Dragonaut / First Impressions

Summary:

As enraged Machina lashes out towards Jin, Toa is forced to use more of her own power to stop Machina. Gio then steps in and tries to reason with her as he fights her, and Machina reverts back to her old self long enough to tell him to run away. She struggles to explain that the Resonance is unraveling, and shortly after she states that she’s not free like Gio is, her power flares up again. Meanwhile, on the moon, Howling Star, Amadeus, and Laura all sense what’s going on, and it reminds them of what happened to Spirytus. Sieglinde decides on her own to head to Mars, but to everyone’s surprise, Raina decides to go too. Back on Mars, Yonamine – who is an agent for some agency – arrives at the Girouard palace and forces his way into a meeting with the Girouard king. Yonamine demands that the king remove Asim from being the person in charge of Girouard military affairs because Asim is playing with fire, and it might burn all of mankind. When the king balks at this, Yonamine threatens the prospect of the entire world opposing them.

Back at the mine, Asim gleefully explains to Jin that, when a dragon loses its master, the dragon’s true nature is exposed. Asim can’t stand seeing how dragons have been polluted by man, and though he admires the power of love between Jin and Toa, he views it as Jin having dirtied her. He then has Garnet transform into a dragon, and after firing an energy blast at Jin and Toa, he knocks Machina out by having Garnet smack her with her tail. When Jin, Toa, and Gio follow Asim back to the surface, they find a huge Girouard force waiting for them. Toa wants to fight alongside Gio and Jin, but the two of them insist on protecting her, and so Toa rides with Jin inside the cockpit. Gio is able to handle all of the ships and Agathions that Asim can throw at him, and it’s only Garnet that gives him any real challenge. As they battle, Asim mocks Jin and Toa about their love, but when he tries to have the Agathions gang up on Gio, Toa uses her power to push them off. Garnet then prepares to fire another blast at Gio, however Machina then enters the battle in dragon form and hits Garnet.

Asim responds by having Garnet fire on Machina instead, and as a result, Machina falls back towards the planet’s surface in Communicator form with Akira in her arms. Toa jumps out of Jin’s cockpit and tries to catch the pair, however she fails to reach them in time and they fall into a ravine. With Toa out in the open now, Asim has Garnet fire another energy blast at her, but this time Gio flies in to take the hit. At that very moment, Gio’s power also flares up, and it causes all of the Agathions to run away in fear. Still refusing to accept the power of love, Asim has Garnet charge Gio one more time, but Gio’s power is so overwhelming that Asim’s cockpit is ejected from Garnet. As the cockpit breaks up, Garnet reaches for her master and grabs him shortly before both get vaporized. Gio also eject Jin’s cockpit, and Jin pilots it towards Toa to grab her. The two are then saved when Howling Star arrives and flies them to safety. Gio meanwhile creates a fiery maelstrom that’s visible from as far away as Earth, and Raina wonders if this is the true power of dragons. Reporting to his superiors elsewhere, Yonamine hears them worrying about the dangers of this power, and he thinks that only a dragon can defeat a dragon.

Preview

When I saw this scene, all I could think of was the Star Wars line “I felt a great disturbance in the Force…as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.” That aside, I think the important thing to take away from that scene is that Laura felt it too, so it would seem to confirm that she’s indeed a Dragon. As for Machina and Akira, their conclusion was rather unsatisfying, even with that post-ED part showing them encased in ice. Machina essentially got swatted aside by Garnet, came back to save Jin and company at an opportune moment, and that was it for her. Ultimately, it felt like she was used for nothing more than as an example to show that dragons go crazy when their masters die.

The most interesting aspect of this episode for me ended up being the fact that Yonamine Kou isn’t just a mild-mannered reporter. It’s unclear what organization he’s a part of, but it seems like they’ve got a lot of pull in world affairs. Asim dying was also a high point, but I mention that mainly cause he was a whiny character I grew to dislike. And on that note, the immortal Kazuki made an appearance again. Widow apparently saved him, and from the preview, he’s going to be returning in next week’s episode with a really stupidly-placed eye patch on his forehead. More importantly, next week’s episode is supposed to take place after a one-year jump, and I’m curious to see how they handle that, though I’m not expecting much.

56 Comments

  7. I knew that they wouldnt kill off kazuki… I mean… the way they had originally “killed” him off was just too easy/quick, on a side note, WTF is up with the patch on his head…. I mean, is there a hole in his head now?

    IfOnlyYouKnew
    Reply

  18. Lol, Kazuki grew a third eye. Too bad Akira and Machina are gone now. You never know, maybe the ice has regenerative capabilities and in the Final battle, the both of them will come out of nowhere to help. 🙂

    Final
    Reply

  25. In a show of assDragginNaut’s caliber all remotely decent characters will be killed while the asshats, emofags, worthless pantywastes will remain alive. It’s the way of the super-sentai/shounen wannabe genre.

    Zzz...
    Reply

  27. Dragonaut has really started to lose me in terms of what direction the story is going in.

    At first, it seemed like the main enemy of the show was Thanatos, but now with this Giruard part (I wouldn’t even call it an arc since it was pretty random how the story suddenly shifted to Ashim) and Akira/Makina dying what I would consider meaningless deaths, I just don’t know anymore. In Akira’s case, her death was unexpected prior to the episode it happened, it happened so fast, it was anti-climatic, and the viewer was left wondering if they really killed her off. I think we got the whole message of Akira’s belief in Masters and Dragons coexisting as equals when she went renegade and left the Lindbloom unit. Her death didn’t add to that message (at least not for me).

    Also, speaking of Kazuki and Widow, there was this whole “Jin vs Kazuki” thing they built up, brought up whenever they felt like it (shuttle launch anyone?), and then tossed aside. Now after this Giruard “break”, they seem to be bringing it back again. Mmm, yeah… okay. :\

    Hmm, what else…

    The ISDA started off as this organization that Toa was against, but is now Jin’s main source of allies after Jin and Gio defeated Austrum (was this the point of the Original Dragons? o_O). Kyrill seems like he’s playing both sides (ISDA & Giruard), but they don’t make mention of what the deal was with that. The Dragonauts are free to do whatever they want with no punishment from Sakaki (how convenient). We’re introduced to the Original Dragons, which seemed like a big deal at the time, but isn’t any longer. Everyone at the ISDA is just okay with Nozaki being an Original Dragon all this time (presumably) and we move on.

    I still don’t see where the writers are going with this disorganized (めちゃちゃ) storyline. It seems like they decided to build up one story, abandoned it, quickly switched to another, quickly concluded that one, started yet another, concluded this one with some deaths for (attempted) drama, and are now going back to what they started for lack of any better direction. Anyone else have a take on the series as a whole so far? I’d love to hear it. 🙂

    divine
    Reply

  28. Oh I forgot to add, the reasons I’m watching Dragonaut are:
    1.) the cast is really good (for those that know seiyuus)
    2.) the premise of the story (when I first read about it last fall) was interesting
    3.) the animation (in general) is good
    4.) the art style I find okay (although I could really do without the oversized breasts)

    For me, that’s enough to start watching a show (with a good cast being a heavily weighted reason). I just never expected the writing and directing to be what throws me off! I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed yet, but I just hope Dragonaut doesn’t turn out to be a huge waste of seiyuu talent.

    divine
    Reply

  30. @ Divine:

    I started watching basically on the same premise as you did, I thought that the plot for it would be really interesting and right now I believe that they have effectively destroyed whatever potential this series first had with it’s opening pilot.. I will say this, the opening pilot to this series was very well done in my opinion, in that it captured you to watch it, and it was in the first three episodes that it felt like they were changing direction of the series because after the first dragon went beserk in the first episode they completely moved on and entirely ignored what happened. Plus after the pilot, the quality and progression of the series felt like it was “half-baked” in that it seemed as if some 3rd rate writer took over it. Right now, I will say it again, the manga is the way to go if you want a “better” version of it… Not going to reminisce over my opinions of it again.. I really wished that they had better writers for this series because of it’s original potential to be a good anime. I really hate how the show got sloppy ass people to create the plot and write the scripts for it… Right now I would give Dragonaut a 5 or 6 out of 10. I could go on further but I really don’t feel like repeating things I’ve stated in previous episode sections about it.

    IfOnlyYouKnew
    Reply

  31. WAAAHAHAHAHAHA! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

    Kazuki did not look like a bad guy anymore. He seems to be more settled. And i think the preview said something about one year later. But an eyepatch to cover a scar. WAAAHAHA! XD

    banzemanga
    Reply

  33. @IfOnlyYouKnew:

    So Dragonaut is adapted from a manga? Excuse my ignorance here, but I was under the assumption that it wasn’t adapted from anything.

    If there is a manga and you feel it’s better, I wonder why they chose not to follow it more closely. Hmm…

    Also, thanks for your input! I haven’t really followed previous comments here for Dragonaut, but it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who feels this way. 🙂

    divine
    Reply

  34. man when the japanese wants to kill a character ..THEY KILL..but….why in such a retarded ways?????
    they run at fast speeds…but NOOOOoooo!!! Machina had to just watch akira been slashed …just….to put some mexican soap opera Sissy drama here!!!

    The japanese are really retarded some times…for a ” smart ” culture…
    BUT HEY THIS IS ANIME……you´l say T_T T_T @_@(for you)

    Tensai Otaku
    Reply

  35. Divine:
    Thanatos has always been the “main enemy/villain” as such actually. The gillard have only been, well “semi-villains”. Especially if you consider the fact that it seems to have been only Asim who actually opposes the “good guys” here, not the Gillard as a whole. With him out of the picture now, I’d expect that the villain-focus now switches to Thanatos.

    Well, of course no one’d mind Nozaki at the ISDA, more or less. After all, if his years or work on the side of the ISDa plus his battle with Ostrum doesn’t prove that he’s on their side, then I don’t know what would

    SpectatorBeholder
    Reply

  36. Divine:
    Thanatos has always been the “main enemy/villain” as such actually. The gillard have only been, well “semi-villains”. Especially if you consider the fact that it seems to have been only Asim who actually opposes the “good guys” here, not the Gillard as a whole. With him out of the picture now, I’d expect that the villain-focus now switches to Thanatos.

    Well, of course no one’d mind Nozaki at the ISDA, more or less. After all, if his years or work on the side of the ISDa plus his battle with Ostrum doesn’t prove that he’s on their side, then I don’t know what would…

    I agree that the story’s rather jumpty as such, seemingly chaning directions from time to time. Still, the story such as it is is more interesting than I expecdted it to be sort of. Afte rall, I expected this to be of the Argento soma/Evangelion/RahXephon kind – and that’d have been all well and fine, but that’s also mean that we’d have had to endure the “defeat the monster of the week”, theme, sorta. The story of Dragonaut is more flexible than that though, which is a good thing – but it also leaves room open for many flaws, alas. Personally I’d rate Dragonaut 8/10 such as it is now. And I must be among the very few who does NOT prefer the manga XD :p

    SpectatorBeholder
    Reply

  38. @divine

    Actually its …like two different stories. Manga came out after anime started. So far manga has much more interesting premise, although Toa/Jin deal is REALLY shallow >.>

    Unknown Voice
    Reply

  39. @divine

    Unknown voice summed up my response back lol, plus so far it seems only 3 chapters have been translated thus far from the manga, since the manga has not yet garnered a big enough audience in which a sub group has actually put it into one of their main translating sections, plus I can’t read Japanese. Also, like what Unknown Voice said, it started after the show, although now in the manga, Toa is a “goofball” and Jin is the so-called “badass” of the series.

    IfOnlyYouKnew
    Reply

  40. @Unknown Voice

    I do agree that they are being vary shallow as far as Jin and Toa go. They will probably reflect/expand the relationship in future parts of the manga as the relationship grows. However, they might not as well, it’s still pretty early for the manga though.

    IfOnlyYouKnew
    Reply

  41. Omni: Here’s my attempt at summaring the japanese spoiler for the next episode; you can check it out and then let’s hear if you think that sounds promising as far as the circumstances of the whole timeskip-business goes (not a pro, so there may be mistakes/etc):
    Show Spoiler ▼

    SpectatorBeholder
    Reply

  42. While I don’t mean to “hijack” the comments section for my personal interest, thanks for all the constructive discussion so far, as well as the info about the manga. (I can read some Japanese, so I wonder if I should follow the manga…)

    @SpectatorBeholder:
    First off, I understand where you’re coming from and I agree with your perspective. However, what has me uneasy about Dragonaut’s storyline is that they introduce a lot, but never really follow through or give a settling conclusion to what they’ve introduced. (So in my case, it’s not so much the “story hopping” that’s bothering me.) This in turn makes you wonder what the point of part “x” of the series was (other than production making an episode so that it can be broadcasted).

    For the Giruard part, I guess since they’ve brought Yonamine Kou into the picture, its purpose seemingly ties to the main plot (but we’ll have to wait and see). What was Ashim’s purpose though? Was it to formally introduce Garnet as a dragon and then kill her off in the very next episode? Or was it to emphasize the notion of love between human and dragons, a point they got clearly across already? In the latter case, did they just decide to kill off Akira and Makina in an attempt to add some extra drama? In Ashim’s case, they also had the short opening scene that showed his past and disturbing nature, but then we just find out he’s a very simplistic character–he IS just a troubled individual that doesn’t need to be loved and gets killed. The End. A lot of things in the show (plot, characters) seem like there’d be a lot more depth to, but we find out that, “hey, there isn’t any depth after all.”

    As for Nozaki, I don’t mind the that the ISDA are just okay with him being an original dragon and siding with them (story flow-wise), but I’m surprised they didn’t have some follow-up after the fight. e.g. some discussion between him and Sakaki (etc.) on what he plans to do now that the original dragons have appeared is sort of expected. Also, does Yuuri not care about Nanami at all after she turned on them? The two of them seemed to have a somewhat close relationship for awhile. Furthermore, what’s Yuuri’s stance on knowing that Nozaki has a resonance with her? We’re just left with the idea that everything is fine and dandy as if this was all known/established from the very beginning.

    I don’t think I’ve watched an anime over the past few years that have left me with so many, “wait, what? why?” impressions after each episode. My only logical conclusion is that Dragonaut wasn’t planned in advance and the writers are making stuff up each week as the anime is being produced.

    divine
    Reply

  44. Yeah, I know what you mean; at times it seems like they’re indeed never really “finishing” some parts. One of the better examples is probably Garnet’s attempts at gaining the Reasonance; after Asim appeared, that subject was not touched once again – and if they wanted a Reasonance, why didn’t they use Garnet then…?

    As far as Asim go, I think it’s more about the “notion of love between human and dragons” as you put it – or it’s just a matter of presenting opposing views; Asim’s here representating the view that dragons are and should be treated as little more than servants/slaves/animals/something like that, while Jin’s representating the view that dragons should be treated as equals/humans, sorta. Perhaps they introduced Asim to try and make him and Jin the two sides of the same coin, perhaps (two men who by fate/chance came to preform a Reasonance with a dragon that neither originally wanted or planned to get/do – but who came to hold different views on dragons from that)…

    You’re right that there’s many loose ends that hasn’t been followed up properly… Yet. But who knows, many of those things you mentioned could still be explained/shown though – through flashbacks and the like, for example.

    SpectatorBeholder
    Reply

  45. Yeah, I haven’t completely abandoned the show yet (which is something I almost never do anyway), so I guess we’ll just have to see this through to the end! My expectations aren’t very high at the moment though, so that may work in my favour. 🙂

    divine
    Reply

  46. Alright I guess I’ll get into the discussion again… The way dragonaut has been ployed thus far has had it only having flashbacks that have occurred either a year (during the shuttle crash) or more ago, also now that they have hit episode 17 and they plan on a one year skip, the likely hood of them actually explaining the loose ends thus far is highly unlikely. If they do the one year skip and if they do have flashbacks, those flashbacks have an 80-90 percent chance of recollecting about events that occurred during that one year skip. I do agree with divine’s perspective in that it does seem that they are making up the story as they go along because of the seemingly lack of an organized flow and structure to the show. But the chances of them tying up the loose ends they’ve had thus far are below 30% and the only hope is that these final episode tie up the story well enough that dragonaut can regain some of its original potential and that story hopefully gets its footing, though I’ve been hoping for this since episode eight of the series.

    IfOnlyYouKnew
    Reply

  48. What is that THING Kazuki’s wearing.. OHHHH I get it now. It’s Widow’s G-string! I knew it, they were gettin it on the whole time! That nasty little boy.

    Well, I can’t really take the story too seriously given all the stuff that’s happened, but hey, there’s always something unexpected to see in every ep. It’d be hilarious if somehow Machina and Akira suddenly revive out of nowhere towards the end of the series. [“deus ex machina”, yeah yeah lame I know.]

    But damn.. Gio with a pink apron.. What is the world coming to??

    kalamunki
    Reply

  49. NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Not Machina too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Well in one way,at least she can be with Akira forever……cause I bet if she continued on she’d turn into one of those really Emo dragons wanting to kill everyone……

    Poor Machina……..

    I Must see this episode now……

    JT
    Reply

  51. Machina 🙁
    I saw that one coming, but they did it in the most cliche way possible.
    And they ended up at the bottom of the ravine somehow encased in a lovely ice crystal in an elegant embrace. Beautiful :I
    Why didn’t Toa follow them into the ravine, did she lose the ability to actualise? Or could she just not be bothered?

    Ok, so Asim didn’t get much love as a kid, but why not? And how did that turn him into the frothing, cackling psychopath that he is today?
    If the villians are going to be simple caricatures, at least make them interesting please. Although I was kind of sorry when they did die in the end, as I was like ‘Wait! But you haven’t answered my questions yet!’.

    There seem to be no details or rationale behind a lot of the things that happen, the story seems to just be a series of inconsequential events.
    I’m feeling a bit tired of this series right now, and the last few eps are going to be that much duller without Akira and Machina.

    Kazuki should just get a bandana – Widow should tell him that wearing a thong on your head isn’t cool.

    Auto
    Reply

  54. Oh come on, stop all the hate on this show… even Omni states he doesn’t expect much from now on. Why? I really wub Dragonaut so far, despite and because not everything is explained or had ended in an epic way like in GL :>. One of the most enjoyable shows of currently running.

    Neara
    Reply

  55. AW THE ENDING SUCKED T_T. BUT THAT DIDNT MEAN THAT I HATE THE SHOW >IT WaS FANTABULOUS >>> !!!! 10 STARS UP FOR DRAGONAUTS < WHY is TOA so cute ^_^ , im falling for her , i waish i was anime ^_^ … i wanna draw her now ^_

    manue
    Reply

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