Posted by OP Sequence
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
OP: 「インモラリスト」 (Immoralist) by 堀江由衣 (Horie Yui)
Watch the OP!: Download, Streaming ▼
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
「さらわれた少女」 (Sarawareta Shoujo)
“Kidnapped Girl”
So Taiga’s been trapped in a box for about a couple years, and it caused a little memory alteration due to the brain damage she sustained from being in a coma for so long. Somehow the box she was encased in let her jump the dreams of Ryuji’s to find the right one, and she somehow confused this Ryuuji for him. Will she find the right Ryuuji? Will this replacement be enough? Dragon Crisis. The unofficial secret sequel of Toradora.
Based on a light novel, Dragon Crisis has been published since 2007, and is written for a “seinen” audience, if any of that matters. While the director, Tachibana Hideki, only has experience from H2O, the first episode of Dragon Crisis was nicely done, with interesting cinematography, and a packed story. However, like a lot of movies, you’re merely taken along for the ride, with no information on what’s happening or why, but just to shut up and take it all in. When you throw in some well done action and the eventual, “this is so cool because I have no idea what’s going on” response, you’ve got the formula for a pretty fun episode to watch. If anything, this is how a first episode should be done.
Taiga, or Rose, is a super primitive loli conquered tsundere (I say conquered because she already loves the protagonist), whose emotions have no moral suppression, and whose words only consist of “Ryuuji.” She is the basic of the basic, possessing only the purest traits of a loli tsundere, as if anything else would just weigh her down. I mean, if I had to explain what kind of character someone like Shana or Taiga was, I would just point to Rose. Screw all the other definitions. And who else to play the purest of the pure except Kugimiya Rie? This role wasn’t just made for her, it IS her. Well, her voice anyway. Meanwhile, the other characters are as generic as you can get, with the MC Ryuuji (Shimono Hiro) being dragged around by women, stuck at the brunt of it all and acting as if he doesn’t enjoy two girls throwing themselves at him, while still having a shy Etou Misaki crushing hard on him. Then you’ve got the older well endowed but lazy “nee-chan,” Nanao Eriko (Yukana), being the one that actually makes Ryuuji’s life less mundane. While the cookie cutter characters can become less so with development, the relationships they all have with each other are stupidly common, and after years of watching anime, it is getting intensely annoying to keep seeing the same type over and over.
The good thing is, the story is fast, and it’s actually interesting, though a bit nonsensical. It’s still basically the “girl falls into protagonist’s lap and makes his life way better than mine” premise, and the fact that Dragons can turn into pedophilia inducing lolis when they reach the adult stage is silly, but the pacing from scene to scene makes makes me stop caring, even wrapping it all up with a nice cliffhanger. The animation is DEENTASTIC, meaning a ton of inconsistencies that would make Gonzo blush, with uneven eyes, poor proportions, and randomly contorted faces that change every screen. Even so, this is probably one of Studio Deen’s best work, but it’s still a notch down when compared to studios like J.C. Staff. Funnily enough, Dragon Crisis does seem like a show J.C. Staff would do, and Deen did pull some of the seiyuu you’d see if it were a J.C. production, those being Kugimiya Rie and Horie Yui (Oh look, it’s Taiga and Minori~n). Also, fantastic soundtrack.
What you’ve got here is a fun show, and I hate to keep using that word, but that’s what it is. It’s not a must watch by any means, and I know many are sick of Rie lolis (this one is like a 100/10 on the loli Rie scale), but it doesn’t deserve to be ignored. Besides Deen’s lack of perfection in animation, Dragon Crisis surpasses mediocre for me, purely due to the execution. It’s the age old question, graphics over story, or story over graphics?
ED Sequence
 |
 |
 |
ED: 「ミライボウル」 (Mirai Bowl) by ももいろクローバー (Momoiro Clover)
Watch the ED!: Download, Streaming ▼
Love the OP song to bits due to its unique but catchy melody, although the animation was mostly a slide show. Again, DEENTASTIC. ED is a bit more colorful and interesting though not really a song I’d listen to down the road, and uses as little frames of animation as possible. Real smooth, Studio Deen, real smooth.
Preview
 |
 |
 |
MMmmm..
This is looking real good :3
lol… i love the opening to your post… xD
Funny first ep. A nice introduction and it seems like we get into the swing of things next ep as well.
One has to love the skill involved in the censorship during the shower scene. It’s almost as if they didn’t censor it at all with all that movement ^^.
But yes, I concur about how all the side characters have to adopt such “regular” roles. Shy crush, the punchline friend. I guess if it was meant to keep focus on the main characters that’s fine, but I agree, MORE INTERESTING SIDE CHARACTERS!
However, like all the other comedy shows in this super funny Monday, it’s playing out well ^^. Looks like we’ll be getting some intense drama though in the next episode.
The opening song won me over, LOL! Awesome.
Kugimiya Rie and Horie Yui? Instant sell in my book 🙂
yui horie and rie kugimiya??? wow!!! 2 old favorite seiyuusss…
ok let’s add this on the watch list!!!
adding mamiko noto could’ve been perfect completed my favorite seiyuus…but i couldn’t ask for more i guess.
Hideki Tachibana is actually a recurring episode director for J.C. Staff. He’s probably best noted for the Railgun (except the OVA intro) and Index Season 1 opening sequences, although he directed some of my favorite episodes too (Railgun 04 and 12, Index 18, etc.).
Aside from that, he’s primarily known for his work as a key animator.
“acting as if he doesn’t enjoy two girls throwing themselves at him”
So true. Male protagonists need more libido (Star Driver style).
cool opening!
Hahaha.. I was in need of a Guinea pig for this one!
Looks good I’ll watch it.
“girl falls into protagonist’s lap and makes his life way better than mine”
*snif* someone needs to be happy at least. used to it!
Thanks for the post Mr. Kiiragi.
Ah! that “Nee-chan” Nanako Eriko looked familiar to me but now I know! she looks like Touko, the female protagonist for “Pokemon Black & White”!
i’m one of those who’re sick of rie.XD but seeing hocchin here, the show’s fine with me. XD i’m just being reminded how i hated taiga in toradora. minorin and ami FTW!! L0L
A decent if not mind blowing opening episode imho. The male protagonist needs to grow some balls quickly though otherwise he’s going to be really really annoying.
What made the episode for me was undoubtedly Rose 😀 I agree that Rose was practically custom made for Kugimiya Rie’s voice, it is difficult to imagine that any other seiyuu could have conveyed Rose’s pure childlike innocence – using one word – as well. She’s a bundle of fun and makes me wish I had a dragon loli girl lol. Interesting too how Rose uses heat vision and not colour vision, but I suppose that befits a dragon.
Palm Sized Dragon!
i like the onee-chan the most!!! xDD
I’m getting Taiga vibes from Rose calling out Ryuji.
*shakes*
Sorry, tired of Rie lolis. Dropped.
Man they’re every where its an INVASION!!!!!
Too bad they’re Appeal ain’t the same out here. \(*o*)/
Good thing Rie is not doing a tsundere role beacause I too am tired of watching/LISTENING to Rie’s Tsundere roles.
Rie and Jun Fukuyama have been getting more roles lately. The only difference between the two is that Jun brings something fresh and new by playing DIFFERENT ROLES during the recent years. Hes not ALWAYS playing the lelouch-type roles. On the otherhand, Rie has ALWAYS been playing the LOLI TSUNDERE roles during the recent years.
i didn’t actually hate rie before. but since i hated every single character she played (shana, taiga etc.) i started hating her too. very stupid, yes,but i just can’t help feeling like strangling somebody hearing and watching loli tsunderes.uggh.
“The good thing is, the story is fast, and it’s actually interesting, though a bit nonsensical.”
I just finished watching it and this pretty much sums it up lol.
Half way through I was wondering what to make of all this talk of societies, lost precious things, and dragon girls in boxes-
If anything it definitely has me interested and wanting to watch more, so I say a good start!
Opening was catchy, the ending was cute 🙂
Kore wa Zombie desu ka? best anime this season you saw it here first
The protagonist just had to be called Ryuuji didn’t it…it bet it was done on purpose to draw in toradora viewers, lol. But it worked, I love hearing Taiga and Minori’s voice in the anime, and the show is interesting enough to make me watch it again.
I dislike the main character, he’s bland and he’s the usual weak protagonist. They should of just put the Ryuuji from Toradora and replace the main character here, he would make the experience much more enjoyable.
Soundtrack was funky, and their operations look like what I’d see in Grand Theft Auto games.
It’s like, how to train your dragon, only the dragon looks like a retarded prebuscent blonde girl, who already likes you, that is so goddamn cute it should cause heart failures. Also, unlucky childhood friend who is slow on the uptake.
By the gods, what have I gotten myself into?
Toradora S2 – revenge of the dragons? this thought makes me want to laugh at this xD
the story has some potential here, and animation isn’t going to kill off this show for me…
can’t wait to see how the cliffhanger pick up next week
You know you’re fangirlin
When you read the title “dragon crisis” as “Darren Criss” O__O
When I saw the PV for this show I really TRIED to hate it. After watching it, I was captured by the pacing of the story and the nice use of the soundtrack. Oh and it didn’t hurt that rose was probably the cutest loli this season, 2nd one being the one from gosick.
This show is totally made for small minded people but it isnt unwatchable if you just forget about hundrets of same type of anime that have been there.
a so so episode. this anime could end up being a potential trainwreck. I really hope it doesnt come to that since MOST of the animes this season doesnt have the potential to make it big.
Okay, you convinced me to give it a go. If for nothing else, then because I liked Taiga.
Maybe you guys just know how it’s going to turn out ahead of time (or are expecting it to because of Rie), but for the purposes of only this episode, I strongly disagree that Rose is a tsundere. She had a DAMN good reason to be violent to Eriko; bitch tried to steal her collar!
Taiga? More like Shana, since it almost sounds like she’s saying Yuuji, in this case Ryuji, and breathes fire.
I feel that this anime will grow as how Rose is growing to learn( i hope).
Though i already heard some of Rie’s voice, i feel like this is somehow similar with the other voice but i also feel that something is different. i feel that this is a pure love type of voice instead of tsuntsundere voice.
Two words:
“Whup whup”
good episode. better than i was expecting.
i meant to say also that the op is better than most this year.
Was wondering if I should watch this as well, wanted to keep my anime light this season to 5~6 shows a season. But the moment I saw “Secret Sequal to Toradora”, it was instant sold for me.
everything is better with Dragons!
especially if they happen to have ablity to polymorph into loli with Rie Kugimiya voice!
pure mindless fun, and I approve of it!
Dragons. Explosions. Lolis.
WE HAVE A WINNER!!!
Yes!!! Let´s see, we have Rie Kugimiya plying a really cute girl, dragons, magic, explosions, romance, a poor bastard character and a really interesting story. Ok I think I have my new favorite for this season; plus I love all the star roles of Rie Kugimiya (Shana, Lousei, Nagi, Taiga), I just can´t have enough of her
When she went “RYU-U-JI <3", i went OMG DAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! I will watch this show 1000% till the very end. Its like Taiga wouldnt even do that, not even Shana, etc.
I just don’t get it, the first episode. I can’t help but I keep thinking of R.O.D character design..
But just as R.O.D, it has it’s cool moments.
While most people were reminded of ToraDora, I found myself thinking more about Elfen Lied, with Rose being the counterpart of Nyu.
^_^
After listining to Immoralist and Mirai Bowl – it really grows on you
Immoralist – for growing burning feel
Mirai bowl – for Happy Go Lucky Feel
Great first episode. Ryuuji knows he likes to have two love fight for his love even if one of them is his second cousin. And Rose does kinda remind me of a mixture of Tagia and Shana though I think both of them are way better than Rose at least atm. Looking forward to the second episode.
I tried to ignore this but Rose is just too cute! This show has definitely got my attention this season!
The end of episode preview of this had me laughing my head off.
“Watashi wa Rose! Suki da na Ryuji! Suki! Suki! Ryuji Suki! Suki, suki! Ryuji, Ryuji! Ryuji Suki!”
And yet, somehow it was cute as well. Is this, dare I say, pure distilled dere? Dangerous…
Wtf!
Kiiragi is drunk or I’m getting blind after watching the entry XD.
Think sneaking lolis in suitcases is rough? In the future, you’ll be able to smuggle them in with friggin’ marbles!
Yay Fractale!
The basic plot makes little sense. I don’t see much potential in this anime.
This is actually one of the better animes this season in my opinion. The preview was pretty amazing, even though it only consisted of 4 words.
Every season just can’t do without a dose of Rie Kugimiya huh?
the first episode really didnt suck me in like kore wa zombie desuka
but kugimiya rie happens to be one of my favourite va
kinda makes me wanna watch toradora
but i think iwatched it along with clannad to many times XD
i think theres gonna be alot more action with the lost precious in thise series looking forward to it 🙂