The Tower of Druaga ~the Aegis of Uruk~ – 01
OP Sequence
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OP: 「SWINGING」 by ムラマサ☆ (Muramasa*)
Watch the OP! Mirror 1, Mirror 2
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Summary:
Inside the Tower of Druaga, a group of adventurers come across a caravan that was completely destroyed. They also come under subsequent attack, but one of their members, a teen by the name of Jil, defeats most of the bad guys in one strike, and he’s able to easily slay the final monster who tries to ambush him. As it turns out, Jil is known as the Hero who is on a quest to defeat the evil Druaga. He had been granted this destiny by the Goddess Ishtar after the forces of man could not defeat the forces of Druaga, and the previous hero Gilgamesh had even give Jil his own sword. Jil had set out with four allies, but he first had to prove himself to Neeba, the archer of the group, and he had also wooed a beautiful princess before he left, promising to marry her when he returned.
During the journey to the Tower, one of the group’s members – moments after revealing that he was going to get married back at his hometown once this was all over – had been killed by the Black Knight. The loss of his friend had caused Jil to use a special attack that promptly defeated the Black Knight, but Jil refused to kill him because he realized that the Black Knight knew the sorrow of battle. Jil and company had eventually reached the Tower after a 10-year journey, and the first monster that attacked them was of the tentacle variety. It caught the only girl of the group, Fatina, but Neeba had kept Jil from saving her because he wanted to get a good look at her while the tentacles probed around her body. They defeated the monster after Fatina got mad, however they were soon faced with another monster – this time a dragon.
The dragon killed another one of the group members, and just as things were looking bad, the Black Knight showed up to help. However, the Black Knight had also admitted that he was going to get married back at his hometown once this was all over, and the dragon had then killed him too. This in turn caused Jil to awaken a new power that promptly defeated the dragon, and he used this same power to defeat some strong knights further up the Tower. As they near the top, the remaining three hear more forces of Druaga catching up with them, so Neeba volunteers to hold them off while Jil and Fatina go ahead. Jil didn’t want this and knocked Neeba out, but he nevertheless left Neeba behind to the advancing horde. A little later, Fatina had come close to confessing her feelings to Jil and had wanted to run away with him instead of fighting, but Jil remained confident that a miracle would happen, and he suggested to Fatina that they get married once this was all over.
When the two finally confronted the evil Druaga, they found him to be rather diminutive in size, and they were shocked to learn that Druaga is actually Jil’s father. In any case, Druaga easily knocked Jil down, and it was the sudden appearance and equally quick defeat of the innkeeper who Jil had once drank and partied with that caused Jil to fully power up. Unfortunately, even in his most powerful form, Jil was unable to defeat Druaga. Just as he thought that he was going to die, Jil got a vision of the goddess Ishtar who reminded him that his friends are always by his side. Realizing this gave Jil enough of a boost to defeat Druaga, and right as the story concludes, Jil wakes up. He is actually being carried by one of his allies after having been knocked out by the first monster that attacked them back at the caravan location. Their group is now being chased by a horde of monsters and soon reach a dead end, but Jil still doesn’t even remember where they are. Fatina has to thus remind him that they’re in the Tower of Druaga.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「塔頂者たち」 (Touchousha-tachi) by KENN
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2
Wow, that OP sequence was definitely not what I expected for a fantasy series like this. Never mind the fact that the song was the upbeat kind that sounds like it would go well with a comedy series, the entire present-day setting made me think that Druaga was going to pull some sort of .hack plot where we find out that all the characters are only playing an MMORPG game. And after watching the first episode, it’s still not clear if they’re going to try something like that. The ending meanwhile was more of the standard fantasy variety with how it shows various settings and characters, and Kenn (the voice actor for Jil) turned out to be a decent singer.
Gonzo, you win this round. As some of you might know, the ending of Dragonaut left a really bad taste in my mouth in regard to the animated productions that Gonzo does. But, with this first episode of Druaga, they might (emphasis on might) have won me over again. When I originally looked at the promo material for this show, I thought it looked like Ragnarok crossed with RomeoXJuliet, and that didn’t sound too appealing. I never imagined they’d start with a parody episode that made fun of all the kinds of poor writing and plot devices that you can find in these types of stories. And it was all hilarious, from the sudden death flags to the tentacle monster to the cheesy way Jil defeated Druaga. Of course I don’t know if this kind of humor or storytelling will be able to hold up in the rest of the series (Dragonaut didn’t start off so horribly either), and I suspect the series will be much more serious from now on since everything was just a dream. If nothing else though, this first episode has convinced me to watch a few more. I’m optimistic about this, but very cautiously so.
To add on to all that, Gonzo and its partners actually delivered on their promise and uploaded the fully subbed episode on crunchyroll and on YouTube – with fairly good translations no less. I’m curious to see if the new distribution model will make Druaga (and Blassreiter) super-popular and well-known among the English-speaking community, but for now, it just feels like we’re living in the future.
April 4, 2008 at 3:56 pmthenightsshadow
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Whoa. No way.
All the ideas are going to waste… :(
April 4, 2008 at 4:00 pmfalconx0101
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That was amazing.
April 4, 2008 at 4:10 pmJosh
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Pleasantly surprised here as well when I watched it, trying not to laugh too hard lol.
I just hope the rest of the series is like this because the first episode WAS classic.
April 4, 2008 at 4:12 pmHotaru
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….that costume is amazing *drool*
http://randomc.net/image/Tower%20of%20Druaga/Tower%20of%20Druaga%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2008.jpg
I WANT IT….MUST WEAR TO CONVENTIONS…..UGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(yay for cosplay~)
April 4, 2008 at 4:12 pmre
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wasn’t planning on watching this… but i guess i’ll give it a shot =/
April 4, 2008 at 4:15 pmnapen
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The ending sequence captured my attention.
April 4, 2008 at 4:20 pmdan
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http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/817/crvsytex4.jpg
left is CR, right is youtube
April 4, 2008 at 4:26 pmRmX
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I am intrigued.
April 4, 2008 at 4:27 pmGynok
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Man, this looks great :D im lookin forward to more of this…promising for sure – imo then op/ed sequences weren’t bad either
April 4, 2008 at 4:30 pmJin
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haha oh wow. I loved the Gurren Lagann and Nico parodies.
April 4, 2008 at 4:43 pmRaesnore
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That was awesome.
April 4, 2008 at 4:45 pmCyph
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This show looks good fun, but i hope a fansubber picks it up, i dont care if they straight up steal the gonzo TL, its just…
I have no idea how people watch their tv/anime on such bad quality streaming sites, all the quality is lost on crunchyroll/youtube… Stage 6 used to be good but they’re dead now..
Alotta these anime are partially about the sense of spectacle from those moments of intense animation, that cant be put across well in grainy dodgy-vision
April 4, 2008 at 4:48 pmJosh
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Cyph – or you could put down $2 and watch it on BOST at good quality or give a donation to Crunchyroll (I think they’re suggesting $2 as well) and download a copy.
April 4, 2008 at 4:50 pmWindspirit
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Anime on Youtube = FAIL.
At least, there’s downloadable version on Crunchyroll.
(lol@ Neeba drooling over Farina being tentacle-raped.
April 4, 2008 at 4:50 pmCyn
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Oh man, oh man, that was one of the funniest episodes I’ve seen in a long time. I really cried from laughing to much. I just hope they’ll be able to keep the series and its comedy fresh for awhile. Oh and I usually don’t watch streaming ever but wow the youtube quality was absolutely great =].
April 4, 2008 at 4:56 pmWingZero zxt
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA AHAHAHAHAHA hhahahahahahahahaha…etc (i was only slightly amused :P)
April 4, 2008 at 4:57 pmDeranged
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This was epic… oh so epic… I hope the rest of it can live up to this somehow, even while being serious…
April 4, 2008 at 5:09 pmanon
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typical Gonzo, first few eps will be good and end it with “LOL GONZO!”
i hope they stop doing that… starting from uruk
April 4, 2008 at 5:46 pmasdf
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for some strange reason, I feel like this series is going to end up in the pits…
April 4, 2008 at 5:54 pmSlightly Bald Wizard
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THUMBS DOWN.
I’d rather watch Kurenai than this dumbed-down otaku garbage. A real great choice Gonzo made when they said, “From now on we’ll only create ‘otaku’ and ‘cool’ anime.” Now what they’re making is animu.
April 4, 2008 at 5:56 pmharakiri
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This was boring except for the Hiroyuki Imaishi animation at the end. It was like ‘Gurren Lagann’ is back :D
April 4, 2008 at 5:56 pmJoeDX
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Shoji Gatoh (FMP author) is the screenwriter… so I have to check this out.
And music by Hitoshi Sakimoto = win.
April 4, 2008 at 5:56 pmramiel_salbazier
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anime producer uploading subbed version of their own… This a revolution!
April 4, 2008 at 5:59 pmdivine|s
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I think the first episode of Druaga no Tou made me realize that Horie Yui, aka Hocchan, can do some pretty damn good ecchi anime if she wanted to. :X
April 4, 2008 at 6:00 pmLithium17
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Dragonaut was CRAP….not Shuffle or to-Love-ru crap, but pure Celine Dion Power of Love CRAP!! Barf!
Just saw the first episode of this Drauga show… seems like some weird MMORPG type anime like Hack:infection or Crapnarok…. Soo Stoopid.
Show Spoiler ▼
April 4, 2008 at 6:05 pmSaph
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This was quite a pleasant surprise cause since it’s being offered for “free”, one might imagine how much effort the team working on it would put in, not to mention the translation.
However it turned out to be decent, with some good moments and all in all quite a funny episode if you understand the jokes/puns/etc.
I was slightly scared that the anime would keep on the parody track for oncoming episodes, so it was a relief to find out that it wasn’t going to be like that and like some others here I didn’t really feel like looking forward to the next episode after watching, but listening to the OP changed my mind gravely.
Oh, and after checking all 3 available streaming options, I have to admit that BostTV is the best option if you’re a quality geek like myself.
Using the “&fmt=18″ code on Youtube isn’t completely awful either, but Crunchyroll is horrible, more so for me since I’m using a pretty big monitor.
~sp
April 4, 2008 at 6:13 pmramiel_salbazier
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how to use “&fmt=18″ code?
April 4, 2008 at 6:36 pmkadian1364
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Wow, definitely a couple grades better than what I was expecting. Really, my bouts of lolling were only subdued by my amazement at how much more enjoyable the first ep was than that .hack/crap, Ragnacrap, MMOcRaPG stuff it was first portrayed like. I have some concern about the turn to deathly-serious-hope-the-real-show-isnt-like-this change at the end, ahd that maybe they spent all their comic material on the first episode, but very entertaining nonetheless.
Oh yeah, and after this is over, I’m going back to my hometown to get married! XD
April 4, 2008 at 6:37 pmMike
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crap or not, gonzo making the show available, subbed, on the internet is good stuff. This is where American TV networks have gone already (or rather, finally) with sites like Hulu — and you can either whine about fansubbers killing the industry or you can DO something about it. Bravo. Now to wait for the inevitable wobbling to the crap side for those Gonzo production values.
April 4, 2008 at 6:45 pmTsu-chan
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Pretty funny…the animation in the last fight scene reminded me of Gurren Lagann.
April 4, 2008 at 6:58 pmkaplan
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weird
April 4, 2008 at 6:58 pmscwizard
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The low quality version was hard to watch. I couldn’t get myself to finish it.
April 4, 2008 at 6:58 pmvesper_nova
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what the hell was that guy (Jil) smoking and howcome he’s not sharing
April 4, 2008 at 6:59 pmsealouse
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what does the real world have to do with this? Are they seriously playing a MMORPG? You have to pay for BostTV don’t you?
April 4, 2008 at 7:16 pmBROOKLYN otaku
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“Ragnarok crossed with RomeoXJuliet” Hmmmm?? i thought just from the screen caps, that it looks like “gurren lagann mixed with lodoss wars”
April 4, 2008 at 7:18 pmWashi
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>>I’d rather watch Kurenai than this dumbed-down otaku garbage. A real great choice Gonzo made when they said, “From now on we’ll only create ‘otaku’ and ‘cool’ anime.” Now what they’re making is animu.
Either you’re joking or you’re a joke.
Either way, this first episode was a lot funnier. I was really suprised that it turned out to basically be an action-comedy as opposed to the more serious-looking trailer. Good stuff.
April 4, 2008 at 7:21 pmbwahahahhaha
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I got it from CR for two dollars to download. It was quick, good quality, nice subs and a great start. Good job Gonzo.
April 4, 2008 at 7:24 pmAlgent
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Too bad we have to pay to download the file, even if it’s a better resolution :/
April 4, 2008 at 7:35 pmfinalnight
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@algent
Yeah totally dude! they should be giving us this stuff for free because in japan money grows on cherry blossoms.
April 4, 2008 at 7:44 pmBlissmo
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yup, i just downloaded the crappy version, but i neeed to watch anime in good quality! XD
I’m too cheap to afford anime, LOL~
April 4, 2008 at 7:47 pmSadman
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Holy shit! that was insanely funny especially when everybody dies after they say they are getting married. I hope the show stays funny for the later episodes
April 4, 2008 at 8:16 pmhcl4
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Not too bad for a first episode. First episode is like an animated version of Space Balls with a fantasy RPG setting mixed with some modern day parodies and references. Really liked the “power of friendship” and the whole Gurren Lagann style animation at the end.
April 4, 2008 at 9:09 pmBlissmo
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Show Spoiler ▼
April 4, 2008 at 9:27 pmavex|mode
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I was okay but not that impressive or anythng. I wouldn’t call this earth-breaking in terms of comedy. But it’s the first episode so hard to judge right now.
April 4, 2008 at 9:52 pmsuckoja
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It did remind me of the fumoffu? here. 555555
April 4, 2008 at 9:53 pmSputnik
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The randomness and parodies are hilarious. I just wish they could continue this. But hey this is Gonzo… who knows what’s going to happen T_T..
April 4, 2008 at 9:57 pmkrusha_jov
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Great, free and legal anime. I will definately watch this anime. As an appreciation to Gonzo for offering free anime, I’ll donate $10 for this first episode.
April 4, 2008 at 10:29 pmclipz
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if you have a comrade that is a beautiful woman on your team and got tentacle you watch them get grope. that made me laugh. thnx a bunch omni for some series intro of this
April 4, 2008 at 10:30 pmShinndou
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There’s a reversed version of this episode that was streamed by GyaO, which shows the real events that occur while Jill is having that weird dream. You can watch it here at nicovideo: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm2898038
April 4, 2008 at 10:37 pmGojiro88
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You can download the episode from YouTube if you copy the url, paste it here select “Youtube” from the dropdown menu and hit download.
April 4, 2008 at 10:45 pmGojiro88
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^^^^^My bad, left out the site name above. Oops
April 4, 2008 at 10:50 pmBlack cat
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@Gojiro88: Paste it here ?????? O_O
April 4, 2008 at 11:05 pmtokko
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Woot, new series, wohoo coools
April 4, 2008 at 11:16 pmGojiro88
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@Black cat, its there in my second post right underneath the first one. I accidentaly left it out of the first one. Here it is again http://keepvid.com/
April 4, 2008 at 11:27 pmsealouse
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“There’s a reversed version of this episode that was streamed by GyaO, which shows the real events that occur while Jill is having that weird dream. You can watch it here at nicovideo: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm2898038 ”
How do you do it!?!?
April 4, 2008 at 11:37 pmdivine|s
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@Shinndou:
Wow, this is cool. Thanks for sharing!
I wonder if they’re ever planning to air this, “meanwhile, in the real world” version or if they’re just going to save it for the DVD release.
April 4, 2008 at 11:57 pmDruaga
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Hey, Shinndou, what do I have to do to see this video showing the real world?
April 5, 2008 at 12:00 amdivine|s
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You need to sign up for a niconico account before you can view their videos.
Wow, that other “side” of this episode was just as hilarious! The cursed doll! LOL
April 5, 2008 at 12:06 amDruaga
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divine|s, is it free?
April 5, 2008 at 12:06 amDruaga
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divine|s, is it raw or english subbed?
April 5, 2008 at 12:19 amShouta
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Being on NicoNico, it’s raw of course. I’d highly recommend checking out the Ura version Omni, you’ll get a nice kick out of it especially now that you’ve seen the Omote.
April 5, 2008 at 12:31 amdivine|s
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@Druaga:
Yes, niconico is free. As Shouta said, it’s unsubbed. Unfortunately, it probably won’t be very funny if you don’t understand any Japanese. :\
April 5, 2008 at 12:38 amninjikiran
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I bought it for $2 just to try out the PSP version and the such. Hopefully japanese anime devs will release more like this, but its unfortunate that this most likely will not be the trend lol.
April 5, 2008 at 12:50 amJAm1
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The first ep was quite amusing. Nice move from Gonzo.
April 5, 2008 at 12:51 amDrayen
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imo this episode was pretty terrible, and the show looks like your average terrible-cheesy “adventurers in a dungeon” anime, i wouldnt be surprised if its going to be the same thing it parodied in its first episode.
April 5, 2008 at 1:08 amrustyx
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I feel so dumb, expecting this to be something like Escaflowne..Instead, it really did feel like watching an ep of Gurren Lagann, and I had to double check it still wasn’t April 1st >__>;
If this parody-ness is how the series will actually be, then count me out. I have a terrible backlog and too many new shows to check out..
April 5, 2008 at 1:14 amAki
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-.- best and only $2 I’ve ever spent on an anime episode…it was so worth it…
Man Gonzo was really messing with us when they released Dragonaut…(that hurt!)..But woah this one was a shocker! The promos didn’t look any good…but woah…that first episode was awesome! XD
“After this…to get married” – Never going to say that for awhile now…I kinda feel like staying alive for awhile.. >.
April 5, 2008 at 2:23 amYukiruchan
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Even though the video quality on crunchroll was terrible, it was a fun watch. It’s also the only new series that’s ready-subbed so that’s great! I might just keep stream-watching it as it comes out.
This was much much better than Amatsuki (slow paced = boring. Too many pointless scenes. Can’t help thinking that Geass would’ve covered the whole episode in 5 minutes)
and Itazurana Kiss (terrible production quality, probably half the staff of Macross Frontier)
April 5, 2008 at 5:11 amBlissmo
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the best quality place i could download for free is here
http://yoshiness.110mb.com/
April 5, 2008 at 6:48 aminter4ever
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http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm2898038
real ep1
April 5, 2008 at 9:40 amRauzes
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Having watched both, I can easily say both are equally as great, and so far, im seeing in the future two versions of the eps, which can be alternated, so like 1A, 2B, 3B, 4A or something like that can be possioble.
At any rate the ending of the two versions are the same, as is the preview. I hope they reveal that its just people playing the MMO, because that would make sense, as well as have the entire thing make sense, etc.
At any rate. This version would be the lulzy version, whilst the other is hte “serious” version where we get a look into this anime’s Nagato, how mages attack, and some other win.
April 5, 2008 at 9:47 amGrimaH
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“this anime’s Nagato”
SUBS FUCKING WHAR
April 5, 2008 at 10:24 amJon
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I hate this Anime. Waste of my valuable time.
April 5, 2008 at 1:48 pmzalem
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well, that certainly wasn’t what I was expecting. LOL. All the poking fun at the cliches was hilarious.
Though I can’t believe people are complaining about paying $2 for the episode. o_O
April 5, 2008 at 2:02 pmtim
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this has the real episode 1
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm2897201, plus some alternate OP sequences
April 5, 2008 at 3:09 pmTimeToShine
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Holy crap… what an awesome episode.
April 5, 2008 at 4:44 pmEh
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It’s not the “real” episode, it’s just an episode which shows what happens outside the dream. Don’t know why it was a GyaO exclusive, though.
April 5, 2008 at 8:25 pmLex
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Wow, that was actually really funny… for those who have a sense of humour of course.
April 6, 2008 at 3:09 amLurkerX
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LOL. To the Blogger, you are only setting yourself up for fail :(
April 6, 2008 at 4:39 amRauzes
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no subs. Nobody subbing it. youll get to meet her next ep.
April 6, 2008 at 5:23 amtrebors
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lol, all of his team mate died comedically
April 6, 2008 at 9:22 amMike
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GAOGAIGAR LMAO!!! HE COPIED IT!!!
April 6, 2008 at 7:26 pmMatroid
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I haven’t laughed so hard watching an anime in a while. It is easy to name a few classics that ToD made fun of, such as Gundam, Gurren Lagann, Eva, Saint Seiya, Star War (“I’m your father”) and whatever tentacle hentai that crossed your mind. Call this “otaku xxxx” if you will. But sometimes a cheap laugh is what we need in a season.
April 7, 2008 at 12:52 amlangley
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Wow, was this a lot of epic win. I cried from laughing so hard and judging from these comments, I wasn’t the only one. I can only hope the rest of the series lives up to the genius of the first episode.
April 7, 2008 at 10:21 ammilkberry
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oh my god this sucks! i want to watch with the subtitles! i can’t coz i live in japan! what irony! gahhhhhhh!
April 8, 2008 at 6:06 pmRi
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hmmm… the new Majo Abenobashi Shotengai anyone? I loved this episode… next week: the Crew in Space!
April 12, 2008 at 12:00 pmA.A.
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This is definitely worth it. I give it a 10/10. Very Hilarius. =)
February 22, 2010 at 9:14 pmYahoouj
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Really good work about this website was done. Keep trying more – thanks!