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A little variety + a little development + a surprising ending against the boss character = a much more entertaining show.
What They Say
Based on the popular video game of the same name, the third volume of this fantasy anime continues the exciting quest of Shu and his friends as they try to defeat the evil ruler of the Gran Kingdom. More action, more adventure, and of course, more of the mysterious Blue Dragon await!
The Review!
Audio:
For this review, I listened to the Japanese track. In a standard 2.0 format, the sound comes through clearly and concisely and I didn’t notice any problems regarding timing with the subtitles compared to the first disc. The audio comes out well though without any signs of muffling or distortion – checked the English track as well and again no problems, despite the lack of 5.1. It’s good in consideration the amount of action that this series provides so kudos for the improvements as the plot of the show thickens.
Video:
The video is very vibrant and comes through well on the screen considering the amount of colour that is used in the show. There were no problems with the video being broken up or distorted and it flowed through fine, with as mentioned above, the small problems on the previous first disc seem to have gone and you can enjoy the colourful world of Blue Dragon without any problems.
Packaging:
N/A
Menu:
The menu is very basic, with an easy selection box of play, episodes and languages easily selectable. The menu has a very colourful menu with each of the main characters with their summoned creature at their side, alternating with the music. It’s very eye-catching and menu is straight forward enough so no problems, albeit it is pretty much the same as the previous discs. Also, there is NO chapter select, which is a minor annoyance if you have to leave the disc.
Extras:
The only extras were on Disc 4 which were trailers of Blue Dragon Plus, Mar, Bleach: Memories of Nobody, Bleach TV and Naruto. Basically, the EXACT same trailers as before.
Content:
After a rather lacklustre first two discs, I wasn’t sure what to expect with the next set of Blue Dragon – to my surprise, this was a much better effort where I wasn’t constantly looking at the timer as the nature of the plot begins to unravel, and the big battle against the boss character doesn’t go how you’d plan but immediately leads into the next plot – it’s still predictable but at least it’s a lot more entertaining.
At first, it goes with the one thing that I enjoyed in the previous disc, the comic relief big-breasted character Bouquet is always fun to watch, and whilst there is elements of plot (the Book of Beginning stolen the last episode, revealed that 7 pages were ripped out for a specific purpose but not sure what yet) – when Grankingdom unleash a fog attack on Jibaral Castle, it causes the shadows and masters to get drunk. It is quite funny watching Blue Dragon getting smashed, but Bouquet demonstrates her abilities by using her shadow (a giant Hippo) to transform into a giant fan to get the fog away – it’s not plot worthy but it’s amusing, and when Bouquet basically declares herself as Shu’s fiancé (much to Kluke’s irritation) at least there were smiles on this reviewers face.
It soon turns back to serious though, as the gang are looking for Nene, and his main generals including Logi from the previous discs manage to find them as the gang enter Grankingdom. The standard shounen principles hit here as we get all the clichés, the bad guys find the good guys in record time, each gets paired off against one of them, and we even get the attack names. The one that stood out was Cynthia, the rather narcissistic general who considers her the most beautiful woman in the world…and is less than amused at Jiro’s comments that she is old. Of the others, we have a muscular man named Lemaire (up against Zola), Gilliam who is a speed demon (up against Marumaro), Andropov, an intelligent young man (set up by the looks of things to be Kluke’s rival), Schneider, a blond haired handsome man with a thing for the ladies (of course, set up against Bouquet) and of course, Logi himself against Shu. To say that the predictable pairings were an understatement, but to it’s credit, the battles are fairly interesting with mixed results (Jiro and Cynthia being fairly even, Marumaru shocked that Gilliam is faster than he is, Lemaire being no match for Zola, and Schneider more interested in getting Bouquet’s clothes ripped off…), the Logi/Shu stand-off being the most interesting as whilst Blue Dragon is now stronger than Logi’s Valkyrie, Logi’s experience means it’s a close battle.
It leads to the team being separated briefly as they were in a maze of rocks, where Shu meets a stranger on a bike who initially befriends Shu and they hunt for some food, but is later revealed as Lt. Dragnov, an enemy of Shu’s. It’s interesting that there’s a lot of words of wisdom for Shu, however in the same episode, the two have to fight – and Dragnov is then killed by Schneider due to Dragnov’s noble methods wanting a one on one fight. On one side, it does teach Shu some valuable lessons about battle and war, but on the other side, this was way too rushed as we’re supposed to feel sorry for a one episode character who was a rarity on Nene’s side because of his good methods. It does work to a small extent, but this could have easily stretched out a few more episodes and/or battles. Jiro also gets this as well, as we get a flashback to his past, and how his family was killed. Again, it’s just for one episode but the feeling does hit why Jiro is the way he is, and when Nene’s robotic general Szabo (who did the deed) is beaten by Jiro’s sheer force of will when the gang manage to get into the big bosses hideout, that was a feeling of victory for the viewer as much as Jiro.
However, the interesting thing which actually makes the disc much more enjoyable is in episodes 14 and 15 when they battle Nene. Nene, up until now has been depicted as a wrinkled old alien who simply let his minions do his battling for him. However, to the surprise of myself, Nene turns out to be a really powerful deus-ex-machina, and is able to pretty much slaughter everyone in the gang by draining their shadow abilities, mechanical enhancements to create super strength, and even able to sense Bouquet’s invisibility. Whilst this seems cheap, it brings in three key points. The first that it doesn’t follow the standard plot of the good guys beating the bad guy only to find that there’s someone more powerful (though something similar does happen), the second point is that it brings in Zola’s past and how she really feels about the kids. Zola is the most intriguing character of the cast, being the oldest she is a sort of guardian for everyone else and this is demonstrated most in her protection of Kluke when everyone else is down. Finally, and most importantly, it brings Kluke into the equation. She has always felt a bit inferior because she has no shadow, so she tries to help out by planning an escape route. This is foiled by Nene who is about to kill them all, when Kluke suddenly creates her own shadow, Phoenix, to save them all. Again, predictable but it brings everything full circle, especially when Kluke falls into a coma after it. It brings forth the relationship of both Zola and the gang, and also with Shu/Kluke as childhood friends. The one downside is that again, not only does the predictable happy ‘ending’ happen, it ends up quite comically, which is one of the times it really didn’t need to happen.
It ends up with the gang now needing to power up, so they begin to search for the 7 missing pages of the Book of Beginning. The final episode sadly is mostly filler in regarding to it’s comedy, although the major plot of Nene now looking to advance his forces against the country makes the time tick a bit quicker, not to mention when the gang beat up a few of Grankingdom’s shadow goons, Logi finds out and was one of the few people who felt that they hadn’t been killed by Nene, and he is very pleased. The ‘only I can defeat you’ plot is always interesting as the earlier battle between Shu and Logi demonstrated, and at least allows Logi, who is more interesting as a villain than Nene, to get noticed.
The good thing about these episodes was that it got me interested in the series again after a lacklustre first two discs. The main problems are still there (predictability, trying to mix serious and silly at the wrong times, trying to get the viewer to feel things when it’s difficult to) however it’s a lot stronger now they’ve battled Nene and that they were no match for them. Zola’s feelings, Kluke getting a shadow, Bouquet showing her use to the group and Jiro getting his moment of awesome, Shu was quite overshadowed (no pun intended) this time and that actually helped as Shu himself doesn’t seem too interesting (aside from his tearful moments with Kluke) whilst Zola definitely seems to be a character you need to know more about. It’s a good action based number of episodes as well, the battles against the general switch from character to character so you know everything is going on, and the morals are strong too especially during the Dragnov episode.
In summary:
Blue Dragon changed these episodes – whilst the characterisation is still somewhat weak and it’s still very predictable, the fact that the focus was less on Shu and more on the other characters helped dramatically. The battles will keep action fans interested and even a few tears might be shed during the Kluke moments. It’s still full of weaknesses (the last episode didn’t help) but the plot is now showing, and it will be interesting to see where Blue Dragon takes us in the next couple of episodes. Will be waiting with interest.
Features
Japanese 2.0 Language, English 2.0 Language, English Subtitles
Review Equipment
Toshiba 37C3030 - 37" Widescreen HD Ready LCD TV – Tangent Ht-50 Home Theatre System Multi-Regional DVD Players/Speakers – Tangent Subwoofer 50-150 Hz, Impedenced 8 OHM.
