The Tower of DRUAGA - the Aegis of URUK - Episode 02 (of 13)

By: Chris Beveridge
Review Date: Thursday, April 10, 2008
Release Date: Friday, April 11, 2008



What They Say
The legendary Tower of Druaga is resurrected eighty years after the hero Gilgamesh has taken it down. In order to destroy the evil deity Druaga, the Kingdom of Uruk dispatches its troops to the tower, but the expedition repeatedly fails in its efforts. A young man named Jil who has been blessed by the goddess Ishtar, is awarded a set of brilliant golden armour and a sword from Gilgamesh as tokens to defeat the maumet.

Sent off by the cheering crowd, our young hero Jil confidently sets out to confront the evil deity inhabiting the tower. Helped by great friends such as the archer Neeba and a Mage called Fatina, he heads for the uppermost floor of the Tower!

The Review!
Recovering from the trouble he's caused Neeba's party, Jil now finds himself in the need of a new group of adventurers to work with.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The opening episode of Druaga had me hooked though it was plainly apparent by the end of the episode that what we got wasn't what the show was going to be about. That kind of tease can be really hard to deal with since the show may suddenly turn into something you don't like, or it could go from something you don't like to something you do. With this second episode we get what seems to be a better look at what the show will be about with some mild dashes of what we saw in the first. The end result is a very interesting show that has captured both with the script and with the visual design.


Having completed screwed up things for the group he was with, Jil now finds himself fired from the group as Neeba informs him that he's simply not ready for what's involved in dealing with the Tower. Jil does his best to try and convince him to let him stay, since he's such an earnest young Guardian, but Neeba simply won't have any of it. It doesn't hurt that everyone else in the party dislikes Jil at this point and aren't unhappy to see him go. The feeling among them is that Jil has hurt Neeba's reputation by this and the quickest solution is to just move on. What nobody knows, at least until later, is that Jil is actually Neeba's half brother which is why he brought such an unknown into the group.

Jil is undeterred by all of this however and is still intent on being the hero that he imagines himself to be as we saw in the first episode. That fantasy version of his life has an interesting meaning after we see how he is in "reality" here which makes rewatching that episode all the more fun. With the Summer of Anu upon the land, there are tons of adventurers ready to storm the Tower and deal with the numerous weakened monsters that are roaming about so Jil does his best to organize another party. That goes poorly though since he's one of many young unknowns there and most of the seasoned folks are just avoiding him and others. It wouldn't be a show without a party however and he does awkwardly end up with a pair of surprisingly attractive young women named Kaaya and Ah-mey. He's unsure about them at first but the timing is fortuitous as King Gilgamesh is visiting the city and Jil accidentally finds out about an assassination plot that will likely help launch his career.

The introduction of these two women is definitely well timed as the show was getting pretty male heavy after Fatina became less prevalent. Though we got some glimpses of her and others in Neeba's group in the first episode, they're moved off screen for the most part after the first couple of minutes so it can focus on Jil and his meeting with them. Both women are fairly quiet but Kaaya talks more in a slightly sweet voice that's soothing and fits her dark looks very well. She has that feel of power underneath the innocence which is really intriguing and her designs within the mostly dark and somewhat dank settings is even more appealing. Ah-Mey gets less coverage in this episode as she's quieter and sort of just there but she fits into the physical warrior slot pretty well and shines for a bit towards the end which hints at a lot.

In Summary:
The first episode of Druaga had me hooked even though it was obvious by the end that the series wouldn't follow that model. This is probably a good thing since it would be hard to do if not impossible. While I hope that they do revisit that format in some form in the future, what the show has changed into has proven to be very interesting. Druaga has a certain kind of darkness to its designs and characters that play well after that very comical first episode. Jil and the addition of Kaaya and Ah-mey worked rather well and has piqued my interest in where the show may really go as it explores the Tower of Druaga and some of the possible political intrigue associated with Gilgamesh. In general, it really looks rather well polished and not quite following the standard visual design that a lot of Gonzo shows have.

Features
Japanese 2.0 Language,English Subtitles

Review Equipment
Dell Inspiron 1720 Laptop Running Windows Vista