Otakuism

Ever since Dragonaut first began it’s been the show I look forward to watching every week (tied with Gundam 00 but I’ve already talked about it). The show’s not the best but it’s fresh and fun enough to keep me entertained. First off, it would be a lie for me to deny that the only reason I first watched Dragonaut was for Makoto Uno’s completely sexy female character designs. I am a man of many fetishes, and big breasts happen to be near the top of that list. I can understand why some, or a lot, of people would be put off by the designs, but they’re perfect for me. All of the women just have this naturalistic, sexy look. Toa and Garnet are tied as my favorite girls. And I didn’t even realize until episode 5 that Garnet is voiced by Aya Hirano! Her vocal range has really improved.

However, rarely do I watch a show just for fanservice. There has to at least be a decent story backing it up. Dragonaut fortunately has a good, better than decent but not excellent, story. There’s still a lot of secrets in the show, but the basic premise has been laid out well, with enough differing characters and organizations to allow for some good drama. My only complaint with the story so far is that no one’s explained what the hell the Gillard Army is; though, we do know they’re evil. Admittedly with a large cast a lot of characters haven’t really been developed well thus far, but those that have are compelling and are why I keep watching.

First is Jin, who defied every expectation of mine in becoming a comptetent lead who knows when to take action. It’s great to have seen him grow from a whiny guy in episode 1 to someone who charges into danger by episode 5. I also like the teamwork between him and Gio, with both of them working towards a mutual goal and combining their different strengths. A far cry from the one-dimensional master-servant relationships in the rest of the show.

Kazuki is also a fun character, but for completely different reasons. The guy is fucking insane. Everytime someone mentions Gio’s name he looks like he wants to hunt Jin down and tear his head off. He acts like a girl who got dumped on prom night and wants revenge in the most gruesome way possible now. I really want to see what happens with him and how crazy he will get. Hopefully, when the blue-haired lady becomes his partner, because we all know she’s a dragon, he won’t get sane all of a sudden. He needs to go Nina on eveybodies’ asses.

As for the CG dragons, I’ve seen enough bad CG from both Gonzo and others that it doesn’t even effect me anymore. Mecha dragons are a cool idea and their designs are good, so I’ll just leave it at that. The rest of the animation has been nice, especially fight scenes. Gio vs. Garnet in episode 5 was perfect in more ways than one. Dragonaut isn’t a masterpiece, but there’s enough plot and good characters to create a very interesting story here. I have no idea where things are going even now, but that’s a nice feeling for a change. Gonzo could screw things up, but I’ll believe in them for now.