Otakuism

ERUPTING GOD FINGER SEKIHA LOVE LOVE TENKYOKEN!

The wild train wreck is finally over. I guess most would say that’s a good thing, but honestly I did enjoy watching Dragonaut. Does that mean Dragonaut was good? Hell no, it was an epic catastrophe of plot, characters, and pacing. It’s the definition of a bad anime. However, it became so bad it became good again. It’s so easy to laugh at Kazuki’s homoerotic passion and Gio’s hair metal outfit. The show is more a comedy than anything. I think Dragonaut is the kind of uniquely weird show that only a few people can stand, but for those few people it’s great.

I mean, just look at this! Gio starts fighting Ostrum with both of them on their hands and kicking with their feet like break dancers. For the final battle Gio glows gold and grows a giant sword from his forehead to ram passionately into the enemy dragon. I am not making this up.

The glow is all from the breasts. They require the sustenance of virgin souls to grow.

Aside from liking Dragonaut for being bad, there are a couple things I genially liked about it. As I’ve said before I’m a man of many sexual fetishes, and the character designs by Uno Makoto are right up my alley. Sure, Garnet’s breasts have a life of their own, and one could tell how high the animation budget was for a particular scene by seeing how skimpy Toa’s hot pants became, but designs like Toa and Sieglinde are still just pure sex. The music is also surprisingly good. There are many great instrumental tracks in this show, which is why it’s a shame I can’t find the soundtrack anywhere.

Hmm…delicious Sieglinde ass.Great way to end a series.

Dragonaut should be called a classic of bad anime for our own time. It’s only fitting for the brave and mocking at heart. I think one can tell if they’ll like Dragonaut by the end of the first episode. Hearing Kazuki yell “GIOOOOO!” that first time is all it takes.

Well said, Liner. Show in a nutshell.

This episode of Dragonaut is filled with contrived plotting, character deaths, and the thickest melodrama I’ve ever seen, but I still loved all of it; probably because I am a sucker for melodrama. Thanatos has now transported to near Earth and the Gillard army is trying to destroy it, with disastrous effects on the army as Thanatos wipes them out without suffering any damage. Gio waits inside Thanatos for Jin to decide to let Toa go or not. There’s also the spirits of Akira and Machina which have somehow merged with Thanatos and now speak for it. I have no idea why Akira and Machina needed to come back when Gio is already Thanatos’s voice. I’m kind of pleased that they aren’t exactly revived, but it still leaves a nasty taste in my mouth.

On Earth the dragonaut gang decides to fly up to Thanatos to convince Gio that dragons and humans can live together, with Sieglinde giving a pretty nice, tearful goodbye. Kazuki sits around waiting for Widow to heal from the wound Gio gave her, while Jin and Toa spend their last days together. I liked the contrast in scenes here with Kazuki treating Widow like a piece of trash whereas Jin and Toa are acting all lovey dovey. Widow begins turning into yellow sparkles, apparently because she and Kazuki never had a resonance, and manages one final confession to Kazuki of her love before she disappears completely. Widow has to have the worst fate of any character in the show. She’s basically Kazuki’s punching bag the whole time and then just goes and dies. Really sucks for her.

The time runs out on Jin and Toa and Gio arrives to take Toa again. Jin relents this time and lets Toa go, much to her protest as she wants to spend all her time with Jin. A Widow-less Kazuki and Toa-less Jin meet on the beach and begin fighting each other, which ends with Kazuki confessing his repressed homosexual love for Jin. I’m not kidding here. The reason the whole time Kazuki has wanted to kill Jin for taking Gio is because he wanted Gio to protect Jin. Yeah, it’s very warped logic that fits Kazuki’s stupid mind perfectly. After Kazuki and Jin have a good cry over things they band together to go get Toa back, conveniently forgetting Kazuki’s homicidal tendencies.

Jin and Kazuki are joined by Commander Sakaki, who now wants to save Laura. They infiltrate the ISDA base and Sakaki manages to rescue Laura with Jin and Kazuki going on to find a shuttle. Sadly Sakaki is shot in the back by his own scientist after rescuing Laura. Laura sees Sakaki’s sacrifice and transforms into her power armor to fight the rest of the security forces while Jin and Kazuki escape in a shuttle. Her and Sakaki, both mortally wounded, confess their love for each other and Sakaki realizes the foolishness of his actions before they both die. Professor Nozaki arrives to absorb Laura’s anti-thanatos factor, intent on killing thanatos once and for all.

Sakaki’s death is the saddest one so far in this show, just cause he’s the kind of character who realizes he’s wrong far too late. The final moments between him and Laura were really sweet. Widow’s death was random, especially with the sparkles, but at least that cleans up her and Kazuki’s story. Kazuki is still the craziest bastard ever, even if he is redeemed. I still hope he dies soon, perhaps killed by Thanatos or something. But the most random thing in this episode is seeing the three operator girls actually fight. One of them even has throwing knives! That was just too much. I wonder how throwing knives work in low-G anyways.

Yes, Gio comes back at the end of this episode as the next BIG BAD GUY, the evil aura lets us know this, which apparently entails a wardrobe change and a perm. At least he’s not wearing a thong on his forehead.

Speaking of which, that’s the most pathetic scar ever. I can hardly even see the thing. Does that really require all the cover up? And Kazuki gets beaten down by Gio, again. This show is really going in circles. I just want a finale with a lot of explosions to satisfy me now. And to explain what the hell creepy little girl/Raum has been doing this whole time. Probably a little too much to ask actually.

“Arrgh, I’m a pirate!”

Kazuki Tachibana: redefining stupidity since October 3, 2007.

Now this is one surprise-filled episode of Dragonaut. So, yeah, spoilers galore. First we find out that Garnet has been a dragon the whole time, though I wonder if she’s actually a half dragon. Only one of her eyes is red and she hasn’t shown the ability to actualize at all. Seeing as how she was searching so hard for the Resonance ability early on in the series, I think she’s probably a really defect dragon, which would also account for her temper. Inferiority complex much? Garnet is just a whole set of mysteries it seems.

Toa reveals that she is dying, which kind of puts a damper on the show. Seeing as how the whole theme seems to be about defying your fate she could still live, but Gonzo really does like its tragic endings. So after that troubling revelation, what better time to have a symbolic wedding. It makes sense, but is also very cheesy, which most anime romances are actually.

Of course the real surprise of the episode was Akira’s quick death. Admittedly when any character starts talking about their feelings you know their gonna die, but Akira’s was pretty brutal. Nice spray of blood there animators. Speaking of animation, I think her death scene has the best animation of the show so far. Pretty faces. Akira’s death causes Machina to go berserk and transform in Dark Machina, who plans to use the power of the Holy Grail to-wait, wrong show again. She just plans to kill Asim real good. No idea why Asim wanted her to go berserk, though. Despite being punched by Jin he’s still a smug bastard who cackles a lot. Next week is looking to be a real climax, so hopefully we’ll get a lot of awesome melodrama and stuff that I love from Gonzo shows.

Jin actually does something useful! He punches Asim, finally shutting up that smug bastard. I didn’t think Jin had it in him, but he just had to go and surprise me. Ok, so Gio saved his ass the rest of the episode, but still, that’s progress. Now save Toa already so we can get this plot moving and the show can spend more time focusing on how hot Sieglinde is.

As demonstrated by the new Dragonaut ED. At least the song is a bit better than “Rain of Love.” Now that was one terrible ending song.

And I just got to say how much I love Kazuki this episode. He’s going beyond insane now. I think his hair is starting to grow in proportion to his insanity, too. That’s how crazy he is. I hope he comes back with a face scar so he can become even more of a cliche villain and have a face complex, too. Widow’s dragon form is also ugly as hell, even with the already bad CG. Doesn’t even look remotely like a dragon. Looks like Jin will be reunited with Toa AGAIN next week. Hopefully this will be the last time and we can get on to the more interesting plots of Thanatos and the evil little girl that keeps showing up. That’s one creepy little girl.