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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Consistent Continuation of the First Half, January 5, 2010
This review is from: Dragonaut: The Resonance, Complete Series Part 2 (DVD)
I came away from the first installment of Dragonaut with very mixed feelings. The visuals were pretty impressive, a few of the ideas interesting (the asteroid that's in fact a mobile battle station), and the romance decent, if slightly contrived. However, what remained to be discovered was whether the second half of the series would improve upon the promise hinted to in the first or completely fall apart based on the non-linear nature of the story threads. I just finished the second and final installment of the series and can state with certainty that it did neither of what I initially suspected. It was exactly the same blend of ups and downs as the first set! Sure it's different in many ways, but the end result looks an awful lot like more of the same- for better or worse.
Spanning a pair of discs Dragonaut The Resonance Part 02 comes packaged in two thin packs within an outer cardboard slipcase and consists of episodes 14-26. The show comes in at a total runtime of 315 minutes and wears an appropriate TV 14 rating due to animated violence, a lot of clothed promiscuous adventure qualities, some near nudity and a whole lot of jiggling.
Language options are standard sub & dub with both an English dub (Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround) and original Japanese soundtrack (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo) & the choice of English subtitled if so inclined to turn them on.
Extras include an English cast commentary over Episode 16, textless opening and closing songs, and a host of fresh Funimation trailers.
The story technically picks up where the initial prose left off in that it involves humanity dealing with the threat of Thanatos, most of what happens throughout the 26-episodes feels like little more than a succession of excuses to have numerous CGI battles involving human-looking individuals who can transform into dragon-like mecha.
The remainder of the prose involves efforts to establish Jin and Toa's disturbed relationship, which mostly involves Jin tracking down Toa across the solar system and Toa ending up saving his life.
The artistry and animation, beyond the clothed fan service (meaning breasts that have more in common with beach balls then human anatomy), is a mixed bag as well. Gonzo has proven time and time again that it is more than capable of dazzling with its use of CG (see my review of Blassreiter for further proof of this), here it results in too much contrast between the computer-generated and non-CG sections. The dragon models are pretty cool looking and harken back to the mecha designs of the early 1980s, but the reason for their unique design are never fully fleshed out.
The story itself doesn't make any strides in sorting itself out much this time around either but I will say that viewers who were comfortable with the time-line jumping in the first set will likely have no complaints with this one.
None of the fault for the non-linear story presentation lands in the lap of the English dub staff either. It scripts comfortably close to the original, with solid casting choices who deliver the type of emotion captured in the original Japanese.
By the time you reach the conclusion of the show, the viewer is left with a feeling of superfluous resolve but many unanswered plot points to consider. It almost feels as though the show got a little too caught up in its own tangents and love interests along the way to cover all of the really big bases (like the motivations/ history of the invading aliens).
In conclusion, it's a bit sad that Dragonaut comes off as such a muddled completed piece because on paper it looks to be one of the finest anime titles to come from Gonzo in some time. It has nearly everything I look for in an anime title- fan service, mecha, clashing civilizations on a grand scale but it simply doesn't play out to meet the potential of the elements contained within. It's safe to say that fans of the original release will likely enjoy this collection for its ability to conclude the tale but for those (like me) who felt the first 13-episodes were a bit lackluster should prepare for more of the same.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Bad Evangelion derivative with spacegoing dragons, April 30, 2010
This review is from: Dragonaut: The Resonance, Complete Series Part 2 (DVD)
When watching this, it reminded me of Evangelion. To the point where I never really could be bothered to learn the names of most of the cast - I just thought Shinji Equivalent, Asuka Equivalent, Kaji Equivalent, Ritsuko Equivalent, Maya Equivalent. The story turned out to be obviously derivative as well. Ultimate plan of the villain? Grant everyone in the world a Resonance so that it/she can trigger Third Impact. But the thing that really makes this anime forever second rate isn't the derivative story, it's the fact that every single problem faced by anyone in the cast is caused by an inexcusably stupid mistake on the point one or both of the governments involved - and the closest either of them get to facing justice is Gio trashing most of Mars - which gets blamed on the dragon, not the idiot princeling who had been deliberately provoking the dragons for half a season using methods that qualify as acts of war.
I watched through the entire anime due to sheer stubbornness. It wasn't worth it.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Could Have Been Good But Sadly No Entertainment At All Really, February 13, 2010
This review is from: Dragonaut: The Resonance, Complete Series Part 2 (DVD)
I was only able to see one episode of this online and so I thought that it would be a comedic mecha anime series sort of like Full Metal Panic Fumoffu an the like but surprisingly except for the last episode there wasn't to much comedy as you would think in this kind of anime. The amazon editorial gives you the best information about the series as there isn't really much more than that for this mediocre series, the storyline has been played over so many times it just had no entertainment value in the series and the second for myself was that none of the characters in the series really stand out for you, meaning they give you a little background story of who they are and why their doing what their doing but you just don't care none of their characters appeals to you which is truly sad. Yes you'll get your dose of big breasted woman and the typical fan service in the series and again sadly those scenes were probably the most enjoyable parts of the series at the end. The voice cast for both the Japanese and English actors/actresses did a great job for their character roles but sadly with this kind of anime no amount of great voice actors is going to save it. The animation and music for the series is pretty good though so no complaints on either of those ends, so when all is said an done is the series worth getting and all I can say is if you like sci-fi animes try finding some episodes online before buying though just to make sure if you truly want this for your home anime collection..
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