Summary:

With Toa and Spirytus in their dragon forms, Kiril – the man in charge of the D Project – calls up Sakaki and demands to know why it’s not only the Album but also their own dragon that’s on a rampage. Sakaki calmly tells him that they’re still investigating and since it’s a state of emergency, details will come later. Frustrated by this answer, Kiril then contacts a Girouard military ship out in the ocean to call them into action and asks them to minimize damage. After Kiril hangs up, the ship’s captain Garnet notes that everything is going according to plan. Back in the city, Laina comments on how Toa is the third original as he, Sieglinde, and Akira join Howlingstar, Amadeus, and Machina on the pier. Spirytus quiets down for a moment while he appears to be talking with Toa, however Girouard military helicopters soon change that when then attack. Howlingstar wants to get involved, but to his frustration, Laina stops him because they haven’t gotten the order to do so yet.

Standing nearby, Jin can’t believe what he’s seeing and nearly gets hit by a falling helicopter that had itself almost gotten destroyed by one of Spirytus’ fireballs. Toa fortunately sees what is about to happen, dives in, and envelops the helicopter in a yellow field as she knocks it away. She then has to evade a barrage of missiles and gunfire, and all Jin is able to do is to yell for them to stop. Toa does suddenly stop moving, takes a couple of hits, and emits a wave that causes Spirytus and the remaining aircraft to become enveloped in similar yellow fields. This allows her to carry Spirytus away, and the ISDA detects that she’s going north. Worried that she’ll reach the sky over the mainland, Sakaki goes to Kiril and gets his reluctant authorization to Actualize. Laina, Sieglinde, and Akira are thus permitted to suit up and the dragons to transform. Each dragon lets its respective master onboard – Laina in Howlingstar, Akira in Machina, and Sieglinde in Amadeus – before beginning pursuit of Toa and Spirytus.

Spirytus manages to break free of Toa’s yellow field right as the other three dragons catch up, and Laina informs everyone that their mission is to subdue the two rampaging dragons. In the ensuing fight, Toa gets hit by a fireball that causes her to emit another shockwave. This one that reaches Gio in his holding tube and awakens him. When Machina then captures Toa, Spirytus’ interference sets her free again, and he continues to try to blast her with fireballs. Back on the ground, Kazuki reaches Jin, and Jin asks his former friend to stop the others. Right as Jin is telling Kazuki that it’s Toa up there, she crashes into the ground beside them. Seeing that Jin is scared of her, she gives him a sad look before flying off again. It is at this point that a naked Gio arrives on the scene, and he pushes Kazuki aside because he only cares about Toa. Gio then transforms into a dragon, and Jin makes a running jump onto his back so that he can go after Toa too. Watching Jin ride off on something that he thought was his, Kazuki can only yell out Jin’s name in frustration.

After finding out that both Gio and Jin are in pursuit of Toa, Sakaki orders the disposal of Spirytus because securing the Album and Jin are top priorities. Laina thus tells Howlingstar to kill Spirytus, and despite some reluctance, Howlingstar changes into his drill-like form and plows into Spirytus, cutting the dragon in half and destroying him. During all this, Jin and Gio manage to catch up to Toa, and when Jin reaches out to touch her, he gets transported to a world of blue skies and green fields. Toa is standing nearby singing, but when he approaches her, she apologizes to him because she can’t be with him anymore if he’s seen her true form. After saying goodbye to him, Toa approaches Gio who claims that he was born to protect her. The two are about to link hands and leave together, but Howlingstar’s attack in the real world breaks them out of this. Howlingstar tackles Toa, but she manages to free herself and knocks him into Gio, sending both Gio and Jin falling into the ocean below. Remembering how Toa had kissed him earlier and said that he wasn’t alone because she was there, Jin now calls her a liar.

With the mission is over since both Toa and Gio have been lost, Sakaki returns home in the morning and grabs a beer. He is surprised when a young girl welcomes him home, but when he looks away for a moment, she disappears. After watching the news reports of the incident on the television, Sakaki closes his eyes to get some rest, however his phone starts ringing at that very moment.

Preview:

Well, most of the episode is spent on the battle between all the various dragons. I have to say that Howlingstar’s transformation bordered on ridiculous – it was like an “I have the power” moment – and all the CG dragons made me feel like I was watching some Saturday morning kids show. It didn’t bother me as much before, but it was a lot more apparent here that the designs aren’t the greatest (several shots of Gio and Howlingstar made their heads look too big), and I get the feeling that those special sequences that show each pilot boarding their respective dragons could become stock footage.

On the story side though, it seems that Garnet is with the Girouard military whose purpose isn’t quite clear yet. I was under the impression that she was an alien connected to Thanatos because of her place in the OP, but regardless, she’s still an antagonist. Gio’s arrival and rejection of Kazuki wasn’t a big surprise, though I did laugh when Kazuki yelled out Jin’s name after watching him ride off on Gio. Somehow I can’t take his character seriously anymore. Anyway, Laina calling Toa the third original seems to support the theory that she was one of the three that came to Earth on the day of the shuttle accident, and she could very well be the one who collided with it. With Toa now leaving Jin because he’s seen her true form, and it looks like Jin might be teaming up with Gio to find her. Based on one of the preview shots on the official site, it seems that the mystery woman from the OP and ED will also be making an appearance.

51 Comments

  1. Those CG dragons look like f***ing play-doh figures.

    Goddamn I really like this show so far but those dragons are the biggest turn off ever.

    Would have been better if they just used regular animation, what’s with the 3D obsession nowadays anyway?

    lcl
  2. at first it looked cool and interesting with the first episode,but then the second wasn’t much, and now it seems ughh ridiculous with the 3D come on now why not regular animated dragons!

    EzMac
  3. Er? That’s strange. o_o So the girl/dragon doesn’t stay with the guy, and he instead gets another dragon to help him. How strange, but at least it doesn’t follow the usual mold for this genre.

    mangaka-chan
  4. HALF ASSED or even 3 1/4 ASSED CGI NEVER WORKS!. people need to learn how to draw again . takepointers from gainax “even though once in ablue they use it” hand drawn will always BE KING!!!!!!!

    BROOKLYN otaku
  5. OH NO!!
    I CAN FEEL THE SISSY DRAMA STUFF COMING…What a shame… a possible nice anime destroyed…Let´s start the ” RAMDOM DRAMA cliche for nothing” and kill the story…. T_T

    Tensai Otaku
  6. The dragon / pilot gattai sequences were absolutely fall-off-your-chair hilarious. This show isn’t demanding to be taken very seriously, so lets not expect the wrong things! I think this one will provide good bubblegum viewing with a bit of genre parody.

    As for the mecha-dragons, they will take some getting used to—but aren’t they a bit of fun? Howling Star has Giga Drill Breaker, Amadeus looks kind of like Gamera, and Machina is leggy even as a dragon.

  7. Again Omni can blog what ever he wants, just don’t read it if your not interested in. While this show is not outstanding it’s interesting plot-wise.

    Beside some anti CGI biasness I don’t see why people are bashing this.

    zaeris
  8. wtf didn’t really like the CG….o well. why the hell did she leave him is it bcuz she is the one that collided with the plane that his family was on plus why was she so interested in him he didn’t give the blood transfer thing like the rest of so why is she drawn to him.. and GIO is a bastard how can u turn your back on the person that makes up half of u ..sigh

    yazzer
  9. LoL… with this, Hero Tales, and Gundam 00 quickly getting put into my list of this season’s garbage I am quickly running out of action shows. It’s up to Rental Magica and Night Wizard now and I just don’t see those pulling through for me.

    On a positive note, Genshiken 2 is freggin amazing so far.

    8GaugeBrett
  10. but so bad why does Toa have to leave even Jin had seen her in her true form…sob~ it was just getting started though… but come to think of it…i never even think about a dragon can fall in love with a human… T.T||| XD lol~ i like this anime!!!

    nanoha-chan
  11. If half the people stop complaining about the horrible CG and actually watch this… Yes it’s a bit campy and the part where Howlingstar transformed reminded me of Kamen Rider but if you overlook it, it’s definitely got a promising storyline. I, for one, will stick with this and I want to know what the Gillard Army has anything to do with ISDA, ISDA’s true intentions and hopefull see Jin and Gio work together.

    koyuki
  12. Story = win. Jin x Toa started too suddenly for being maintained over the rest of the show, now it gets interesting. There’s so much left unclear and I’m really looking forward to the next bunch of episodes. Yes, the CG’s are bad etc blabla, still, the drawn art (animation, character design, backgrounds) and music top almost every other show this season. Definitely continuing to watch this.

    Neara
  13. As for the show I don’t know… I am looking forward to it. It reminds me of Eureka Seven…minus the cool cgi. I think dragons…look okay. I don’t really mind I guess though I assume CG might be ‘easier’ than traditional animation so that’s why people use it nowadays.

    Jin
  14. The CG dragons are quite… horrible.
    lol ^^;

    So Gio claims that he was born to protect her… interesting..
    haha
    is it just me, or could there be a possible Gio/Toa relationship?
    =P

    Kocopo
  15. Well the cgi reminds me of pokemon movies…..but the storyline itself has some promise…..we are already 3 episodes in and we have a lot of stuff going on. If we can get through one episode where Jin doesn’t need to be saved….in the next 2-3 episodes….i will hang around to see how it develops. Here’s keeping fingers crossed… 😛

    Kurik
  16. the characters in this anime are way too lame. you have one guy crying cause he lost his dragon (who also pointed a gun at his best friend without knowing the reason why). then you have another idiot who wanted the dragons to stop attacking toa, but then turned into a chicken when she was in front of them, and when she took off he wanted her back again. i just don’t like how the story is done so far. the dragonauts want to capture jin and toa by any means neccessary, even if it means injuring them, and yet we don’t know why, and probably won’t find out till half the series is over already. this episode killed any interest i had.

    hitokiri007
  17. nnnnnoooooooooooo! they can animate the toas eye!(when she was dragon form) ugh they should just ditch the whole CGI stick with normal animation…and remove those silly boarding scenes…omg! what is GONZO thinking >_

    =x
  18. Hah *please do not* take pointers from Gainax. You probably haven’t seen You Are [Not] Alone (Eva Rebuild 01) but trust me, they use some seriously out-of-place CG mixed with what looked like *old* Eva scenes. Real bad combo.

    Eva looked good in late 1995. 2007’s Rebuild doesn’t have nearly the same visual quality, modern standards considered. If you’re going to take a cue from anyone these days, take one from Kyoto Animation and their production of Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid.

    Sciros
  19. This anime, started off too quickly. All of a sudden the emo boy likes the girl and the girl like him. Acting like they have known each other for a very long time. Too quick, could have been better, and the dragons were poorly animated it looked rushed. (I do 3d animation, I know)

    Ithink

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