Senki Doragunaa)
Translated Title: Armored War Chronicle Dragonar
Official English Title: Metal Armor Dragonar

I was wondering who else has viewed this anime, and if so, what do you think about it? It's a 1987-1988 TV mecha anime from Sunrise with notable mechanical designs from Ookawara Kunio of Gundam, Votoms, Vifam, SPT Layzner fame, directed by Kanda Takeyuki - director of Vifam and MS Gundam 08th MS Team.

Also noteworthy in my opinion is one of the main protagonists is an African American (who beyond liking jazz music and named "Tap" isn't stereotypical), and the hot-headed main character, Kaine Wakaba, is voiced by Kikuchi Masami (Kei'ichi in Ah! My Goddess) with the same voice as Kei'ichi.

The opening animations are exceptionally high in quality and the theme songs are excellent, although I was not very impressed with the actual content. To me the show seems like a lighthearted, semi-comedy version of the original Gundam TV series.

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Thanatos said:
Original Title: 機甲戦記ドラグナー (Kikou Senki Doragunaa)
Translated Title: Armored War Chronicle Dragonar
Official English Title: Metal Armor Dragonar

I was wondering who else has viewed this anime, and if so, what do you think about it? It's a 1987-1988 TV mecha anime from Sunrise with notable mechanical designs from Ookawara Kunio of Gundam, Votoms, Vifam, SPT Layzner fame, directed by Kanda Takeyuki - director of Vifam and MS Gundam 08th MS Team.

Also noteworthy in my opinion is one of the main protagonists is an African American (who beyond liking jazz music and named "Tap" isn't stereotypical), and the hot-headed main character, Kaine Wakaba, is voiced by Kikuchi Masami (Kei'ichi in Ah! My Goddess) with the same voice as Kei'ichi.

The opening animations are exceptionally high in quality and the theme songs are excellent, although I was not very impressed with the actual content. To me the show seems like a lighthearted, semi-comedy version of the original Gundam TV series.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've seen this series. I too was not impressed with the content. Its biggest failure (IMHO) was its inability to develop the main characters (the Dragonar pilots) into those you cared about.

Like you wrote, the first-half of series tends to be rather light-hearted with even the serious moments not having much impact to the viewer. The fault is pretty much lays on the goof-off happy-go-lucky idiot attitude the 3 Dragonar pilots take. Only towards the end did the series picks up some steam with some seriousness and shifting of the focus from the Dragonar pilots to the Anavel Gato prototype Maiyo Plaat and the babelicious Capt. Min. Hmmm...Kinda reminds me of the character focus shift in Seed Destiny.

As for the good points... Ohkawara provides some great mech designs in this series. The "metal armors" on the Giganos side were particularly interesting. Oh, and I loved the sound effect of those rifles.

The 2 opening themes created for the series are absolutely fantastic. Well animated and wonderfully choreographed. I particularly love the 2nd OP with the song "Starlight Serenade".

[Mazinkaizer]

It wasn't so deep in the story and character's development like the UC Gundams yet it was a good show IMO...more like a mini Gundam show /images/graemlins/happy.gif The animation was very good and especially the 1st OP (which was directed by none other the great Masami Obari). The OP song is one of those very unique ones that i can never forget at all (singed by Mami Ayukawa). The cast are also quite impressive: the 3 main characters voiced by:

Masami Kikuchi (Ken), Yoshitada Utsuka (Tap), Kenyuu Horiuchi (Light). Also there others such as: Akiko Hiramitsu, Masako Katsuko, Saeko Shimizu....etc. I would give the show a B grade.

Actually, since Dragonar's style is very similar to Gundam (UC) they're stories/stages were mixed in many SRW games and especially in Sunrsie World War game for the PS2.

I do have a preference for serious mecha shows, but I do enjoy silly shows like the bizarre Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru (currently watching Wataru 2). My problem with Dragonar is that it has the backdrop of a Gundam-like conflict with the Earth Federation and the Giganos Empire (the latter of which is practically Nazi Germany in Space), the appeal of a worldwide conflict, and internal strife within Giganos... yet all of those interesting subplots are foresaken to show the Dragonar pilots try unsucessfully to pick up chicks. I think the show suffered from a lack of identity. It seemed to me it was trying to be "Gundam Lite," it was better than the first half of Gundam ZZ, but it got worse as it went along.

Kaine Wakaba was a developed character, Tap to a lesser extent, and Light just kind played second banana throughout the entire series. Something was kinda wrong when the Char-clone Maiyo's episodes were far more interesting than the main characters'.

The second half of the story with the rogue army in China just lost it for the series. All character development for the Dragonar pilots and their women stopped, and it seemed the four leaders of the Gobi army became the main characters! But the only purpose of that story arc seemed to be to introduce Captain Min (Ming?) and the final showdown suddenly started by reintroducing a character who had been forgotten about.

[Darkseid]

The opening animations are the best ever created IMHO. (Reminds me, thiink I'll make a new DVD full of those soon. hmmm) Highly detailed, well-timed and good music overall.

Unfortunately, that's where pretty much all the budget went. It premeired in the timeslot left by Gundam ZZ (and Zeta Gundam before it) and felt like a cheap attempt to cash into Gundam's popularity, complete with mechs, a sympathetic blonde villain who misses his sister, and a mass driver aimed from the moon. o_O None of the characters were worth mentioning except perhaps the fact it's the only I've seen where a black guy's piloting one of the heroic mechs. The villains were pretty much as underdeveloped and the good guys. Had some good people working on it and a Sunrise budget, but for the most part, it played like something to tide mech fans over until the next Gundam (Char's Couterattack) would be released.

Bottom line: watch the opening sequences, pop out the tape/disc and reach for Zeta, L-Gaim, or Votoms afterwards.

[WeirdlyGruesome]

I thought it was mediocre at best and the writing did it in. While I was watching the series, I had the feeling the writers were just making it up as they went along and not really thinking through the story. IIRC, Dragonar took over ZZ's time slot, so some of the "Gundam Lite" effect may have been done on purpose. Give 'em more of the same, but dilute it.

Not many people say anything about Tap being one of the three pilots, but I always thought the series stood out for that. Also, as you mentioned, they're always chasin' the ladies, so an inter-racial relationship added to that. In '87, when the series aired, I wonder if it made any waves in Japan for this part of the story?

Positives about the show? I like the mech designs overall. Both openings and endings are some of my favorites. They'd easily make my Top 10 OP/EDs of all time.

Overall, I'd say this series is for "mech-heads" only. For R1 companies, leave this one to the fan subbers.

I don't know since I wasn't there, but I doubt Tap's inner-racial relationship would have been a big deal in Japan because he wasn't Japanese. If anything drew an eye it would be that the show's hero, Kaine Wakaba, has a Japanese mother and an American father.

[Darkseid]

Honestly, I don't see the interracial thing being a big deal since they'd already done Bowie/Musica in Southern Cross and Roy/Claudia in Macross and probably others I'm not aware of. (Jean and Nadia in Secret of Blue Water was after Dragonar was off the air.) Skin color was more likely incidental in those times, though come to think of it, haven't seen any interracial romances in anime of late.