Final Impressions / First Impressions / The Tower of Druaga

Summary:

As Neeba turns the cannons of the Tower towards the heavens, the heavens start firing back. Down below in Meskia, Jil lays Henaro to rest and then receives Neeba’s exact location from Gremica. Praying to the Gods, Kaaya meanwhile learns that the attack from the heavens won’t end until Neeba is stopped. This leaves Jil and company no choice but to climb back up the Tower to get to him, and Kaaya joins them. Along the way, Jil tells her a story of how he and Neeba got lost once and how Neeba cried a lot, and he uses this to illustrate how Neeba has an inferiority complex. Once the group gets into the Tower again, they get attacked by Neeba’s minions. With so many enemies, Fatina tells Jil and Kaaya to go on ahead, though she slaps Kaaya first to get even. Utu surprises Fatina by proposing to her after Jil and Kaaya leave, but she turns him down.

As Jil and Kaaya make their way further into the Tower, Jil suddenly finds himself back in the peaceful place with Ahmey. Henaro is there as well, and Jil is almost convinced by them to lay down his sword, but Kaaya reveals that it’s all an illusion created by the Succubus. While she faces the Succubus, Kaaya sends Jil ahead to Neeba’s room by himself. There, Jil finds that Neeba has just finished off Gremica, and Neeba declares that he’s Druaga now. Jil gets beat up, but he’s resilient, and Neeba tries to get Jil angry by saying that he’ll kill all of Jil’s friends. He even reveals that he’s always been irritated with Jil, and after nearly getting blown away by the Druaga parts of Neeba, Jil notes that he’s finally heard Neeba’s true intentions. He thinks that Neeba is scared of him and was irritated at how he steadily got stronger, and with none of his armor still on, he charges at Neeba. He is able to attack from above and slays Neeba and Druaga.

Afterward, a dying Neeba admits that it wasn’t the Gods that he was obsessed with, but rather with Jil. Jil thinks that Neeba should have said something earlier, but Neeba knows that this was impossible because of his own personal honor. Neeba then tells Jil to get out of there since it’s dangerous, and he wants Jil to carry the burden of having won and killed him. A giant block crushes Neeba’s body soon thereafter, and Jil has no choice but to run. When the ground under him gives way, Kaaya is fortunately there to grab his hand, and the rest of their friends show up as well to pull them up. In the aftermath, Kaaya leads the city in a memorial ceremony for the dead Gilgamesh, though he and Ki still live on as spirits. Of the others, Kelb and Ethana get married, Fatina and Utu continue adventuring, and Melt and Coopa work for Kaaya. Kaaya, however, often escapes her duties and runs off with Jil.

Epilogue

What the hell was that?! I always assumed that when Neeba talked about fate and the Gods several episodes ago, it was in a more figurative sense because it’s not like we got to see the Gods or have heard all that much about them. Little did I realize how literal that was because, as this episode showed, when Neeba fired the guns of the Tower of Druaga into the heavens (as represented by clouds), the heavens literally fired back. That was just way too out in left field for me, bordering on absurd even for a fantasy series.

Then we found out that Neeba didn’t really care about the Gods and it was really all about his obsession with Jil. Predictable as it was, it made me groan because it meant that all this could have been avoided if Neeba wasn’t such an insecure dumbass. At least he’s now dead….or not, and it seems neither are Gilgamesh and Ki. It bothers me that they’re all still around as spirits or whatever because it’s not really explained and it takes away from their deaths. When Ki told Gil last episode that he’d be free, I didn’t think she meant it literally as a free-roaming spirit – it’s like the writers and director were trying too hard to show everyone happy. On the plus side though, at least a happy ending meant in this case a good amount of closure for all of the characters (except maybe Fatina).

Final Thoughts:
Up to last week, I was okay with this series and probably would have said some nice things about how it was better than I originally thought a Gonzo anime based on an MMORPG would be. It hadn’t dawned on me at that point how bad things would be with the way they set things up, but the ending really killed me. I really can’t say anymore that I enjoyed the series on the whole. Certainly Druaga had some fun and entertaining moments in the past and featured a decent cast of characters, but you’d think a series written by Gatou Shouji and directed by Chigira Kouichi would have been a lot better than this. And as if I wasn’t wary enough before, this makes me even more hesitant to watch Gonzo’s upcoming spring series since it’s based on another MMORPG.

64 Comments

  7. ….Bad end. At least for me.

    I didn’t like the way they brushed off the conflict between Kaaya and Fatina. It’s true they couldn’t have done much with so little episodes, but it felt rather strange.

    The ending? Neeba was just plain….pitiful. For all that he’s done. It’s not to say it isn’t a valid reason, but feeding tiny bits of information about how certain actions displayed on his part about feeling inferior throughout the series would have helped the story.

    An attempt to end this series on a happy note was not a bad idea, though.

    Owaranai
    Reply

  10. Come on, Omni. Compared to every other crap that Gonzo has done(Dragonaut anyone?), Druaga both seasons have been entertaining. It even makes more sense than Code Geass R2 trainwreck crap which everyone seems to like for whatever reason.

    Good End
    Reply

  11. Kurogane Linebarrel then Tower of Druaga….. they have a great plot but crappy ending so they should hire someone who knows how to make a better ending like what happened with the almost trainwreck Code Geass R2 if not for the ending.

    arigatou
    Reply

  12. I still think they’re going to do a follow-up movie, mainly because of the poster at the end of the 1st OP and the “Neeba’s alive” hint at the end of this episode. Although it’s debatable as to whether this series is popular enough to warrant a movie.

    Despite finding out this episode that some things we thought were just metaphorical talk were oddly literal, I thought the fight between Neeba and Jil was good. Predictable, but good.

    As a whole, the series never “wowed” me by any means, but I thought it was decent. I guess coming in with low expectations helped.

    boznia
    Reply

  13. This last episode was one hell of a mess. Take your pick…

    Fatina gets kicked to the curb for Kaaya in less then 5 minutes.

    Gremica tells Jil where his brother is and before you can snap your fingers they are already back in the tower up to Neeba? Didn’t it take the better part of a dozen episodes to climb up there and now Jil does it in like 5 minutes taking the express elevator?

    Speaking of Gremica we don’t even see the fight between them. Jil shows up and Neeba is standing over her corpse.

    What happened to the Sucubus? Did Kaaya defeat her? Where did she come from in the 1st place and how did she get attached to Neeba?

    It took Neeba 2 years to attain his goal of fighting the gods when it wasn’t really his goal. He didn’t like his little brother?

    The series was pretty decent for the 1st 10-11 episodes but this last one really was a mess of contradictions and inconsistencies. I would have rather it ended on a cliffhanger of some kind (like they did last year) and we have a 3r4d season where they cleared up all the questions. Instead we get 10 lbs. of feces in a 5 lb. bag!

    Splash
    Reply

  14. Season of the Dire endings first toradora then this and i bet most people will complain about gundam even though it aint that bad, also clannad was dissapointing cos it closed so meaninglessly it meant everything was reset and started over so it was disappointing!! between this and the DB movie the evil consortiums holding all the keys to the anime control tower need to be overthrown and and a new era needs to start cos it seems like everything is slowly dying meh theres always next season… (And tyania!!!

    WingZerozxt
    Reply

  16. That was a good show. Nice closure ending, text book style – which I hav’nt seen for ages.
    Farina fag sure are butthurt, it’s pretty obvious she will lose from the start. Fags just couldn’t get over it.

    You can wait for the next expansion pack if you want to see the city of gods after the current patch on job3.

    Qwerty
    Reply

  17. This last episode was pretty bad. Not only is it confusing and a mess, but the animation quality actually went *down* a notch or two!

    It could have been much better if:
    – They hadn’t fell down the tower in the next to last episode to begin with (or if they did get down, they *all* got down and stayed there)
    – The animation was better
    – The whole tower of cannons thing was dropped – pointless (unless this was Gurren Lagan)
    – They added a maze of twisty little passages, all alike – j/k
    – Kaaya’s reason for dropping Jil at the ending of S1 was less douche (e.g. whoever killed Gilgamesh was cursed to turn into Druaga)
    – People who died stayed dead
    – All Gremica’s scenes were pointless in this episode

    Folks, I don’t know why anyone even had hopes of a Jil/Fatina ending. It was plainly obvious who would get who right from the S1 OP.

    GONZO managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with this one. Maybe someone will redo the ending someday. It was pretty good otherwise.

    TheDude
    Reply

  23. -_- honestly, whoever compared tower of druaga with code geass r2 shud get slapped…code geass is pure entertainment with its smart executions and fascinating characters. It made total sense even though it outstretched reality a bit; it’s anime, learn to loosen up a bit. Tower of druaga is just nonsense at this point, stretching the boundaries of what any plot shud never go past. Nevertheless, ppl like it because the ending provided decent closures for every character.

    orangy
    Reply

  25. lol, reminds me of that time in the first episode when utuu randomly raised his death flag. as for the ending, i guess it wasn’t the best, but it really wasn’t all that bad, just rushed. i mean, neeba was basically the final villain for only this episode and he promptly gets beaten while revealing that he really wasn’t that much of a bad person, in fact his “last” words were sort of noble. but there are tons of non-mind screw endings that have things that just done actually make sense but people can accept because it’s the end.

    umeboshi110
    Reply

  27. To all the people who say Code Gease R2 is crap, I would just like to say your exactly the same as all the final fantasy 7 haters out there. I mean sure it wasn’t the greatest game ever made like all the fan boys claim but you cant say it sucks monkey balls because the game itself was actually decent, not the best but above average. next time you say something is horrible you should at least provide some argument defending your claims.

    3020
    Reply

  30. “To all the people who say Code Gease R2 is crap, I would just like to say your exactly the same as all the final fantasy 7 haters out there.”

    I just couldn’t stop laughing at that sentence. FF7 haters? Ahaha.

    And also, R2 went straight into the crappers right after the first few episodes. The plot was filled with so many holes, that it was unbearable to watch, no matter how they tried to fill and cover them. And plus, didn’t they fire the original director/script writer, and had to rewrite everything for R2? I remember seeing an interview of this somewhere. Regardless, R2 was halfassedly done, and so many things were left unexplained (you can easily tell if you watched and PAID enough attention, rather then just sit there, consume and oogle at everything.).

    In comparison to the first season, it was a joke. Enough said.

    Pfft
    Reply

  31. *face palm* OK, what the hell? I was actually expecting something a lot better then this. Since up till the last few episodes this was a really good series, then bam! Neeba kills Henaro and it all goes to crap. (I guess i should say 10 3/4 of the episodes were good) Despite the over use of cliche’s both series I thought this was pretty good, but then i saw the this and now I have a difference in opinion. The JilxKaaya end and the inferiority complex that Neeba had with Jil is what killed it.

    Why is it that a bad ending can wreck an entire out look of a series? I’ve seen it all to often, when a good/ decent series is totally wrecked do to a rushed/ crap end. This is series is an example of just that.

    On a side note, if your going to bring back some one for a scene (in this case Henaro & Ahmey) Despite it being an illusion. Have the “new arrival” say something else, other then how good the good is.

    Azar
    Reply

  32. Horrible ending.
    Gonzo made total fail.
    Back from death, happy ending for almost everyone?
    WTF?
    I ask again WTF?

    Series was good but for me everyone falls and dies in the end for 11 episodes and Neeba go crazy and become new drauga.
    Thats right 12 episode never happen.
    Rock falls and everyone dies.

    Sarissofoi
    Reply

  36. Thx boznia.
    Seriusly after 11 episode I hope for 3th season. That was not that bad if you think about this Final Shitty Episode.
    Ok. Sucubuss alive. Ok she is hard to kill, she is a sort of deamon. Ok for me. But as a little chibi? WTF?
    Seriously Neeba not dead? And his lame talk with Jil in last fight. Facepalm. Kill all dramatis and sense. She should be dead. For sure.
    Gil and Ki as free souls? No fucking way. Gil should end dead. That was sad(little) but good for story.
    Ishtar firing back??
    No seriusly. This isnt even good joke.
    Henaro died for free.
    Uragon and his little robot lady. I feel sory for him and her.
    Ech.
    Rock falls and everyone dies.

    Sarissofoi
    Reply

  37. Is the pairing mess all you guys care about. Why in the hell can no one diem in this series. It kinda reminds me the that .hack stuff with the whole netherworld of ‘dead’ people & whatnot. I thought they was going to do something like this with no real boss (Neeba struck down by heaven…LOL). Its just so weird because we’re so used to seeing a good clash or 2 at the end. As for Kaaya, if she wasn’t so introverted at times, she’ll be a good chick…but that personality is perfect for a person like Jil.

    Megas
    Reply

  42. wait wth since when did utu have the hots for fatina..didn’t see that one coming O_O

    Ending song was great, everything else was just, well..forgettable.

    On my way to your house now
    Reply

  44. I’m on the other side of the fence. I actually enjoyed the ending and was perfectly fine with the JilxKaaya ending. I like how the ending scene between them, holding hands, basically mirrored Season 1’s ending theme and all. That was pretty cool. That and JilxKaaya just fit in my opinion. Besides, I think Fatina was just rebounding anyway. D:

    As far as Fatina and Utu goes.. how do we know they didn’t pair off? We saw them at the wedding, and the look Fatina gave him. 😮 I loved Kelb and Ethana’s wedding by the way. Too awesome.

    Now.. the negative side of things. The “battle” between the Gods and the Tower was indeed rather random. I was like “Wait… Neeba meant the gods are actually real and able to fight back? Wtf.” Also, yeah. Neeba ended up being just the typical villain.. except he was just really jealous of Jil. I mean jealous enough to destroy cities and such over it. That seemed a bit over the top.

    For what I expected with the series, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. I was smart. I went in with low expectations.

    Also, the bit with Ki and the spoon on Gil.. that was hilarious. Also the Chibi-Succubus with the wooden spoon, that made me laugh good and hard. I’m glad I watched this series. Was super entertaining.

    Akiyama
    Reply

  45. Weird ending. Overly rushed if you ask me. Kaaya x Jil, fine, too expected anyway. But come on.. Fatina x Utu? They kept implying Fatina will go back with Neeba towards the last few episodes when Fatina confessed she used Jil as protection and what not while still worried about Neeba. It was unexpected (and also engimatic…) that Succubus saved Neeba with her power I believe and turned into a child (though it is lovely, she is cutier than child Ki). So now what, even Succubus knows how to fall in love???

    And I can’t agree more with lack of details. At the end basically everybody came back to life except the ones that died in season 1 and that megaman girl (I always thought she would be with Utu at the end, guess not =/). And… I just don’t get it; so it seems the “Second Tower” is destroyed, since it is the weapon. And the “First Tower” is still there…I guess (Why?). Okay. But… more interestingly it spawns monsters again? Why? Wtf? I thought they stopped having monsters after the first season due to fake Druaga(or the Guardian) died. What’s up with that?

    Plus, the final battle is just sad… So after everything, Jil is just an almighty kill’em all kind of hero like most of the animes, great. So much for teamwork. And Neeba shouldn’t have said what he said after the defeat… I mean, this series had said many MANY weird, obscure things that don’t make much sense to viewers. But seriously… now you are telling me Neeba has a “Brother-issue” and not because he wants to destroy the Gods?(and the last Jil x Neeba hugging scene is just gross…) But anyway, Season 2 has its moments, but in my opinion is not as good as Season 1. It’s somewhat clear they paid less attention to season 2 than season 1, I guess most likely because of lack of fans to the series. They really could have just made another episode if 24 minutes aren’t enough for them to conclude everything. Sigh, sucks to have crap ending (happy ending, but somewhat ridiculous).

    Jacky
    Reply

  49. Why is everyone complaining about the Gods being real? Forgot that this was based on an RPG, a genre that is infamous for actually killing gods? Neeba being pissed off about ‘if the gods are so good why don’t they help people’ and wanting to take down the gods would just be boring supervillain rhetoric if he’s not actually trying to DESTROY the gods. The way they tried to invalidate all that setup of hating the gods for being obsessed with Jil was pretty bad, though.

    counterargument
    Reply

  50. Not every Gonzo production has been bad. Druaga Season 1 was actually an original and entertaining IMHO although Season 2 is pretty much ‘generic’ stuff. Blassreiter was also good. Extremely underrated.

    Rath
    Reply

  52. They set it up for another sequel! !! Sequel I SAY!

    Wait for it! wait for it!

    I bet soon they will announce movie or new season named something like “Armor of Uruk”….

    UnknownVoice
    Reply

  53. I think that the best ending will be if kaaya had to died saving the whole world or town
    as sacrifice . and on the end jil and fatina end up together. and instead of having
    kaaya and jil holding hands at the last moment of the anime if could have jil and fatina
    holding hands and thinking about how kaaya lost her life saving the world.
    that’s the end that I really want

    kuro kanareru
    Reply

  57. I think that this series was OK. So I was not expecting so much for the last episode, but I was pretty good in my opinion. The whole thing about the gods firing back was really interesting. I liked it.

    So, the series was OK but the ending was really great.

    André
    Reply

  58. only thing I have to say is that thanks to the internet and the nice people that provide raws, I don’t have to rent or buy shows like this. I can check them out before I do it.
    I am not going to lie, I enjoy the show till the last 5 minutes, but the ending ruined it for me. I knew Fatina was not going to win, but I was hoping that they would do the right thing and gave it to the deserving girl and not the obvious choice.

    golthin
    Reply

  60. Hints of Neeba’s inferiority complex was very much made clear in the 1st season. Flashbacks showed that when his dad came back badly beaten from the war, he asked to see Jil first and not Neeba. Even though he was the older brother of two his dad speaks out that Jil would be a great man someday, thus Neeba kept trying to “one up” his younger brother ever since. He blames the gods that his fate is overshadowed by his brother’s success even though Jil looks up to him. Rather than accepting his fate, he challenges the gods as a futile attempt to prove that if he cannot be famous in anyone’s eyes he might as well be feared as druaga and die in infamy.

    BillyChickenDance
    Reply

  61. ppl who kept on bragging about code geass is a dumb show n its sucks or whatsoever, i think u guys should just kill yourselves or have ur family accompany u guys to hell, death to those bastards who has negative thinking of code geass, its the best show ever u fuckers, perharps even Sunrise most successful project

    Dearka Elsman
    Reply

  63. Second season all the way through was entertaining but like everyone else I have to agree and say the last episode was SHIT!!!!!!!! If they just showed that Neeba was evil and Jil becoming the new king/marrying Kaaya then people would understand and maybe even ask for another season if they had left it on a cliff-hanger.

    Josh
    Reply

  64. Ok, yeah the ending was whack. At least it was a happy one though. Shit load better than Code Geass R2 bullshit ending. WTF? Jil’s not the new king? I would have assumed they would have given him something. As with the Kaaya/Fatina debate, damn man take both at the same time and claim the old Clan Restoration Act from Naruto. Hurray for harems!!! Code Geass should have ended with the first season. It should have been that both Lelouch and Suzaku die on Kamine and we guess what happens next. That was perfect. The really good thing to come out of R2 was the knightmares. That was really it. Next, what’s with the recurring Tower of Babel syndrome that’s been going on in anime these days. First there is that-which-must-not-be-named (Gundam SEED Destiny) with that fucking Destiny Plan bullshit, then there is Code Geass with the Ragnarok Connection, Naruto with the Moon’s Eye Plan, and then this with the Neji/Sasuke wannabe Neeba? What is this? The “I’m going to become and/or kill god” thing is getting old people. Come up with new plots!!

    EternalKnight219
    Reply

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